The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ATONEMENT: QUMRAN AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
Paul Garnet
INTRODUCTION
The phrase “to make atonement” in the KJV usually translates a Hebrew
word rpeki (kipper), which occurs frequently in the sacrifice rules of the
Pentateuch. This has given the word its meaning in modern speech (making
up for wrong done) and in Protestant theology, where the term is
used to describe the saving value of the death of Christ. Catholics usually
refer to this as “redemption” rather than as “atonement.”
The early church fathers often thought of the death of Christ as a
“ransom,” following Mark 10:45: “The Son of Man came…to give his life
as a ransom for many.” Speculation arose over the question, “To whom
was the ransom paid: to God or to the devil?” The Fathers also put a
strong emphasis on the death of Christ as a victory over sin, death, and
the devil. 1 In the Middle Ages, Anselm taught that the death of Christ
was efficacious as a satisfaction given to the Father for the outrage made
by sin to the divine honor; Abelard saw it as a demonstration of God’s
love. More recently, moral-influence theories have pursued Abelard’s line
of thought. Thus, for Socinus, Christ saves by revealing God as Savior
by his life and by his death. Anselm’s view is more akin to later views of
Christ’s death as substitutionary: he took humanity’s guilt and paid the
penalty of sin (Luther, Calvin, Brunner, Berkouwer). 2
In discussing the history and the significance of the idea in the biblical
period, twentieth-century debate has centered around the question of
1. This has been taken up and strongly emphasized by Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor:
An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of the Atonement (trans. A. G. Hebert;
London: SPCK, 1931).
2. Besides ibid., for the history of the Christian doctrine of atonement, see Robert
S. Franks, The Work of Christ in Its Ecclesiastical Development (London: Nelson, 1918);
and, more recently, Hugh D. McDonald, The Atonement of the Death of Christ: In Faith,
Revelation, and History (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985).
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