Book of Life

Ryan, I’ve provided some background to the question and some indication of the problems surrounding interpretation of the ‘book of life’ in the commentary.

As a somewhat related aside, it’s interesting to see throughout the OT, and on into the NT, the weight attached to things ‘written’, and the compiling of these into the ‘book’ (scroll, tablet, letter etc). This is especially so with genealogies, records of the faithful, David’s fighting men, list of returnees from the exile etc. Having your name ‘in the book’ was more than metaphor for an abstractly spiritual salvation - it was a key part of the identity of the people of God.

This continues into the NT, with Matthew’s gospel commencing: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ” - referring to the genealogy which follows (and establishing that Jesus was “in” as far as Israel and the book were concerned, and relating it to the narrative of Israel and its key features).

Arminians love to tease Calvinists by pointing out how names can be “blotted out” from the “book” (so presenting a challenge to the ‘once saved always saved’ theory of salvation). I once heard a justification for infant baptism/confirmation by an Anglican vicar along the lines that at baptism God ‘pencils in’ the name into the book of life, and at confirmation he ‘goes over it in ink’. Admittedly this was a rather flakey evangelical Anglican interpretation.

When Paul speaks of the book of life in Philippians 4:3, I’m sure he did not have in mind some literal book which was held by God in heaven, but meant that his fellow workers were attested by their continuing faithfulness to Christ, apart from any initial entry into the faith. This idea of the ‘book of life’ containing the names of the faithful, as opposed to those who had simply begun their new life in faith, is confirmed by the Revelation passages, in which ‘overcoming’ in the face of persecution is given as the condition of being in the book of life. (So maybe there was something in the flakey Anglican interpretation).

It’s also interesting that references to ‘the book’ in which names of the faithful are recorded becomes in the NT ‘the book of life’. This is a deliberate theological development of the metaphor, that the faithful are identified as those who have the gift of the Spirit/life, in a contrast of Spirit with letter.

This would directly relate to the view of the gospel as a proclamation about Christ, including the key events of his death and resurrection, as a result of which faith is generated in the responsive hearer, leading to willing obedience to Jesus as the Lord of life, and the reception of the gift of the Spirit. This would mark out the hearer’s new identity as being part of the renewed community of God’s people, in the light of which they are ‘justified’, or declared righteous. In this view, ‘life’ is the important qualifier in the phrase ‘book of life’, which signifies its development over previous usages of the term ‘book’ in the OT.

Of further interest is that in Revelation 20:12-15, the dead are judged “according to what they had done as recorded in the books”. This is the book of life, in which are recorded the names of the faithful. Those whose names are not in the book are thrown into the lake of fire (v.15). So there is a final judgement of the faithful, which is at least on the basis of deeds as well as faith. This makes sense of a great deal of other NT material, contrasting with the view that at the final judgement, the faithful simply plead their faith (alone) in Christ, and nothing more is taken into account.

(These thoughts don’t deal at all with the other idea, that the Book of Life referred exclusively to those who faced and would have to go through a 1st century parousia of judgement and deliverance - which I feel encounters some problems).