F.F. Bruce Study Archive
However the gospel may be defended, it cannot be defended by concessions which deprive it of its essence or which detract from our Saviour’s title to be called The Word of God.
F.F. Bruce
1910 – 1990
Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester
This action, following as it did the cessation of the daily sacrifice three weeks earlier, must have sensed to many Jews, as it evidently did to Josephus, a new and final fulfillment of Daniel’s vision of a time when the continual burnt offering would be taken away and the abomination of desolation set up
Six-Seal Preterist:
“the first six seals span the forty years up to A.D.70”
RELEVANT WORKS
- 1938: F.F. Bruce, The Earliest Latin Commentary on the Apocalypse (pdf)
- 1941: F.F. Bruce, Babylon and Rome (pdf) – It cannot seriously be denied that most of the features of advanced Catholic ritual have little or no direct warrant in the New Testament.
- 1958: F.F. Bruce, Eschatology (pdf)
- 1959: F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
- 1960: F.F. Bruce, The Scottish Reformation (pdf)
- 1964: F.F. Bruce, Paul in Rome: Series (pdf)
- 1966: F.F. Bruce, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity (pdf)
- 1975: Rod Decker, Werner Kümmel letter to F. F. Bruce
- 1976: F.F. Bruce, Lessons from the Early Church (pdf)
- 1977: F.F. Bruce, Flesh and Spirit
- 1977: F.F. Bruce, The Primary and Plenary Senses (pdf)
- 1977: F.F. Bruce, The Time is Fulfilled Video
- 1978: F.F. Bruce, Christian Destiny, Christ Our Hope (pdf)
- 1987: F.F. Bruce, Problem Texts (pdf)
- 1989: F.F. Bruce, Eschatology, Understanding the End of Days (pdf)
- 1989: Interview with F.F. Bruce (pdf)
(On Hebrews 9:11)
“The majority reading is “the good things that are to come”, but the weight of the evidence favors “the good things that have come” (so P.46 B D* 1611 1739 2005 with the Syriac versions, Chrysostom, and Cyril of Jerusalem. “But now the time of reformation has arrived; what used to be “the good things to come” are now “the good things that have come” (RSV), “the good things already in being” (NEB). “For Christ has appeared, and in him the shadows have given way to the perfect and abiding reality. And his appearance is properly announced with a triumphant trumpet-flourish; his entrance into the presence of God is not a day of soul-affliction and fast, like the Day of Atonement under the old legislation, but a day of gladness and son, the day when Christians celebrate the accession of their Priest-King. “The combination of the oldest Greek and Latin with the Syriac evidence is in itself almost irresistible” in support of genomenon rather than mellonton (G. Zuntz, the Text of the Epistles [London, 1953, p. 119); the reading mellonton is probably due to the influence of 10:1. See p. 235.” (Hebrews 9:11, p. 211)
(On Kittim as Rome) “They believed that the iniquities of the Wicked Priest and his associates would bring the judgement of God upon them. As time went on, they came to see clearly who would be the instruments of God’s judgement. God was raising up the ‘Kittim’ for this purpose, and by the ‘Kittim’, as has been said above, they probably meant the Romans. It was indeed the Romans who, by their occupation of Judaea in 63 B.C., put an end to Hasmonaean domination; but the Qumran community could see the shape of things to come before that date. They also saw that the Romans would exceed the terms of their commission and incur the divine judgement themselves because of their impiety and rapacity.” (New Testament History)
(On the Early Dating of the New Testament)
“The New Testament was complete, or substantially complete, about AD100, the majority of the writings being in existence twenty to forty years before this. In this country a majority of modern scholars fix the dates of the four gospels as follows: Matthew, c. 85-90; Mark c.65; Luke, c. 80-85; John, c. 90-100. I should be inclined to date the first three Gospels rather earlier: Mark around AD 64 or 65, Luke shortly before AD70, and Matthew shortly after AD70. One criterion which has special weight with me is the relation which these writings appear to bear to the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD70. My view of the matter is that Mark and Luke were written before this event, and Matthew not long afterwards.” (The New Testament Documents, Are They Reliable? p. 19)
(On Matthew 24:15 ; The “Seventy Weeks” of Daniel)
“When the temple area was taken by the Romans, and the sanctuary itself was still burning, the soldiers brought their legionary standards into the sacred precincts, set them up opposite the eastern gate, and offered sacrifice to them there, acclaiming Titus as imperator (victorious commander) as they did so. The Roman custom of offering sacrifice to their standards had already been commented on by a Jewish writer as a symptom of their pagan arrogance, but the offering of such sacrifice in the temple court was the supreme insult to the God of Israel. This action, following as it did the cessation of the daily sacrifice three weeks earlier, must have sensed to many Jews, as it evidently did to Josephus, a new and final fulfillment of Daniel’s vision of a time when the continual burnt offering would be taken away and the abomination of desolation set up” (Israel and the Nations, p. 226)
“Daniel 8:11ff.; 11:31; 12:11. Josephus evidently recognizes the fulfillment of these prophecies in the events of A.D.70 (War vi. 94, 311, 316).” (ibid., n. 10)
“The phrase “this generation” is found too often on Jesus’ lips in this literal sense for us to suppose that it suddenly takes on a different meaning in the saying we are now examining. Moreover, if the generation of the end-time had been intended, ‘that generation’ would have been a more natural way of referring to it than ‘this generation. (The Hard Sayings of Jesus, p. 227)
(On II Corinthians 5:4)
“Paul oscillates between the figure of a building to dwell in and a garment to put on. The verb here is ependysasthai, which, if the force of the prefix ep- (epi) is stressed, would mean ‘put on over’ (so NEB).”
“The abverb further conveys the force of epi and ependysasthai, ‘put on over’ (so NEB again); it almost suggests that the new body could be put on like an overcoat, above the clothes already being worn.” (1 and 2 Corinthians, pp. 202,203)
(On Revelation 6:16)
“The best commentary on the present passage is found in our Lord’s words to the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ on the Via Dolorosa (Lk. 23:30).. if the same crisis is in view here, the first six seals span the forty years up to A.D.70″ (“Revelation” in International Bible Commentary, p. 1608)
(On Eschatology)
“The term “eschatology” is no longer restricted in theological discussion to the traditional “last things” — death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The concepts of “realized,” “proleptic,” or “inaugurated” eschatology have brought the future into the present, and indeed into the past, so that one can sympathize with those voices that have recently urged that the very term “eschatology” should be expunged from our vocabulary because of its hopeless ambiguity, and replaced by others, each of which should express precisely one particular subject present in the vague area of “eschatology.” (“Eschatology in Acts,” in Eschatology and the New Testament, ed. W. Hulitt Gloer, 1988)
(On The Historicist Method)
“No important contribution to exegesis of Revelation was made by [historicists], whether J. A. Bengel in Germany or Joseph Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, and William Whiston in England—eminent as these exegetes were in other fields of study. The book itself has suffered in its reputation from the extravagances of some of its interpreters, who have treated it as if it were a table of mathematical conundrums or a divinely inspired Old Moore’s Almanack.” (Revelation, The International Bible Commentary, ed. F. F. Bruce, H. L. Ellison, and G. C. D. Howley (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 1595.)
“Jesus and Paul,” TSF Bulletin 46 (Autumn 1966): 21-26.
Jesus and Paul F.F. Bruce Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester[p.21] The subject of this paper is one which nowadays is commonly treated within the context of existential hermeneutics. The writer has never learned to think in this context, and is conscious that his treatment of this or any other New Testament subject may be thought to betray over-simplification or downright naïveté. So be it. I.
CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE
‘Paul’, wrote Albert Schweitzer, ‘shares with Jesus the eschatological world-view and the eschatological expectation, with all that these imply. The only difference is the hour in the world-clock in the two cases. To use another figure, both are looking towards the same mountain range, but whereas Jesus sees it as lying before Him, Paul already stands upon it and its first slopes are already behind him’ (The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, ET, 1931, p. 113). Without some such appreciation of the eschatological factor, it will be difficult to discern the true relationship between Jesus and Paul. In the ministry of Jesus, eschatology is in process of inauguration. The Kingdom of God arrived with His ministry, but its powers were not unleashed in their fulness. Until Heunder went the ‘baptism’ of His passion, He was conscious of restraint. But with the passion and triumph of the Son of Man the restraint would be removed and, as He told His hearers on one occasion, some of them would witness the advent of the Kingdom of God ‘with power’ intheir present lifetime. For Paul the Kingdom’s advent with power has taken place. The power which God exerted in raising Jesus from the dead is now at work in the followers of Jesus, conveyed to them by His indwelling Spirit; by that same indwelling Spirit the love of God, demonstrated supremely in the self-giving death of Christ for His people’s sins, is poured out in their hearts. The perspective has inevitably changed, because the death and resurrection of Jesus, which were future events during His earthly ministry, are now past events, or rather parts of one comprehensive saving event, by which the irresistible advance of the cause of God has been released in the world. Eschatology has thereby been inaugurated; what remains to be done before the consummation has mainly the nature of mopping-up operations after the decisive victory which has already been won. Hostile forces, already disabled, have to be destroyed; with the destruction of death, the last of these forces, the resurrection age will be consummated, although its blessings are enjoyed here and now through the Spirit by those who have experienced faith-union with Christ. For them the age to come has dawned, although for others it may still be future. ‘Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come’ (2 Cor. 5: 17). [p.21] The change of perspective of which we are aware as we move from Jesus to Paul is, then, a change for which the words of Jesus have prepared us. Absolutely, it is a change which can be dated in terms of world-history, around AD 30; empirically, it is a change which takes place whenever a man or woman comes to be ‘in Christ’, as had happened to Paul himself. And when the change takes place thus empirically, it revolutionizes one’s whole outlook. ‘From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though tine once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer’ (2 Cor. 5: 16). These words of 2 Corinthians 5: 16have played a crucial part in much discussion of Paul’s relation and attitude to Jesus. What is meant by regarding Christ ‘from a human point of view’―‘after the flesh’, as kata sarka is literally rendered by our older versions? One interpretation of the words, not so commonly expressed today as in earlier generations, takes them to mean ‘that Paul had known Christ, as men know one another, that is, had seen Him with his eyes’. So Johannes Weiss put it, and he went on: ‘Indeed, the expression implies more than this; it signifies the impression made not only by outward appearance, but by personality, the impression received by direct personal acquaintance’ (Paul and Jesus, ET, 1909, pp. 47f.). His conclusion was that Paul had most probably seen and heard Jesus in Jerusalem during Holy Week, and that it is this kind of ‘knowledge’ that Paul is now disparaging in comparison with the new knowledge of Him that he has kata pneuma. Whether Paul ever did see or hear Jesus before the crucifixion is not in question here. Perhaps he did; if W. C. van Unnik’s thesis (Tarsus or Jerusalem? ET, 1962) be accepted, it is quite probable that he did. But that there is any reference to such seeing or hearing in 2 Corinthians 5: 16 is extremely doubtful. It is hardly going too far to say with R. Bultmann, ‘that he (Paul) even saw Jesus and was impressed by him is… to be read out of 2 Cor. 5: 16 only by fantasy’ (Existence and Faith, 1964, p. 133). On the other hand, Professor Bultmann’s own interpretation of this text can be read out of it only if it first be read into it. For him, the knowledge of Christ ‘after the flesh’ which Paul depreciates is much the same thing as an interest in the ‘Jesus of history’. ‘We must go back behind the kerygma’, says Bultmann, ‘using it as a source in order to reconstruct a “historical Jesus” with his “messianic consciousness”, his “inner life” or his “heroism”. That would be precisely the Christos kata sarka who belongs to, the past. It is not the historical Jesus, but Jesus Christ the preached one, who is the Lord ‘ (Glaaben und Verstehen I, 1961, p. 208). Similarly E. Brunner could affirm that ‘ Jesus of Nazareth, the rabbi, the so-called historical Jesus, was, an object of no interest for the early Christians and it is of no interest today for those who have preserved someunderstanding of what Christian faith means’ (The Word and the World, ET, 1931, pp. 87f. We can understand the point that Bultmann and Brunner are making, although―at least in the extreme form in which Brunner makes it―we may not accept it; but it is not the point that Paul makes. Still less is Paul concerned to disparage the knowledge of Jesus enjoyed by the Twelve by virtue of their companionship with Him during His ministry in comparison with his own present knowledge of Jesus in the Spirit (cf. S. G. F. Brandon, The Fall of Jerusalem and the Christian Church, 1951, pp. 56f. Whatever differences there might be between himand the Twelve, they, like him, were en Christō; they, like him, possessed the Spirit, as Paul himself would be the first to assert. The contrast which Paul is making is one between his former attitude to Christ (as to the world in general) and his present attitude to Christ (as to the world in general) now that he is ‘in Christ’. The point is brought out excellently by
the New English Bible: ‘With us therefore worldly standards have ceased to count in our estimate of any man; even if once they counted in our understanding of Christ, they do so now no longer.’
Even so, the precise meaning of these words demands further attention: when Paul speaks ofhis former knowledge of ‘Christ after the flesh’ is he referring to his former conception of the Messiah, which has been radically altered now that he has come to recognize the Messiah in Jesus; or is he referring to his former hostility to Jesus and His followers, which has now been replaced by apostolic devotion to Jesus and brotherly love to His followers? Both the immediate context of 2 Corinthians 5, and the wider context of Pauline usage, suggest that the latter alternative is the proper one. It is the person, not the office, that Paul has in mind. Once [p.23] upon a time, as he said to the younger Agrippa, he thought it his duty ‘to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth’ (Acts 26: 9); now that his eyes were enlightened, he knew it his duty ‘to bring about the obedience of faith… among all the nations’ for the sake of that very name (Rom. 1: 5). What God had wrought in the saving act of Christ became effective by the Spirit a few years later in Paul’s life when the risen Christ appeared to him, and changed his entire perspective. To this resurrection appearance he appealed in confirmation of his claim to be an apostle (1 Cor. 9: 1); to it, as the occasion when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him, he traced his call and empowerment to be Christ’s ambassador among the Gentiles (Gal. 1: 15f.).
II PAUL AND THE MINISTRY OF JESUS
But what of Paul’s knowledge of, or interest in, the earthly life and teaching of the One whose death and resurrection had brought him into a new creation? Christ the risen Lord he knew, for he had seen Him in resurrection and experienced His resurrection power. Christ crucified he both knew and portrayed vividly in his preaching (Gal. 3: 1; cf. 1 Cor. 2: 2). Whether he was the better able to do this because he was, like Peter, ‘a witness of the sufferings of Christ’ (1 Pet. 5: 1) we cannot say for sure; he nowhere suggests that he was a witness in this sense, but if he was, he learned from his conversion onwards to give those sufferings a fundamentally different significance from that which he attached to them in the days when Christ’s being hanged on a gibbet was sufficient proof to him that He had died under the curse of God (cf. Gal. 3: 13). Now Christ’s death for His people’s sins, His burial and His rising on the third day―all in accordance with prophetic Scripture―constituted for him, as for the Twelve, the basis of the good news which he and they proclaimed (1 Cor. 15: 1-11). In 1 Corinthians 15: 3 the record of this complex of saving events is said to be something which Paul received by paradosis. The account of Christ’s appearing to him personally ‘lastof all’ was not paradosis but personal testimony; what precedes it is paradosis. The details of resurrection appearances granted to others would be received by Paul from one or more of those others, and we are not left to speculate who his informants might be. Among those others to whom Christ is said to have appeared in resurrection, two are expressly named: Peter and James. It is no mere coincidence that the same two men are also expressly named in Paul’s account of his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion. ‘I went up to Jerusalem’, he says, ‘historēsai Kēphan… but 1 saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother’ (Gal. 1: 18f.). It is hardly too much to say, seeing that Peter and James were the only two leaders of the Jerusalem church that he met during this fortnight’s stay in the city in thethird year after his conversion, that it was then that he received from them the story of the risen Lord’s appearance to the one and to the other, of which he makes summary mention in I Corinthians
The phrase historēsai Kēphan (Gal. 1: 18) has been translated ‘to see Peter’ (AV), ‘to visit Cephas’ (RV, RSV), ‘to get to know Cephas’ (NEB). Of these the last is the most accurate, but perhaps more than this is implied. Paul wished not only to make Peter’s acquaintance but also (and this would account for his choice of this particular verb) to consult Peter, to make inquiry of him concerning the details of the gospel paradosis (cf. G. D. Kilpatrick in New Testament Essays: Studies in Memory of T. W. Manson, ed. A. J. B. Higgins, 1959, pp. 144) has been translated ‘to see Peter’ (AV), ‘to visit Cephas’ (RV, RSV), ‘to get to know Cephas’ (NEB). Of these the last is the most accurate, but perhaps more than this is implied. Paul wished not only to make Peter’s acquaintance but also (and this would account for his choice of this particular verb) to consult Peter, to make inquiry of him concerning the details of the gospel paradosis (cf. G. D. Kilpatrick in New Testament Essays: Studies in Memory of T. W. Manson, ed. A. J. B. Higgins, 1959, pp. 144 ff.; see also W. D. Davies, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount, 1964, pp. 453ff.). To distinguish between Paul’s understanding of the gospel as something he received by unmediated revelation and his understanding of the gospel as something he received by tradition from those who were in Christ before him is not easy; but the distinction is a real one. He went to Jerusalem to acquire information from Peter because it was now necessary that he should have this information, and no-one was better qualified to give it to him than Peter. Information acquired in this way formed part of the paradosis which he delivered to his converts and expected them to maintain (cf. 1 Cor. 11: 2; 2 Thes. 2: 15); its ultimate authority was the Lord Himself (cf. O. Cullmann, ‘The Tradition’, in The Early Church, ET, 1956, pp. 59ff.), and it embraced not only the resurrection appearances but the account of what Jesus did and said ‘on the night when he was betrayed’ (1 Cor. 11: 23ff.). Yet, however much information of this sort Paul may have acquired from Peter [p.24] and James (or, on other occasions, from colleagues of theirs), he does not have much to say in his extant writings about the works, or even the words, of Jesus before His death. We should not, indeed, minimize what he does say in this regard: Jesus, for Paul, is no docetic figure but a real man of woman born (Gal. 4: 4), a member of the nation of Israel who lived under the law (Rom. 9: 5; Gal. 4: 4), a descendant of David (Rom. 1: 3), as the Messiah was for the most part expected to be, who died by crucifixion (Gal. 3: 1, etc.)―and although crucifixion was well known to be a Roman, not a Jewish, mode of execution, it is Jews who are made primarily responsible for the death of Jesus in 1 Thessalonians 2: 15. Paul knows of the apostles of Jesus, and of His brothers; he knows that some of them were married (1 Cor. 9: 5)―an incidental agreement with the Gospel story of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mk. 1: 30). He quotes sayings of Jesus on occasion, and when he does so, ho quotes them as putting an end to all controversy―His prohibition of divorce, for example (1 Cor. 7: 10f.). His ruling that ‘those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel’ (1 Cor. 9: 14; cf. 1 Tim. 5: 18; Lk. 10:7), His words (already alluded to) at the institution of the Lord’s Supper (I Cor. 11: 24f.), and possibly the ‘word of the Lord’ of 1 Thessalonians 4: 15. It is conceivable that this last ‘word’, about the order in which dead and living believers will be called at the Parousia, is a post-resurrection utterance; even so, it is noteworthy that ‘Paul shows no readiness to invent or adapt verba Christi to meet new occasions not envisaged in the setting of Christ’s earlier ministry. Apart from more or less direct quotations of words of Jesus, we can observe how closely Paul’s ethical teaching in particular follows Jesus’ teaching as it was later recorded in the canonical Gospels. For Paul, as for Jesus, love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. 13: 8-10; cf. Mk. 10: 17-22; 12: 28-34); that Saul of Tarsus was the wealthy enquirer of Mark 10: 17 or the scribe of Mark 12 28 is a pleasant fancy belonging to the realm of romance and not of biblical exegesis, but Saul of Tarsus learned full ‘Well the lesson taught by Jesus to these two men. Indeed, the whole of the ‘ethical’ section of the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 12: 1 – 15: 7) has only to be compared with the Sermon on the Mount for us to see how thoroughly the apostle was imbued with his Lord’s teaching. Moreover, one of Paul’s principle arguments in his ethical instruction is the character and example of Christ. And the character of Christ which Paul presents as an example in his letters is completely in agreement with the character of Christ portrayed in the Gospels. Paul’s appeal to ‘the meekness and gentleness of Christ’ (2Cor. 10: 1) echoes the Gospel portrayal of Him who was ‘gentle and lowly in heart’ (Mt. 11: 29). The self-denying Christ of the Gospels is the Christ who, according to Paul, ‘did not please himself’ (Rom. 15: 3); and, as the Christ of the Gospels calls on His followers to deny themselves (Mk. 8: 34), so Paul insists that the followers of Christ must, like their Master,refrain from pleasing themselves (Rom. 15: 1), ‘just as I try’, he says elsewhere, ‘to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of the many, that they may be saved’ (1 Cor, 10: 33), No wonder that, leaving said this, he adds immediately: ‘Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ’ (1 Cor. 11: 1). The Christ of the Gospels, who said to His disciples,‘I am among you as one who serves’ (Lk. 22: 27), and suited the action to the words by washing their feet (Jn. 13: 4ff.), is the Christ who, according to Paul, took ‘the form of a slave’ (Phil. 2: 7). In a word, when
Paul wishes to commend to his readers the sum total ofthose graces which adorn the Christ of the Gospels, he does so by telling them to ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 13: 14). To this it may be replied in some quarters that the character of Jesus in the Gospels is are construction based on the ethical ideal of the apostolic teaching, replacing (for apologetic reasons) an earlier and more historical, though almost entirely obliterated, picture of someone much more like a Zealot leader. With this argument it is impossible to deal here; reference may be made to some remarks passed on its improbability in my paper ‘History and the Gospel’ (Faith and Thought, 93, No.3, Summer 1964, pp. 121ff., especially pp. 139ff.1).
III PAUL THE INTERPRETER OF JESUS
We have to acknowledge nevertheless that in Paul’s Epistles there is a remarkable absence of reference to details of Christ’s ministry. Whereas in the First Epistle of Peter Jesus’ patient and un- [p.25] complaining behaviour in the face of injustice and ill-treatment is presented as an example for Christians to follow (even though the language is considerably influenced by Isaiah 53), Paul is more prone in similar circumstances to present the example of Christ’s condescension andself-humiliation in becoming man: for him the imitatio Christi is mainly a matter, in B. B. Warfield’s phrase, of ‘imitating the Incarnation’. It may be said, and with some truth, that Paul’s readers had already heard and believed the story of Jesus, and did not need to be told it again. In Acts 13: 23ff. Paul is represented as following up his account of Old Testament history and prophecy with a reference to the ministry of John the Baptist, represented elsewhere in the New Testament as the initial phase of the kerygma; and this may well be in keeping with Paul’s practice. But the principle reason for the lack of allusion to the events of Jesus’ ministry may quite simply be that Paul was notan eyewitness of these events, and preferred to confine himself to those matters of which hecould speak at first hand.
Paul’s relation to Jesus (in addition to his personal incorporation, with all his fellow-believers, ‘in Christ’) may be established more securely at a deeper level than that represented by such allusions as can be picked up throughout his letters to the life and teaching of Jesus. If (as the present writer is fully convinced) Paul’s claim to ‘have the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2: 16) iswell founded, then we may confidently turn to the letters of Paul to find the significance ofthe Jesus of history unfolded. To that significance Jesus Himself pointed when He spoke of the divine Kingdom which was both present and imminent; what was imminent when Hespoke had become an accomplished fact by the time Paul wrote, and in expounding the implications of this accomplished fact Paul unfolds the significance of Jesus. Some people who talk as if the significance of the historical Jesus is unrelated to anything that happened after His death overlook the fact that the significance of any outstanding figure of history would not adequately be brought out if the sequel to his life and death were strictly excluded from the reckoning. From Jesus’ own teaching we should gather that the inauguration of the Kingdom and the vindication of the Son of Man would make plain features of His works and words which at the time presented a mystery; Paul, writing from the perspective of that inauguration and vindication, makes the mystery plain. The recent work by Eberhard Jüngel, Paulus and Jesus (Tübingen, 1962), works out this thesis with special reference to Paul’s doctrine of justification; the sub-title calls the work ‘areinquiry into the more precise formulation of the question of the origin of Christology’. Jüngel is a pupil of Ernst Fuchs, a distinguished member of the Bultmann school, and he pays tributes to Bultmann by endorsing the judgment that ‘in the past generation of New Testament scholars no-one, apart from Schlatter, has done so much as Bultmann for the recovery of the Reformers’ doctrine of justification’. His procedure is to examine first the outlines of Paul’s doctrine of justification, then the outlines of the message of Jesus, and lastly the relation between the two. ‘The eschatological character both of Jesus’ proclamation and of Paul’s doctrine of justification enables us to make a positive comparison of the two lines of teaching one with the other’: on this score he is at one with Albert Schweitzer, although he is far from accepting Schweitzer’s attitude to New Testament eschatology. Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God is studied in the parables; Jüngel insistsrepeatedly that in the parables the Kingdom of God comes to expression, and that the hearers’ response to the parables is their response to the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ parabolic teaching is more than mere teaching; it is a Sprachereignis, a ‘speech-event’, in the sense, that the parabolic teaching is itself an event confronting the bearer and challenging him to say ‘Yes’ to the demand of the Kingdom of God. With Fuchs, Jüngel sees in the parables Jesus’ Christological testimony to Himself, albeit in veiled form. During the ministry, Jesus’ conduct and attitude supplied a sufficient commentary for understanding the parables; later, the church felt it necessary to supply its own verbal commentary. In the ‘Son of man’ sayings Jüngel discerns the same eschatological note as in the parables. It is this eschatological note which he hears sounding in Paul’s teaching on justification and providing the link between Paul and Jesus. ‘Christ is the end of the law for every believer’ (Rom. 10: 4) because in Him the eschaton has arrived; Christ as the end of the law is accordingly the ground of men’s justification before God. (He interprets Paul’s [p.26] telos in the sense of eschaton.) In the preaching of Jesus and the teaching of Paul he finds the same relation between eschatology and history, the same emphasis on the end of the law, the same demand for faith―the faith that works by love. The difference lies simply in this, that the eschaton which for Jesus lay in the near future is present for Paul. One misses here the giving of its proper place to Paul’s doctrine of the coming glory, of which the present bestowal of the Spirit is the earnest; but Jüngel’s study is a welcome sign of the direction in which some of the most active theological thought in Germany is moving. What a scholar in the Lutheran tradition should concentrate in this regard on Paul’s teaching on justification by faith and its links with the ministry of Jesus is natural; but similar conclusions could be reached if the same kind of attention were directed towards other central motifs of Paul’s teaching. His portrayal of Jesus as the Wisdom of God, for example, and as the Last Adam could be shown both to develop aspects of the words and works of Jesus andto display more clearly what is implied in those aspects. Such studies would underline the truth of the statement with which Professor W. G. Kümmel concluded his presidential address to the Society for New Testament Studies in 1963: ‘We cannot choose between Jesus and Paul; all that we can do is in Paul’s witness to encounter Jesus Himself, who is the ground and the truth of this witness’ (New Testament Studies, 10, 1963-64, p. 181). © 1966 Universities & Colleges Christian Fellowship (http://www.uccf.org.uk/).
Wayne Jackson (2003)
“The most compelling position, in this writer’s judgment, is that argued by numerous respectable scholars (e.g., J.W. McGarvey, Albert Barnes, F.F. Bruce, D.A. Carson, R.C.H. Lenski, Theodor Zahn, W.W. How, J. Barton Payne, etc.), namely that the “coming” event of Matthew 10:23 is theRoman invasion of Palestine, which occurred in A.D. 66-70.” (What is the Meaning of Matthew 10:23)
Wikipedia
Frederick Fyvie Bruce (12 October 1910 – 11 September 1990) was a Bible scholar, and one of the founders of the modern evangelical understanding of the Bible. His work New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? is considered a classic in the discipline of Christian apologetics.
Biography
He was born in Elgin, Moray in Scotland and was educated at the University of Aberdeen, Cambridge University and the University of Vienna. After teaching Greek for several years first at the University of Edinburgh and then at the University of Leeds he became head of the Department of Biblical History and Literature at the University of Sheffield in 1947. In 1959 he moved to the University of Manchester where he became professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis. In his career he wrote some thirty-three books and served as editor of The Evangelical Quarterly and the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. He retired from teaching in 1978.
Bruce was a distinguished scholar on the life and ministry of Paul the Apostle, and wrote several studies the best known of which is Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free. He also wrote commentaries on several biblical books including Acts of the Apostles, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Bruce was a dedicated member of the Open Plymouth Brethren, though he did not affirm the dispensationalism usually associated with that movement.
Most of his works were scholarly, but he also penned several mainstream works on the Bible that were quite popular. He viewed the New Testament as historically reliable and that the truth claims of Christianity hinged on its being so. To Bruce this did not mean that the Bible was always precise, and this lack of precision could lead to considerable confusion. However, he believed that the passages that were still open to debate were ones that had no substantial bearing on Christian theology and thinking.
He was honoured with two scholarly works by his colleagues and former students, one to mark his sixtieth and the other to mark his seventieth birthday. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, and served as President of the Society for Old Testament Study, and also as President of the Society for New Testament Study. He is one of a handful of scholars thus recognised by his peers in both fields.
Books in Honour of Bruce
W. Ward Gasque & Ralph P. Martin (eds). Apostolic History and the Gospel: Biblical and Historical Essays Presented to F. F. Bruce on his 60th Birthday. Exeter: Paternoster/Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1970. ISBN 0-85364-098-X
D.A. Hagner & M.J.Harris (eds). Pauline Studies: Essays Presented to F. F. Bruce. Exeter: Paternoster/Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1980. ISBN 0-8028-3531-7
Books
New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981. (First published in 1943 as Are the New Testament Documents Reliable? New Testament Documents online version) ISBN 0-8028-2219-3
The Hittites and the Old Testament. Tyndale Old Testament Lecture, 1947. London: The Tyndale Press, 1947. Pbk. pp.28.
The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text With Introduction and Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1951.
The Book of the Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1954. ISBN 0-8028-2182-0
The Epistles to the Colossians and the Ephesians. (New International Commentary on the New Testament) Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1957. [title may be incorrect; Bruce wrote the Colossians commentary, and E.K. Simpson wrote the Ephesians commentary; see the 1984 replacement below entirely by Bruce]
The Teacher of Righteousness in the Qumran Texts. London: The Tyndale Press, 1957. Pbk. pp.36.
Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts. London: The Tyndale Press, 1960. Pbk. pp.88.
Romans (Tyndale New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1963. ISBN 0-8028-1405-0
Epistle to the Hebrews (New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1964.
New Testament Development of Old Testament Themes. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1968. ISBN 0-8028-1729-7
The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text With Introduction and Commentary, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1970.
An Expanded Paraphrase Of The Epistles Of Paul. R.N. Haynes Publishers; 1st USA edition (1981) 323 pages. ISBN-10: 0880210168 ISBN-13: 978-0880210164
Galatian Problems. John Rylands Library, 1971.
The ‘Secret’ Gospel of Mark. The Ethel M. Wood lecture delivered before the University of London on 11 February 1974. London: The Athlone Press, 1974. Pbk. ISBN: 0485143186. pp.20.
Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1974. ISBN 0-8028-1575-8
Paul: Apostle of The Heart Set Free. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Paternoster, 1977. ISBN 1-84227-027-3
History of the Bible in English. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-19-520088-8
The Epistles of John. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1979. ISBN 0-8028-1783-1
Men and Movements in the Primitive Church. Exeter: Paternoster, 1979. ISBN 0-85364-705-4
I & II Corinthians (New Century Bible Commentary). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1980. ISBN 0-8028-1839-0
The Spreading Flame. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1980. ISBN 0-8028-1805-6
Epistle to the Galatians (New International Greek Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1982. ISBN 0-8028-2387-4
1 & 2 Thessalonians (Word Biblical Commentary). Thomas Nelson, 1982. ISBN 0-8499-0244-4
Hard Sayings of Jesus InterVarsity, 1983. ISBN 0-87784-927-7
Jesus and Paul: Places They Knew. Thomas Nelson, 1983. ISBN 0-8407-5281-4
The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. (New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1984. ISBN 0-8028-2510-9 [This is Bruce’s new commentary on Ephesians and Philemon along with a revision of his 1957 commentary from the Simpson and Bruce volume above]
The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1984. ISBN 0-8028-0883-2
Jesus: Lord & Savior InterVarsity, 1986.
The Message of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1986. ISBN 0-8028-1525-1
Romans (Tyndale New Testament Commentary), revised. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1986. ISBN 0-8028-0062-9
Second Thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Attic Press, 1986. ISBN 0-85364-017-3 ( download online copy here)
The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8308-1258-X
The Book of the Acts, revised (New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1988. ISBN 0-8028-2505-2
Philippians, (New International Biblical Commentary), 1989. Hendricksen. ISBN 0-943575-15-X
Epistle to the Hebrews, revised. (New International Commentary on the New Testament) Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1990. ISBN 0-8028-2514-1
The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text With Introduction and Commentary, 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1990. ISBN 0-8028-0966-9
Kaiser, Walter C., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, and Manfred Brauch. Hard Sayings of the Bible. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996. ISBN 0-87784-927-7
Date:11 Dec 2003
Time:14:21:13
In the Bible the number 7 stands for the union (marriage) of the number 4 (the earth) and the number 3 (heaven – the Trinity). Thus, the first 4 seals of Rev. 6 represent events taking place in the whole earth in the first century and the last 3 seals represent heaven’s reaction to those events (culminating in Christ’s parousia at the end of the century). The opening of the 7th seal (Rev. 8:1) introduces a chronological narrative that begins with the exodus of natural Israel from natural Egypt (first trumpet – Rev. 8:7) and ends with Christ’s AD 96 parousia (Rev. 19:11-21). There are many reference points that are easy to identify in that narrative, such as the Assyrian invasion (5th trumpet) and the Babylonian invasion (6th trumpet) and of particular interest the 40 years AD 30-70 that, as the fulfillment of OT Insrael’s 40 years in the wilderness, are the “wilderness” of Rev. 12 that began with Christ’s ascension (Rev. 12:5).
Date:23 Dec 2003
Time:06:32:59
Very intriguing comments. I would love to read more. Can you please recommend or write more on this? stauron @yahoo.com
Date:15 Feb 2004
Time:12:57:35
Necesitaría una reseña crítica sobre el libro “Israel y las naciones” de FF Bruce. Mi nombre es ESter y mi dirección de mail: tanter@manresa.net gracias
Date:16 Sep 2004
Time:14:20:04
Some people play with the myth, legend, ideal of Christ: those who do so, do not do so on the basis of historical investigation.
Date:20 Dec 2004
Time:07:25:27
The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which no-one dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt. It is a curious fact that historians have often been much readier to trust the New Testament than have many theologians. … F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, p. 15
Date: 19 Sep 2005
Time: 16:43:02
F. F. Bruce is from the Bretheren Church. As far as the accusations of him being less than perfect, may he who is without sin throw the first stone.
Date: 19 Mar 2008
Time: 14:37:33
F.F. Bruce was the eldest of 7 children of a full time Christian worker, (Mr Peter Bruce). As there was little money to spare, his scholastic achievments were remarkable. He won a scholarship to Elgin Acadamyat the age of 11, At the age of 18 he went to Aberdeen University as an undergraduate. On completion of his degree, he undertook a further undergraduate course at Cambridge university, leaving with a
master of Arts qualification. He then started a Phd course at the unversity of Vienna, leaving after one year to accept a position of lecturer at Edinburgh university, still at the tender age of 23! After 3 years at Edinburgh, he was appointed lecturer at Leeds, University, then to Sheffield University, and eventually to the prestidious Rylands chair at Manchester university. He was a co founder of the Intervarsity Fellowship.
Your correspondant who questioned his academic background does not know what he is talking about!
Date: 27 Dec 2009
Time: 17:49:01
F. F. Bruce wasn’t even alive at the time of Boston’s Secret Six (the late 1850’s). The comment above is a great example of something — just can’t tell if it’s ignorance or libel.
Date: 01 Jun 2010
Time: 15:40:58
Presuming, as I do, that the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel regarding the Jews returning to the land were fulfilled when Artaxerxes signed the decree in 445 B. C. then it is very hard to find any justification for the them being back in the land today. Jesus’ words in Matthew 21:43 do not necessarily state just who has a right to the land but they are very clear as to who does not have a right to it – the Jews. Add to this the fact that Zionist groups, the Irgun and Stern Gang, committed terrorist acts to persuade the British to approve the Balfour Declaration in 1948 (among them: blowing up the King David Motel, setting off an explosion at Deir Yassin and the assasination of the British Eastern Minister Lord Moyne) as well as the failed intention of Julian the Apostate to restore the temple (his biographer says that huge balls of fire came from beneath the ground) and you have a rather strong indication that Israel has no right to the land.
I questioned Liberty professor Thomas Ice about this and was told that the Zionists were in fact just in killing all of these inhabitants because it was necessary to fulfill Biblical prophecy. What Biblical prophecy? There would seem to be none. Additionally, if God intends to restore the land to Israel, He certainly doesn’t need us to help Him by setting off bombs.
Date: 10 Jul 2010
Time: 01:37:15
If you have told even one lie, that makes you a liar. If you have stolen even one thing, you are a thief. Jesus said that if you even look upon a person to lust for them, you have already committed adultery with them in your heart! Revelation 21v8 says; “All liars will have their part in the lake of fire” No thief or adulterer will inherit the kingdom of GOD! You broke GODs laws but JESUS paid your fine! You must repent, turn from your sin, and trust in CHRIST alone for salvation!
Date: 20 Aug 2010
Time: 05:54:47
Dan 12:11 answers the question about the final stage (acherit) of the vision Daniel has just seen. That vision ended with the resurrection of the sleeping dead (12:2). How can that 1290 day period, from the Abomination until the end, possibly refer to events in AD 70? A reference to to BC times, ie the time of Antiochus, is equally unreasonable.
Date: 30 Jun 2012
Time: 18:36:22
I was one of the last students of FF Bruce at U of Manchester. One of the first things he told me when I arrived in in Manchester was that “Paul overargues himself.” When a discussion of variation in Resurrection accounts was made in his seminar, I asked if a resurrection account might be inaccurate. He said, “We all see through a glass darkly.” I asked him if he believed the Bible; he replied, “If Paul said it.”
In short, IMHO, FF Bruce was not an Evangelical when I was his student. I would call him neo-orthodox. — Thunkful