Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

REGENERATION

The regeneration of life, conceived literally or figuratively, is a recurrent theme in Jewish and Christian literature, especially in contexts of recovery after personal or national catastrophe and/or in cosmic, eschatological contexts. Technically, “regeneration” translates Gk. palingenesía (“to create again”). This term, which occurs only twice in the NT (Matt. 19:28; Titus 3:5), is strongly attested in Stoic teachings about cyclical conflagration and regeneration of the cosmos. Philo uses the same term to refer to the restoration of life to the earth after the Flood (Life of Moses 2.65), and Josephus writes of the regeneration of the people Israel after exile (Ant. 2.66). It is likely that Matthew, following Jewish apocalyptic sensibilities, envisions cosmic destruction and renewal once and for all at the last judgment. In Titus the focus is personal, not cosmic: salvation comes to the individual through the “washing of regeneration and renewal (anakaínōsis) by the Holy Spirit.” And yet for Titus, as for other NT writers concerned with spiritual regeneration of the person (cf. Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 4:16; Col. 3:10), individual renewal is but a part of the awaited eschatological “blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

The idea of regeneration is also conveyed by various other terms in both Hebrew and Greek. In Hebrew, the terms ḥāḏaš (“renew”) and ḥalap (“change, renew”) convey related meanings, i.e., respectively, the renewal of “right spirit” in Ps. 51:10(MT 12) and of “strength” in Isa. 40:31; 41:1. Several other verb stems, when combined with the idea of newness (ḥāḏāš), behave similarly: hence, bārāʾ (“create”) and kāraṯ (“cut, make”) render, respectively, “a new heart” in Ps. 51:10(12) and “a new covenant” in Jer. 31:31-34. Notably, the notion of cosmic regeneration, first attested in Isaiah’s prophecy of the creation of the new heaven and earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22), is reused and extended in both Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature (e.g., 1 En. 45:4; 72:1; 2 Bar. 32:6; 57:2; 2 En. 65:7; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).

Elsewhere in the NT the notion of regeneration may also be conveyed by the Greek terms anagennáōmai (“be born anew”; 1 Pet. 2:2), anakainóō (“renew”; 2 Cor. 4:16; Col. 3:10), anakaínōsis (“renewal”; Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:5), and anakainízō (“renew, restore”; Heb. 6:6). In John’s Gospel regeneration is in view in the pointedly ambiguous imperative, “You must be born ánōthen (‘from above’; ‘anew’).” In the NT generally, regeneration motifs denote both the salvific, spiritual transformation already begun in human beings by the work of Christ and the expectation of a future new creation. The NT language of personal regeneration has given rise to different and often conflicting theological views on the nature of baptism.

Alexandra R. Brown

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

REGENERATION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)