Messiah and Scripture: Paul’s In Christ Idiom in Its Ancient Jewish Context

J. Thomas Hewitt examines Paul’s development and uses of the expression in Christ, or in messiah, with reference to conventions of ancient Jewish messiah discourse. While messiah speculation in antiquity does not evince a widespread, coherent messianic ideology, ancient Jewish messiah texts do share a common trait - the creative reappropriation of scripture for portraying messiahs. Ancient Jewish messiah discourse is thus both traditional, being shaped by the idioms and imagery of scripture, and innovative, as those materials are recast in novel depictions and expressions. As a participant in this interpretative enterprise, Paul found resources in scriptural traditions concerning Abraham’s seed and Daniel’s heavenly man for generating his own distinctive conceptions of messiahship, conceptions he often articulated with his hallmark expression in Christ.