Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [55]-62). Issued also in microform.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [55]-62).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-194).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-194).

Thesis (M.A.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2003. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [116-126]).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-111).

No description available.

The research sets out to inquire into Paul's initial thoughts on the Holy Spirit. Paul’s convictions, that he was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles and that God has given the Spirit upon the Gentiles apart from Torah obedience, are foundational for any enquiry on the subject. The key questions are: Did Paul expect a bestowal of the Spirit upon the Gentiles apart from Torah obedience when he went into Gentile mission? And, how can we account for Paul's conviction that God has poured out the Spirit upon the Gentiles? Central to our argument is Paul's conviction that God has graciously endowed the gift of the Spirit upon his Gentile converts, an understanding that is rooted primarily in his own conversion/call experience and secondarily in his experience with and as a missionary of the Hellenistic community in Antioch. By investigating the range of expectations of the Spirit that were present in Hebrew scripture and in the wider Jewish literature, the study found that such a concept is rare, and that it is usually the covenant community to which the promise of the Spirit is given. Further, Paul's own pre-Christian convictions about the Spirit, which particularly evolved from his own self-perception as a Pharisee and persecutor of the church, display a continuity between his own thought patterns and those of Second Temple Judaism. Paul’s Damascus experience was an experience of the Spirit. His experience of the 'glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor.3.1-4.6) provided him with the belief that there is now a new relationship with God, which is possible through the sphere of the Spirit. In addition, Paul was influenced by the Hellenists, whose theological beliefs included a perception of the church as the eschatological Temple where the Spirit of God is the manifest presence of God. It is in these notions that one may trace the origins of Paul's thoughts on the Holy Spirit.

J. Adai's <i>Der Heilige Geist als Gegenwart Gottes in den einzelnen Christen, in der Kirche und in der Welt: Studien zur Pneumatologie des Epheserbriefes</i> (1985) advances scholarship a stage further by investigating Ephesians' concept of the Holy Spirit in <i>its own right</i>, not as part of Pauline pneumatology. His conclusion is Ephesians' pneumatology is a development from Paul in the Lucan direction. This raises two important questions: What is the relation between Lucan and Pauline pneumatologies? How do they relate to Ephesians? Adai offers no satisfactory answer: he did not compare Luke and Paul which would form the necessary background for an adequate solution. Given recent scholarly development on Lucan and Pauline pneumatologies (notably by J.D.G. Dunn, M.M.B. Turner, and more recently R.P. Menzies), a fresh investigation of Ephesians' pneumatology is necessary. Our thesis examined Ephesians under four main headings: the Spirit's relation to Christ, eschatology, the believer, and the church. In <i>distinct</i> contrast to Adai, we began each discussion by investigating the scholarly propositions on Luke and Paul. Only after such an investigation, did we examine the internal evidence of Ephesians. Our observation is Adai had overstated both the dissimilarities between Ephesians and Paul, and the similarities between Ephesians and Luke. Despite some coincidental similarities between Ephesians and Luke, almost inevitably, the telling similarities (in both language and concept) are between Ephesians and Paul. The result of our research is that Ephesians' pneumatology is not Lucan and not deutero-Pauline: it is simply Pauline.

Thesis (M. Min.)--Northwest Baptist Seminary, 1992. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-66).