A Canonical and Synthetic Approach
Frank Thielman
I have wanted to read Thielman’s Theology of the New Testament for quite some time. It was one of my textbooks in seminary and we only read parts of it for my classes. I remembered them being thorough and helpful chapters. I was not disappointed as I picked up this book to read it straight through.
Thielman opens his biblical theology by describing the difference historically between systematic and biblical theology. He wishes to clarify what kind of biblical theology he sets out to write. He tries to give each New Testament book its own place while still relating it to the whole of the New Testament canon. His approach to the task at hand in writing the biblical theology of the New Testament is evenhanded, and any believer in the inerrancy of Scripture would be pleased with his approach.
He moves from introductory matters into the Gospels and Acts in Part 1. He honors the discussion of four witnesses of Christ’s life, but they had their own diversity while maintaining a unity as witnesses of Christ’s life. The author addresses the anti-Christian polemic on the four Gospels and surveys the response of the Orthodox Church. He defends the fourfold Gospels and shows how they fit together for a theological unity.
Thielman begins with Mark. His most helpful explanation of Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man simplified all the arguments for me. He gives a clear layout of the differences and helps you to see Jesus as God’s Son who came with a specific mission and fulfilled that mission through His death on the Cross. Next, the author illuminates the message of the book of Matthew. Matthew does to great lengths to show that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah. He has a great outline of Matthew’s theological concern.
His chapter on Luke-Acts is one of the best breakdowns of Luke’s writings I have ever read. He gives a really great detail to the things running through Luke. I recommend this chapter to everyone studying Luke. He identifies Luke’s writings as showing how salvation history unfolds in the early Church. By far, my favorite chapter for the Gospels and Acts is his synthesis of the Gospels and Acts. It is a chapter I certainly will be returning to repeatedly for more gold.
Part 2 of Thielman’s book deals with the writings of Paul. He discusses the possibility of a center of Paul’s theology. Some suggest Paul’s theology is evolving as he serves Jesus as an apostle. Thielman believes Paul’s theology has a center. In chapters 9 and 10, the author begins with the letters to the Thessalonians and expounds the theology in the letters.
In his chapter on Galatians, Thielman addresses the new perspective on Paul and the old perspective. His explanation helped me to further understand the new perspective on Paul. Like him, I mostly prefer the old perspective. However, the new perspective on Paul does help us to understand Paul’s context.
The author moves next to First Corinthians and explains the issues involved with the timing of the letter and what we can learn about Paul from it. Paul covers a lot of ground in this letter and focuses on issues with the immature Corinthian believers. He covers issues ranging from divisions in the church to answering their questions. Next, Thielman addresses the letter to the Philippians and a possible understanding of what was happening behind the letter. He explains the center of the letter and how Paul reacted to his imprisonment situation and talking about rejoicing.
His chapter on Romans is spectacular and all-encompassing. He covers many of the issues and I enjoyed the detail he gave to Paul’s most prolific work. Next, he looks at Colossians and its theology. I love his discussion of Jesus as preeminent. That is my favorite passage in Colossians, the Christology of the very beginning. He gives insight into how that shapes the whole book.
The second letter to the Corinthians comes next in the order he chooses. Paul follows up with the situation and xabout his personal struggles and situations while he also combats these “super apostles” who think they are better than Paul. A major feature of the letter is Christ’s strength in our weaknesses. Thielman next addresses Philemon, and he shows the two ways of reading the letter affect the theological premise of the letter.
The author addresses the Ephesians in a way that shows how the theological themes of the book we’ve throughout it. It’s one of the richest books of the New Testament. He continues with 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy as the last books of Paul’s corpus. First Timothy and Titus are similar as Paul sends them “marching orders” to get rid of idolatry and false teaching in the churches of Ephesus and Crete respectively. But 2 Timothy is Paul’s final letter encouraging Timothy to be a good shepherd of God’s ministry given to him.
He devotes an in depth chapter to Paul’s theology and covers many aspects of the possible center of Paul’s theology. This was a jam-packed chapter full of information and I found it to be very helpful. He analyzes what scholars believe to be Paul’s main approach to help all the churches they founded and was apostle over. He introduces five focuses for Paul and shows the strengths and weaknesses for theories based on each of these.
Thielman moves on to the General Epistles and Revelation, taking a whole chapter to talk about historical interpretations of these books by theologians. He discusses and evaluates the different interpretations. This is good background information I had never heard before. He then moves to the book of James first. I found most helpful his discussion of how James treats the wealthy, which I have not looked more closely into before.
The author down to to 2 Peter and Jude which are similar letters. These are about false teachers and. His chapter on Trends that both authors respond to. There was a lot of great information on the chapter on Jude. I also enjoyed the well researched chapter on 2 Peter and how it actually quotes the letter of Jude. His chapter on 1 Peter stood out to me because it talks about suffering for Christ, how to do it, and how not to do it. As I am suffering with paralysis at the moment, I saw some interesting insights. This chapter may interest you if you suffer for Christ in some way.
His chapter on Hebrews is very thorough, and as one of the longer chapters, he has it full of information that makes you think about all the Old Testament references and why the author of Hebrews put them all there. He does an excellent job of explaining why Hebrews is the book that’s about “Jesus is greater.” Thielman’s chapter on Revelation is comprehensive. He seems to take the stance of interpretation from a historical perspective. Much of this chapter revolves around how John saw the Roman Empire in his time. Although he does not present other views, he gives great theological information on the book of Revelation.
As with the chapters on Paul, Thielman finishes with a chapter summarizing and synthesizing the General Epistles. I think it’s a bit harder to synthesize books from up to five different authors from books by one author, namely Paul. The author does a good job of synthesizing the theological perspectives from these epistles. He deals with six of the epistles first, and then the last three. He relates common theological topics in the letters to one another. I found this chapter insightful.
The author concludes his theology of the New Testament with a general conclusion about the New Testament and some of the major themes found within it. He covers themes like faith, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and other themes that appear in multiple books. This is one of the gems of the entire book. I enjoyed reading about these themes, and as always, Thielman is quite thorough in his approach and presentation. He includes an extensive list of Works cited at the end of the book that would help you study further any subject he talks about. I like how Thielman has great detail on the theological message of each book of the New Testament. This is a great resource to turn to when you need to remember the details of each book and how they fit into the framework of the biblical author. He brings clarity to each book and arranges the material in an easy to read fashion. This is a resource you can turn to again and again.
