"Why does the Apostle Paul personify righteousness as slave-master and athlete in Romans 6 and 9? David J. Southall explores Pauline personification as a trope of character invention in which righteousness becomes an equivalent term for Christ."--BOOK JACKET.

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Durham (England), 2011.

The third volume of this three-volume work exegetes and comments on every occurrence of the Greek terms for righteousness, righteous, righteously, and righteous judgment in the New Testament. It begins with a general discussion of the righteous word group in the New Testament and concludes with a discussion of the righteousness of God and the righteousness of faith. The same proposal that was explored in Volumes 1 and 2, that righteousness means conformity to God’s Being and doing, is now explored in the NT. Whatever flavor or nuance righteousness terminology may have in different NT contexts, study shows that the underlying sense of righteousness as conformity to God’s Being and doing, both for God and for people, has the explanatory power required to commend the definition. Such a result has further implications for justification studies.

Advocates of the New Perspective on Paul appeal to the view that "righteousness" in biblical theology is a Verhaltnisbegriff (relational concept). This is the view that "righteousness" does not mean conformity to a norm, nor is it an essentially legal concept; rather, "righteousness" denotes the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship, since the relationship itself is the norm. This relational interpretation of "righteousness" was first put forward by Hermann Cremer in 1899 and exercised a profound influence in biblical scholarship throughout the 20th century. It lies at the root of the New Perspective claim that "the righteousness of God" in Paul is a cipher for God's saving faithfulness to his covenant, a view defended by N. T. Wright, among others. Charles Lee Irons provides a critical examination of Cremer's chief arguments for the relational, covenant-faithfulness interpretation. The author argues instead for the view that "the righteousness of God" in Rom 1:17; 3: 21-22; 10:3; 2 Cor 5:21; and Phil 3:9 is the status of righteousness that comes from God as a gift.

The third volume of this three-volume work exegetes and comments on every occurrence of the Greek terms for righteousness, righteous, righteously, and righteous judgment in the New Testament. It begins with a general discussion of the righteous word group in the New Testament and concludes with a discussion of the righteousness of God and the righteousness of faith. The same proposal that was explored in Volumes 1 and 2, that righteousness means conformity to God’s Being and doing, is now explored in the NT. Whatever flavor or nuance righteousness terminology may have in different NT contexts, study shows that the underlying sense of righteousness as conformity to God’s Being and doing, both for God and for people, has the explanatory power required to commend the definition. Such a result has further implications for justification studies.

For more than twenty years Douglas Moo’s NICNT volume on Romans has been providing pastors, students, and scholars with profound insight into Paul’s most famous letter. In this thorough revision of his commentary, Moo deals with issues that have come into prominence since the first edition (1996), incorporating the latest research and rewriting the text throughout for better comprehension. Exegetically astute and theologically minded, Moo interacts critically with the new perspective on Paul, highlights the emphasis in Romans on “practical divinity,” and traces the theme of the gospel throughout the letter. His Letter to the Romans in this second edition will inform and enlighten a new generation of serious Bible readers.

Yoonjong Kim analyses the divine-human relationship in Paul's theology, focusing on Paul's portrayal of the relationship in Romans 1–8. Kim stresses that previous studies of this relationship have not paid sufficient attention to the fact that it is not static, but rather exhibits progression and development towards a goal. To address the significance of the human agent's role in the relationship, Kim employs a social psychological theory – interdependence theory – offering a consistent analytic framework for diagnosing the interactions in a dyadic relationship in terms of the dependency created by each partner's expectations of outcomes. Kim explores several key stages of the divine-human relationship and the direction in which the relationship develops throughout Romans 1–8, in order to highlight the significance of the human partners in the course of the development. He focuses in particular on betrayal (1.18–3.20), restoration (3.21–26; 5.1–11), the oppressive relationship with Sin (5.12–8.11), and the investment for the future (8.12–39), and concludes that although the foundation of the relationship rests on God's initiative, the divine outworking guides the relationship so that it facilitates mutual participation of the human partners in the restoration and development of the relationship toward the ultimate goal.

Collection of texts published previously.

One of the earliest Christian confessions—that Jesus is Messiah and Lord—has long been recognized throughout the New Testament. Joshua Jipp shows that the New Testament is in fact built upon this foundational messianic claim, and each of its primary compositions is a unique creative expansion of this common thread. Having made the same argument about the Pauline epistles in his previous book Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology, Jipp works methodically through the New Testament to show how the authors proclaim Jesus as the incarnate, crucified, and enthroned messiah of God. In the second section of this book, Jipp moves beyond exegesis toward larger theological questions, such as those of Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology, revealing the practical value of reading the Bible with an eye to its messianic vision. The Messianic Theology of the New Testament functions as an excellent introductory text, honoring the vigorous pluralism of the New Testament books while still addressing the obvious question: what makes these twenty-seven different compositions one unified testament?

How does Paul assess Israel's error with reference to the law in Romans 9:30--10:13, and what solution does he present? In the years since the dawn of the New Perspective on Paul, interpreters continue to discuss what the Mosaic law required and how Paul described Israel's plight and solution. In this work, Richard Winston argues for a traditional law-gospel explanation of a central passage in Paul's discussion of faith and the law (Rom 9:30--10:13), defending the viewpoint that Paul critiqued Israel for seeking to obtain a right standing with God by obeying the law (as the law requires), and presenting faith in Christ as the solution for their problem. Throughout the discussion, special attention is given to how Paul rightly interprets the Old Testament to show that it is in agreement with his argument.