The Approach of Early Christian Commentators

"Early Christian commentary, whether Alexandrian or Antiochene, focused on the world of the Bible, its vision and understanding of the created world. Patristic commentary did not start with the world or life and then go to the Bible for understanding, whether it be historical or theological, as later modern commentators will do. The difference which represents a major shift in modernity is what John O’Keefe and R. R. Reno have called “the sanctified vision.” Early Christian commentators understood Holy Scriptures as indeed the revelation of God, not the thing that points revelation. Their commentating on the Bible therefore, sought meaning within the text, not from it. Early commentators saw all Scripture as relevant, even the seemingly mundane details, because of the Christian assumption that “the text is the verbal form of divine pedagogy,” all of it aiding in the development of the Christian life. As a result, in practice this looked like an intensive reading that focused on connections between words, images, and phrases, associating them with one another and building up a world of cross-links that evoke many layers of meaning. This moving across the text of the Bible, not past it, is what makes early commentary feel so different and foreign to modern readers. It is based on an entirely different worldview, one of universal interconnectedness, and a higher theology of Scripture, than later readers will possess."

Mark Gignilliat and Jonathan T. Pennington, “Theological Commentary,” in A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation, ed. Craig Bartholomew and Heath A. Thomas (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2016), 241.

New Commentary Series

Bloomsbury T&T Clark launched a new commentary series entitled the International Theological Commentary (ITC) Series. The first volume is Joel by Christopher Seitz. You can read more about this volume and the series through an interview with the series editors here.

Free Logos Book for February: Journal of Theological Interpretation, Volume 1

The free Logos Book for February is volume 1 of the Journal of Theological Interpretation. You can also purchase John Walton's Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology. You can also enter to win the entire 12 volumes of the Journal of Theological Interpretation. Go the Logos' Free Book of Month page to enter and download your free book today!

Free Book: Theological Interpretation of the New Testament

This week only you can get Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s Theological Interpretation of the New Testament for free. You will need to provide your email and sign up to receive emails from Baker Publishing. To sign up you can use this link.

HT: Greg Williams

Challenges of Theological Interpretation in the Gospels

I recently posted on a quote from Timothy Wiarda on how to find theological themes in the Gospels. Wiarda goes on to address three concerns that some interpreters have about this exercise. (1) “Some fear that the formative power of these narratives will be compromised.” The idea seems to be that there is the potential that the power inherent in the story itself will be tempered by reducing it to a theological principle. (2) Some wonder whether one can properly draw theological principles for the post Easter church from pre-Easter historical descriptions. (3) Some have concerns at a theoretical level, namely that, “Theological concepts, which express universal principles in propositional form, belong to one order of discourse, while the concrete, history-rooted narratives of Scripture belong to another. How would you address these concerns?

Timothy Wiarda's new book Interpreting Gospel Narratives: Scenes, People, and Theology (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010), 85–6, 88–9.

An Appraisal of New Testament Studies

Paul Wolfe, one of my former professors, has written a nice article ("Appraising New Testament Studies," Southwestern Journal of Theology 52 [2009], 74–82) summarizing and evaluating some recent trends in New Testament studies. Wolfe focuses on four areas of New Testament interpretation.

A present preoccupation – Anti-imperial interpretation (e.g., R. Horsley)

A new paradigm for old evidence – the New Perspective on Paul (e.g., E. P. Sanders, J. D. G. Dunn, N. T. Wright)

A restatement of old assumptions – a general rather than specific audience for the Gospels (R. Bauckham)

A Rereading of the New Testament – Theological interpretation (e.g., B. Childs, D. Treier, M. Bockmuehl)

Wolfe also offers the following observations concerning the future of these developments.

“It generally takes at least a generation, and often longer, for a new development to get enough traction to affect a broad range of interpreters and then begin showing up in subsequent works. The New Perspective on Paul is already deeply entrenched in one form or another and will likely be a development with significant pedigree. The abandonment of the search for the historical audiences or communities of the Gospels is likely too much to ask of main stream scholarship. Evangelicals and lay readers already approach the Gospels with little concern for such a search, so Bauckham’s thesis is not so much of a development as a sophisticated foundation for an approach already widely in place. Unfortunately it will continue to be ignored by most of main-stream scholarship. It is too early to tell if the current trend of anti-Imperial readings of the NT will have much of a legacy. I doubt so, for such readings are under the spell of the current secular political climate, which the readings themselves may not outlast. Theological reading of the NT is gaining significant traction and looks to be a major development with staying power. It, too, is already widely practiced.”

Kevin Vanhoozer: Ten Theses on Theological Interpretation

Michael Bird has posted "Ten Theses on Theological Interpretation" articulated by Kevin Vanhoozer: in a recent paper. The ten theses are:

1. The nature and function of the Bible are insufficiently grasped unless and until we see the Bible as an element in the economy of triune discourse.

2. An appreciation of the theological nature of the Bible entails a rejection of a methodological atheism that treats the texts as having a “natural history” only.

3. The message of the Bible is “finally” about the loving power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16), the definitive or final gospel Word of God that comes to brightest light in the word’s final form.

4. Because God acts in space-time (of Israel, Jesus Christ, and the church), theological interpretation requires thick descriptions that plumb the height and depth of history, not only its length.

5. Theological interpreters view the historical events recounted in Scripture as ingredients in a unified story ordered by an economy of triune providence.

6. The Old Testament testifies to the same drama of redemption as the New, hence the church rightly reads both Testaments together, two parts of a single authoritative script.

7. The Spirit who speaks with magisterial authority in the Scripture speaks with ministerial authority in church tradition.

8. In an era marked by the conflict of interpretations, there is good reason provisionally to acknowledge the superiority of catholic interpretation.

9. The end of biblical interpretation is not simply communication - the sharing of information - but communion, a sharing in the light, life, and love of God.

10. The church is that community where good habits of theological interpretation are best formed and where the fruit of these habits are best exhibited.

Make sure to read the rest of the post here.

Gorman on Theological Interpretation

Michael J. Gorman has posted excerpts from hisdiscussion of the ological interpretation from the revised and expanded edition of Elements of Biblical Exegesis (Hendrickson, 2009). You can read it here.

HT: Nijay Gupta

Latest Princeton Theological Review

The latest issue of the Princeton Theological Review is available here for free. The focus of the issue is theological hermeneutics.

Thanks to the Sean the Baptist blog for the heads up.