Abstracts Of Recent WTS Doctoral Dissertations -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 79:2 (Fall 2017)
Article: Abstracts Of Recent WTS Doctoral Dissertations
Author: Anonymous


Abstracts Of Recent
WTS Doctoral Dissertations

What Is Revealed, Where, And How:
Uncovering The Theme Of Revelation And Discovering A New Approach To Reading
Romans 1:16–3:26

Marcus A. Mininger

In the wake of challenges issued by Krister Stendahl, E. P. Sanders, and others, a protracted debate has ensued over the basic rationale of Paul’s argument in Rom 1:16–3:26, which continues to the present. On the one hand, many continue to advocate for a traditional approach focused on soteriological categories of sin, condemnation, and justification by faith alone. On the other hand, most revisionists counter with a social approach focused on Jews, Gentiles, and the social identity of God’s people. Over time, this debate has produced an interpretative impasse, with significant exegetical problems evident on both sides. Not coincidentally, many have also concluded that Paul’s argument is simply not logically or conceptually unified.

Against this background, the present study will not seek to arbitrate between existing approaches per se, by revisiting the same questions and observations that originally generated this debate. It will instead seek to develop a substantively new approach by drawing attention to a crucial but neglected theme that runs all the way through these verses, namely the theme of revelation.

In the past, this theme has never been closely studied in these chapters, partly due to scholarly reliance on word-study methods that isolate different vocabulary words from each other and so obscure the available data from view, and partly due to reliance on modern definitions of revelation that stand in tension with the way Paul actually describes it here. However, a more careful approach to the evidence shows how this theme receives mention in every passage in this section, and often in prominent locations. Consequently, uncovering the theme and defining it more carefully from within will also help shed new light on this whole section of Romans.

The Divine Builder:
Psalm 68 In Jewish And Pauline Tradition

Todd A. Scacewater

The problem of Ps 68:19 (MT) in Eph 4:8 has a rich history of interpretation from Justin Martyr to today, with nearly a dozen studies published on it in the last two decades. The most comprehensive study is Hall Harris’s The Descent of Christ, which argues that Paul relied on certain Jewish interpretations of You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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