A Publication of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, Department of Christian Education
Theology Digest
D L O T A K O A FRESH LOLITERATURE T N E M A T S E T OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE STUDY OLD TESTAMENTS TIPS FOR PASTORS THE OTHER OLD TESTAMENT
Theology Digest
Contents
PRESIDENT Pastor Ronald Grant
From the Desk of the Publisher By Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. ����������05
PUBLISHER Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. EDITOR Elder Deidrea Sealy CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min Pastor James D. Williams Pastor Norman Scott Rev. Patricia Rickenbacker, Dean Rev. Lisa D. Jenkins STAFF Phyllis Curry Minister Michael Poindexter Minister Jahmel Robinson Minister Shanelle Turpin The Theology Digest is a quarterly Publication by the Empire Baptist Missionary Convention. We welcome all submissions which become the property of the publication and is subject to editorial revisions. For more information please contact Theology Digest, 2 Monroe Street, Amityville, NY 11701. 631-842-7091 or by E-mail: bishopacl@mindspring.com A PUBLICATION OF THE EMPIRE BAPTIST MISSIONARY CONVENTION
Ten Things To Know Before Pastoring By Dr. Robert Houston ����������������������������06 7 Factors that Drive Church Unity �����������08 Forgotten Women of the Old Testament By Marg Mowczko ���������������������������������09 Introducing Dr. Christine Hayes ��������������12 Contemporary Bible Study: Building Influence By Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. ����������14 How Were People In The Old Testament Saved? By Yancy Arrington ���������������������������������16 Something for Pastors By Rick Warren ��������������������������������������18
Commission on Media and Technology
The Other Old Testament By Philip Jenkins �����������������������������������21 Biblical Theology without Typology? By Joel Willitts ���������������������������������������24
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From the Desk of the Publisher By Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min.
Hello and welcome to the Summer Edition of Theology Digest, a quarterly journal that examines pressing issues in the field of General Theology. In this issue we are concentrating primarily upon works of the Old Testament. This issue was designed, in part, to be a compliment to our upcoming theological intensive to be held in August on the campus of Yale University that will feature their Old Testament scholar, Dr. Christine Hayes. We are so looking forward to having a great time with our guest lecturer and we do hope that you will find time to be with us on Tuesday, August 26 and Wednesday, August 27, 2013 at the Omni at Yale. In this issue we not only introduce you to Dr. Hayes, but we are also sharing with you several articles on the subject of the Old Testament. We look at items such as “How Were People Saved in the Old Testament?”, Forgotten Women of the Old Testament”, and “A Problem with Biblical Theology”. In addition, we have included in this issue a great article from Dr. Robert Houston on “Ten Things I Wish I knew Before Pastoring”. We round out this issue with a playful but entertaining article and video based upon Will Smith’s popular TV show of the 1980s, “The Prince of Bel-Air”, that provides a quick overview of Baptist History. It is the aim and hope of this publication to stimulate your thinking on a variety of topics and prompt you to ignite your own creative and literary juices and make your own contributions to this literary conversation. Please feel free to write or email us with your thoughts, we are anxious to hear from you. 4 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
Ten Things To Know Before Pastoring By Dr. Robert Houston
Pastor Houston holds a Bachelors Degree from the Mt. Carmel Theological Seminary of Fresno, California and is currently the Senior Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Frankfort, KY.
I wish someone had taught me basic leadership skills. “I was well grounded in theology and Bible exegesis, but seminary did not prepare me for the real world of real people. It would have been great to have someone walk alongside me before my first church.” I needed to know a lot more about personal financial issues. “No one ever told me about minister’s housing, social security, automobile reimbursement, and the difference between a package and a salary. I got burned in my first church.” I wish I had been given advice on how to deal with power groups and power people in the church. “I got it all wrong in my first two churches. I was fired outright from the first one and pressured out in the second one. Someone finally and courageously pointed out how I was messing things up almost from the moment I began in a new church. I am so thankful that 5 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
I am in the ninth year of a happy pastorate in my third church.” Don’t give up your time in prayer and the Word. “I really don’t ever remember anyone pointing me in that direction. The busier I became at the church, the more I neglected my primary calling. It was a subtle process; I wish I had been forewarned.” I wish someone had told me I needed some business training. “I felt inadequate and embarrassed in the first budget meetings. And it really hit home when we looked at a building program that involved fund raising and debt. I had no clue what the bankers were saying.” Someone should have told me that there are mean people in the church. “Look, I was prepared to deal with critics. That’s the reality of any leadership position. But I never expected a few of the members to be so mean and cruel. One church member wrote something really cruel on my Facebook wall. Both my wife and children cried when they read it.” Show me how to help my kids grow up like normal kids. “I really worry about the glass house syndrome with my wife and kids. I’m particularly worried that my children will see so much of the negative that they will grow up hating the church. I’ve seen it happen too many times.” I wish I had been told to continue to date my wife. “I was diligent in dating my wife before I became a pastor. I then got so busy helping others with their needs that I neglected her. I almost lost my marriage. She felt so alone as I tried to meet everyone’s needs but hers.” Someone needed to tell me about the expectation of being omnipresent. “I had no idea that people would expect me to be at so many meetings, so many church socials, and so many sports and civic functions. It is impossible to meet all those expectations, so I left some folks disappointed or mad.” I really needed help knowing how to minister to dying people. “Some of those who have terminal illnesses have such a strong faith that they minister to me. But many of them are scared and have questions I never anticipated. I was totally unprepared for these pastoral care issues when I first became a pastor.” 6 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
Seven Factors that Drive Church Unity By Thom S. Rainer
Thom S. Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources (LifeWay. com). He was founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
1. Longer-term pastorates. The average tenure of a pastor in the unified churches was an amazing 8.2 years. 7 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
The pastoral tenure in the fragmented churches was 2.1 years. 2. Shorter and less frequent business meetings. Slightly less than half of the unified churches had annual business meetings only. Only two had monthly business meetings. The remainder of the unified churches had quarterly business meetings. All but four of the fragmented churches had monthly business meetings. 3. Balance of ministries. Balance of ministries for members and outreach ministries for nonmembers and non-Christians. While I cannot say that the balance is 50-50, there were certainly more outreach ministries in the unified churches than in the fragmented churches. The latter group of churches focused their ministries on their members. 4. Celebrate new Christians more. In the unified churches, the greatest joy expressed by members was hearing about people becoming followers of Christ. During one service where 14 new believers were baptized, the excitement was palpable. The fragmented churches tended to celebrate building programs more. 5. Highly intentional small group or Sunday school ministries. The unified churches exhorted everyone to get into a small group or Sunday school class. The fragmented churches usually had those ministries, but they were not a point of emphasis. 6. Emphasis on corporate prayer. The unified churches’ members prayed a lot together. The fragmented churches’ members did not. 7. Most ministries led by laity. Most of the ministries, even the largest and most important, were led by laypersons. To the contrary, the fragmented churches typically insisted that a ministry had to be led by a ministry staff leader. 8 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
Forgotten Women of the Old Testament By Marg Mowczko
Marg Mowczko is a resident of Wales and holds a undergraduate degree in Theology. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Early Christian and Jewish Studies
Ever heard of Sera, Aksah or Sheerah? I hadn’t . . . not until I decided to read through the Old Testament, slowly, keeping an eye out for every women mentioned. Here’s a little something about these three influential women. SERAH – Genesis 46:17; Numbers 26:46; 1 Chronicles 7:30 Serah was the daughter of Asher, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Serah is mentioned by name in three Old Testament genealogies but not much information is given about her. Apparently she lived an extraordinarily long time. Because of her longevity, she lived to know both her grandfather
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Jacob (born around 2000BC) and, five hundred years later, Moses (born around 1500BC). According to midrashic interpretations Serah was very beautiful and very wise. It is believed that Serah was asked to break the news to Jacob that his son Joseph was still alive and living in Egypt. She did this through a song while accompanying herself on a harp. Later, Serah made sure that Joseph’s bones were brought from Egypt to Canaan, the Promised Land. Her personal connection with Jacob and the Twelve Patriarchs would have given her importance in later generations. AKSAH – Joshua 15:16-19; Judges 1:12-15; 1 Chronicles 2:49 Aksah (or Achsah) was Caleb’s daughter. Caleb was highly respected in the Israeli community. Caleb and Joshua were the two good spies, and the only people who survived the entire 40 year trek in the wilderness to enter the Promised land. (All the Israelites who eventually entered the Promised Land had been born in the wilderness and not in Egypt.) In Joshua 15:16-19 NLT we read that Caleb offered his unmarried daughter Aksah as a prize. In Old Testament times, marriages were seen as much more than an alliance between husband and wife. Marriage was an alliance of two families, and so parents, especially fathers, played the major role in organising a match. Also, women were considered as the property of men in Old Testament times. Othniel was the one who won Aksah’s hand. He later became the first judge of Israel. At some point, Aksah asked her husband Othniel to ask Caleb for a field. Aksah was given a field from her father, but it seems to have been dry and difficult to work. Aksah was not impressed and got on her donkey and went to her father herself; she asked him for land with springs. Caleb agreed. So Aksah got her own piece of workable land [as did the woman in Proverbs 31:16.] Aksah’s story is repeated in Judges 1:12-15 NLT. SHEERAH – 1 Chronicles 7:24 Tucked away in a genealogy in 1 Chronicles chapter 7 is a woman named Sheerah. It is not entirely clear if this woman was the daughter of a man called Beriah (the son of Ephraim, one of 10 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
the sons of Joseph) or whether she was the daughter of Ephraim himself. Very few women are named in genealogies because the family line was traced through men. So it is very significant when a woman is mentioned, and even named, in one. Sheerah was obviously an influential woman, and probably wealthy. She built and established the towns of Upper and Lower Horon. These towns were built in a strategic location and went on to have a long history. Sheerah even built a town that bears her name: Uzzen Sheerah. She was probably a leader of the towns she established. Sheerah is just one example of a Bible woman who had a prominent position of authority and influence. And, as with other Bible women with authority, there is no hint that this was inappropriate or improper, or that anyone had a problem with it. There are several women in the Bible who showed initiative, influence and resourcefulness. Some of these women seem obscure to us, but they were far from obscure to the people of their time. These Bible women – which include Serah, Aksah and Sheerah – were prominent women with clout. 11 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
Introducing Dr. Christine Hayes
Dr. Hayes can be heard and seen teaching her award winning course, “Introduction to the Old Testament”, as apart of the Open Courses at Yale University, where she provides over 20 free classroom lectures on that subject. We strongly encourage you to check out her course at: http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145#sessions
This year, the Summer Theological Intensive, which will be held on the campus of Yale University will feature Professor Christine Hayes, who will lecture on the “Development of Old Testament Literature in the Ancient Near Eastern World”. This will be a provocative lecture that will invite intensive participants to consider where much of the literature that we find in the Old Testament came from prior to it appearing in the written form that we are familiar with in the Bible.
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Professor Hayes will challenge the intensive participants to consider ancient texts from other cultures such as the Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian and Assyrian civilizations that pre-dates Biblical literature by thousands of years and that includes narratives and stories that bear a striking resemblance to stories we find in the Bible, especially the first five books of the Bible. Dr. Hayes will question whether many of the Biblical stories we are familiar with have their origin in literary material that pre-dates the Bible. Dr. Hayes holds a Bachelors degree from Harvard University and has earned both a Masters degree and a PH. D. from the University of California, Berkely Campus. Christine Hayes is Robert F. and Patricia R. Weis Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1996, she was Assistant Professor of Hebrew Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University for three years. Her published works include several books and many articles in Vetus Testamentum, The Journal for the Study of Judaism, The Harvard Theological Review, and various scholarly anthologies. Her first book, entitled Between the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds (Oxford University Press, 1997) was honored with a Salo Baron prize for a first book in Jewish thought and literature, awarded by the American Academy for Jewish Research (1999). 13 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
Contemporary Bible Study: Building Influence By Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min.
Bishop Lewter is the Bishop of Christian Education for the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship and an instructor in their School of Episcopal Studies
Since this issue is dedicated to the literature of the Old Testament, we would like to share with you a Bible Study that is based upon one of the narratives of the Old Testament. This Bible Study examines how one can acquire influence. Saul was made king 3 times! But only after proving himself was he truly embraced as their leader. Here are 3 things that happened to Saul that helped him grow in influence and be embraced as the leader… 1 – ANOINTED OF GOD This may seem like a no brainier, but many try to put themselves in a place of influence because they are gifted or asked to stand in such a place. When it comes down to it, though, I’ve seen “leaders” that can draw a crowd and work a group, but can’t lead. The thing that they are missing is the anointing of God. Don’t under-estimate the importance of God’s anointing. This is critical! Once you have it, guard it. Be sure you’re walking blameless and in favor with God… don’t lose it! It’s the central spring of your influence. 2 – CONFIRMED BY LEADERS AND INFLUENCERS “The prophet is subject to the prophets.” An anointed leader of God will be seen by other leaders as such. It’s not a popularity contest, it’s just that leaders seem to have a way of knowing who the other leaders in the room are. When the people that are already in a place of leadership begin to recognize someone’s leadership ability, it grows influence quickly. Influence can be 14 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
gained because the other leaders and influencers are passing down the influence they already have. 3 – ACCEPTED BY THE PEOPLE Finally, if God annoints you, and other leaders confirm that Annointing, then the people will follow you. Some people try to jump the first two steps of the process and wonder why no one will follow. Let the people see that you have the anointing and they’ll see they should follow. Remember when Joshua took the spot of Moses? They agreed to follow Joshua because they understood why they should. Joshua had God’s anointing and Moses’ confirmation. KEEP GROWING! Luke 2:52 says, “Jesus continued to grow in favor with God and the people.” Jesus grew in influence. If Jesus had to grow at it, we will too! 15 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
How Were People In The Old Testament Saved? By Yancy Arrington
Yancey Arrington is the Teaching Pastor at the Clear Creek Community Church in League City, Texas. He holds a BA in Religion from Baylor University, Masters of Divinity with Biblical Languages from Southwestern Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Covenant Seminary. He is the author of the book Tap: Defeating the Sins That Defeat You.
It’s a fair question: How were Israelites saved in the Old Testament? The rationale behind the question mostly stems from the fact that we, as New Testament believers, can look back at the Person and Work of Jesus for our salvation. However, what if you lived during a time when Jesus hadn’t arrived, namely, the period of the Old Testament? Were you saved by your obedience to the Law? Did God just give everyone a “free pass” until Christ arrived? How did salvation work for those who were still waiting for the gospel of Jesus? One of my favorite responses to this question is from Old Testament and Biblical Theology scholar Graeme Goldsworthy. In his must-read work Gospel and Kingdom he writes: From man’s point of view we see the Scriptures unfold a stepby-step process until the gospel is reached as the goal. But from God’s point of view we know that the coming of Christ to live and to die for sinners was the pre-determined factor even before God made the world. We must not think of God trying first one plan and then another until he came up with the perfect way of salvation. The gospel was pre-ordained so that at the exact and perfect time God sent forth his Son into the world. In the meantime, until that perfect ‘fulness of time’ should be reached, God graciously provided a progressive revelation of 16 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
the Christ event. These prefigurements of the gospel had two purposes. First, this progressive revelation led man gently to the full light of truth. Secondly, it provided the means whereby the Old Testament believer embraced the gospel before it was fully revealed. The Old Testament believer who believed the promises of God concerning the shadow was thus enabled to grasp the reality. It was by Christ that the saints of Israel were saved, for such is the unity of the successive stages of revelation that, by embracing the shadow, the believer embraced the reality. Only in this way can we account for the ‘unity expressions’ of the New Testament which speak of Old Testament believers as hearing the gospel, seeing Christ, or hoping for a heavenly Kingdom. 1 Goldsworthy’s answer is one worth committing to memory. How were Old Testament saints saved? By Christ! But how could Christ save those who lived centuries before the Cross? Because God gave his people types, symbols, and experiences that progressively pointed to the arrival of Christ. They were intentionally given the shadow of things which one day would blossom into reality. And so, salvation came to Old Testament individuals who embraced the “shadow” of the One we, as New Testament believers, now see clearly in the light. 17 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
Something for Pastors By Rick Warren
Pastor Warren is the celebrated pastor of the Saddleback Church in California
One of your most important roles as a pastor is as vision caster. Sharing the vision of your church can’t be a one-time event. The Bible says, “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” (Proverbs 29:18, MSG) As the leader, God has called you to help your congregation see what God is doing in your midst. That’s why you must continually put the vision of your church before your congregation—at least every 26 days. That’s the Nehemiah Principle. In Nehemiah’s story of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, halfway through the project people got discouraged and wanted
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to give up. Like many churches, they lost their sense of purpose and, as a result, became overwhelmed with fatigue, frustration and fear. Nehemiah rallied the people back to work by reorganizing the project and recasting the vision. He reminded them of the importance of their work and reassured them that God would help them fulfill his purpose (Neh. 4:6-15). Although the wall took only 52 days to complete, the people became discouraged at the halfway point: just 26 days into the project! Nehemiah had to renew their vision. You’ve got to do that, too. It’s amazing how quickly human beings—and churches—lose their sense of purpose and vision. Vision casting is not a task you do once and then forget about. You mustcontinually clarify and communicate the vision of your church. This is the number one responsibility of leadership. But I want to challenge you to take this principle even further into the life of your congregation. Don’t just regularly communicate your church’s vision. Regularly show your ministry leaders their unique contribution to that vision. Help them see how their ministry moves the church toward its vision. People need to see the eternal significance of ministering in Jesus’ name. Vision motivates people. Guilt and pressure discourages people. Help people see they’re investing for eternity, that there’s no greater cause than the Kingdom of God. 19 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
The best kept secret in the Church is that people are dying to make a contribution with their lives. We are made for ministry! When everyone uses their unique, God-given SHAPE to make a difference for Jesus’ sake in your community, you’ll make a tangible, visible difference in your community. The church that understands this, and continually calls people to a vision where every member can express his or her uniqueness in ministry, will experience amazing vitality, health and growth. The sleeping giant will be awakened and it will be unstoppable. 20 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
The Other Old Testament By Philip Jenkins
Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University, and is based there in the Institute for Studies of Religion. His most recent book is Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses (HarperOne, 2011).
Throughout their history, Christians have used the Old Testament as well as the New. But their Old Testament references often derived from a much wider body of texts that we know under that name. Apart from the canonical books, many other works circulated purporting to expand on the stories found in the Hebrew Bible, and often under the 21 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
name of venerated prophets or sages. Unless we appreciate the volume and influence and such texts, it is often hard to understand references in the works of mainstream authors, to say nothing of their influence in art and literature. To understand just how much such alternative scriptures could diverge from familiar forms, look at the Epistle of Barnabas, a second century text that could easily have gained acceptance in the New Testament itself. (As it stands, it is listed among the Apostolic Fathers). At one point, the author refers to the story of Amalek, found in Exodus 17. Joshua has defeated this treacherous enemy, whereupon (according to the King James translation), “And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17.4). For Barnabas, though, such a story is multiply significant. He knows that, in Greek, Joshua is the same name as Jesus, so that references to the Old Testament warrior must be understood in that later messianic sense. He thus reports the story in these words: Moses commands Joshua, “Take a book in thy hands and write what the Lord saith, that the Son of God shall in the last day 22 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
tear up by the roots the whole house of Amalek.” (Barnabas 12.9, Kirsopp Lake translation). Although Barnabas is notionally quoting the Exodus story, his citation has precious little in common with the original. He has moreover added a whole eschatological and messianic dimension that absolutely is not in the original. Although he might be inventing these words himself, it is also likely that he is transmitting a whole tradition of Christian midrash on the original Biblical texts. Christians also drew on the pseudepigrapha, the works attributed to great figures of the Old Testament, to Abraham, Moses or Ezra. Many such works had originated from Second Temple Judaism, but Christian editors soon revised them to their own purposes. Isaiah was a very popular focus for such pseudonymous later works. The canonical Book of Isaiah was of course enormously influential in shaping Christianity, but other later works purported to give extra information about the prophet’s martyrdom and his ascension through the heavens. The Ascension of Isaiah probably dates from the second century AD, and both Jerome and Epiphanius quote it. Suggesting its wide influence, copies survive in multiple languages, including Greek, Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Old Slavonic. The importance of this Isaiah literature is beyond question, if we have any interest in the works that shaped the Christian mind through the early and medieval centuries. Yet it is also easy to see why it should escape the attention of non–specialists. Its notionally Old Testament setting would seem to make it relevant to scholars of the Hebrew Bible rather than of Christian literature, although its theology and message are both thoroughly Christian. We should in fact count works like the Vision of Isaiah as definitely part of the New Testament Apocrypha – a category that potentially can expand to considerable size!
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Biblical Theology without Typology? By Joel Willitts
Dr. Joel Willitts (Ph.D. Cambridge University) is Associate Professor in Biblical and Theological Studies at North Park University
I love biblical theology. Biblical theology with its focus on the use of the OT in the NT was what was so captivating to me as I sat in a Scott Hafemann class in 1997 – perceiving the unity of the OT and the NT continues to be the pursuit of my academic work. My first real academic writing was a thesis in the TH.M. at Dallas Seminary on Heilsgeschichte (“Salvation history”) in
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Galatians. Inherent in at least some approaches to biblical theology was the assumption of the unity of the OT and NT, and this was the arm of the discipline I was influenced by. In those days, I devoured the leading light of Heilsgeschichte, Oscar Cullmann (Salvation History and Christ in Time). In recent years I’ve noticed that I’ve become suspicious of biblical theology as a discipline though. In addition, in more recent years, I’ve come to think of the Bible as a story which has given me a new set of lens to look at the Bible as an unfolding story. I’ve begun to use narratology as a methodology for discovering unity. I think it has been this development in my own thinking that has caused me to look critically at the biblical theology of others. But just recently, I’ve come to realize what it is that makes me uncomfortable with much biblical theology today. I noticed it most clearly in two books on biblical theology published in the last year: Gentry & Wellum’s Kingdom through Covenant, and Goldsworthy’s Christ-Centered Biblical Theology. 25 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
Here’s my problem. These recent scholars, and a good deal many others, use typology as the preferred method for discovering unity. Typology is an interpretive move where the reader sees in an OT person or event a prefigurement (type) of something in the NT (anti-type), e.g. Moses and Jesus. While this is not necessarily problematic, the underlying assumption that is at work very commonly depreciates (at best!!) the earlier person/event in light of the later. As Matthew Boulton put it, “the occurrence of the latter seems to render the former either obsolete, no longer necessary or, at best, still venerable but nevertheless subordinate” (SJT 66[1]: 20). Here’s my syllogism: Most typological interpretation is supersessionistic. Most biblical theology uses typology. Most biblical theology is supersessionistic. Here’s my problem. I don’t think the apostles were supersessionists. I don’t think this is how they read the OT. And it doesn’t appear to be the way they thought about its prefigurements. Consider John 1:16-17: From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace; as the Law was given through Moses, so grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ (CEB). In this text the Evangelist is making a typological comparison between the grace given by God through Moses and that given through Jesus. In Jewish interpretation this is a classic qal vahomer (‘ the argument from the minor to the major ‘). For the logic to work, it would make no sense to downplay or to depreciate the former in view of the latter. Such a move would only depreciate the grace now given. In other words, the higher view one has of the grace given through Moses, the greater view one will have of the grace now in and through Jesus. Clearly in the comparison the latter (grace through Jesus) is related and dependent on the grace of the former (grace through Moses). One can only appreciate greatness of the latter in view of the former. Can biblical theology be done without a supersessionistic application of typology? 26 | THE THEOLOGY DIGEST
We are anxious to serve you and welcome an opportunity to speak with you. Please use the information to contact our office or to speak with a member of our administrative staff. New Life School of Theology “myseminaryonline.com” Mailing Address 2 Monroe Street Amityville, New York 11701 Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. (631) 842-7091 office bishopacl@mindspring.com Dean of Students: Rev. Justin Cohen, Ph.D. (215) 847-3979 Dr.Cohen@mcbi.edu 3303 Country Club Blvd., Cape Coral, FL :: 631 842-7091