Dr. Eckhard Schnabel Explores the Significance of the Name Paul Used for Jesus
Dr. Eckhard Schnabel, Mary French Rockefeller Distinguished Professor of New Testament, was featured in the most recent publication of the Tyndale Bulletin, a peer-reviewed academic journal for biblical scholarship and related disciplines.
His article, “Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Jesus Messiah,” explores if the name the apostle Paul used for Jesus had messianic connotations. Dr. Schnabel writes that, “The consensus of New Testament scholars that the appellation Χριστός in Paul’s letters is a personal name and devoid of messianic convictions is increasingly questioned. Moving beyond philological, tradition-historical, exegetical, and common-sense arguments, the following can be demonstrated. When we treat Paul as a real person who read and studied the Hebrew Scriptures, who proclaimed the gospel in both Greek and Aramaic, using some Hebrew in the synagogues, who taught in local congregations in both Greek and Aramaic, who maintained contact with the Aramaic-speaking Jesus followers in Jerusalem throughout his ministry, and who sang and prayed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the assumption that, for Paul, Χριστός always stood for the Messiah of God and the Messiah of God’s people, is highly plausible.”
Read the full article in the Tyndale Bulletin.