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Fulfilment-Words in the New Testament: Use and Abuse*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

‘Promise and fulfillment’, ‘Verheissung und Erfüllung’, is a familiar phrase in New Testament theology. It has furnished the title for at least one notable book, and occupies considerable sections of other works in the New Testament field. It is a well-known fact, too, that, in some senses at least, it belongs also to the Old Testament scene. It is possible, as an article by W. Zimmerli illustrates, to tell the Old Testament story under the same title.

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Articles
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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Footnotes

*

Presidential Address to S.N.T.S. delivered at the General Meeting in Gwat, Switzerland, 28 August 1967.

References

1 by Kümmel, W. G. (Zürich,3 1956; Eng. trans., S.C.M., 1957), though here it is used in a different and special sense, of the anticipatory fulfilment, in Jesus, of the final, eschatological promiseGoogle Scholar.

2 originally published in Evangelische Theologie, xii, I/2 (1952), 6 ffGoogle Scholar.; reprinted in probleme alttesta-mentlicher Hermeneutik, ed. Westermann, C. (München, 1960), Eng. trans. Essays on Old Testament Interpretation (S.C.M., 1963), pp. 89 ffGoogle Scholar. A Festschrift for S. H. Hooke bears the same title, Promise and Fulfilment, ed. Bruce, F. F. (Edinburgh, 1963).Google Scholar

3 ‘Weissagung und Erfüllung’, as the title of a well-known article by Bultmann (Z. T. K. xlvii (1950), 360 ff.), was chosen with a special purpose. In the English version in Essays on Old Testament Interpretation (as above), it appears as ‘Prophecy and Fulfilment’.

1 It is noteworthy, if not immediately relevant, that Isa. xl. 3 is used in IQS viii. 13–16 as an injunction or authorization, whereas in the Gospels it is treated as a prediction.(But see a rather different formulation by Fitzmyer, J. A., ‘The Use of Explicit Old Testament Quotations in Qumran Literature and in the New Testament’, N. T. S. vii (1961), 297 ff. (318)Google Scholar, Bruce, F. F., Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts (Eerdmans, 1959; London, Tyndale Press, 1960), p. 28.)Google Scholar

1 Paul, Apostle of Liberty (Harper and Row, New York, etc., 1964); see p. 84.

2 Cf. Dodd, C. H., According to the Scriptures (Nisbet, 1952), pp. 108 ffGoogle Scholar.

1 Cf. Isa. xliv. 26a: ‘who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers.’

2 Cf. Gen. 1. 20; Acts iii. 17 f.; xiii. 27; and Justin, Trypho xcvi. I.

3 Cf. I Sam. ii. 34 (Hophni and Phinehas); x. 1 ff. (signs for Saul); II Kings xx. 8 ff. (sign for Hezekiah).

1 So G. Delling, s.v. πληρόω, T. W. N. T. vi, 295, 5 f. Cf. ‘The prophecies prove that the historical events happened according to the will of God’, Dahl, N. A., ‘The Story of Abraham in Luke-Acts’, Studies in Luke-Acts (Festschrift for Paul Schubert, edd. Keck, Leander E. and Martyn, J. Louis, Abingdon Press, Nashville and New York, 1966), pp. 139 ff. (p. 153).Google Scholar

2 So Rom. xvi. 25 f. Cf. Bruce, F. F., Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts, 8Google Scholar. 1QpHab vii. 5 speaks of (Lohse, E. Die Texte aus Qumran (München, 1964), p. 234;Google Scholar and ii. 8 seems to refer to the gift of רשפ as given to a Priest (who is the Right Teacher). I wish I had lived in the age of רשפ I would have shown how II Kings vi. 5 f. is an account of St Paul's conversion in code: the lost axe-head was לואשׁ; what rescued it was ץע!

3 Acts xvii. 3, xviii. 28 are references to this occupation in the course of the early Church's evangelism. See Paul S. Minear, ‘Luke's Use of the Birth-Stories’, in Studies in Luke-Acts (ut sup.), pp. 118 ff.; and N. A. Dahl, Ibid p. 152.

4 Cf. Hummel, R., Die Auseinandersetzung zwischen Kirche und Judentum im Matthäusevangelium (München, 1963), p. 130 and n. 12 (following Goppelt).Google Scholar Suhl, A., Die Funktion der alttestamentlichen Zitate und Anspielungen im Markusevangelium (Gütersloh, 1965)Google Scholar, denies this mentality to Mark. But see the critical review by E. Grässer, Th. Lz. xci (1966), 668a, b, 669a. See, further, a brief discussion of this matter by Ellen Flessemann-van Leer, ‘Die Interpretation der Passionsgeschichte von Alten Testament aus’ in Zur Bedeutung des Todes fesu: exegetische Beiträge, H. Conzelman, E. Flessemann- van Leer, E. Haenchen, E. Käsemann, E. Lohse (Gütersloh, 1967), pp. 79 ff.

1 I use this qualifying phrase advisedly. We are not to assume that Old Testament history, without some such interpreting agency, of itself presents a clear pattern. There have, for instance, been warnings enough in the past against the assumption that there is a clearly defined ‘doctrine of the remnant’ in the Old Testament. See, e.g., E. W. Heaton ‘The Root ראשׁ and the Doctrine of the Remnant’, J. T. S. n.s. III (1952), 27 ff.

2 So G. Delling, s.v. πληρόω in T. W. N. T. vi, 295, 15: ‘Der nt.liche Gedanke der Erfüllung ist zusammengefasst in der Person Jesu’; and L. Goppelt, s.v. τύπος in T. W. N. T. viii, 251, 24 f.: ‘Dabei ist die Entsprechung nicht nur in äusseren Ähnlichkeiten der Vorgänge, sondern vor allem in der Wesensgleichheit von Gottes Handeln zu suchen’; and Bruce, op.cit. p. 77; and J. Barr, Old and New in Interpretation (S.C.M., 1966), p. 138.

3 T.W.N.T. viii, 87, 10 Cf Heb. vii. II, 19, denying τελείωσις to the Levitical System; and note the theme of τελειοῦν throughout the Episde. See further below, p. 314.

1 Tupos: Die typologische Deutung des Alten Testament im Neuen (Gütersloh, 1938; reprinted 1966); and T. W. M. T. viii, 246 ff.

2 See Fitzmyer, J. A. (ut sup.) in N. T. S. vii (1961), 297 ff. (332)Google Scholar; and cf. Goppelt, T. W. N. T. xiii, 252, claiming that in I Cor. x. 6, 11 the words τύπος and τυπικῶς are used for the first time in the technical sense in which they are often used in early Christian literature subsequendy. See also Lampe, G. W. H. and Woollcombe, K. J. Essays on Typology (London, 1957).Google Scholar

3 Paul's Use of the Old Testament (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 129 and 90 ff., cited by Fitzmyer, loc. Cit.

4 See further L. Goppelt, ‘Paulus und die Heilsgeschichte: Schlussfolgerungen aus Röm. iv und I. Kor. X. 1–13’, and Klein, G., ‘Heil und Geschichte nach Römer iv’, N. T. S. xiii (1966), 31 ff. and 43 ffGoogle Scholar.

5 Cf. Zimmerli, loc. Cit. p. 121; Bruce, op. cit. p. 77.

1 Cf. Betz, O., Was wissen wir von Jesus? (Kreuz-Verlag, Stuttgart–Berlin, 1965), passim.Google Scholar

2 Cf Jeremias, J., Abba: Studien zur neutestamentlichen Theologie und Zeitgeschichtte (Göttingen, 1966) The Prayers of Jesus (S.C.M., 1967).Google Scholar

3 Qumran und das neue Testament, ii (Tübingen, 1966), 54 ff.

4 iQH ix. 6–8, 11–12, 23–7.

1 Braun, ii, 80.

2 ii, 79.

3 J. Jeremias, παῖς θεοῦ, T. W. N. T. v, 685 ff.; Eng. trans., Zimmerli, W. and Jeremias, J., The Servant of God (S. C. M., 1957), pp. 50 ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. Windisch, H., ‘Die göttliche Weisheit der Juden und die paulinische Christologie’ in Neutestamentliche Studien, Festschrift für G. Heinrici (Leipzig, 1914), pp. 220 ff.Google Scholar; and Lövestam, E., Son and Saviour, a Study of Acts 13, 32–37 (Coniectanea Neotestamentica xviii, Lund, 1961), pp. 88 ff. (appendix on ‘“Son of God” in the Synoptic Gospels’).Google Scholar

4 See the discussions (to name only two recent ones) by Cranfield, C. E. B., ‘St Paul and the Law’, S. J. T. xvii (1964), 43 ffGoogle Scholar. Bammel, E. ‘Nόμος χριστοῦ’, Studia Evangelica, iii (ed. Cross, F. L., Texte und Untersuchungen 88, Berlin, 1964), 120 ffGoogle Scholar.

5 See Bouttier, M., ‘Remarques sur la conscience Apostolique de St Paul’, in Oikonomia: Heils-geschichte als Thema der Theologie, Festschrift für O. Cullmann, ed. Christ, Felix (Herbert Reich, Hamburg, 1967), pp. 100 ffGoogle Scholar.

1 This is the theme of the Epistle to the Hebrews; see below, p. 314. Contrast Justin's more un-compromising position (e.g. Trypho xi. 2 and 4, xliii. 1) that Law is superseded and the Church ousts Israel. R. Hummel, op. cit. pp. 156 f., judges that this is not what Matthew is saying.

1 N. T. S. VII (1961), 297 ff. Cf. also his ‘Jewish Christianity in Acts in Light of the Qumran Scrolls’, in Studies in Luke-Acts(ut sup.), pp. 233 ff. (see pp. 251–4).

2 In my The Birth of the New Testament (London: A. and C. Black, 1962), p. 57, n. 1, I called attention to this. In an extremely generous anonymous review in The Times Literary Supplement (1963), p. 220, this conclusion was challenged: ‘It is at least arguable’, wrote the reviewer,‘…that though the object of applied prophecy in the New Testament is more specific than in the Qumran literature, the application of prophecy itself is in the latter just as much concerned with fulfillment’); and it was partly in a desire to examine the force of this challenge that I was led to offer this paper.

1 In the protasis, ‘promise’-words are lacking from Hebrew, though of course there are periphrases for them. In the Greek books, ἐπαγγελία and ὐπισχ- occur occasionally, though not, as it happens, in any of the πληροῦν-phrases which follow in this list.

2 Pp. 303 f., 331. Cf. also the findings of B. M. Metzger, ‘The Formulas Introducing Quotations of Scripture in the NT and the Mishnah’, J. B. L. LXX (1951), 297 ff., cited by Fitzmyer, p. 301, n. 1. Metzger's conclusion regarding the New Testament in relation to the Mishnah is similar (see pp. 306 f., and especially the first note on p. 307).

1 Kuhn, K.G.( et al. ), Konkordanz zu den Qumraniexten (Göttingen, 1960).Google Scholar

2 The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Pelican Books, 1962), p. 75.

3 And add to K. G. Kuhn's list 4QpNah i. 6 (Lohse, p. 262).

4 See Fitzmyer, op. cit. pp. 314, 331 and Studies in Luke-Acts (ut sup.), pp. 251–4; F. F. Bruce, Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts, pp. 9, 20; G. Delling (s.v. τέλος), T.W.N.T. VIII, 54.

1 T.W.N.T. VIII, 256, 3–5. G. Delling (s.v. τέλος) T.W.N.T. VIII, 54, calls attention to the (apparent) application of Ps. ii. 1 f. to in 4Qflor i. 19 (pointing from Lohse, p. 258); but this is obscure.

2 II, 88. So on p. 172 he uses the phrase ‘[neben] der eschatologischen Schrifterfüllung…’ in reference to Qumran and Paul alike. In his section on eschatology he says, of the Qumran outlook, ‘Das Alte Testament erfüllte sich im jetzt’ (p. 267), and, ‘Kurz, man darf Qumran eine Schriftaus-legung im Sinne der eschatologischen Erfüllung nicht absprechen…’ (Ibid). Again, ‘… die Dauer der Endzeiten [which, Braun fully recognizes, is reflected in the impatience and anxiety of the Sect] gibt nicht die Berechtigung, die qumranische Enderwartung ihres Erfüllungsbewusstseins zu berauben…’ (p. 268).

Similarly, to take at random another example of the use of ‘fulfillment’ without an equivalent word in the original, M. Black, in a note entided ‘The “Fulfilment” in the Kingdom of God’, E.T. LVII (1945), 25 f, wrote: ‘The idea of a “fulfillment” or a “consummation” by the coming of the Messianic Kingdom is a familiar one in contemporary Judaism. In the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch it is made clear that the coming of the Messianic Age was expressly known and referred to as “the fulfillment” or “the consummation” (303).’ Again (p. 29): ‘In I Enoch the “consummation” (161τελείωσις) is the Great Judgment.’ Here Black was, of course, using ‘fulfillment’, perfectly legitimately, in its wider, looser sense. But it is relevant to our attempt to delimit its meaning to note not only that the word in I Enoch (as he himself quotes it) is not πληροῦν, but that the Syr. Apoc. Bar., in the passage cited, similarly uses not the root אלמ but the root םלשׁ. (See R. Graffin, Patrologia Syriaca, Pars I, Tom II (1907), in loc.)

1 Philonis opera, VII (Berlin, 1926).

1 It has been said that ‘promise-fulfilment’, does not actually occur in the New Testament, but this verse (using ἐκπληροῦν) is the one exception. See Franz Hesse, Das Alte Testament als Buck der Kirche (Gütersloh, 1966), p. 69; and cf. N. A. Dahl in Studies in Luke-Acts (ut sup.), p. 142. It is implied, though not fully expressed, in the προεπηγγείλατο of Rom. i. 2. In the Old Testament there is, of course, no one word exactly corresponding to promise. In Hatch and Redpath's LXX Concordance, the only Hebrew equivalent of ἐπαγγἑλλειν is רמא; of ἐπαγγελία, . Ὺπόσχεσις and ὑπισχνεῖσθαι occur only in the Greek books.

2 See M. Bouttier as on p. 301, n. 5 above.

3 Cf. I Clem. 1. 3. Is the answer, conceivably, because love can, by definition, never be fulfilled (cf. Rom. xiii. 8), although it can be mature?

4 For his conclusions, see especially pp. 33–6.

1 See especially pp. 27 f.

2 In Hatch and Redpath, the equivalents, taking into account all forms of אלמ, verbal and nominal, and including Ecclus (to the date of Hatch and Redpath's appendix), are: ἀλων, ἀλως, ἀναπληροῦν, ἀναπλήρωσις, ἀφαίρεμα, γἑμειν, γἑν(ν)νημα, ἐμπιπλᾶν, ἐμπιπλáναι, ἐ;μπλήθειν, ἐπακολουθεῖν, ἐπισυνάγειν, καταριθμεῖν, κατασκεύασμα, κυοφορεῖν, λαμβάνειν πιμπλάναι, πληθύνειν, πλήρης, πληροῦν, πληροφορεĩσθαι, πλήρωμα, πλήρωσις, συμπληροῦν, συμπλήρωσις, συντελεĩν, τελειοῦν, τελείωσις. Some of these, as will be immediately recognized, are freaks. Tελειοῦν represents only ודיתא אלמ (=‘consecrate’); τελείωσις = only; συντελεῖν occurs only twice (Gen. xxix. 27; Dan. x. 3).

3 Cf R. N. Longenecker, Paul, Apostle of Liberty, pp.139 f.

4 Les Justes et la Justice dans les Évangiles et la Christianisme primitif hormis la doctrine proprement paulinienne (Louvain, 1950), p. 116 (cited by Ljungman, p. 25).

1 Num. xiv. 24; xxxii. 11 f.; Deut. i. 36; Josh. xiv. 8, 9, 14; I Kings xi. 6, paraphrased by LXX (except in I Kings xi. 6, where it is lacking) by some phrase of ‘following’ (ἐπηκολούθηἐν μοι, etc.). That in I Kings xi. 6 the phrase is evidently parallel to καρδία τελεία (U. 5, LXX 4) is only another example of the ‘loose’ synonymity already referred to. In I Kings i. 14, where is sometimes taken to mean ‘I will confirm your story’, it might mean, rather, ‘I will…tell the whole story’; LXX renders literally, πληρώσω τοὺς λόγους σου.

2 For a religious-philosophical use in a strictly comprehensive sense, see Philo, leg. alleg. i. 23.

1 From my article ‘Fulfil’ in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, edd. Buttrick, G. A. et al. (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1962), pp. 327 ff. (328 b).Google Scholar

2 For the idea of bringing words to expression, of. Philo's phrase, πληρῶαι τοὺς λόγους ἐπαινετοίς praem, poen. 83 (cited in T.W.N.T. VI, 286 and noted under (c) above).

3 Die Stunde der Botschaft (Hamburg, 1967), p. 182.

1 The New Testament writers would have endorsed Philo's aphorism οὺδὲν…λεχθὲν παρὲργως εὺήσεις leg. Alleg. iii. 147.

2 Pp. 139 f.

1 The usage of the Peshitta is interesting: τελεῖν (xix. 28, 30) and τελειοῦν (iv. 34; v. 36; xvii. 4) is rendered by τελειοῦν in xvii. 23 (of the disciples, τετελειωμένοι είς ἓν) by , and in xix. 28 (of ή γραφή) by : i.e. the only use in relation to scripture is rendered by for the completing of the task, םלשׁ is used.

2 In Goodspeed's, E.J. Index Patristicus (Leipzig, 1907).Google Scholar

3 Idem, Index Apologeticus (Leipzig, 1912).