October 2008
One of the typical chasms between conservative and liberal New Testament scholarship is over theological development within the canon. Generally speaking, more liberal1 scholarship has seen extensive theological development while more conservative scholarship has seen little to none. Part of the reason for this disparity is related to the range of dates assumed for the various books. Conservatives tend to place all the NT writings within the first century, while liberals tend to put some of the books in the second century. The further to the left of the theological aisle one sits, the more books he or she considers to be pseudonymous; conversely, the further to the right one sits, the more books he or she considers to be actually authored by the purported author. The timeframe in which the books were written is thus perceived differently and colors the way in which a particular scholar may view the amount of theological development.
This goes back to F. C. Baur, the Tübingen scholar who, in the mid-19th century, applied Hegelian dialectic to the NT. He saw the Petrine school and the Pauline school as opposed to one another and saw the synthesis that emerged between the two schools as occurring well into the second century. Thus, he regarded Acts as a synthesis of the two schools and John, too, dating the latter to sometime after 160 CE. He embraced only four letters of the corpus Paulinum as authentic: Galatians, 1–2 Corinthians, and Romans (known collectively to this day as the Hauptbriefe or main letters). The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule which was hitting its stride at the beginning of the 20th century systematically applied Baur’s overarching thesis to the NT and concluded that Christology, inter alia, was altered significantly from the early days of the Christian faith till the time of the second-century church. Wilhelm Boussett’s Kurios Christos is the preeminent example of this approach.
By contrast, conservatives tended to make a guilt-by-association judgment on any who would see theological development within the NT. Often, conservatives are suspicious of any view that sees, say, a high Christology as something that was not consciously embraced on the day of Pentecost, or a viewpoint that does not see a consciously-formed and articulated high pneumatology within the pages of the NT.
The list of theological areas in which this chasm exists could be multiplied: bibliology (especially canonicity), soteriology, ecclesiology, eschatology, etc. In all of these areas, as well as scores more,2 there is a general tendency in one group to see theological development and in another to see status quo. The counter to Baur’s extremism is found in the (often subconscious) view that Paul’s soteriology was exactly as Luther found it or that the Chalcedonian definition of 451 CE was clearly in the minds of the apostles.
One of the reasons why many conservatives have resisted the idea of theological development is simply that they view such a notion in terms of evolutionary development in which an original construct morphs into something entirely different. With quite a bit of justification, they have been resistant to seeing, for example, Christological development along these lines,3 for it would imply that Jesus the man was not God in the flesh but became, in the minds of the early Christians, deified. But one of the nagging issues is whether all such development must be seen in this way. Is it not possible that theological development can occur within the NT in terms of understanding and articulation without being a development in terms of macro-evolutionary alteration? It is this issue that we will explore.
At the outset, it is important to ask three questions.4
We will not address all of these questions yet, but they should be in the back of our minds as we wrestle with the various issues related to theological development in the NT. We will, however, mull over the first question in this essay.
This first question presupposes that we already embrace theological development between the Testaments. This is something that is easy to demonstrate, and will take up no more time here.5 However, this raises a very significant point: If it is true that there is theological development between the testaments, then we can have no theological argument against theological development within the NT.
Any arguments against this supposition must be other than theological, for otherwise we have become marcionite in our bibliology. That is, if a high bibliology allows progressive revelation between the OT and the NT, and even allows it within the OT, to deny it within the NT on theological grounds is to become bibliologically schizophrenic. Any arguments against this must be founded on other pillars.
It should be noted that I am speaking to those who have a high bibliology in the first place. In other words, I am speaking to theological conservatives. It is not necessary to address theological liberals at this stage since they already embrace theological development (but of a macro-evolutionary kind, which I am not arguing for). My argument here is simply that a conservative cannot maintain the argument that theological development within the NT is against his or her bibliological convictions because that person already embraces theological development between the Testaments. Thus, if the whole Bible is treated as the inspired text, a revelation from God, or canonical, then any bibliological arguments against NT theological development end up being bibliological arguments against any theological development within the Bible. And since the latter cannot be affirmed, neither can the former.
What other reasons are there for denying intra-NT theological development, then? The fundamental reason that is usually put forth is historical. The NT was written over a period of no more than about half a century—and covering a period of no more than a hundred years, while the OT took over a millennium to produce. Thus, to argue for theological development in the OT is both reasonable and necessary, while in the NT it is neither. The timeframe of the NT is too collapsed to allow for theological development.
One irony in this historical argument is that it is sometimes found on the lips of modern-day theologians—theologians who have witnessed more technological progress in their lifetime than the previous twenty centuries of theologians combined! Knowledge is doubling so fast nowadays that printed encyclopedias have become obsolete. I submit that what the 20th and now the 21st century was to technology, the first century CE was to theology. In the history of mankind, what could be more cataclysmic, more revolutionary, than the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of the theanthropic Person? The Christ-event is the middle point in all of history, as Conzelmann so eloquently noted in his Die Mitte der Zeit.6 All that came before anticipates it; all that comes after builds on it. Suffice it to say for now that the historical argument against intra-NT theological development does not seem to do justice to the monumental revelatory significance of Jesus of Nazareth.
But the greater irony is that those who argue against theological development within the NT actually assume something much more radical than what I am proposing. They assume that all the theological development from the OT to the NT has occurred already before the first books of the NT were penned. What I am proposing is that we can trace out the lines of development within the text of the NT to some degree and thus such development was not a done deal prior to the penning of the first books.
To conclude this introduction, I want to clarify what I am and am not affirming.
First, I hold to a high bibliology—that is, I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. I confess verbal-plenary inspiration and embrace both infallibility and inerrancy.
Second, I believe that the NT is the final revelation of God in terms of a revelation for all his people. That is, whether there is the prophetic gift today is not what I am speaking against (or for): the final revelation for the invisible church is found in the NT. Nothing after the completion of the NT can add to the foundation of our credo.
Third, in agreement with Alister McGrath (The Genesis of Doctrine), I would affirm that all of the elements for sound theology are found within the Bible, but that this does not mean that they have necessarily been put together in the articulated theological affirmations that would come later. Thus, all the ingredients for a Trinitarian understanding of the Godhead, for example, are to be found within the Bible, but this does not mean that the apostles necessarily ‘cooked up’ such ingredients into such an understanding. But it does mean that the post-apostolic church has no right to add any ingredients to the deposit of revelation that is the NT. The sufficiency of scripture and the revelatory status of the text argues that there is a great divide between the apostles and the apostolic fathers, as the latter admitted.
Fourth, the NT books were written for ad hoc reasons and were not originally intended to be systematic treatises of major theological issues, created in a historical vacuum. Thus, although we can extract theological definitions and beliefs from the NT, to approach the NT without regard for chronology is to miss, to some degree, what it is saying.
Fifth, I believe that Baur and the History of Religions School were on to something when they applied the Hegelian dialectic to the NT. That is to say, the theological development that they saw was not all wrong. Nor is seeing no theological development all wrong. I think there is a tertium quid that takes into account the data as they are given to us in their historical contexts and formulates such data into meaningful theological statements.
With such lofty beginnings, one might assume that the several essays on this topic that are to follow will be covering rather vast topics, or making remarkable and controversial statements. If you assume that, you’ll be let down immediately. I will be focusing on various themes, issues, concepts, expressions, phrases, words, metaphors. At times, a particular essay will be dealing with minutiae—but minutiae that are often overlooked by one’s predisposition to see a flatline development in the NT. But in the end, I hope to construct a building that is solidly based on the data and engages some of the larger issues in the theology of the NT. I must also confess to one of my objectives in this study. To borrow a phrase from Dr. David Scholer, this series of essays is intended, in part, to dispose of any notions of a docetic bibliology. Just as it is possible to hold to a high Christology without being a docetist, so also it is possible to hold to a high bibliology without seeing the Bible as only the Word of God. To read the NT in its historical context, then, down to the level of when each of the books was written, and to trace out themes and concepts chronologically, is not only justified but necessary.
1 For the reader, I should define what I mean by ‘liberal’: the litmus test for liberal theology, in my view, is the bodily resurrection of the theanthropic person. A ‘conservative’ embraces such, while a ‘liberal’ does not. To be sure, not all define the two groups this way, but I think it is helpful to make this distinction for it focuses on the great miracle of the NT as the watershed issue. Bound up in this definition are implicitly Christological and soteriological views. That some conservatives assume that ‘liberal’ means a denial of inerrancy, the authenticity of 2 Peter, the virgin birth, or even dispensationalism (and sometimes a certain form of dispensationalism!) is the result of a rather narrow theological perspective due to a rather narrow engagement with others of a different persuasion. At the same time, when I speak of ‘more liberal’ or ‘more conservative’ I mean that one is tending toward one realm or another. There is a pattern of viewpoints usually found in conservative schools and a pattern of viewpoints usually found in liberal schools of thought. Although the stereotyping of these two approaches can be easily misunderstood, I trust that the reader will realize that I am using these labels for convenience’ sake as a way to get a handle on the issues. It should be noticed as well that I do not like to use the term ‘critical’ for the view that is to the left of conservative, because I believe any good scholar will be a critical scholar—that is, he or she will wrestle with the historical, grammatical, sociological, textual, and lexical data from the perspective of a scientific investigator who is seeking the truth. A non-critical approach simply assumes a position then seeks evidence that will support it. There are uncritical liberal ‘scholars’ just as there are uncritical conservative ‘scholars.’
2 I have used systematic categories above, but only because they require less explanation. But on a biblical-theological level and especially a notional/lexical level, the possibility of theological development occurs scores of times in the NT.
3 See the introductory chapter in C. F. D. Moule, Origin of Christology (1977), for a helpful clarification on the difference between evolutionary development and development of growth or understanding (as in the development of a seed into a flower).
4 The following material is adapted from my paper, “Is Intra-Canonical Theological Development Compatible with a High Bibliology?” (a paper delivered at the southwestern regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Criswell College, Dallas, 1 March 2002).
5 See ibid.
6 Hans Conzelmann, Die Mitte der Zeit: Studien zur Theologie des Lukas (Tübingen: Mohr, 1960). The English translation of this work follows the subtitle, The Theology of St Luke.
The inaugural essay on ‘theological development’ was an introduction to the topic; this is the second essay in what will most likely be a long series. But to speak about Paul’s salutations—and specifically, the addressees in Paul’s salutations—may seem like an odd place to begin. Surely there are more important issues that can be addressed. That is true enough, but I wanted to begin with something that was simple and straightforward, easy to detect, and often overlooked. The addressees in Paul’s salutations fit the bill quite nicely.
In the corpus Paulinum there are thirteen letters purported to be from the apostle. There is also the epistle to the Hebrews, an anonymous work which most scholars today would say is not by Paul. But of the 13 that have his name affixed, I would agree with most conservative scholars that all are by the apostle.
Chronologically, we can lay out Paul’s letters as follows1:
If we exempt those letters sent to individuals (1-2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon), and focus only on the ones sent to churches, an interesting pattern emerges. Note the following:
Gal 1:1–22:
From Paul, an apostle (not from men, nor by human agency, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead) and all the brothers with me, to the churches of Galatia.
1 Thess 1:1:
From Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thess 1:1:
From Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 1:1–2:
From Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
2 Cor 1:1:
From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia.
Rom 1:1, 7:
From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. To all those loved by God in Rome, called to be saints
Eph 1:1:
From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Col 1:1–2:
From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, at Colossae.
Phil 1:1:
From Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.
There are several interesting things to note about these various salutations, but our focus is on the description of the recipients. In Galatians, Paul calls them ‘the churches of Galatia.’ In 1 Thessalonians, he describes them as ‘the church of the Thessalonians.’ Same thing in 2 Thessalonians. But in 1 Corinthians, he does something new. He calls his readers saints: “to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints.” He does the same in 2 Corinthians: “to the church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia.” Ditto in Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians.
What should also be observed is that he addresses the Galatians, Thessalonians, and Corinthians as a ‘church’ (or ‘churches’), but does not do this after 2 Corinthians. The one constant in each letter is the place name, but the addressees are described variously. On a trajectory, however, we can see an interesting phenomenon: once Paul calls a group of believers ‘saints’ he never looks back. Further, he begins to do this in his letter to the Corinthians.
What are we to make of this? Are the salutations the only indicator of Paul’s view of his recipients? Doesn’t he use ‘saints’ to describe them elsewhere? Perhaps Paul does use ‘saints’ of believers in the Thessalonian correspondence (he doesn’t use the word at all in Galatians). On two occasions he uses the plural form ἅγιοι, 1 Thess 3:13 and 2 Thess 1:10. The first could possibly refer to believers, but hardly the second. It is of course not impossible for Paul to speak of human beings as ‘holy ones’; this was done, though infrequently, in the OT.3 But we should not assume that that he is doing so just because in most of his letters to churches he does address the believers as saints. This is one of the reasons that a chronological approach to the NT is important.
It may not be coincidental that Paul begins using the term ἅγιοι when addressing the Corinthians. One cannot argue that he did not use this word in Galatians because these believers were un-saintly, since he also does not use it in his letters to the Thessalonians (and they were saintly). Galatians may be the only letter in the Pauline corpus in which the recipients are not praised, but the lack of ἅγιοι in the salutations to the Thessalonians cannot be explained on this basis (cf., e.g., 1 Thess 1:2–10, which is in many respects one long thanksgiving for these believers). Further, the Corinthians were messed up folks, too! So why would he use the term in describing them?
Probably the reason why Paul used the term first in his salutations to the Corinthians is because here he wanted to focus on their saved status, even if their state was quite different from that. This was typical of Paul: focus on the indicatives of the faith as a sure basis for behavioral change. Imperatives can only come if indicatives are in place. In other words, one cannot obey without knowing that he or she has the ability to obey. And part of that ability is resident within our status before God. It may well be that Paul is thinking along the lines of the position of angels, or ‘holy ones’ (ἅγιοι) and is recognizing that those who are in Christ are every bit as holy as angels from heaven’s perspective (cf. Zech 14:5). However, it is more likely that Paul is thinking about what the people of God, in the OT, were commanded to be (cf. the LXX at Exod 22:31; Lev 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:6; Num 15:40). Rare is the statement that they already were ‘holy’ and when such a statement is used it most likely means that they were set apart to God, not that they were necessarily living in a holy manner.
What this means is that Paul is fleshing out a theological shift between the people of God in the OT and the people of God in the NT. In the NT, with the coming of Christ, our status before God has been determined by Christ’s place on the cross. It may have dawned on Paul that calling a group of squabbling, selfish Christians ‘holy’ is exactly how God thought of them because of what Christ did. Paul became hyper-sensitive to this issue, since he was charged with having a gospel that had lowered God’s standards of righteousness by allowing Gentiles into the community without having to become circumcised. He begins to articulate his thoughts in his letter to the Galatians, but they do not reach full maturity until Romans. There he will defend his gospel as upholding God’s righteousness at every turn (cf. Rom 3:21–26). But by the time he writes the Corinthians, you can almost see the wheels turning. Although these believers are not living godly lives, they are still, in God’s view, saints. And rather than lowering God’s standard of righteousness, this view actually elevates it above the OT standard in that it depends entirely on what Christ accomplished permanently in his sacrifice.
Some will object that Paul’s not calling the Galatians or Thessalonians is merely coincidental and that the chronological view really reveals nothing at all. But that is unlikely. This first usage is explained, as though it’s a new idea to the readers. Notice again 1 Cor 1:1–2: “to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints…” The verb ‘sanctified’ is from the same root as ‘saints’ (ἡγιασμένοις, ἁγίοις). This is standard fare for Paul when he is connecting the theological dots in new ways.4 Further, although it is quite debatable whether Paul uses ἅγιοι anywhere in the Thessalonian correspondence to refer to Christians, this is not the case later. Once he does so in his salutation to the Corinthians, he continues to use the term as a badge of identification for the believers in Corinth (cf. 1 Cor 3:17; 6:1, 2; 16:1, 15; cf. also 2 Cor 8:4; 9:1, 12) and elsewhere (Rom 12:13; 15:25, 26, 31; 16:15; Eph 1:15, 18; 2:19; 3:8, 18; 4:12; 5:3; 6:18; Phil 4:21, 22; Col 1:4, 12, 26). At most, only one instance of ἅγιοι in Paul’s first three letters could refer to believers, while positive identification occurs in every one of the next six letters, often multiple times. This strikes me as more than coincidental.
If this view is right, then a couple of observations are in order.
First, the fact that Paul does not call the Galatians ‘saints’ does not mean that he did not regard them as true believers. Their spiritual status must be determined entirely apart from the lack of this designation, since the Thessalonians also are not called saints.
Second, the letter to the Laodiceans (a second-century forgery, as though written by Paul) is something of a pastiche of some of Paul’s letters. But the salutation begins by speaking of the readers as ‘the brothers and sisters who are in Laodicea.” It does not call them saints. If our trajectory of Paul’s articulation is correct, then this datum would be useful in denying authenticity to the Laodicean letter (as if there were any doubt!). I would argue on a larger scale that theological trajectories on the micro-linguistic/conceptual level may well be used, if done so with caution and cumulative force, to test authenticity.
Third, development in articulation is not necessarily development in understanding or theology. That is to say, Paul from the beginning of his ministry would see the cross as Christ’s finished work that saves us, as that which supplies our standing before God without merit of our own. He doesn’t need to call a group ‘saints’ before such an understanding is evident. At the same time, his changing terminology does seem to indicate a growing clarity in expression which, in turn, may indicate a certain depth of reflection about the cross-work of Christ for him. It is one thing to say that I believe that Jesus has paid it all; it is quite another to think about the ramifications of that truth for decades and to articulate those ramifications. In my view, even though Paul was writing scripture this would not preclude him from maturing throughout the space of his canonical letters in his reflections, expressions, verbiage, metaphors, and concepts about his Lord and Savior. After all, the Bible is both the Word of God and the words of men.
1 I won’t take time to defend this order or these dates; see my introductions to NT books (all at http://www.bible.org/series.php?series_id=220 ) to get the data. There you will also see the degree of certainty/tentativeness I have on several of these dates.
2 All scripture is quoted from the NET Bible.
3 “Only rarely are the members of the holy nation called saints or holy [that is, as a statement of fact rather than obligation]. In a late wisdom Ps. saints are mentioned in parallel to those who fear Yahweh (Pss. 34:9 [MT 10]; cf. 16:3, where the context is unfortunately corrupt). In Dan. 7:18 they are those who stand by their God in the war between Yahweh and the world powers, and receive the kingdom” (H. Seebass, “Holy, Consecrate, Sanctify, Saints, Devout,” 3 (c) ii in NIDNTT).
4 See my discussion of metaphors for Christ in Paul in Granville Sharp’s Canon and Its Kin: Semantics and Significance (Bern: Peter Lang, 2008), in the section that discusses Titus 2:13.
“And so we too constantly thank God that when you received God’s message that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human message, but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe” (NET).
“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (ESV).
“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe” (TNIV).
On the surface, 1 Thess 2:13 includes some of the major elements of bibliology: dual authorship—human personality involved in delivering God’s message, though God is the effective cause; canonicity—the Thessalonians accepted the Pauline teaching as the word of God; illumination/transformation—ἐνεργεῖται (this message is now working in those who believe). The point about canonicity is clearer in the ESV and the TNIV than in the NET because the NET has translated λόγον θεοῦ as ‘God’s message’ while the ESV and TNIV translate it as ‘the word of God.’
Does this verse mean that Paul really knew that he was speaking and writing scripture? If so, it is the earliest reference to such canon consciousness within the New Testament. And if that is the case, then we have an excellent basis for seeing this emerging canon consciousness as something that was from the beginning.
If we compare this statement to Peter’s admonition (1 Pet 4.11) about spiritual gifts, however, we may get a different take on things: “Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God” (NRSV); “If you speak, you should do so as one who speaks the very words of God” (NET) [εἴ τις λαλεῖ, ὡς λόγια θεοῦ]. Should we say that those with teaching gifts are uttering new revelation when they teach? Even minimally, are their words inspired? Yet Peter’s statement comes at least a dozen years after Paul’s. Has he retreated from Paul’s self-conscious inscripturating activity? Or has he included countless unnamed individuals to the list of those who penned scripture?
It might be argued that a different word for ‘word’ is used in 1 Peter 4: λόγια instead of λόγος. This is true, but probably irrelevant since, if anything, λόγια is a stronger, more specific term than λόγος.
But to keep to the exact phrase, we do see in the New Testament that many are said to proclaim the ‘word of God.’ Consider the following texts (every reference has λόγος θεοῦ in Greek; the translation is that of the NET):
Acts 4:31—“they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously”
Acts 6:7—“The word of God continued to spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.”
Acts 8:14—“Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.”
Acts 13:5—“When they arrived in Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.”
Acts 13:46—“Both Paul and Barnabas replied courageously, “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles.”
Acts 17:13—“But when the Jews from Thessalonica heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God in Berea, they came there too, inciting and disturbing the crowds.”
2 Cor 2:17—“For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.”
2 Tim 2:9—“for which I suffer hardship to the point of imprisonment as a criminal, but God’s message is not imprisoned!”
Heb 13:7—“Remember your leaders, who spoke God’s message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.”
Rev 1:9—“I, John, your brother and the one who shares with you in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus.”
Rev 6:9—“Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.”
It is evident in most of these passages that ‘the word of God’ is speaking about the Christian message. The standard lexicon by Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich, in fact, says that each of these passages, and plenty more, is speaking about the Christian message rather than the Bible. To be sure, there are some passages in the New Testament in which ‘word of God’ refers to the written word of God, that is, the Old Testament (e.g., Matt 15:6; John 10:35; Rom 9:6), but this is a far less common meaning.
What should be recognized in at least the majority of the texts quoted above is that, on the one hand, the apostolic witness to Christ regarded itself as verbalizing the word of God—or the message from God about Christ—because the ultimate revelation was in Jesus. When Paul speaks of “carrying out the proclamation of the word of God” (Col 1.25) he is not speaking about proclaiming scripture (which would have been the Old Testament) but proclaiming the message about Jesus. Even in 1 Thess 2.13, this must be the case: the ‘word of God’ that Paul is referring to is the proclamation he and Silas made in Thessalonica, not the letter of 1 Thessalonians since he is referring to what he and Silas proclaimed in person before this letter was ever penned. Hence, we must not think that ‘word of God’ = Bible as a rule. On the other hand, Paul recognized that his message originated with God, not with himself. And at some point, it was a natural development for the early church to regard the apostolic writings as scripture, though this did not seem to explicitly happen, except in isolated instances, until the latter half of the second century.
There is thus an emerging ‘canon consciousness’ with respect to the apostolic writings. By AD 50, it is not yet there. There are two passages in the New Testament, both written much later, that are often cited as proof texts that the New Testament writers were self-consciously writing scripture, or at least that they were calling other portions of the New Testament ‘scripture.’ We will examine those in another study, but for now the question that we are raising is this: When did the early church begin to see the writings of the New Testament as scripture? When did they begin to place them explicitly on the same level of authority as the Old Testament? Did it take place within the pages of the New Testament itself, or only later? And, if later, how much later? All of this is part and parcel to the theological development within the New Testament (and beyond) that begins with the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is that radical event that ultimately changed how a small band of Jews would think of God, scripture, the people of God and, above all, the Messiah.