Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Miguel G. Echevarria Jr., on Platonic/Gnostic Influences on Biblical Scholarship and the Biblical Promise of Inheriting a Glorified Earth

  

The theme of inheritance has suffered from severe neglect in biblical scholarship. Interpreters prefer to speak of heaven rather than eternal life in the land promised to Abraham, i.e., the inheritance. One may speculate that this is due to platonic or gnostic influences throughout the history of the church, which deny the goodness of creation in favor of a bodiless existence in a realm devoid of matter. Consequently, the goal of a new creation for mankind has largely been forsaken, replaced by spiritualize themes such as “heaven” or “life in Christ.” (Miguel G. Echevarria Jr., The Future Inheritance of Land in the Pauline Epistles [Eugene, Oreg. Pickwick Publications, 2019], 1)