Life in the Fourth Gospel and the letters of John

Abstract

Peer review declarationThe publisher (AOSIS) endorses the South African 'National Scholarly Book Publishers Forum Best Practice for Peer Review of Scholarly Books'. The manuscript was subjected to rigorous two-step peer review prior to publication, with the identities of the reviewers not revealed to the author(s). The reviewers were independent of the publisher and/or authors in question. The reviewers commented positively on the scholarly merits of the manuscript and recommended that the manuscript be published. Where the reviewers recommended revision and/or improvements to the manuscript, the authors responded adequately to such recommendations.v Research JustificationThis publication deals with 'A Biblical Theology of Life' based on the New Testament. It forms the second of a two-volume publication on A Biblical Theology of Life. These two volumes trace the concept of life throughout the Protestant canon, working with the final form of the biblical books in Hebrew and Greek Scripture. This is done by providing the reader with a book-by-book overview of the concept of life. The introductory chapter of the first volume elucidates the scope for this two-volume publication followed by 12 chapters dealing with Old Testament corpora. The second volume proceeds with 10 chapters dealing with New Testament corpora. This volume concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testament corpora in order to provide a summative theological perspective of the development of the concept of life through Scripture.Although much has been published on the concept of life in the biblical text, it seems that up to date no comprehensive biblical theology in which the concept of life is traced throughout the different corpora of the Old and New Testament has been published. The current publication intends to fill this research gap. It is assumed that such an approach can provide a valuable contribution to the theological discourse on life and related concepts. From this investigation, it is clear that life forms a central and continuous theme throughout the biblical text. The theme begins with the living God who creates life but is shortly followed by death that threatens life. Despite this threat, God sustains life and awakens life from death. The text concludes with the consummation depicting eternal life in the new heaven and earth.A biblical-theological investigation is chosen as the methodology. It entails a thematic approach as it investigates the concept of life, with contextual foci on what individual books of Scripture teach about life, joined diachronically with an investigation of the progressive use of the concept of life in Scripture, while providing a theology of Scripture as a whole investigating the concept of life in all 66 books of the Protestant canon.No empirical research was conducted, and it does not pose ethical risks. The book is written by scholars for scholars. The target audience is peers and researchers.Except for a portion in Chapter 6, which ...

Life in the Pauline Letters (2): Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians (disputed Pauline letters)

“…All life begins with God and true life can only be with God. He lives eternally and life belongs to him (Jordaan 2021). He is totally different from dead gentile idols (Ac 14:15).…”

“…Animals are referred to as 'living beings' [ζῴων] (Heb 13:11 (Steyn 2021). John normally makes use of the word ψυχή to refer to life as a physical reality (Jordaan 2021). Epaphroditus risked his 'life ' [ψυχή] to complete that which is lacking in the congregation's service to Paul (Phlp 2:30).…”

“…In him, the Logos, the world may see and come to know God, because the Logos is God himself. The Logos is also a revelation of the life [ζωὴ] that is in God and comes from God (Jn 1:1-4)(Jordaan 2021). • Creation came into existence through the Son: All creation came into existence through the Logos (Jn 1:3) (Jordaan 2021).…”