Baker Academic

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Hurtado Critiques N. T. Wright's Programme

Larry Hurtado's contribution to the latest Wright-in-review volume takes issue with a central theme in Tom's work: in Jesus, YHWH returns to Zion. Given the recent fodder on early-high Christology at this blog over the past two weeks, I thought that the link would be appropriate. NB: Hurtado is here taking issue with Wright's reading of Paul's letters.

Larry summarizes his critique:

https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/yhwhs-return-of-zion/

The entire summary is worth a read as (am I sure) the larger volume will be as well. Here is an excerpt:
"I judge his claims faulty, unsupported by the evidence. What I see is that the earliest use of the OT theme of YHWH’s return to Zion/Israel, in Paul’s letters (our earliest texts), posits that it is in Jesus’ “second coming” (parousia) that this is fulfilled. See, e.g., the use of such imagery in 1 Thessalonians 3:13, where Jesus will come (again) “with all his holy ones” (μετά πάντων τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ), which seems to draw this phrasing from Zechariah 14:5 (one of the “YHWH’s return” passages)."
Indeed, the volume is probably worth the cover price just for this one essay.

-anthony


3 comments:

  1. Or one can scan the library copy and have access to it on all one’s devices — for free!

    I’m not cheap, I’m modern and up-to-date!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or a thief. There's this pesky little thing called copyright, you see.

      Delete
  2. But surely God should be presented, free, to everyone. Are we suggesting that Larry Hurtado is not God?

    ReplyDelete