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Justice and Justification: Semantic and Juristic Aspects of the Christian Doctrine of Justification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

A. E. McGrath
A. E. McGrath
Affiliation:
4 Woodbank Drive, Wollaton, Nottingham NG8 2QU
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Extract

The theological situation today demands both a restatement and a reinstatement of the Christian doctrine of reconciliation. The essential prerequisite of any attempt to interpret, reinterpret or restate that doctrine is a due appreciation of the historical origins and subsequent development of the concept. It is clearly futile to develop or defend theories of reconciliation which originally rest upon some manifestly incorrect interpretation of a Hebrew root, or which represent a comparatively recent distortion of an older and more considered doctrine, or which represent a theological response to a particular Zeitgeist which no longer pertains today. Of the several concepts employed in the Christian articulation of the reconciliation effected between God and his world through Jesus Christ, the most important is that of justification.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 35 , Issue 5 , October 1982 , pp. 403 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1982

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References

1 The best discussion of the development of the doctrine of justification remains that of Ritschl, A., Die christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung (Bonn, 1870)Google Scholar. However, this is marred by its moralist approach to the Reformers, especially Luther, by its failure to treat the patristic period, and by its poor discussion of the scholastic period. In addition, no attempt is made to document the development of Roman Catholic doctrines of justification. For a more detailed discussion, see my Iustitia Dei. A History of the Doctrine of Justification. (3 volumes. To be published shortly by James Clarke & Co., Cambridge.)

2 The Christian Faith §22.

3 see Barth, K., Rechtfertigung und Recht (Zürich, 1938)Google Scholar; Dombois, H., ‘Juristische Bemerkungen zur Rechtfertigungslehre’, in Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie XVIII (1976), pp. 149–159Google Scholar.

4 The terms usually translated as ‘righteousness’ are and , with the adjectival form . The Hi'phil,, is usually translated as ‘to justify’.

5 Barr, J., The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961), especially chapter 6Google Scholar.

6 For example, the use of the Canaanite saduk in the Tel el-Arana texts to indicate that a king acted correctly — see Albright, W. F., Ancient Near Eastern texts relating to the Old Testament (Oxford, 1950), p. 488Google Scholar.

7 Eichrodt, W., Theology of the Old Testament (Philadelphia, 1975), Vol I, pp. 239–249Google Scholar.

8 Wildeboer, G., ‘Die älteste Bedeutung des stammcs sdq’, in Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft XXII (1902), pp. 167–169Google Scholar.

9 Such as I Samuel 12.7; Micah 6.5.

10 von Rad, G., Old Testament Theology (London, 1975), Vol I, p. 370Google Scholar.

11 This was first clearly demonstrated by Cremer, H., Diepaulinische Rechtfertigungslehre im Zusammenhange ihrer geschichtlichen Voraussetzung (1899)Google Scholar; see Eichrodt, loc cit.

12 Jepsen, A., ‘sdq und sdqh im AT’, in Gottes Wort und Gottes Land, edited Reventloh, H. G. (München, 1965), pp. 78–79Google Scholar. See also Reventloh, H. G., Rechtfertigung im Horizont des Alten Testaments (München, 1971)Google Scholar.

13 See Snaith, N.H., The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament (1947), pp. 51–53Google Scholar; 70–1.

14 Snaith, op cit, p. 70; Hill, D., Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings: a study in the semantics of soteriological terms (Cambridge, 1967), p. 88Google Scholar; Sawyer, J. F. A., Semantics in Biblical Research. Studies in Biblical Theology2 XXIV (London, 1972), p. 50Google Scholar.

15 Snaith, loc cit.

16 Hill, loc cit.

17 See Cremer,op cit. The following texts should also be consulted: Herzberg, H. W., ‘Die Entwicklung des Begriffes ’, in Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft XL (1922), pp. 256–287Google Scholar; Boecker, H. J., Justice and Law in the Old Testament (London, 1980)Google Scholar.

18 See e.g. Chadwick, H., Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition (Oxford, 1966)Google Scholar; Gilson, E., History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages (London, 1978)Google Scholar.

19 See bibliography in Eissfeld, O., The Old Testament: an introduction (Oxford, 1974), pp. 701–702Google Scholar.

20 See Salomon, M., Der Begriff der Gerechtigkeit bei Aristoteles (Leyden, 1927)Google Scholar; Trude, P., Der Begriff der Gerechtigkeit in der aristotelischen Rechts- und Staatsphilosophie (Berlin, 1955)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 See Hamburger, M., Morals and Law: the growth of Aristotle's legal theory (New Haven, 1951), pp. 39–41Google Scholar.

22 See Dodd, C. H., The Bible and the Greeks (London, 1935), p. 43Google Scholar: ‘The Greek tended to think of righteousness in terms of justice.’ The διk- words translate the -words in 462 out of a possible 476 cases, indicating that, in the opinion of the translators of the LXX, there was a considerable degree of semantic overlap between the two terms.

23 Exceptions are found at Isaiah 1.17 and Micah 7.9, where it is used to translate , which normally means ‘to conduct legal proceedings’, and at Ezekiel 21.18 [LXX].

24 e.g. Tobit 12.9; 14.11; Wisdom 1.15.

25 42:2 . The Revised Version translates this as‘… of judgement to do justice to the ungodly.’

26 For a survey of the knowledge of Hebrew in the Middle Ages, see Smalley, B., The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame, 1970), pp. 112–195Google Scholar.

27 It was also the subject of commentaries by others, such as Cassiodorus, Bede, etc.

28 For details of the two translations, see Kelly, J. N. D., Jerome: His Life, Writings and Controversies (London, 1975)Google Scholar. Both versions of the Psalter may be found in Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem (Stuttgart, 1975).

29 For a brief outline of the exegesis of these passages in the Patristic era, see Bornkamm, H., ‘Iustitia Dei in der Scholastik und bei Luther’, in Archiv für Reformations-geschichte XXXlX (1942), pp. 1–46Google Scholar.

30 e.g. Sermo CCXCII, 6 Quid est iustificare? Iustum facere. Quomodo mortificare, mortuum facere, vivificare, vivum facere; sic et iustificare, iustum facere.

31 Cicero, de rep I,13,20.

32 See the essay on Platonic justice in Kelsen, H., What is justice? (Los Angeles, 1957), pp. 82–109Google Scholar.

33 See E. Gilson, op cit, pp. 77–81; Markus, R. A., Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St Augustine (Cambridge, 1970), p. 88Google Scholar.

34 Cicero, de rep I, 39 … populus autem non omnis hominum coetus quoquo congregatus, sed coetus multitudinis iuris consensu et utilitatis communione societatis. See Testard, M., Saint Augustin et Cicéron (Paris, 1958), Vol II, pp. 39–43Google Scholar.

35 contra lulianum lib I, 35.

36 see my article ‘Rectitude: the moral foundations of Anselm of Canterbury's soteriology’, Downside Review, XCIX (1981) pp. 204–213Google Scholar. This study also contains a discussion of Augustine's concept of justice.

37 Regula theologica 26; MPL CCX.633. For a useful discussion of the problem, see Evans, G. R., ‘The Borrowed Meaning: Grammar, logic and the Problem of Theological Language in Twelfth-century Schools’, in Downside Review XCVI (1978), pp. 165–175CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 See my lustitia Dei, Volume II, for details of the Grotian doctrine of justification; also Franks, R. S., The Work of Christ (London, 1962), pp. 389–409Google Scholar.

39 Vriezen, T., Outline of Old Testament Theology (Oxford, 1958), P. 327Google Scholar.