Redemptive Kingdom Diversity

A Biblical Theology of the People of God

JARVIS J. WILLIAMS

© 2021 by Jarvis J. Williams

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Williams, Jarvis J., author.

Title: Redemptive kingdom diversity : a biblical theology of the people of God / Jarvis J. Williams.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, [2021] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021002684 | ISBN 9781540964625 (paperback) | ISBN 9781540964601 (casebound) | ISBN 9781493432608 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Ethnicity in the Bible. | Ethnicity—Biblical teaching. | Ethnicity—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Cultural pluralism—Biblical teaching. | Cultural pluralism—Religious aspects—Christianity.

Classification: LCC BS680.E85 W55 2021 | DDC 231.7/2—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002684

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016

For my beloved Auntie (June 12, 1959–December 8, 2018),

who loved me well and through whom God displayed redemptive

kingdom diversity when he created her, saved her,

and gave her beautiful Black and multiethnic Christian joy

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. The People of God in the Pentateuch

2. The People of God in the Historical Books, Wisdom and Poetry, and Prophets

3. The People of God in the Gospels and Acts

4. The People of God in Paul’s Epistles

5. The People of God in the General Epistles and Revelation

6. Synthesis: The People of God in the Old and New Testaments

7. The People of God and Orthopraxy

Index of Authors

Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings

Preface

I offer many thanks to many people for help with the completion of this book, which has been a long, joyful, painful, and exhausting undertaking! Technically, I’ve taken approximately eleven years to write this book. Practically, this book has taken me forty-two years to write (the number of years I’ve lived on this earth). I owe many thanks to Baker Academic, especially to Bryan Dyer, for supporting this project.

Many books, scholars, preachers, friends, and others have helped my spiritual, biblical, theological, and intellectual development. In this book, when I directly quote from a specific scholar and when a specific scholar influenced the way I construct a sentence, I notate and cite appropriately in the footnotes. However, this book primarily engages the biblical text. Readers ...