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Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. (Mat 28:18 NLT)
And thus is the launching point of Wright’s book, in that he notes that Christ didn’t give authority to the books about to be written. He precedes these statements by noting that Christ had removed certain laws, especially the dietary rules and Paul and removed circumcision as a law. The author of Hebrews has removed much more and the author of Revelation, it could be contested, sought to remove Scripture altogether, or at the very least, determine what Scripture should be used as a witness to Christ and Community.
The book is an expanded edition of a previous (UK) work, the Last Word. He has included two new chapters and case studies which highlight his intention of the way to use Scripture and to explore what authority it still retains after Christ.
While this notion that Scripture is not ‘all authoritative’ may be troubling to some, the fact remains that Scripture is second to Christ. Further, Scripture is never given the authority which is given to Christ, and is said to be ὠφέλιμος. Equally so, Christ never divests His authority to the books.
So, we begin…
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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“Christ didn’t give authority to the books about to be written”. So they are not inspired? Interesting.
There is a difference between authority and inspired