Corporate personality is a concept in

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...

that was articulated by

H. Wheeler Robinson Henry Wheeler Robinson, known as H. Wheeler Robinson (7 February 1872 in Northampton, England – 12 May 1945 in Oxford, England) was a British theologian. Career H. Wheeler Robinson was educated at Regent's Park Baptist College, then still i ...

. As originally formulated, it dealt with areas of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

where the relationships between individuals and the groups that they were part of were treated. For example, Achan's family was (at least in some interpretations of the text) collectively punished for a sin that is viewed as primarily Achan's alone. It has since fallen out of favour with theologians, who now favour other interpretations of the Old Testament. However, some theologians still use the idea, construed in a more narrow sense, to explain the use of "" for "in Christ" (amongst others) in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

writings of

Paul the Apostle Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

. The notion of Old Testament corporate personality encompasses four things: :;identification:Individuals are never considered to be isolated from the groups that they belong to, and are often treated as representatives for, or even as wholly identified with, those groups. :;extension:The boundaries of the individual are extended to additionally encompass other people that belong to that individual. This extension can be both in space, from a king to a kingdom, and in time, from a parent to his descendants. Examples of extension include Achan (mentioned earlier),

Korah Korah ( he, ''Qōraḥ''; ar, قارون ''Qārūn''), son of Izhar, is an individual who appears in the Book of Numbers of the Hebrew Bible and four different verses in the Quran, known for leading a rebellion against Moses. Some older Englis ...

(

Izhar According to the Torah, Izhar () was the father of Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri, and was a son of Kohath and grandson of Levi, consequently being the brother of Amram and uncle of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses. No further details of his life are given by ...

's son), and

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, where a leader is punished or rewarded by punishing or rewarding those whom he leads. :;realism:The relationship between the group and the individual is a real one. :;oscillation:There exists an oscillation back and forth between the group and the individual. In Pauline theology, the notion of corporate personality is largely restricted to its representational aspect. Paul's comparison between

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

is viewed, by those theologians that adhere to the notion, as an identification of Christ as the king and those people in the kingdom that he leads. Similarly, in his

Epistle to the Galatians The Epistle to the Galatians is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul the Apostle to a number of Early Christian communities in Galatia. Scholars have suggested that this is either the Roman province of Galatia in sou ...

, Paul speaks of Gentiles being blessed both "in" Abraham and also "with" him—which these theologians hold to be another example of corporate personality in Paul's writings.

Footnotes

* "in thee" is the

KJV The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

translation of the Greek. The

NIV Niv may refer to: * Niv, a personal name; for people with the name, see * Niv Art Movies, a film production company of India * Niv Art Centre, in New Delhi, India NIV may refer to: * The New International Version, a translation of the Bible into ...

uses the English translation "through you" for "", on the basis that Paul is directly quoting the promise to Abraham in

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

12:3, whose original Hebrew preposition "be" (which was translated to "" in the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

) is more accurately translated in the

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

sense of "by means of". Hence "through" rather than "in".

See also

Footnotes

References

Further reading