Martin Hengel on Rudolf Bultmann

The Tyndale Fellowship volume in memoriam of Prof. Martin Hengel will include some freshly translated essays of Hengel's work. Among one of the essays to be newly translated is "Eine junge theologische Disziplin in der Krise" by Dr. Wayne Coppins. Below is an excerpt from Coppins' translation.

Note what Hengel has to say about Bultmann and his influence in Germany in the 1960s which literally drove Hengel into NT studies:

"After I became Stiftsrepetent [i.e., a student instructor] in 1954, my colleagues at the instructors’ table (with the exception of my friend Otto Betz, who had already then recognized the significance of the Qumran texts) appeared to me to be “ drunk from the sweet wine from Marburg”. In hearing the new theses I could time and again only shake my head: a radical synoptic criticism on the basis of “form criticism,” an unmessianic Jesus of whom Paul knew hardly anything more than the “that of his having come,” the radical separation between “Palestinian” and “Hellenistic” community, earliest Christianity as “syncretistic religion” profoundly influenced by a pre-Christian Gnosis and oriental mysteries, Paul and John as opponents of Jewish apocalyptic and as the first “demythologizers,” Luke by contrast as a contemptible “early catholic,” and above all a fundamental devaluation of all “objectifying” historical knowledge and behind it all a latent Marcionism, for which the term “Biblical theology” was almost already a swearword. Although I, being fascinated by the early church and ancient history, had more of an inclination to devote myself to church history, I began, to a certain extent as a protest against these “new insights,” a New Testament dissertation, which dealt with Judaism as the birthing ground of Christianity (Die Zeloten [AGSU 1], Leiden 1961). It was the then so fashionable theses of R. Bultmann, which dominated the field but were questionable in my judgment, that brought me to the New Testament."

Martin Bucer and the Tetrapolitan Confession

I have a great affection for Martin Bucer in his attempt to reconcile Lutheran and Reformed views in Germany and he was his "own man" in many respects when it came to theology. After much hunting around (and it took alot of hunting) I finally found a copy of his Tetrapolitan Confession at Google Books. Not only is there no mention of imputation, but it also says this about good works:

"But since they who are the children of God are led by the Spirit of God, rather than that they act themselves (Rom 8:14), and 'of him, and through him, and to him, are all things' (Rom 11:36), whatsoever things we do well and holily are to be ascribed to none other than to this one only Spirit, the Giver of all virtues. However it be, he does not compel us, but leads us, being willing, working in us to both will and to do (Phil 2:12). Hence Augustine writes wisely that God rewards his own works in us. By this we are so far from rejecting good works that we utterly deny that any one can be saved unless by Christ's Spirit he be brought thus far, that there be in him no lack of good works, for which God has created in him".

Is this a confession of faith that Tom Wright could sign up to since it invokes Wrights' concern about the Spirit in the Christian life?

Martin Bucer on Rom. 2.13

Indebted to T.H.L. Parker, I was introduced to Martin Bucer's handling of Romans 2.13 which I summarize as follows:

Bucer identifies a ‘tacit irony’ (123a) directed against the Jews who presupposed their advantages but did not translate hearing the Law into practice of the Law. But the statement of 2.13 can be taken at face value because, for Bucer, the ‘doer’ of the Law is one who has a regenerate heart. The logic of Bucer’s argument is that those who do the Law in 2.13 are those who are genuinely ‘doers’ of the works of the Law and it is according to works that God will judge humanity. But to do the Law means to devote one self seriously to what the Law commands and not merely to perform some of the actions demanded by the Law. This can be done only by those who truly believe in the Lord. For Bucer, the actual deeds performed are not those of the believer, but the works of Christ in us! This is not simply Christ inspiring works of Law, rather, believers are justified by the merits of Christ (i.e. Christ’s life, death, and obedience) which become ours through union with Christ by faith. He writes: 'God saves us of his pure mercy and by contemplating the merit of Christ, which is given to us and becomes our own we believe in Christ. For the deeds [of the Law] according to which God justifies us … are Christ’s works in us, given with him, out of a sheer and gratuitous benevolence of God. So the goodness of God is always, per se, the first and complete cause of our salvation’ (129b).

Two comments:

1. It appears that in the early days of the reformation Rom. 2.13 was handled in basically three ways: (a) reconciled with Medieval catholic view of merit, grace, and penance (e.g. Cajetan, Sadoleto); (b) treated it as a hypothetical statement (e.g. Melanchthon, Calvin); or (c) God works his works in the believer through the works of Christ (Bucer).

2. When I read this, I automatically thought of Mark Seifrid's excellent lecture on Justification by Faith at SBTS in 2000 which is evidently Bucerian!