Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
The claim that the events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection took place “according to the Scriptures” stands at the heart of the New Testament’s message. All four canonical Gospels declare that the Torah and the Prophets and the Psalms mysteriously prefigure Jesus. The author of the Fourth Gospel states this claim succinctly: in his narrative, Jesus declares, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (John 5:46). Yet modern historical criticism characteristically judges that the New Testament’s christological readings of Israel’s Scripture misrepresent the original sense of the texts; this judgment forces fundamental questions to be asked: Why do the Gospel writers read the Scriptures in such surprising ways? Are their readings intelligible as coherent or persuasive interpretations of the Scriptures? Does Christian faith require the illegitimate theft of someone else’s sacred texts?
Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels answers these questions. Richard B. Hays chronicles the dramatically different ways the four Gospel writers interpreted Israel’s Scripture and reveals that their readings were as complementary as they were faithful. In this long-awaited sequel to his Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, Hays highlights the theological consequences of the Gospel writers’ distinctive hermeneutical approaches and asks what it might mean for contemporary readers to attempt to read Scripture through the eyes of the Evangelists. In particular, Hays carefully describes the Evangelists’ practice of figural reading—an imaginative and retrospective move that creates narrative continuity and wholeness. He shows how each Gospel artfully uses scriptural echoes to re-narrate Israel’s story, to assert that Jesus is the embodiment of Israel’s God, and to prod the church in its vocation to engage the pagan world.
Hays shows how the Evangelists summon readers to a conversion of their imagination. The Evangelists’ use of scriptural echo beckons readers to believe the extraordinary: that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah, that Jesus is Israel’s God, and that contemporary believers are still on mission. The Evangelists, according to Hays, are training our scriptural senses, calling readers to be better scriptural people by being better scriptural poets.
- Chronicles the dramatically different ways the four Gospel writers interpreted Israel’s Scripture
- Highlights the theological consequences of the Gospel writers’ distinctive hermeneutical approaches
- Carefully describes the Evangelists’ practice of figural reading—an imaginative and retrospective move that creates narrative continuity and wholeness
- Part 1. The Gospel of Mark: Herald of Mystery
- Part 2. The Gospel of Matthew: Torah Transfigured
- Part 3. The Gospel of Luke: The Liberation of Israel
- Part 4. The Gospel of John: The Temple of His Body
A real masterwork from one of the most creative of contemporary New Testament scholars. Anyone who feels nervous about exploring a fully theological reading of the Gospels will take heart from this comprehensive, sophisticated and profoundly nourishing account of how the Gospels themselves use Scripture theologically and invite us to do the same.
—Rowan Williams, Master, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
Every time Richard Hays has written a major book, he has opened our eyes to previously unimagined possibilities. This new book will do that too, only this time the view is an even more breathtaking invitation to fresh exegesis and theology. Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels challenges us to think differently about the way we read each of the four gospels—and therefore, by implication, about the traditions and early communities that stand behind them, and ultimately the elusive but powerful figure of the master exegete whose scripture-laden story these documents are telling.
—N.T. Wright, Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, University of St Andrews
Hays promises the reader an examination of the Evangelists’ hermeneutics and delivers so much more—the veritable foundation, outline and central details for a biblical theology of the Gospels.
—Craig L. Blomberg, Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies
- Title: Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels
- Author: Richard B. Hays
- Publisher: Baylor University Press
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Pages: 504
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. Gospels › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Relation to the Old Testament; Bible. O.T. › Relation to the Gospels
- ISBNs: 9781481304917, 9781481305129, 9781481305136, 9781481305143, 1481304917, 1481305123, 1481305131, 148130514X
- Resource ID: LLS:ECHOESSCRIPTURE
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-09-25T17:51:07Z
