Biblical Theology According to the Apostles: How the Earliest Christians Told the Story of Israel

Although relatively few in number, the New Testament’s explicit summaries of the Old Testament story of Israel give readers direct access to the way the earliest Christians told this story -- which is to say, to the way they did biblical theology. These curiously overlooked summaries are the subject of this stimulating study. Bruno, Compton and McFadden examine the passages in the Synoptic Gospels, Acts, Paul's letters and Hebrews that recount the characters, events, and institutions of Israel’s story in chronological order and at substantial length. They demonstrate just how valuable a lens these summaries provide for a clearer vision of the earliest Christians’ practice of biblical theology. The authors' ultimate goal is to move beyond the descriptive to the prescriptive, to show how contemporary readers can and should follow the apostles' example.

Publisher: IVP
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781783599561

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Chris Bruno (Ph.D., Wheaton College) serves as associate dean and assistant professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Bethlehem College & Seminary, Minneapolis, MN. Jared Compton (Ph.D., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is a pastor at CrossWay Community Church, Bristol, WI. Kevin McFadden (Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Associate Professor of New Testament at Cairn University (Philadelphia).

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This book is a fresh entry into the crowded field of biblical theology. One form of biblical theology seeks to unpack the distinctive theological voice of each biblical book and corpus; another very common form of biblical theology traces themes across the canon, watching them develop and sometimes even take on a typological life of their own. The approach adopted by the three authors of this volume follows neither pattern. Instead, they set themselves the task of studying how the story of Israel is picked up in various ways in the New Testament, whether directly or allusively. What does Matthew's handling of Jesus' genealogy disclose about the evangelist's understanding of Israel's history? What about the treatment of Israel by Stephen in Acts 7, by Paul in Romans 9-11, by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 11? The journey through these and other texts is surprisingly interesting, and contributes mightily to a fresh understanding of some of the ways in which the biblical documents intertwine so as to flesh out the good news of Jesus the Messiah. D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, USA