Q. One thing that I think would further support your case in this lengthy chapter on Divine Justice is that Paul hardly ever talks about forgiveness. Yes, he quotes the Psalms in Rom. 4 but the language is very rare in the early Paulines, and only shows up once in Colossians and once in Ephesians in the later Paulines. In other words, this is not the main way Paul explains the beneficial effects of Christ’s atoning death. Expand a bit... Read more

Q. It is interesting how you take issue with the new Perspective on Paul in regard to the righteousness language, and I think you are largely right. The opposite of righteousness is unrighteousness, not unfaithfulness. And God’s righteousness leads to divine activity, but it is not that activity, it is property or character trait of a holy God. Help us unpack further how the righteousness of God relates to the saving activity, but also the judging activity of God. How... Read more

Q. As you say Paul’s use of dikaiosune and its cognates is various in his letters. Sometimes with the modifier ‘of God’ it refers to God’s character. Sometimes it refers to something God gives human beings. The point I would want to make here, is that God is not interested in just reckoning human beings as righteous, he’s interested in making them actually righteous in character, belief, and behavior. In other words, it’s a mistake to think that all Paul... Read more

Q. The second thing to note is probably the right translation of Rom. 3.21ff. is as follows: “But now, quite apart from the Mosaic Law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, and it is attested to by both the Law and the Prophets— the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ [there is no preposition ‘in’ here in the Greek] for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and lack the glory... Read more

Q. Any thoughts about the Maccabean references to vicarious suffering by the Maccabean leaders as atoning? 4 Macc. 6.28-29, and 17.22? As you note Exod. 32 has Moses offering himself for the sins of the people, but the offer is rejected, so that’s only potential substitutionary sacrifice, whereas in 4 Macc. the connection is assumed to be actual. A. These passages are important principally for their use of the word hilasterion in the Hellenistic sense of a propitiatory offering, a... Read more

Q. In your Isaiah chapter, I’m a bit surprised that you don’t deal with how Isa. 52-53 was interpreted in early Judaism. I say this because there is basically no hard evidence that Jews were expecting a suffering for sin Messiah. They interpreted those passages as referring to Israel suffering for the sins of the world…. and by the way, still do. For example, some would even say the Holocaust in WWII is further evidence that Jews are collectively the... Read more

Q. Heb. 9.26 says that Christ ‘removed sin by the sacrifice of himself’. Now I would take that to mean that he removed the guilt of the sinner, since sin itself is not a substance but rather involves acts and attitudes. Sometimes I think we wrongly treat sin as like some kind of substance, or disease that could be taken from a person and applied to an animal or to Christ himself as if the phrase ‘he bore the sins... Read more

Q. In Acts 13, Paul indicates that Christ’s death atones for sins that no OT sacrifice could cover, in particular one would think he is speaking about sins with a high hand e.g. premeditated murder etc. Yet, you suggest pp. 30-31 that the proper way to read the Yom Kippur rite was on that one day only, even sins with a high hand could be atoned for. If that’s true, what sins do you think Paul was referring to? A.... Read more

Q. In the detailed study of the Servant Songs by Childs and others, it is recognized that in the early portion of those passages—- from about Isaiah 40 to about Isaiah 51, the servant in question is the nation of Israel, not a particular Israelite. As Childs goes on to point out however, somewhere around Isa. 52 or a little earlier the reference becomes to a particular individual. Thus, one has to be careful how one handles the earlier passages.... Read more

Q. Let’s start with the usual question— What prompted you to write this well written book? A. Thank you! For several years my wife Jan and others have been urging me to write a systematic philosophical theology. I realized that in order to undertake such a prodigious task I would need to bone up on certain areas of systematic theology in which I felt weak. One of those areas was the doctrine of the atonement. I was acutely aware that... Read more