Ralph P. Martin on Colossians 1: 15-20

The following article is now available in PDF:

R.P. Martin, "An Early Christian Hymn (Colossians 1:5-20)," The Evangelical Quarterly 36 (1964): 195-205.

The "Christological hymns" of the NT are always favourites to come up in exams, so I am grateful to Professor for his permission to reproduce here another of his excellent articles on the subject.

More material by Ralph P. Martin:

Ralph P.Martin, An Early Christian Confession. Philippians II. 5-11 in Recent Interpretation. London: The Tyndale Press, 1960. pp.69.

Ralph P. Martin, "The Composition of I Peter in Recent Study," Vox Evangelica 1 (1962): 29-42.

R.P. Martin, "A Footnote to Pliny's Account of Christian Worship," Vox Evangelica 3 (1964): 51-57.

Henri Blocher on the Apocrypha

The following article is now available in PDF:

Henri Blocher, "Helpful or Harmful? The 'Apocrypha' and Evangelical Theology," European Journal of Theology 13.2 (2004): 81-90.

Abstract:

The argument is that the issue of the OT Apocrypha is not an insignificant one. The author lists historical reasons for seeing the canon as fixed in Judaism by the time of Jesus, whatever the state of various and conflicting collections of Greek Old Testament writings. Theological reasons for acknowledging the Hebrew canon include the Church’s need to acknowledge what Israel has passed on to her as canonical under God’s providence. The content of much of the Apocrypha leaves much to be desired. For all there is continuity of God’s providence between the times of the testaments there was also a pause in revelation. The New Testament comes as something new indeed, even if works such as the apocrypha illustrate the context into which God’s word was spoken, and can be seen as wit­ness to God’s uninterrupted providence.

Vox Evangelica Volume 9 (1975) now on-line

The following articles are now available in PDF:

H. Dermot Mcdonald, "Development and Christology," Vox Evangelica 9 (1975): 5-27.

I found the section particularly helpful (from pages 5-6):

One reason for the hesitancy over the introduction of the term homoousion at Nicaea was the objection that it is not found in the New Testament. And the Arians made capital out of the fact that the Creed used extra-biblical concepts. Athanasius writes to a friend who was troubled by their reiterated question, ‘Why do the Fathers of Nicaea use terms not in Scripture, “Of the Essence”, and, “One in essence”?’ He replied that the Arians do indeed employ the designations ‘Son’ and ‘Logos’ which are certainly biblical; but they do not mean by them what the faith and doctrine of the church understands. So, contends Athanasius, the mere use of scriptural phrases is no guarantee of truth and no safeguard against error. To be precise as to the meaning of a biblical statement, it is often necessary to go outside the Bible itself. This was the more necessary, Athanasius argues, in the context of the discussions at Nicaea, since every scriptural phrase suggested was emptied of its true meaning by the Arian exegetes. When, for example, it was declared that the Son ‘always’ was Son, and ‘from’ God, they were ‘caught whispering to each other and winking with the eyes’.[1] They sought to explain away the real import of the declaration by quoting the usage of the words in other passages; for example, 2 Cor. 4:11―‘For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’s sake’; while they contended that to say that the Son is, ‘from the Father’, is to say no more than that He is among the ‘all things which are from God’ (2 Cor. 5:18 cf. l Cor. 8:6). Such ‘artful expressions and plausible sophisms’, as Athanasius considered them to be, cannot be met by pitching quotation against quotation.
[1] Athan., de Decretis, 20.

Norman Anderson, "Ethics: Relative, Situational or Absolute," Vox Evangelica 9 (1975): 28-36.

A.N.S. Lane, "Scripture, Tradition and Church: An Historical Survey," Vox Evangelica 9 (1975): 37-55.

M.M.B. Turner, "The Significance of Spirit Endowment for Paul," Vox Evangelica 9 (1975): 56-70.

James Atkinson, "Justification by Faith," Vox Evangelica 9 (1975): 70-79.

Noel Weeks onThe Hermeneutical Problem of Genesis 1-11

The following article is now available in PDF:

Noel Weeks, "The Hermeneutical Problem of Genesis 1-11," Themelios 4.1 (Sept. 1978): 11-19.

I remember how helpful this article was to me as a young Christian and am grateful to Dr Weeks for his kind permission to reproduce it here.

A mid-year update on site development and support

In an earlier post I shared my hope that the Theology on the Web sites would eventually generate sufficient income to allow me to spend more of my time developing them. One way that I hoped that this would happen was by selling advertising space to selected UK Bible Colleges. With this in mind I wrote to 20 colleges in mid-February offering advertising space and suggesting several other ways in which they might like to support site development. Although two colleges initially showed some interest in advertising neither has to date followed through. I have, however, received considerable help from two others, London School of Theology and All Nations. Both have provided me with numerous photocopies of articles free-of-charge - for which I am extremely grateful.

Over the last two months I have spent time developing table of contents for a number of evangelical journals, Evangelical Quarterly, European Journal of Theology, Journal of Transactions of the Victoria Institute, Faith and Thought and the Caribbean Journal of Evangelical Theology. I see this as essential preparation for my future plans to make many of the articles themselves available. None of these table of contents currently available on-line to those who have no access to academic databases.

I appreciate Matt Dabb's words of support and the response I have received from a host of others to my requests for bibliographic data. Finally, a word of thanks to the authors and publishers of the books and articles that I have reproduced who have kindly allowed their hard work to be made available to all comers at no cost.

Coming soon, Vox Evangelica Vol. 9 - now in final proof-reading.

Two New Journal Table of Contents On-line

Earlier this week I uploaded partial tables of contents for the European Journal of Theology and the Caribbean Journal of Evangelical Theology. I due course I should be uploading selected articles from both journals. My thanks to Jeremy Slatter and Kate Wiseman for their assistance in providing tables of contents for the EJT and Delano Palmer of the Caribbean Evangelical Theological Association for providing copies of the CJET.

F.F. Bruce on History and the Gospel

The following article is now available in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "History and the Gospel," Faith and Thought 93.3 (1964): 121-145.

Quotable quote:

We are frequently told today that the task of extracting historical data from the four Gospels is impossible, and in any case illegitimate. But the people who tell us that are for the most part theologians, not historians. Whether the task of extracting his­torical data from the Gospels is impossible or not is for the historian to discover, not for the theologian to tell him; and one thing that no self-­respecting historian will allow himself to be told it that his quest is illegitimate.
[p.121]