I think it is helpful to think that there is an over-arching interpretive structure in the New Testament, and I think that that structure is, in effect, a narrative drawn in a complex way from the Old Testament and applied to the concrete historical circumstances faced by Israel in the first century and the emerging Jesus movement.

We are agreed about this, Andrew. That is why I hold your reading of one such over-arching structure in tension with my own and other readings. It adds something to how I read the scriptures and sheds additional light on things other readings shade over, even if I don’t hold to it as the ‘best’ or most helpful reading.

For your interest and in confirmation of my agreement of the need for an interpretive structure, yet as a contrast to what you read as the defining elements of the  narratives, here is how I introduced my recent thesis: ‘A Biblical Theology of Covenant, Creation and Community’, (which, I believe, owes relatively little to evangelical theology):

"Traditional, post-Enlightenment theologies, having undergirded Western Christendom over the past two centuries, are creaking under the strain of the evolving post-modern and post-colonial worldviews that increasingly dominate.

If the Christian community is to flourish within this hostile climate it faces the challenge of undergoing a thorough, fresh theological review, re-evaluation and, ultimately, reformation—primarily in order to release Christian theology—and concomitant praxis—from the suffocating effects of the philosophical paradigms of the Enlightenment project.

One highly significant aspect of the search for fresh understanding of the message of the Bible is to be found in the exploration and appreciation of the historical, Jewish roots of the Scripture and of the ‘Good News’ of the Messiah Jesus, in particular.

The profound and oft-neglected insight into the vitality of the divine covenants spoken of within the Jewish Scriptures (both New and Old Testament), as well as their relationship to the covenant communities of both Israel and the ‘Ecclesia’ (“Church”), potentially offers elements that can contribute towards a fresh, theologically-founded Christian worldview—a view of the world and the questions, stories and philosophies that frame our understanding of it. A worldview wherein the rock-solid foundation is God’s commitment to his Creation—including the combating of evil through the pursuit of this-worldly peace, justice and dignity for human beings—a commitment centred upon the story of the Messiah and his New Covenant Community.

This thesis offers a biblical theology* grounded in a Jewish worldview, a worldview that potentially has a wide appeal, offering a fresh look to those within a ‘seeking’ West, but probably more significantly a potentially vital educational introduction to the theology of the Bible within the emerging mission-focussed Christian communities of the global south, where many of the propositions that undergird Western culture do not hold sway."

*“Biblical theology seeks to express the content of Scripture, its structure and its component parts in the Bible’s own terms, according to its priorities. Dogmatic theology seeks to re-express biblical faith in contemporary (often philosophical) categories. This approach often imposes its own concerns on biblical study and hinders the Bible’s concerns, priorities, and categories from emerging.”—J. Goldingay

  

You wrote:

I admit it is rather difficult to pin down the sense in which Israel was to be a blessing to the world but I certainly don’t see that it is clearly to be understood only in terms of the incorporation of the Gentiles.

I agree, I wouldn’t want to limit it only to that, but I would want to say that it was an ultimate goal that was increasingly in view as the covenant purposes of God developed through the history of Israel.

I’m not sure the link between judgment and covenant renewal can be put the other way round.

Hmmm. I read the Ezekiel verses you cite, but I don’t see anything in them that upends my reading, which was that scripture supports a / the view that God had the new covenant in mind from a long way back, precisely as a solution to Israel’s failures. The new covenant was the only context in which the kind of promises which are made in Ezekiel can find any kind of gravity. But I’m conscious that we are perhaps close enough to agreement…

The statement to Moses in Exodus 19:6 about a ‘kingdom of priests’ doesn’t have the Gentiles in view

It does have "all the earth" in view (v. 5). Although the NIV doesn’t bring it out very well, other translations allow for the inference that Israel’s covenant vocation has a context that is larger than them alone, indeed is on behalf on other nations. Anyway, these verses make reference to "my covenant"—i.e. the Abrahamic covenant—which clearly did have the Gentile nations in view. Furthermore, the priests of Israel were a seperate tribe, but not a seperate people. They mediated for the Israelites, but this did not lessen the fact that the whole nation was in covenant with the Lord. Thus, as the idea of the priestly nation develops in the NT, it is no surprise that its purview includes the covenant incorporation of Gentiles. This doesn’t seem to be particularly controversial.

There’s no reference to a ‘circumcision faction’ in Acts 10:45. But I set out a number of specific points in the preceding comments which you haven’t addressed.

πιστός (pistos) ἐκ, ἐξ (ek ex) περιτομή (peritomē) is not a typical terminonology in the NT for ‘Jewish believers’ as some versions translate and you make reference to. Others prefer:

• "they of the circumcision that believed were amazed" (ASV),
• "the believing ones from the circumcision were astonished" (ALT)
• "those of the circumcision, who believed…" (MKJV),
• "The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished" (NIV).

The inference I have alluded to seems plain to me. I’ve looked back at our exchange, Andrew and I genuinely don’t understand why you think I haven’t responded to your points on this verse.

Wow. This pedanticism is catching…Have a nice weekend, Andrew.
Right now, I’m off to the local Christmas carnival and fireworks.

shalom! - john (eternalpurpose.org.uk)