Your " straignt-forward literary" analysis fails in the context of all the Scriptures.
Do you believe that Luke alludes to the wilderness wanderings of Israel in Lk. 4 presenting Jesus as faithful Israel?
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Your " straignt-forward literary" analysis fails in the context of all the Scriptures.
It is the starting point for all serious scholarship; though the majority will seek to tweak it here and there.
Yes, that is Biblically warranted from connections which are specifically stated in Scripture, making for type and anti-type, rather than "allusions."Do you believe that Luke alludes to the wilderness wanderings of Israel in Lk. 4 presenting Jesus as faithful Israel?
Yes, that is Biblically warranted from connections which are specifically stated in Scripture, making for type and anti-type, rather than "allusions."
To fully comprehend the scriptures we need to be familiar with the biblical drama of creation, fall, redemption and consummation. We need to recognise that ‘creation was not the goal, but the beginning, of God’s purpose for humankind specifically and the natural world generally.’ That is, creation is covenantal and has an eschatological orientation. In short, had Adam obeyed the drama would have moved straight from creation to consummation. But because Adam disobeyed, the drama now has two additional acts, fall and redemption. Here God sends Jesus who is the Last Adam and the True Israel who succeeds where Adam failed; he is the faithful servant of the covenant. So he keeps the suzerainty treaty or covenant of works and as Lord he mediates the benefits of that covenant through a royal grant or covenant of grace.
Adam and the Covenant of Creation
In the opening chapters of Genesis we find a covenantal structure: a historical prologue setting the stage (Genesis 1-2), stipulations (2:16-17) and the sanctions (2:17b). Adam is created with the ability to obey God completely and God commands complete obedience and then promises, upon that condition, the right to eat from the tree of life. It was the prize awaiting the successful outcome of a trial. So while creation itself is a gift, the entrance into God’s Sabbath rest was held out as the promise for loyal obedience in the period of testing. Just as God the great king endured the “trial” of creation and came out at the other end pronouncing victory and entering his Sabbath enthronement, his earthly ectype-vassal was to follow the same course. So we see that Adam and Eve were called to imitate their creator and covenant Lord’s pattern of working and resting, they were to enter in to God’s everlasting rest according to the covenant of creation. Adam broke the covenant of creation and so Adam and all his posterity are under the covenant curse – death.
Israel and the Sinaitic Covenant
After God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt he made a covenant of the suzerainty treaty form with them, of which Deuteronomy is the clearest example. In short God promises Israel with blessing if they obey God’s commands and curse if they disobey God’s commands (see Leviticus 26). Israel is in the Promised Land which parallels Adam being in the Garden and both the Adamic and Sinaitic covenants suggest obedience would bring forth blessing (i.e. eschatological life in Adam’s case and a long and prosperous life in the Promised Land in Israel’s case) and disobedience would bring forth curse (i.e. death in Adam’s case and exile in Israel’s). The law given at Sinai is a republication of the law given to Adam in the Garden-Temple.
Jesus and the New Covenant
Jesus is portrayed as the Last Adam and the True Israel in the synoptic gospels, so in Mark 1 we move straight from Jesus being baptised to his being tested in the wilderness and Paul describes Jesus as the Last Adam in Romans 5. Both Adam and Israel were God’s disobedient sons however Jesus was God’s obedient son. Not only did he obey God he also suffered the curse of disobedience and all those who submit to his rule have a double imputation; they have Jesus’ active obedience given to them and they have the curse of their disobedience removed from them so that in Christ they are counted as righteous. Ultimately we can say that Jesus did what Adam did not and we obtain our Sabbath rest through his work and “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). Jesus Christ is the faithful covenant servant and all who believe in him need not obey God for life for the works of Jesus are ours, rather the law tells us what pleases God.
Thematic Overview: We can then paint an overview of the Bible using the theme of the ‘son of God’:
- Adam = called God’s son in Luke 3:38
- Israel = called God’s son in Exodus 4:22 & Hosea 11:1
- Jesus = called God’s son at his baptism and elsewhere, including Hosea 11:1.
They are not "allusions."They are allusions
no where in Scripture is Jesus' temptation in the wilderness explicitly declared to be an allusion to Israel's wilderness wanderings.
Granted. . .typology is too strong a word, they are more correctly called Biblically warranted connections.It is not typology,
Granted. . .typology is too strong a word, they are more correctly called Biblically warranted connections.
They are based on your interpretations of them as patterns.The connections I am drawing are biblically warranted being based upon patterns in the scriptures themselves.
If God has foreordained every event what is left to foreknow?