Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Guy Williams on Jesus as "Heavenly Intercessor"

  

Heavenly Intercessor

 

In Rom 8.34 we find it is Christ Jesus, sat at the right hand of God, “who intercedes (εντυγχανει) for us”. What exactly is this heavenly intercession? We might look to Heb 7.25, where Christ intercedes as High Priest. The connection with Hebrews is emphasised by Martin Hengel, who regards Rom 8.34 as an echo of priestly functions (M. Hengel, Studies in Early Christology [Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1995], 152). He dismisses the alternative view that Christ acts as defence counsel in a forensic setting (“The Counsel stood not at the right hand of the judge, but rather at the right side of the accused in front of the judge.” Ibid. 139. This argument is slightly disingenuous, however, given that priests too do not sit at anybody’s right hand). However, there is some evidence to suggest that this might be what Paul has in mind. The legal proceedings of the heavenly court are evoked: “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? [. . .] Who is to condemn?” (8.33-4). As Fitzmyer observes, εγκαλεσει (8.33) “is a forensic term” (Fitzmyer, Romans, 532). We may allow for a degree of cross-over between these possibilities, for the theme of sacrifice in 8.32 suggests that priesthood may be in the background. However, the strongest aspect of intercession here is Christ’s protection of the elect from condemnation.

 

This role of Christ connects with Jewish angelology. With Christ interceding on behalf of those suffering violence (8.35-36), we may think of those angels who intercede for the protection of Israel. The most obvious parallel is T. Levi 5.6, where we encounter “the angel who intercedes (παριτουμενον) for the race of Israel [. . .] for every evil spirit attacks it.” The link between intercession and the protection from spirits perhaps matches up with Paul’s assurances regarding angels, rulers, and powers in 8.38. However, possibly of greater interest is the explicitly Christological deployment of the tradition in T. Dan 6.2:

 

Draw near to God and the angel who intercedes () for you; because he is a mediator between God and men, for the peace of Israel and he will withstands the kingdom of the enemy.

 

This text reflects the Christian or Jewish-Christian compilation of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. As Hollander and de Jonge suggest, “At the background we may suppose a primitive Christian angel-Christology.”

 

Another parallel worth noting is with the Johannine Paraclete. This holds a forensic function (the very word παρακλητος can mean ‘advocate’) (BDAG παρακλητος 623. IT has the technical meaning ‘lawyer’, though this is not common. “In the few places where the word is found in pre-Christian and extra-Christian lit. it has for the most part a more general mng.: one who appears in another’s behalf, mediator, intercessor, helper.”); it will ‘prove wrong’ or ‘convict’ the word that is so hostile to believers (John 16.7). In the gospel, the Paraclete is a figure other than Christ (14.16), but this still is relevant to and resembles what Paul is saying. Both Christ and the Spirit intercede on behalf of a tight-knit and embattled community (Rom 8.26, 34). Notably, however, in 1John 2.1 Christ actually is the Paraclete (“My children I write these things to you that you may not sin. But even if someone does sin, we have an advocate [παρακλητον εχομεν] before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one). Here too, angelology helps us to reconstruct the developing Christian beliefs. Though its origins are unclear, it is likely that the Christian παρακλητος derived from the Hebrew מלץ, a word applied to angels in the DSS. Such terms became “virtual titles” for interceding angels, applicable to a courtroom and a teaching context. The idea of heavenly intercession, then, implies some influence on Christ’s functions from the wider sphere of Jewish angelology. (Guy Williams, The Spirit World in the Letters of Paul the Apostle: A Critical Examination of the Role of Spiritual Beings in the Authentic Pauline Epistles [Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 231; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2009], 196-97)