What Is Biblical Theology? E-Book

James M. Hamilton Jr.

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 129

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Is the Bible just a random collection of old stories, or is there something more going on within the pages of Scripture? Is it possible that the ancient books of the Old and New Testaments are part of a single, unified story, begun long ago but extending into our world today? In this introduction to biblical theology, professor James Hamilton orients Bible readers afresh to the overarching story line of Scripture, helping Christians read and interpret the Bible as the biblical writers intended and as the early Christians read it. Examining Scripture's key symbols, patterns, and themes, Hamilton helps readers truly grasp—and be transformed by—the theology of redemption contained in God's Word.

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“What Is Biblical Theology? confirms Jim Hamilton’s reputation as a top-shelf thinker and a wickedly good writer. This slim volume builds on the presupposition that the capacious biblical narrative—sixty-six books written by numerous authors and including stories, poems, proverbs, letters, and apocalypses—possesses a deep inner unity. Its unity arises from its divine inspiration, and it is in fact the true story of the whole world. Hamilton teaches his readers to engage in biblical theology, allowing the biblical story to shape us and conform us to God’s will.”

Bruce Riley Ashford, Provost, Dean of Faculty, and Associate Professor of Theology and Culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Theology is a word that comes with baggage. Most people, like me, find their brains shutting down a little at its mention, mainly because it stirs up the same sort of feelings as words like calculus and dentist appointment. But from the outset of this book James Hamilton assures us he’s not performing mental acrobatics (though I’m sure he could if he wanted to). Rather, he’s showing us that if the Bible is a story, and God is a storyteller, then biblical theology is less like math and more like literature; it’s less like a cold study of the chemical properties of paint and more like gazing at a Van Gogh. This is a book I wish I could have read a long time ago.”

Andrew Peterson, singer/songwriter; author, The Wingfeather Saga

“This short, accessible book shows how we can move away from making the Bible all about us, reducing it to just another self-help book. Anyone who reads What Is Biblical Theology? will begin to discover what the Bible is really about and will have more ‘Now I get it!’ experiences as it equips readers to trace the thematic threads and story-line resolutions of the Bible from beginning to end.”

Nancy Guthrie, author, Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament Bible study series

“Disoriented Bible reading leads to disoriented living. Too often the Bible reader parachutes into a passage without understanding the immediate context or the overarching context of the entire Bible. Getting oriented to the whole story of the Bible is the only way to right interpretation and right living. Gaining this whole-Bible interpretive perspective is the burden of biblical theology, and Jim Hamilton has given us an outstanding introduction to this important yet neglected discipline. If the interpretive approach of Hamilton’s book is applied, the reader will be able to better understand God’s Word, know the mind of Christ, and glorify God.”

K. Erik Thoennes, Professor of Theology, Chair, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; Pastor, Grace Evangelical Free Church, La Mirada, California

“It is always a delight to read a book written by someone saturated in Scripture. This is one of those books.”

Douglas Wilson, Senior Fellow of Theology, New St. Andrews College; Pastor, Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho

“It is an exciting privilege to watch and benefit from ‘the coming of age’ of the discipline of biblical theology in our generation. But in the explosion of literature we have needed a simple, brief, popular-level introduction—someone to provide us with an aerial view of the forest before we begin making our way among all the trees. This is what Jim Hamilton has done for us here. What Is Biblical Theology? provides a very helpful jump start for beginning students, and students of all levels will be blessed in the reminder of the marvelous patterns and themes that make Scripture such a glorious book.”

Fred G. Zaspel, Pastor, Reformed Baptist Church, Franconia, Pennsylvania

“I am truly amazed at all that Jim Hamilton has packed into this little volume. What Is Biblical Theology? is an engagingly written distillation of years of both scholarly and devotional study of the Bible. The reader will find a succinct, clear, and compelling guide to the overarching story of Scripture. It will be at the top of my list of books to recommend for any who want to better understand the Bible, the world, and their place in God’s story. This is a gift for which I am exceedingly thankful.”

Rob Lister, Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, Talbot School of Theology

“Want to know your Bible better? Of course you do! Jim Hamilton can help. What Is Biblical Theology? is a manual for seeing how the many books of the Bible tell the one story about Jesus Christ: who he is and what he has done. Dr. Hamilton will help you love Jesus more by understanding your Bible better.”

C. J. Mahaney, Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky

WHAT IS BIBLICAL THEOLOGY?

What Is Biblical Theology? A Guide to the Bible’s Story, Symbolism, and Patterns

Copyright © 2014 by James M. Hamilton Jr.

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Brandon Hill

Cover image: Brandon Hill Photos

First printing 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AT are the author's translation.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-3771-4 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3772-1 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3773-8 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3774-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hamilton, James M., 1974–

What Is Biblical Theology? : A Guide to the Bible’s story,

symbolism, and patterns / James M. Hamilton Jr.

1 online resource

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4335-3772-1 (pdf) — ISBN 978-1-4335-3773-8 (mobi) — ISBN 978-1-4335-3774-5 (epub) — ISBN 978-1-4335-3771-4 (tp)

1. Bible—Theology. 2. Bible—Introductions. I. Title.

BS543

230'.041—23

2013032856

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

For Evie Caroline our little girl

May it be granted you to clothe yourself with fine linen, bright and pure,

CONTENTS

1A Better World Breaks Through2What Is Biblical Theology?

Part 1

THE BIBLE’S BIG STORY

3The Narrative4Plot: Conflict, Episodes, and Theme5The Mystery

Part 2

THE BIBLE’S SYMBOLIC UNIVERSE

6What Do Symbols Do?7Imagery8Typology9Patterns

Part 3

THE BIBLE’S LOVE STORY

10A Song for the Lady in Waiting: The Bride of Christ and Biblical Theology11The Church’s Identity in the Story12The Church’s Setting in the Story13The Church’s Plot Tension and Its Resolution

Epilogue

For Further Reading

Acknowledgments

1

A BETTER WORLD BREAKS THROUGH

Sitting uneasily in his chair, straining for breath, he tilted his head toward his wife, nodded in the direction of my three sons, and said, “It’s good for them to be here.”

Looking at me he continued, gasping out the words, “We wanted to hide things like this. But it’s good for these boys to see me dying. Death is real.”

Later that night, his wife of more than fifty years became a widow.

Knowing that life was leaving his body, he saw right through our medicated, sanitized, hedonistic culture. He could ignore death no longer, and he was convinced others shouldn’t either. There was no avoiding it, so he looked it in the face and affirmed the goodness of the true story of the world. His approaching death was like a strong wind blowing away a fog of falsehood. A better understanding of the world broke through, as it had been doing since he was born again.

What we think and how we live is largely determined by the larger story in which we interpret our lives. Does your story enable you to look death in the face? Does your story give you a hope that goes beyond the grave?

In the throes of death that night, my older brother in Christ was rejecting false stories of the world. He refused to live his last moments informed by stories that would have people pretend death isn’t real or fear what lies beyond it.

He wouldn’t have put it in these words, but he was affirming that it is good for children to see that the Bible’s story is real. That’s what he meant when he said that it was good for my boys (ages six, three, and one at the time) to be there as his body fought through its failing moments.

Will it take the nearness of your own death for you to reject false stories in favor of reality?

The world does have a true story. The Bible tells it. This book is about the Bible’s big story, and it’s about how we become people who live in that story. To do biblical theology is to think about the whole story of the Bible. We want to understand the organic development of the Bible’s teaching so that we are interpreting particular parts of the story in light of the whole. As an acorn grows into an oak tree, Genesis 3:15 grows into the good news of Jesus Christ.

One of the primary aims of biblical theology is to understand and embrace the worldview of the biblical authors. In order to do this, we have to know the story they take for granted, the connections they see between the events in that story, and the ways they read later parts of the story by the light that emanates from its earlier parts.

The Bible has a narrative arc that begins at creation, rises over all that has been and will be, and lands at the end of all things. The prophetic and poetic parts of the Bible provide interpretive commentary on the story, and the apocalypses unveil the way things are and will be.

The Bible’s big story, this overarching narrative, is also built out of smaller stories. At the same time, the stories told in the Old Testament work together to set up a mystery resolved in Christ. Have you noticed the clues and hints that build to the climactic revelation?

Let’s think more about what biblical theology is, and then we’ll turn to the Bible’s big story, the symbols that summarize and interpret the story, and the church’s place in it.

2

WHAT IS BIBLICAL THEOLOGY?

What is biblical theology? The phrase biblical theology is used here to refer to the interpretive perspective of the biblical authors.

What is an “interpretive perspective”? It’s the framework of assumptions and presuppositions, associations and identifications, truths and symbols that are taken for granted as an author or speaker describes the world and the events that take place in it.

What do the biblical authors use this perspective to interpret? First, the biblical authors have interpreted earlier Scripture, or in the case of the very first author on record (Moses), accounts of God’s words and deeds that were passed down to him.

Second, they interpreted world history from creation to consummation.

And third, they interpreted the events and statements that they describe. Moses didn’t recount everything that Balaam said and did in the instances presented in Numbers 22–24. Moses selected what he wanted, arranged it with care, and presented the true story. The presentation of Balaam’s oracles that Moses gives us in the book of Numbers is already an interpretation of them, and because I believe that Moses was inspired by the Holy Spirit, I hold that his interpretation makes his account of the Balaam oracles more true, not less. More true because the way Moses selected, arranged, and presented (i.e., interpreted) enables his audience to see more clearly how what Balaam said and did fits into the true story of the world Moses tells in the Pentateuch.

To summarize, by the phrase biblical theology I mean the interpretive perspective reflected in the way the biblical authors have presented their understanding of earlier Scripture, redemptive history, and the events they are describing, recounting, celebrating, or addressing in narratives, poems, proverbs, letters, and apocalypses.

The previous sentence mentions various kinds of literature. The Bible is a book, and the men who wrote the sixty-six books that make up the Bible were engaged authors. That means we have to think about literature as we think about interpreting the Bible. A short guide like this cannot exhaust these topics, but it can point to the path and offer some thoughts on how to stay on it. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. The study of biblical theology is like a quest to become someone who can pull down strongholds with weapons mighty to God. For the quest to succeed we must learn to destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:3–5). Welcome to this entry point on the path toward becoming a biblical theologian. With the Lord’s help, the quest will take you into another world, the thought-world that is biblical theology.

Here at the outset, let me say what biblical theology is not—in my opinion, anyway. Some use the phrase biblical theology to mean something other than what I have hinted at above. Though we’re using the same phrase, we are coming at the subject very differently. By biblical theology I do not mean “my theology is more biblical than yours.” Nor do I refer to that stick some biblicists keep at hand for whopping the unsuspecting systematic theologian who happens along (I once heard a biblical scholar declare, “Systematic theology is bad; biblical theology is good”).

After the Enlightenment, certain ways of thinking about the world fell out of fashion in the academy. Particularly, the Bible’s. Heretics who styled themselves as courageous free thinkers chucked ideas that had prevailed among students of the Bible—biblical ideas about God’s sovereignty, the inspiration of Scripture, and the coherence and unity of the Bible’s message.

The story the Bible tells was rejected, and an alternative was put in its place. The evidence for this alternative narrative exists in the “scholarly” imagination. This alternative narrative has its own time line, its own authors, and its own account of what really went down: evolutionary development, competing ideologies, the documentary hypothesis, and so forth. On this reading, what the biblical texts say and the story the Bible tells is mere propaganda.

We have seen a world of responses to the influence of the (so-called) Enlightenment on biblical interpretation. One might say the responses have ranged from pole to pole.

At the South Pole the liberal response to the Enlightenment was to develop the academic discipline of biblical theology as a way to sift the wheat from the chaff. Liberal academics sought to discern which parts of the Bible’s theology remained relevant and which parts no longer were. Someone doing biblical theology in this way today might employ the method to argue that the Bible endorses same-sex marriage and denounces the use of fossil fuel. If the text as a whole is not authoritative, it easily conforms to our agenda.