Source: Margaret Barker, Temple Theology: An Introduction (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 53–73.
3. The Temple and Atonement.mp4
Temple Roots - Divine Atonement.pdf
Jesus_The_LORD_High_Priest_Atonement.m4a
This topic explores the centrality of atonement within the ancient Israelite temple and its profound influence on early Christian teachings. Barker argues that the figure of the high priest, who performed the Day of Atonement rituals, represented the LORD, understood as the pre-incarnate Son of God. She contends that early Christians, drawing from Old Testament interpretations and traditions surrounding the high priesthood and figures like Melchizedek, identified Jesus Christ as this very LORD, the God of Israel incarnate, who brought the ultimate atonement. The text aims to reveal these often-overlooked temple roots of Christian doctrine, particularly concerning the identity and work of Jesus
Have you ever read a familiar story from the Bible and felt like you were missing a piece of the puzzle? The narratives and teachings can sometimes feel distant, separated from us by a vast cultural and historical gap. This gap often exists because we've lost the original context that gave these stories their deepest meaning for the first Christians. That "lost context" is the world of the ancient Jerusalem temple—a world whose complex rituals and profound beliefs formed the bedrock of a single, coherent system of thought that undergirded the entire New Testament.
This post will explore five of the most surprising ideas from this ancient world, drawing on the scholarship of Margaret Barker. These are not just a list of interesting facts, but interconnected pillars of a unified "temple theology." Once understood together, they reveal how the life, death, and identity of Jesus were seen not as a radical break from the past, but as the ultimate fulfillment of a divine pattern established long before.
New Testament students have long been perplexed by Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 8:6, where he distinguishes between "one God, the Father" and "one Lord, Jesus Christ." For a monotheistic Jew like Paul, how was this distinction possible? The early Christian answer was both simple and radical: they identified Jesus as the LORD, the God of Israel from the Old Testament.