Monday, March 22, 2021

John C. Poirier on θεοπνευστος and Salvation as Vivification in 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The following notes are from John C. Poirier, The Invention of the Inspired Text: Philological Windows on the Theopneustia of Scripture (Library of New Testament Studies 640; London: T&T Clark, 2021)

 

v. 15b: “. . . sacred writings that are able to instruct you unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

v. 16a: “All scripture is life-giving [= salvific] and is useful for instruction.” (p. 102)

 

Verse 16a effectively repeats the thought of v. 15b, but in an abbreviated way, as the point of v. 16 is to expound on the several ways in which this salvific is “useful” (ωφελιμος)—that is, “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The idea of scripture being theopneustic is not the intruding thought that the traditional rendering takes it to be but rather a restatement of the previous verse’s point. As such, a vivificationist understanding of θεοπνευστος fits more snugly within the passage than the traditional rendering does.

 

By viewing salvation in terms of life, the understanding argued here invokes a soteriological conceptuality more characteristic of the Pastoral Epistles than of any other portion of the New Testament, except perhaps the Fourth Gospel Scholars often refer to salvation as a key theme in the Pastorals, and they typically characterize that salvation as the giving of life . . . This vivificationist soteriology comes to clearest expression in 2 Tim. 1:10, where grace is said to have been “revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” . . . 1 Tim. 1:16 speaks of those who will gain “eternal life” (ζωην αιωνιον), and 4:10 similarly speaks of the “promise of life” (επαγγελια ζωης). Tit. 3:7 speaks of the Spirit’s power to make us heirs of “eternal life” (ζωης αιωνιου). (p. 103)