165. Wright N. T., The Res. of Son of God, SPCK 2003- Review by a. C. Thesilton

7/30/2019 165. Wright N. T., The Res. of Son of God, SPCK 2003- Review by a. C. Thesilton

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442 BOOK REVIEWS

gued . In add itio n the bibliogr aphy an d refe ren cing are ma rr ed by inac

curacies, which undermines the quality of this work. The recent book of

Magnus Zetterholm (The Formation of Christianity in Antioch. L ondon:

Routledge, 2003) would undoubtedly have been published too late to

have been taken into consideration in this work, and the same may be

true of that of Stephen Cummins (Paul and the CrucifiedChrist in Antioch.

Cambridg e: CUP. 2001). That Warre n Carter's books o n Matthew (Mat

thew and the Margins: A Socio-Political and Religious Reading. Sheffield:

Sheffield Academic Press, 2000; Matthew and Empire: Initial Explorations.

Harr isbur g: Trinity Press Int ern ati ona l, 2001) shou ld have be en over

looked is less explicable. The work of Marcus Bockmuehl (Jewish Law in

Gentile Churches. Edi nbu rg h: & Clark, 2000) sh oul d surely have be en

considered. Rodney Stark's The Rise of Christianity (Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 1996) is listed in the bibliography but has made no

impact on the discussion at any point. The lack of interaction with re

cent scholarship, together with referencing of secondary sources where

primary texts should have been cited, give the unfortunate impression

of a work which has been under-researched. A more thorough treatment

wo uld have made a more co nvin ci ng argument in several places .

While there is much to criticise in this book, it has identified a clear

need for closer examination of several aspects of early Christian history,

not only in Antioch but more generally. Many of the author's ideas meritfurther consideration, but it remains to be seen whether the reconstruc

tion offered here will prove sustainable.

N.H. TAYLOR

University of Zululand

WRIGHT, N.T., The Resurrection of the Son of God: Chnstian Origins and

the Question of God, Vol.3. Lo nd on : SPCK, 2003. Pp . xxi + 817. Pbk.

30.00. ISBN 0-281-05550-5.

Tom Wright addresses two major questions, among many others. In

the context of the resurrection, "what did the early Christians think had

ha pp en ed to Jesus, a nd what can we say abo ut th e plausibility of t hose

beliefs?" (p. 6). However, this is no ordin ary, conventional discussion of

the resurr ect ion of Jes us Christ. This is a volume of impressive inter-dis

ciplinary brea dt h an d imm ens e theological, historical, an d exegetical,

depth. Rather than simply examining yet again the gospel traditions

concerning the empty tomb and the appearances almost as a self-contained "problem", Wright begins with a careful, rigorous, detailed exami


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BOOK REVIEWS 443

of beliefs in resur rec tion in Jewish traditions. He traces these from the ir

Old Testament roots through to various strands in post-biblical Judaism,

including the distinct traditions of apocalyptic, the Wisdom of Solomon,

Qu mr an , Philo an d the legacy of pharisaic Jud ais m found in rabbin ic

thought and the Targumim. In the Old Testament the basis of hope is

Israel's God. Daniel 12:2-3 "refers to concrete, bodily, resurrection",

which follows "the metaphor of 'sleep' for death" (p. 109). The "con

stant factor" beh in d the variants "is Israel's god hi msel f (p. 127). In the

Wisdom of Solomon "the concepts 'resurrection' and 'immortality' are

no t always in themselves anti thet ical . .. Resurrection, in fact, is o n e / o m

or type of 'immortality': this is what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 15:53-

4" (p. 164). Wisdom 3:1-10 offers a "two-stage"description of what hap

pens after death: "a further event ... follows upon the state described inverses 1-4" (p. 167).

This is not simply a tour of pre-Christian or non-Christian beliefs about

resurrection. The key point that Wright makes over and over again is

that only when we establish an understanding of an appropriate context are we

in any position to hear, to appreciate, to understand, and to evaluate the cred-

ibility and significance of the post-resurrection narratives in the four canonical

gospeL. This context includes an awareness of the Jewish contextof beliefs

about resurrection, and no less the context provided by PauTs theological

exposition of the event and concept. This choice of the sequence of argument is vital; it constitutes the "non-traditional route" (p. 9) in terms of

which Wright approaches the material in the gospels. The first chapter

exposes the very different method adopted when such writers as Carnley,

Marxsen and Crossan, who arguably appear to owe more to approach

ing this "within the post-Enlightenment worldview" (p. 155, author's italics)

than in terms of the context within which Christian belief understood

and modified future hope. Thus, even if the evidence seems to point to

the reality of "the bodily resur rec tion of Jesus" , such a no tion would

remain opaque and puzzling, depending on "the worldview within which

we come to it7* (p. 27, Wright's italics). Wright is not excluding a positivist

worldview a priori, but he believes that a great deal turns on working out

"the place to start" (p. 31). He asserts: "It remains the case that resurrec

tion in the world of second-Temple Judaism was about the restoration of

Israel on the one hand and the narrowly embodied life of all YHWH'S

people on the other, and the close connections between the two" (p.

205).

Part II explores resurrection in Paul. I Thess. 4:13 - 5:11 is closely

parallel with 1 Cor. 15:51-52 and puts into perspective t he function of

language about going up in a cloud. Daniel 12:13 also lies behind thepassage, and "sleep" denotes a first-stage prelude to resurrection, with

j d i l i b " i " P l d l h


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444 BOOK REVIEWS

himself. This did not occur "immediately" upon his death. Philippians

3:20-23 also envisages "a two-stage view", in spite of verse 23 (p. 226).

Rom ans 4 constit utes a hig h spot in which Paul ex po un ds the faithful

ness of the Creator God as life-giver, which also forms a key to 1

Corinth ians 15. Roman s sets the resurre ction ho pe in the conte xt of the

exodus theme, where 6:15-23 replaces the return from exile by the meta

phorical "resurrection" of baptism. In Romans 8 "creation, too, needs to

experience its exodus, its liberation", as believers "await the birth of God's

new world" (p. 258). Romans 12 takes up "body" as the locus of worship

and service in the public domain, in contrast to some private, "inner",

mode being.

Wright provides an accurate exposition of 1 Corinthians 15. Paul ar

gues, "what the creato r god did for Jesu s is bo th the model and the means

of what he will do for all Jes us' p eople" (p. 316). In a subse quent chap

ter he disengages Paul's "experi enc e" of "seeing" the risen Jesu s Christ

from "seeing" a vision, or "seeing" in a metaphorical sense. In his intro

duction Wright observes: "The terms 'literal' and 'metaphorical' refer,

properly, to the ways words refer to things, not to the things to which

the words refer" (p. xiv). Further, "according to the scriptures" does not

imply "proof-texting" (p. 320), but points to patterns of divine action in

biblical narrative. Wright rightly places emphasis upon: (1) the role of

God as resourceful Creator who raises the dead; (2) the concept of resurrection as a divine gift of grace; (3) the notion of "bodily resurrec

tion, ... not ... a prospect of disembodied bliss ..." (p. 332); (4) Paul's

recognition that there are "different types of physicality throughout cre

ation" (p. 340); (5) the "continuity and discontinuity" between the raised

body and the present one (p. 341); and (6) the soma pneumatikon not as

an immaterial mode of being or light-substance, but as "a body animated

by, enlivened by, the Spirit of the true God" (p. 354).

The wisdom of Wright's "non-traditional" approach now becomes

clear. We have the texts, concepts and categories that make sense of the

traditions of the empty tomb and the appearances as the gospels present

the m. The se tr aditi ons "b elon g with the Jewish view over against t he

pag an one an d, within the Jewish view, with the Pharisees ... Resurrec

tion still means ... god's gift of new bodily life ... at the end" (p. 448).

Even so the canonical gospels present "surprises": a lack of embroidery,

a focus on action in the present world, and the role of women as wit

nesses. Mark presents the discovery of the empty tomb as a puzzle rather

than an "explanation". Matthew's allusion to an earthquake and to "lo

cal" resurrections invites several possible explanations, but the possibil

ity of reports of "strange goings-on" should not be over-easily dismissed.This resonates with Daniel 12 and the apocalyptic context, but probably

d t l d i f th "L k i i t th b dili f th


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BOOK REVIEWS 445

657). John acquires particular focus in "the sign, the believing, the res

urrec tion, the Temple ", but these lose their poi nt if we remove cha pte r

20. In sum, the evangelists "really did intend to refer to actual events

which took place on the thi rd day after Jesus' executi on ... Easter events

were real, not fantasy, historical as well as historic" (p. 680).

This is a book of magisterial stature. This relatively brief description

of its arg uments can no t do just ice to its subtlety an d eye for meti culo us

detail. Yet it also raises large que stion s about history and faith, language

and meaning, epistemology and worldviews, and above all about method

in historical enquiry, in biblical understanding, and in Christian theol

ogy. Wright is utterly convincing in exposing the fallaciousness of enqui

ries already vitiated by positivist worldviews or by an inflexible app lica tion

of demands for analogy along the lines proposed by Troeltsch: "Deadpeople don't rise, therefore Jesus didn't either" (p. 687). As Wolfhart

Pannenberg and A. Boyce Gibson argue, on such a basis nothing uniquely

"new" can be deemed to happen at any stage of history unless it hap

pens again. Wright argues incisively and convincingly: "Neither the empty

tomb by itself ... nor the appearances by themselves, could have gener

ated the early Christian belief. The empty tomb alone would be a puzzle

and a tragedy ... Sightings of an apparent ly alive Jesu s, by themselves,

would have been clarified as visions or hallucination, which were known

well enough in the ancient world" (p. 686). The empty tomb and theappearances taken togetherpresent a powerful reason for the emergence

of this belief.

Wright provides meticulous exegesis and impressive theological rea

soning. If I have questions, their relatively hair-splitting nature simply

underlines my admiration for Wright's many points of greater substance.

First, might he have extrapolated further about what might constitute

"bodily" existence in different environments? Christ's body is a model

for the resurrection mode of existence, but we read about his raised

"body" only when he appeared to witnesses within the space-time con

tinuum of this present world-order. Might we need some such formula

as "more" than embodied but not "less" than embodied? This may be

speculative, but it might help to address further issues of credibility.

Second, might he be in danger of placing too exclusive an emphasis upon

the intermediate state? I am still not sure how this applies to the last

generation at the Parousia, and how what Gilbert Ryle called the "ob

server" viewpoint and "participant" viewpoint relate to each other. I en

tirely concur that "nothingness" precedes resurrection. Moltmann,

among others, makes this point powerfully. Resurrection does not emerge

out of an innate capacity of the self; it is a sovereign, creative, transforming, gift of the Creator-God. Thus "two-stage" eschatology is true to the

b i i t " ti i t" l t i di f i


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446 BOOK REVIEWS

all. Might we not give explicit "permission" for two modes of language,

just as parents may say to their children, "Christmas comes as soon as

you fall asleep", while they continue to wrap up the gifts in the interim?

N.T. Wright recently succeeded, in the tradition ofF. B. Westcott and

J.B. Lightfoot, to the See ofDurham as its Bishop. This volume confirms

his extraordinary stature both as an eminently worthy successor to these

giants and as one of the most creative biblical scholars and incisive theo

logical minds of our generation. It is also good to recognise in his work

here and there the constructive and level-headed views of G. B. Caird

(his former doctoral supervisor), not least on metaphor and on the lan

guage ofeschatology. This book is a magnificent and invaluable resource.

It will abundantly repay detailed study and widespread use.

ANTHONY C. THISELTON

University of Nottingham and Chester University College

MCLAY, R. Timothy, The Use ofthe Septuagint in New Testament Research.

Grand Rapids / Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp . xiv + 207. Pbk. NP.

ISBN 0-8028-6091-5.

This is an attractively written book on an important subject. In sixchapters McLay covers a wide range of topics: the use ofscripture in the

New Testament, the identification of scriptural sources as either Greek

or Hebrew, an analysis of translation techniques, the origins of the

Septuagint and its history, and the impact of the Septuagint on the New

Testament.

The book is timely. The availability of nearly all the Dead Sea scrolls

in principal editions requires all New Testament scholars who are inter

ested in the scriptures that were used by the New Testament authors to

revisit the question of just what such authoritat ive texts may have looked

like and why. The scrolls have highlighted two issues in particular. On

the one hand they have demonstrated beyond question that in the late

Second Temple period there was a pluralism in the transmission ofscrip

tural texts, which is somewhat surprising and which has yet to be prop

erly described and explained. On the other hand there are Hebrew

manuscripts from the Qumran caves containing texts which resemble the

text-type now represented by the Samaritan Pentateuch and the text-type

for some books which in many respects is a witness to what might have

been the Vorlage from which the Jews in Egypt worked as they trans

lated into Greek. Those very manuscripts have seen the reinstatement ofboth the Samaritan Pentateuch and the OG/LXX as faithful witnesses

l f h il bl i P l i d bl l


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165. Wright N. T., The Res. of Son of God, SPCK 2003- Review by a. C. Thesilton