Meredith G Kline

The scholarship of Meredith G. Kline (1922-2007) was characterized by a very high view of Scripture, a strong commitment to a Reformed view of biblical theology (centered on covenant), explication of the coherence of the Old and New Testaments, and, most of all, a desire to focus the attention of both scholars and lay Christians on the centrality of Christ's redemptive work of justifying his people and imbuing them with his perfect righteousness. Kline's writings are often quite creative and full of fresh insights, thoroughly intellectual but also pastoral, and they have provided many with the exciting, energizing feeling that they are reading and understanding the biblical text-and how Scripture in its entirety hangs together-for the first time.

Meredith G. Kline is famous in the Reformed community for his teaching and writings in biblical and covenant theology. Many of Kline's former students, as well as many pastors and laypeople in the Reformed community, consider his work to have had a transformative effect on their faith and thinking. His teaching and writings (he wrote seven books and more than seventy articles) were filled with fresh, insightful interpretations. Meredith Kline's posthumously published Genesis: A New Commentary which distills his mature views on the book of Genesis and, indeed, on Scripture as a whole-will appeal greatly to those who already admire his work, and make his thinking accessible to a broader audience.

From the Author's Preface: It could be this octogerian's last book and there were several things I wanted to do. One was to provide a primer in covenant theology. Another was to make more accessible the gist of some of my previous biblio-theological studies and to do so in a form serviceable to a wider readership than most of my publications. The major move in this democratic direction was to enliven the analysis of the covenants by introducing the series of covenant administrations within the intriguing story line of Har Magedon, the mountain of God. Extending as it does from creation to consummation, the tale of Har Magedon readily accommodates the total history of the covenants . . . Moreover, quite apart from such considerations the current state of secularized and dispensational versions of ""Armageddon"" (fantastic fiction all) makes a review of the biblical Har Magedon motif timely. Though the covenants remain the theological foundation and heart of the matter, by its adoption as our narrative framework, Har Magedon becomes the dominant surface theme. As we track this theme through the Scriptures we discover a recurring pattern, an eschatological megastructure that appears in each of the typological world ages culminating respectively at mounts Ararat and Sinai/Zion and then once again, climactically, in the antitypical New Covenant age. This Har Magedon paradigm, which shapes our telling of the covenantal tale, consists in the following complex of elements: establishment of a kingdom covenant by the Lord of Har Magedon; a meritorious accomplishment by the covenant grantee, triumphant in the Har Magedon conflict; a common grace interim before the coming of the covenanted kingdom; an antichrist crisis; consummation of the Glory-Kingdom through a last judgement victory of the covenant Lord in a final battle of Har Magedon. If only in condensed, digest fashion the present work is thus a comprehensive biblio-theological survey of the kingdom of God from Eden to the New Jerusalem. Meredith G. Kline was Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He received his B.D. and Th.M. degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) and his Ph.D. degree in Assyriology and Egyptology from Dropsie College. Professor Kline maintained an active writing and teaching ministry, serving on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. He was also an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The collection of essays in the recently-published Creator, Redeemer, Consummator, a festschrift written in honor of Dr. Kline, attests to the indelible influence his work has exerted on contemporary biblical and theological scholarship.

From the Author's Preface: It could be this octogerian's last book and there were several things I wanted to do. One was to provide a primer in covenant theology. Another was to make more accessible the gist of some of my previous biblio-theological studies and to do so in a form serviceable to a wider readership than most of my publications. The major move in this democratic direction was to enliven the analysis of the covenants by introducing the series of covenant administrations within the intriguing story line of Har Magedon, the mountain of God. Extending as it does from creation to consummation, the tale of Har Magedon readily accommodates the total history of the covenants . . . Moreover, quite apart from such considerations the current state of secularized and dispensational versions of ""Armageddon"" (fantastic fiction all) makes a review of the biblical Har Magedon motif timely. Though the covenants remain the theological foundation and heart of the matter, by its adoption as our narrative framework, Har Magedon becomes the dominant surface theme. As we track this theme through the Scriptures we discover a recurring pattern, an eschatological megastructure that appears in each of the typological world ages culminating respectively at mounts Ararat and Sinai/Zion and then once again, climactically, in the antitypical New Covenant age. This Har Magedon paradigm, which shapes our telling of the covenantal tale, consists in the following complex of elements: establishment of a kingdom covenant by the Lord of Har Magedon; a meritorious accomplishment by the covenant grantee, triumphant in the Har Magedon conflict; a common grace interim before the coming of the covenanted kingdom; an antichrist crisis; consummation of the Glory-Kingdom through a last judgement victory of the covenant Lord in a final battle of Har Magedon. If only in condensed, digest fashion the present work is thus a comprehensive biblio-theological survey of the kingdom of God from Eden to the New Jerusalem. Meredith G. Kline was Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He received his B.D. and Th.M. degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) and his Ph.D. degree in Assyriology and Egyptology from Dropsie College. Professor Kline maintained an active writing and teaching ministry, serving on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. He was also an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The collection of essays in the recently-published Creator, Redeemer, Consummator, a festschrift written in honor of Dr. Kline, attests to the indelible influence his work has exerted on contemporary biblical and theological scholarship.

As intimated by the subtitle, Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview, the immediate literary focus of this study is the book of Genesis and its account of the formative ages in the eschatological movement of the kingdom of God from creation to consummation. As also indicated by the subtitle, our biblical-theological commentary on Genesis is designed to uncover the foundations of God's covenantally administered kingdom with its major historical developments and its institutional structures and functions. In this way Kingdom Prologue seeks to provide an introductory sketch of the overall shape of the biblical worldview and the character of biblical religion. Meredith G. Kline was Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He received his B.D. and Th.M. degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) and his Ph.D. degree in Assyriology and Egyptology from Dropsie College. Professor Kline maintained an active writing and teaching ministry, serving on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. He was also an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The collection of essays in the recently-published Creator, Redeemer, Consummator, a festschrift written in honor of Dr. Kline, attests to the indelible influence his work has exerted on contemporary biblical and theological scholarship.

This Wipf & Stock reprint edition of The Structure of Biblical Authority by Meredith Kline is a digitally scanned facsimile of the William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company edition published in 1975.