To understand how any Old Testament event (or office or officer or institution) preaches Christ and finds its fulfillment in him, we first must grasp its symbolic depth in its own place in redemptive history … The Passover lamb’s blood declared that . . . Continue reading →
Hermeneutics
Johnson: The Act Of Eating Was A Spiritual Decision
As far back as the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolized a spiritual issue. Eating from it would bring death but not because the fruit was physically poisonous. Indeed, its fruit was “good for food” (Gen. . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: The Relation Between Types & Fulfillment Is Real
To be responsible to the Bible’s divine Author and credible to our hearers, our identification of typological similarities (as well as contrasts between type and antitype) must be warranted by evidence in the text of Scripture, not merely the product of our . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: The Relation Between Type And Fulfillment
Similarly, the Davidic lament of Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” belonged on Jesus’ lips (Matt. 27:46) not because the sufferings portrayed in the psalm had no referent in David’s own experience but because David himself—in his . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: Were The Apostles Irresponsible Interpreters Of Scripture?
Old Testament texts may both refer (even retrospectively) to an Old Testament event (type) and find fulfillment (prospectively) in a New Testament event (antitype). Matthew’s application of Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt I called my son,” to the sojourn of Joseph and . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: That Adam Was A Type of Christ Implies Federal Theology
Adam was a typos of the Coming One. This first example vividly illustrates the similarity and dissimilarity between type and fulfillment that characterizes biblical typology. The similarity between Adam and Christ is that each acts as a covenantal representative whose response to . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: We Need A Stance More Than A Method
In order to read and preach the Bible as Peter and Paul and the preacher to the Hebrews did, what we need is not a foolproof step-by-step procedure to follow; rather, it is a way of viewing the Scripture and its witness . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: We Can Learn To Interpret The Bible The Way The Apostles Did
The epistle to the Hebrews, our one New Testament example of apostolic preaching addressed to an established congregation, illustrates the integration of Christ-centered biblical interpretation with hearer-contoured communication and application. Its exhortation to enduring faith, expressed in the sacrifices of good deeds . . . Continue reading →
Dennis Johnson: Do Nothing Other Than Proclaim Christ
Yet, the apostolic affirmation rings true: in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Therefore, the apostolic resolve makes perfect sense: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). . . . Continue reading →
Dennis Johnson: Two Truths Of Apostolic Preaching
The skillful and pastoral interweaving of theological discussion and exhortation, of doctrine and application, [as demonstrated in Hebrews] illustrates two truths about apostolic preaching that are often ignored in the polarized atmosphere of contemporary preaching. On the one hand, truly apostolic preaching . . . Continue reading →
Dennis Johnson On The Credibility Of Christ’s Gospel
Although Old Testament anticipation (whether in prophetic words or in “types,” those “incarnated prophecies” embedded in Israel’s concrete historical experience) and New Testament fulfillment are bound together by strands of similarity, the move from promise to fulfillment, from “shadow” to “reality” (in . . . Continue reading →
Dennis Johnson On Scripture As A Tapestry
Without ignoring the obvious fact that the Bible contains many stories, spanning thousands of years, with many participants, …the individual stories [are] threads woven into the pattern of a single tapestry: the Big Story of the Creator-King whose inscrutable wisdom, justice, and . . . Continue reading →
Sodom, Jude 7, Biases, And How To Interpret The Bible
On 20 September 2021, T. E. Bunch et al. published what became a hotly (pun intended) controverted article, which claimed to have found evidence of a “Tunguska sized airburst” over Tall el-Hammam, a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near . . . Continue reading →
Interpreting Scripture For Love: Augustine’s Threefold Hermeneutic (Part Three)
The final aspect of Augustine’s hermeneutic that we will observe is this: Augustine believed biblical texts could have more than one meaning or interpretation. Scripture, for Augustine, was not a one-dimensional black-and-white text filled with brute facts of history and bare propositions.1 . . . Continue reading →
Interpreting Scripture For Love: Augustine’s Threefold Hermeneutic (Part Two)
“Thou has pierced my heart with Thy Word, and I have loved Thee.”1 In the last article, we examined Augustine’s vigorous Christ-centered interpretation of Scripture. Another significant aspect of his biblical interpretation is love. For Augustine, the proper interpretation of Scripture leads . . . Continue reading →
Laboring For The Spoils Of Scripture: Augustine’s Threefold Hermeneutic (Part One)
“Like fingernails on a chalkboard.” Sometimes that phrase captures my response to a bizarre interpretation of Scripture. For example, I recently read a modern commentary on the story in Mark’s Gospel, where Jesus heals a man with leprosy: “Jesus stretched out his . . . Continue reading →
Waltke Lays The Axe To The Root Of Dispensationalism
On the other hand, dispensationalists commit a fundamental hermeneutical blunder when they simplistically base their views, on an ill-defined notion of “the normal, plain” meaning of Scripture, and even worse, against its own fundamental principle, disallow the analogy-of-faith principle that could correct . . . Continue reading →
Why Do Good Men Approve Of Bad Texts?
One of the more interesting questions we face each semester arises when we get to the Shepherd of Hermas, which was a wildly popular but almost certainly heretical text from (probably) the mid to late-second century A.D., is why it was so . . . Continue reading →
A Gospel-Double-Decker Not A Law-Sandwich
We were walking out of chapel after our weekly prayer group and a student said to me, about a sermon he had recently heard, “It was a law-sandwich.” That might not have been the first time I had ever heard that expression . . . Continue reading →
Hermeneutics Matter: Law And Gospel In Luke 18:18–30
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do . . . Continue reading →