A Critique of N.T. Wright on Justification in Expository Times

In the latest issue of ExpT there is an exchange over justification between Richard K. Moore and N.T. Wright.

Richard K. Moore (Vose Seminary, Western Australia)
N. T. Wright’s treatment of ‘Justification’ in The New Testament for Everyone
Expository Times July 2014 125: 483-486.

N. T. Wright is a widely published author with a large following among those interested in his field of New Testament. In 2011 he published a translation of the New Testament: The New Testament for Everyone. Over some decades Wright has also published on the doctrine of justification, and the insights he feels he has gained are enshrined in his translation. However, a careful comparison of how he has handled the doctrine of justification in Galatians and Romans with what Paul actually wrote, reveals a number of weaknesses in his translation approach as well as an idiosyncratic understanding of the apostle’s concept of justification.

N.T. Wright (University of St. Andrews)
Translating δικαιοσύνη: A Response
Expository Times July 2014 125: 487-490.

A response to Richard Moore’s critique of N. T. Wright’s translation of Paul’s use of δικαιοσύνη language.

I’ll be interested in this exchange because Richard Moore wrote the single longest Ph.D thesis that I’ve ever seen on any subject -three thick volumes – and he did it on the history of justification. His thesis covered exegesis of the key texts, the history of the theological debates, and even documented the history of translation of dikaiosyne/dikaioo in the English Bible. His thesis is called, Rectification (“Justification”) in Paul, in Historical Perspective, and in the English Bible: God’s Gift of Right Relationship (3 vols.; Lampeter: Edwin Mellen, 2002-3). See the link of Amazon.com here. Its very expensive, a bit dated now (was written in the late 80s and early 90s), but definitely worth getting into your seminary library as it constitutes a virtual encyclopedia on the subject of justification. The only thing that compares with it is Alister McGrath’s two-volume work Iustitia Dei.