Gregory K. Beale > Quotes

“we become like that which we worship.”
― G.K. Beale

“Since true life and sustenance are found in the presence of God, we must regularly drink deeply from the river of his delights. In our weariness, though, we often seek life from entertainment, empty friendships and ceaseless activity, which all fail to bring life. So many of our “recreational” activities fail to re-create the inner resources of our soul to face the challenges of each day. Like the Israelites before us, we forsake the river of God’s presence and hew out empty cisterns that do not hold water to satisfy our thirsts (Jer 2:13). Will we satisfy our soul at the fountain of living waters? Or will we hew out cisterns of putrid water that do not satisfy? The rivers of life flowing from the presence of God in Eden beckon us to the satisfaction and re-creation of these refreshing waters that are only found in the presence of God. We sacrifice for what satisfies. The soul-satisfying riches in the presence of God propel us out of our comfort zones, calling us out of the warm confines of our beds to our knees in early-morning prayer and meditation on God’s Word. Only these soul-satisfying riches can sustain us in the rigors of God’s calling on our lives as we move out to proclaim his name to the nations across the street and across the globe. A heart for mission grows out of a soul that finds satisfaction in God’s presence, the riches of which can be seen in the imagery of Eden.”
― G.K. Beale, God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth

“Christopher Wright makes a virtually identical conclusion about the significance of Genesis 3:22:
God accepts that humans have indeed breached the Creator-creature distinction. Not that humans have now become gods but that they have chosen to act as though they were-defining and deciding for themselves what they will regard as good and evil. Therein lies the root of all other forms of idolatry: we deify our own capacities, and thereby make gods of ourselves and our choices and all their implications.”
― G.K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry

“When the protection of God’s word is removed, the temptations of this world grow far stronger. In”
― G.K. Beale, God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth

“Paul himself affirms later that idolatry may take such forms as trusting in money: "Immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and greed ... is idolatry (Col 3:5).”
― G.K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry

“People will always reflect something, whether it be God's character or some feature of the world. If people are committed to God, they will become like him; if they are committed to something other than God, they will become like that thing, always spiritually inanimate and empty like the lifeless and vain aspect of creation to which they have committed themselves.”
― G.K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry

“One widely held position is that Jesus and the writers of the NT used noncontextual hermeneutical methods that caused them to miss the original meaning of the OT texts that they were trying to interpret.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“The whole mass of unbelieving humanity living throughout the entire interadvent age is likely in mind here and not merely a part of it from one brief period of that age. This suggests further the trans-historical applicability of ch. 13.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“In the OT, God told Israel that the Torah was to “serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead” in order to remind them continually of their commitment and loyalty to God (Exod. 13:9). The NT equivalent is the invisible seal”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“há evidências abundantes de que Noé foi moldado de acordo com o primeiro Adão e que a intenção dessa moldagem é mostrar que Noé é o cumprimento tipológico de Adão.42 Noé recebe, por exemplo, a mesma incumbência que o primeiro Adão (cf. Gn 1.28 com Gn 9.1, 2, 7). Fica evidente, porém, que Noé, como segunda figura de Adão, não completou a missão dada ao primeiro Adão (Gn 1.26-28; 2.15-17), assim como este também não a completou. Desse modo, a responsabilidade que Deus deu a Adão permaneceu irrealizada mesmo no cumprimento semitipológico de Noé, de modo que tanto o primeiro Adão quanto Noé, na condição de figura adâmica secundária, apontavam para outro Adão vindouro, que completaria finalmente a missão recebida.”
― G.K. Beale, Manual do uso do Antigo Testamento no Novo Testamento: Exegese e interpretação

“Even the patron deities of the trade guilds were worshiped in association with the imperial cult (see on 2:9-21). There were few facets of social interaction in which Christians could escape pressures of idolatry.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“others like it elsewhere on varying scales, may explain also why John himself alludes in this chapter to the narrative in Daniel 3 about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s refusal to”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“Therefore, NT writers may interpret historical portions of the OT to have a forward-looking sense in the light of the whole OT canonical context.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“Duane Garrett has also said in this regard: “We need look no further than Hosea 11 to understand that Hosea, too, believed that God followed patterns in working with his people.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“Since these OT references are not prophecies but historical narratives and John sees them as prophecy being fulfilled, it would appear best to say that this is an indirect fulfillment of what John considered to be foreshadowed by the historical event”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“Since the river of life flows from God’s presence into the lands of nations, so our mission to the nations must flow from the life found in God’s presence. When the source of our commitment to mission is located only in the backwaters of our idealism, then we can burn out and become bitter. Many idealistically plunge headlong into a sacrificial commitment to the poor or unreached or hurting, compelled by brokenness over their plight, but the resources of that idealism run dry when tested by the challenges of costly obedience. However, when our resources run dry, we drink more fully and deeply from the abundance of life found in God’s presence. Our God gives joy and strength to endure! The life that we find in God’s presence is more than enough to overcome every challenge for the mission God has placed before us. However, life must clearly flow from God’s presence into the needs of the nations, and the needs of the nations must drive us to drink more fully from the life found in God’s presence.”
― G.K. Beale, God Dwells Among Us: A Biblical Theology of the Temple

“intertextuality,” however, is fuzzy. The word’s original meaning and its ongoing typical definition is the synchronic study of multiple linkages among texts that are not the result of authorial intent but are considered often only from the readers’ viewpoint.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“Some believe that the apostolic writers were so christocentric in their understanding of the OT that they read Christ into passages that had nothing to do with the coming Messiah.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“These men [the judges, Saul, David, etc.] all passed away; but the tasks, the titles and the divine promises connected with them, were handed on.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“The goal of Revelation is to bring encouragement to believers of all ages that God is working out His purposes even in the midst of tragedy, suffering, and apparent Satanic domination.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“Friedrich Nietzsche could have been describing Adam, the king of Tyre or all self-centered people-including contemporary humanity, who exalt the self above everything else-when he describes what he calls the "master-morality":
The noble type of person feels that he determines value, he does not need anyone's approval, he judges that "What is harmful to me is harmful in itself," he knows that he is the one who gives honor to things in the first place, he creates values. He honors everything he sees in himself: this sort of morality is self-glorifying."
This is, in reality, none other than the description of an idolatrous race who makes idols of themselves.”
― G.K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry

“for something to be recognized as a type in the NT, it must meet the definition of a type: (1) close analogical correspondence of truths about people, events, or institutions; (2) historicity; (3) a pointing-forwardness; (4) escalation in meaning between correspondences; (5) and retrospection.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“In contrast to a quotation of the OT, which is a direct reference, allusions are indirect references (the OT wording is not reproduced directly as in a quotation).”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“One’s presuppositions also can determine how typology is classified. For example, if we concede that God is also the author of OT Scripture, then we are concerned not only with discerning the intention of the human author but also with the ultimate and wider divine intent of what was written in the OT, which could well transcend and organically grow out of the immediate written speech act of the writer but not contradict it.”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“That the two are of a parallel spiritual nature and intended to be compared is evident from the immediately following mention of the names of God and Christ written on the foreheads of the saints (14:1).”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“Suddenly, however, these men are removed, Jahweh can no longer consider them, and the story ends with the reader feeling that, since Jahweh has so far been unable to find a really suitable instrument, the commission remains unfulfilled. Can we not say of each of these stories that Jahweh’s designs far transcend their historical contexts?”
― G.K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation

“The background to this verse may lie in the establishment of an emperor cult at Ephesus, marked by the erection of a colossal statue to Emperor Domitian. Citizens of towns in Asia Minor were even pressured to offer sacrifices on altars outside their own houses as festive processions passed by. Such a major event at Ephesus, and”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“The Goal of Pleasing God by Obeying His Commands (4: 1-2)American culture is caught up with the grand goal of enjoying life and pleasing oneself. For example, a recent magazine article discussing vacation homes as investments led with the caption: "The No. 1 reason to build a vacation home is to enjoy yourself. " Today more than ever society is caught up in concern for health and personal well-being. Churches sometimes try to attract people to their services by advertising that what goes on at church will be enjoyable to them. Some churches advertise that contemporary music and coffee will be served throughout the service. One can even enjoy breakfast beforehand at a church cafeteria or be entertained by "sitcom-like" plays. Some of these things may not be bad in themselves, but the impression is that of the church attempting to attract people by dangling before them the kinds of pleasures that they can find outside the church. If a church does this too consistently, then what it may have to offer may be no different, ultimately, than what the world offers. We must not fool ourselves and think that things were radically different in the first century. A few years ago I went to Turkey (old Asia Minor) to see the ancient sites of the towns where the seven churches of Revelation were located. At Pergamum I visited the ruins of an ancient Roman health spa, where, among other things, people would go to be rejuvenated emotionally because of depression. There were even rooms where a patient could rest; in the ceiling were little holes through which the priestly attendants of the spa would whisper encouraging things to help the victims recuperate psychologically. Whether in the ancient world or today, the chief end of humanity has often been to take pleasure in this life. In contrast, our passage begins by affirming the opposite: humanity's chief goal ought to be to take pleasure in pleasing God. Such passages in Scripture as this fueled the great confession, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. " Granted, Christians enjoy the material pleasures of this life, but only as a gift from the gracious God whom they serve (1 Tim 4: 4). This world is not an end in itself to be enjoyed. On the basis that God has begun to work in the readers and that they are beginning to live in order to please God, Paul appeals to them to excel in this: we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. The main point of 4: 1 is that the ultimate purpose of living as a Christian is not to please oneself but increasingly to please God (Rom 8: 8; 15: 1-6). This develops further the earlier reference to pleasing God (2: 4) and walking worthily for the goal of achieving God's glory for which they have been called (2: 12). The Greek text of 4: 1 reads "just as you received from us how it is necessary for you to walk so as to please God. " Although the NIV leaves out "it is necessary" (dei; so also Moffatt 1970 and NLT), most other translations attempt to express it, typically by "you must" or "you ought. " Some readers may understand this to mean that Christians should live in the way Paul had instructed, but if they do not they will not experience the full blessing they could otherwise. Paul's urging of them to excel, however, suggests that there is a necessity that his readers live this lifestyle and that such living is not optional for less seriously minded Christians. Indeed, this necessity is heightened by the fact that such a lifestyle is a divine commandment (4: 2), that God has called believers to this conduct (4: 7), that God has given true believers the power to fulfill this commandment (3: 12-13) and that to reject living in this manner is tantamount to rejecting God (4: 8). Consequently, it is necessary that God's true people live this way if they want to avoid the inevitable last judgment (4: 6). Paul says the basis for his appeal that they please God is grounded in the authority of the Lord Jesus”
― G.K. Beale, 1-2 Thessalonians

“By the end of the first century all the cities addressed in the letters had temples dedicated to the deity of Caesar.”
― G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary

“Just as God, after his initial work of creation, subdued the chaos, ruled over it, and further created and filled the earth with all kinds of animate life, so Adam and Eve, in their garden abode, were to reflect God’s activities in Gen. 1 by fulfilling the commission to “subdue” and “rule over all the earth” and to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:26, 28).”
― G.K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New