Thought of the day
The so-called fulfilment (cf., for example, the use of the verb plhro,w in Matthew’s Gospel) of OT prophecy in the life and times of Jesus and his followers is, for the most part, best understood as the reapplication of scriptural predictions in a different context, rather than as something that can be plotted on a strictly chronological prediction – implementation scheme.
posted by Chris Tilling @ 1:39 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I remember when I first encountered this thought, probably in 2000 in my first Bible course at Seminary. It was a bit of a shocker for someone brought up (spiritually) in the Pentecostal world. A literalist reading and a belief in the myth of unmediated access required a fair degree of naivitee towards the function of prophecy in scripture, especially when it makes Testimental leaps (NT fulfilling OT). The key though was understanding that there is a genre of literature we call prophetic and there is an idea of ecstatic prophecy and the two are not necessarily the same. I have a paper on my blog right now that details the dismantling of the ecstatic prophet role in the early church, looking at that helped me a bit. The tension that I find myself holding is that even thought we always mediate it, and sometimes horribly so, God is still speaking to us. This actually lets us reinterpret in the fashion of these intertestimental leaps. Not to bear out new revelation but rather to bring forward the message of the Kingdom in our own day and time. Once you get past the myth that your thought doesn't completely dismantle God's imminance then the thought you expressed starts to become helpful.
I totally agree. An important qualification, thanks.
This is off topic, I know.
In the beginning of September you promised that Hans Küng is going to answer some questions about his book. What happened? This is like -25 days. I'm almost inclined to liken you to yisrael hawkings when it comes to unfulfilled prophesies...
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Friday, September 08, 2006
Questions
If you had the chance to ask Hans Küng about 4 or 5 questions concerning his book, Der Anfang aller Dinge, what would you ask?
...
Why am I asking? All will be explained in a few days.
Hi TJ!
Yes, I wondered if people may think this! I sent the questions to him but I have heard nothing in about two-three weeks now. My guess is that he was busy after the papal statments in relation to Islam, and he just forgot. I'll get back in touch with him at some stage but ... well, I'd feel a bit pushy.
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