My name is Benjamin Shaw. I am Professor of Old Testament at Reformation Bible College. Most of my posts will have something to do either directly or indirectly with my work. It gives me the place to publish short works, or pieces that have only an ephemeral significance.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Uncle Ben's Book Blog: "Temple" Update
I've now read the first four chapters of G. K. Beale's The Temple and the Church's Mission. I find myself in general agreement with his positions, but wish that he had spent more time in the exegesis of particular texts, and less with Ancient Near Eastern parallels. Plus, I think he is backwards on the idea that the Garden of Eden is a temple. Rather, the temple is a Garden of Eden. The temple points back to the pre-Fall state, and forward to the New Heavens and the New Earth. After all, the point of Revelation 21-22 is that in the NH & NE, there is no temple. The temple is a temporal institution that is intended to point to eternity.
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