Dr. Jarvis J. Williams is Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he is also our Review Editor for New Testament here at Books At a Glance. We appreciate his work and his fellowship, and when we recently learned of his contribution to the Paternoster Biblical Monograph series, For Whom Did Christ Die? The Extent of the Atonement in Paul’s Theology, we were eager to learn more about it. We have featured a review of this book here also, and today we talk to Dr. Williams himself about his subject.
Books At a Glance (Fred Zaspel):
Why did you write this book?
Williams:
Because to my knowledge, no biblical scholar has ever written a biblical monograph with the intent of answering the question what was Paul’s view of the extent of the atonement. Instead, books have approached the extent of the atonement until recently from traditional dogmatic categories. I’ve framed an answer to the question with the categories that emerge in primary source material in the first century and earlier.
Books At a Glance:
What is unique about your book?
Williams:
My book offers a detailed exegetical and historical analysis of primary texts in the Old Testament, second temple Judaism, and in Paul to support the position that Paul believed that Jesus died specifically and exclusively for all elect Jews and Gentiles. The book ignores systematic and philosophical related questions (though important) and instead rigorously analyzes ancient and sacred texts.
Books At a Glance:
What is the major contribution that your book makes to biblical scholarship?
Williams:
It provides the first and only book length biblical studies monograph that seeks to answer for whom did Christ die according to Paul with intense exegetical and historical rigor and it interacts critically with current scholarship in the area of Pauline soteriology.
Books At a Glance:
What unique contribution does your book make to the church?
Williams:
The book offers a strong exegetical and biblical defense of the fact that Paul believed Jesus died for elect Jews and Gentiles.
Books At a Glance:
Specifically, how does Paul’s theology of atonement define its extent? Can you summarize this for us?
Williams:
Paul would define the extent of Jesus’ death as a death that efficaciously covers the sins of and ends God’s wrath against all elect Jews and Gentiles and as a death that applies soteriological benefits only to those for whom he died.
Books At a Glance:
What would you say to those who reject your thesis?
Williams:
The question for whom did Christ died must be answered exegetically and not emotionally, philosophically, or systematically. Readers who disagree with my thesis must reckon with and respond to my detailed exegetical case and not simply quote John 3:16, 2 Pet 2:1, or 1 John 2:2 at me out of context, all of which are verses that I love!
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For Whom Did Christ Die? The Extent Of The Atonement In Paul's Theology