{"id":888,"date":"2009-10-12T11:34:57","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T11:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image--the-interview.html"},"modified":"2009-10-12T11:34:57","modified_gmt":"2009-10-12T11:34:57","slug":"the-indelible-image-the-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html","title":{"rendered":"The Indelible Image– The Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Indelible_Image_1[1].JPG\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The following is an interview that appeared in the periodical Academic Alert.   <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought
\nWord of the New Testament<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Within the next few months Ben Witherington–Amos Professor of New Testament
\nfor Doctoral Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, <\/span>Doctoral Faculty St. Mary’s College, St.
\nAndrews University, and <\/span>the fastest two fingers in the East–has two
\n800+-page volumes coming out from IVP Academic entitled: The Indelible
\nImage: The Theological and Ethical Thought Word of the New Testament.<\/i> The
\ntwo volumes make a double-pass through the New Testament material in analytic
\n(volume 1, The Individual Witnesse<\/i>s) <\/i>and then synthetic fashion
\n(volume 2, The Collective Witness<\/i>). Senior Editor Jim Hoover interviewed
\nBen recently to glean his thoughts on the project.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:
\n<\/b>Ben, <\/b>I suppose the first thing to be noted is that you tackled this
\nproject only after having written commentaries on all of the books of the New
\nTestament. Few scholars in the recent past have even attempted, let alone
\naccomplished, such a feat. Why did you think it was important for you to do the
\ncommentary project first before launching into New Testament theology and
\nethics, and how, in particular, do you think this has influenced the project?<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington: <\/b>Two reasons. First, I don’t think a
\ntheological or ethical reading of the text can be done properly without first
\ndoing the heavy lifting of detailed exegesis of the text. Second, I felt I
\nneeded to see the whole scope of the theological and ethical witness of the New
\nTestament. Most of the time New Testament theologies and New Testament ethics
\nfocus too much on the so-called major witnesses–the Evangelists, Paul the Johannine
\nliterature. This assumes that some portions of the New Testament are more
\nimportant than others, assumes a sort of canon within the canon. I don’t see
\nthis as a helpful or appropriate approach if the goal is New Testament theology
\nand ethics. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:<\/b>
\nAs you say, you deliberately set out to give the lesser-know and
\nlesser-appreciated witnesses in the New Testament their due. What sorts of
\nthings do you think we would miss by concentrating on the so-called major
\nwitnesses?<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington: <\/b>A lot. We would miss entirely, for
\nexample the way the teaching of Jesus was reapplied and reused in James, the
\nway that all sorts of apostolic teaching was reused and combined in 2 Peter and
\nthe fact that we can become partakers of the divine nature through Christ. We
\nwould miss the most profound use of Isaiah to explain the suffering and death
\nof Jesus in 1 Peter, and we would miss the strong prophetic witness of Jesus’
\nbrother Jude.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:<\/b>
\nThe history of New Testament scholarship reveals a tension between an
\nunderstanding of unity and diversity within the New Testament. How has your
\nextended survey and incorporation of neglected voices affected your
\nunderstanding of the unity and diversity within the New Testament witness to
\nJesus?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Witherington:  <\/span><\/b>Well,
\nI would say there is unity amid the diversity, and the study of all these books
\nin detail has simply vindicated that assumption. What was especially impressive
\nto me is that there is as much ethical unity in the New Testament as
\ntheological unity, and without collaboration or corroboration in some cases. It
\nmust be a Holy Spirit thing.<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:
\n<\/b>Why have you felt it important to address both theology and ethics together
\nin this project?<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington:<\/b> Because,
\ndespite the history of Protestant exegesis and theology, the two are profoundly
\nintertwined and interdependent on each other. The theology has ethical
\nimplications and applications, and there are no ethics in the New Testament
\nthat are not profoundly theological. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:
\n<\/b>What challenges and advantages has this presentation given to your work?<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington: <\/b>The big challenge was to manage to keep
\nthe whole spectrum of the witnesses in my brain at one time so I could see the
\nrelationship of the parts to the whole. The advantage of my approach, which
\nsuggests that the New Testament is like an oratorio about the Messiah, his
\nperson, words and works, is that it is both comprehensive and intensive and
\nsees the unity as well as the diversity of the whole.<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:<\/b>
\nWhat themes and concerns have come to the fore? In particular, what’s the
\nsignificance of your title?<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington: <\/b>Excellent question. After much
\npondering I discovered that one of the keys to understanding the relationship
\nbetween theology and ethics in the New Testament is the discussion of the image
\nof God–the imago Dei<\/i>–in humankind and its restoration in Christ. For
\nexample, as Philippians 2:5-11 puts it, we are to have the same mind in us that
\nwas also in Christ Jesus, the perfect image of God on earth. How is this
\npossible? The answer is that we too are created in God’s image and through
\nChrist renewed in that image for good works. The ethics is the working out of
\nthe theology in human lives and actions. The theology explains the basis for
\nsuch exhortation and why it is possible to respond to the exhortations (because
\nwe are being recreated in Christ’s image).<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:<\/b>
\nI suspect you didn’t know this, though I doubt you’ll be surprised by the fact,
\nbut you use the words righteous\/unrighteous<\/i> or related words 289 times
\nin your first volume. As you know, the terms righteousness of God<\/i> and of
\nChrist<\/i> have been hotly disputed–objective or subjective genitive,
\ncovenantal or forensic emphasis? Where do you land?<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington:<\/b> I have become increasingly convinced
\nthat this language is not the language of covenantal faithfulness–the OT
\nbackground for which is h9esed<\/span>, <\/i>not
\ns9add|=q<\/span>\/<\/i>s9e6da4qa=<\/span><\/i> –nor is it merely the
\nlanguage of forensic righteousness, focusing on right standing with God, though
\nthat is part of the truth. Rather, the righteousness of God has to do with
\nGod’s character and his efforts to give us an extreme makeover in God’s image,
\nso that we have both right standing with God and manifest the actual righteous
\ncharacter of our God. In short, it is about both justification and
\nsanctification, about both our position and our condition, as well as about God’s.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hoover:<\/b> In the 90s you published a series of books on
\nJesus–The Christology of Jesus <\/i>(1990), Jesus the Sage<\/i> (1994) and Jesus
\nthe Seer <\/i>(1999), not to mention two editions of The Jesus Quest<\/i> (1995
\nand 1997), though the latter two are more of a survey of the state of Jesus
\nstudies at the time than your own contribution to the field as is the case with
\nthe other three books. The first of these studies was written nearly twenty
\nyears ago, and the latest ten years ago. How have your views of Jesus shifted or
\nbeen nuanced in this new two-volume set? Which of your views, would you say, have
\nbeen solidified or reinforced? <\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington:  <\/span><\/b>I
\nwould not say that my views have changed in any significant ways about Jesus.
\nOne thing that has been further confirmed over the years is that Jesus had a
\nvery exalted view of himself and his ministry, and exegeted himself and his
\nwork out of texts like Daniel 7, Isaiah 40-66, Psalm 2, and the book of
\nZechariah.<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:<\/b>
\nAlso in the 90s, about ten years ago now, you did a reappraisal of the
\nhistorical  <\/span>Paul, entitled The Paul
\nQuest.<\/i> In what ways did that research shape your views in these two new
\nvolumes?<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington:  <\/span><\/b>It
\nset me in motion for realizing how important Paul’s ethics were to his
\ntheologizing and vice versa. It also made clear to me that in some cases the
\nReformer did Paul no service by setting up contrasts between law and grace, or
\nbetween Paul and James and the like.<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Hoover<\/b>:
\n<\/b>I don’t suppose it would be right to end this interview without asking what
\nyou hope readers will most get out of your project.<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Witherington:<\/b> I have hopes that this project will
\ngive the patient reader a clear glimpse of both the unity and diversity of our New
\nTestament, and especially how Christ is at the heart of the matter when it
\ncomes to both theology and ethics. I would hope it would lead us to “see him
\nmore clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly, day by day.”<\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an interview that appeared in the periodical Academic Alert.   The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought Word of the New Testament   Within the next few months Ben Witherington–Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, Doctoral Faculty St. Mary’s College, St. Andrews University, and the fastest two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Indelible Image- The Interview - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Indelible Image- The Interview - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following is an interview that appeared in the periodical Academic Alert.   The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought Word of the New Testament   Within the next few months Ben Witherington–Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, Doctoral Faculty St. Mary’s College, St. Andrews University, and the fastest two…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-12T11:34:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/Indelible_Image_1%5B1%5D-thumb-446x666-7984.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Indelible Image- The Interview - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Indelible Image- The Interview - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"The following is an interview that appeared in the periodical Academic Alert.   The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought Word of the New Testament   Within the next few months Ben Witherington–Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, Doctoral Faculty St. Mary’s College, St. Andrews University, and the fastest two…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2009-10-12T11:34:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/Indelible_Image_1%5B1%5D-thumb-446x666-7984.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html","name":"The Indelible Image- The Interview - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/Indelible_Image_1%5B1%5D-thumb-446x666-7984.jpg","datePublished":"2009-10-12T11:34:57+00:00","dateModified":"2009-10-12T11:34:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/Indelible_Image_1%5B1%5D-thumb-446x666-7984.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/Indelible_Image_1%5B1%5D-thumb-446x666-7984.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/10\/the-indelible-image-the-interview.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Indelible Image– The Interview"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}