Description
The idea of God the Father has attracted scholarly attention for centuries, especially in terms of the revelation of God’s fatherhood through the Son. The Father Who Redeems and the Son Who Obeys balances the Christological perspective on God’s nature with the image of God the Father that has its roots in the Old Testament, and is more prominent in the Second Temple period than sometimes acknowledged. For Paul, God is the Father who redeems. The Old Testament imagery that shaped the Israelites’ conception of God’s interaction with them (and which was a basis for God’s future restoration of the nation, despite their unfaithfulness) is central to Paul’s explanation of the new salvific act of God the Father in Christ, the faithful and obedient Son.
About the Author
Svetlana Khobnya is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Nazarene Theological College, Manchester (UK). She is an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene and a member of the Tyndale Fellowship Society, the British New Testament Society, and the Wesleyan Theological Society. This book is based on her PhD thesis submitted to the University of Manchester in 2011.
Contents
Foreword by John Nolland
Preface
List of Abbreviations
I. Introduction
II. God the Father in Jewish Tradition
III. God the Father Revealed in Christ
IV. Christ’s Faithfulness as Fulfillment of the Father’s Faithfulness
V. Christ’s Obedience and Abraham’s Faith
VI. Christ’s Obedience versus Adam’s Disobedience
VII. Conclusions
Bibliography
Author Index
Ancient Document Index
Endorsements and Reviews
The use of the Fatherhood of God as a lens through which to explore Romans is, as far as I am aware, unparalleled. Khobnya has made it fruitful, producing new insights into this much-studied letter. Both in terms of method and substance this is a book that deserves our attention.
John Nolland, Trinity College, Bristol
In this timely book, Khobnya explores the way in which Paul draws on the faith of Israel to illuminate Christ’s faithfulness and obedience as the fulfillment of the faith of Abraham and as God’s answer to the disobedience of Adam. Here are rich resources for preaching the redemptive compassion of God explored in depth in the Epistle to the Romans.
Thomas A. Noble, Professor of Theology, Nazarene Theological Seminary
In sum, the fresh contribution of this study to understanding of Paul’s letter to the Romans is rooted in the seriousness that it takes the Old Testament and the Second Temple Jewish traditions of the Fatherhood of God. A welcome book for all comers with interest in Pauline theology.
Bradford McCall, in Theological Book Review, Vol 27, No 2
