Tom Schreiner reviews The Righteousness of God

Credo Magazine contributor Thomas Schreiner recently wrote a review for The Gospel Coalition of The Righteousness of God, by Charles Lee Irons. Here is the start of his review:

Charles Lee Irons, under the supervision of Donald Hagner at Fuller Theological Seminary, has written a dissertation that should have a far-reaching effect. He challenges the common view—one received as settled orthodoxy in many circles—that the righteousness of God should be defined as covenant faithfulness. I think his case is convincing, so I will concentrate on summarizing his argument.

He begins by showing the pervasiveness of the “covenant faithfulness” reading in contemporary scholarship. It’s advanced by scholars like J. D. G. Dunn, N. T. Wright, and Richard Hays. But the view isn’t limited to those who advance the New Perspective on Paul; it’s also endorsed by prominent and influential figures in biblical scholarship such as Adolf Schlatter, Walther Eichrodt, Gerhard von Rad, Ernst Käsemann, Peter Stuhlmacher, Karl Kertelge, Ulrich Wilckens, Elizabeth Achtemeier, Michael Bird, and so on. Historically, the view reaches back to Albrecht Ritschl, and especially Hermann Cremer, who posited a Hebrew relational theory to explain the meaning of righteousness.

Investigating Righteousness 

In chapter one Irons examines the history of “the righteousness of God” in Paul. During the early church, the Reformation, and post-Reformation periods, the term was treated as a genitive of source (i.e., righteousness that comes from God) referring to one’s status before God. The early fathers saw this as an infusion of righteousness and the Reformers as imputation of righteousness, but both understood the righteousness of God to refer to a status by which one stood in the right before God. (Nick Needham argues that some of the early fathers saw God’s righteousness as forensic, so it isn’t clear that they all believed in infused righteousness. This observation doesn’t challenge Irons’s thesis, though, since on either view a status before God is still contemplated.)

The consensus that righteousness refers to a righteous status was shattered by the work of Albrecht Ritschl and Hermann Cremer. Cremer understood the phrase in covenantal terms—that is, as God’s saving activity and faithfulness to his covenant with Israel.

Chapter two considers method. Irons helpfully distinguishes between lexical concepts and discourse concepts, and between sense and reference. When it comes to the righteousness of God, some scholars mistakenly let other words in the near context bleed into its lexical meaning. Newer studies in Hebrew parallelism demonstrate that when words are parallel, the parallelism isn’t synonymous. For instance, God’s righteousness and faithfulness in the Psalms and Isaiah are closely related in meaning but aren’t identical. It’s a mistake, then, to conclude from the close association of these terms that righteousness is covenant faithfulness. Additionally, too many who defend the notion that righteousness means covenant faithfulness have operated from the refuted and discarded idea that there’s a distinction between Greek and Hebrew thought. The notion that words in the righteousness word group became a calque (loanword) in the Septuagint (LXX)—so that the Hebrew meaning of righteousness is distinct from the Greek meaning—remains unproven. Such a view fails to persuade, Irons says, since in documents written by Greek-speaking Jews during the second temple period the word doesn’t mean covenant faithfulness. The evidence for a calque isn’t supported, therefore, by the evidence.

Chapter three investigates “righteousness” in extrabiblical Greek, showing that the noun “righteousness” derives from the adjective “righteous.” The word is often used in judicial contexts and can be translated as “justice.” It also designates righteousness in the social realm, particularly relating to promises, oaths, contracts, covenants, and treaties. Righteousness is also defined as distributive justice in some philosophical discussions, so that righteousness occurs when people are recompensed according to what they’re due. Finally, it is often defined in terms of virtue. This chapter plays an important role, for if the meaning of the righteousness of God in the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) doesn’t swerve from the use of the term in Greek thought, then the notions of rightness, justice, and norm are present. Further, the sharp distinction between Judaism and Hellenism has been repudiated in NT scholarship, especially by Martin Hengel. Hence the notion that “righteousness” has a dramatically different meaning in Greek thought can only be sustained if there’s clear contextual evidence.

Read the rest at TGC…