Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Biblical Theology

Bob Bell’s Magnum Opus

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I’ve eagerly anticipated this 500-page book for several years:

Robert D. Bell. The Theological Messages of the Old Testament Books. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2010.

It revises Dr. Bell’s biblical theologies of each book of the OT that he has been working on for forty years. The table of contents is simple: an introduction to biblical theology and book theologies followed by thirty-three chapters on each book of the OT. (Bell combines Judges-Ruth; treats 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, and 1–2 Chronicles as single chapters; and combines Obadiah-Joel-Zephaniah.)

Here’s how he dedicates the book:

Dedicated to the scores of Advanced OT Theology students, who since 1970 have been writing outlines and papers on the book theologies of the Old Testament; especially to those OT PhD students who wrote book theologies as their dissertations

I was one of Bell’s Advanced OTT students, and I profited immensely from his instruction. (He also taught me two semesters of Hebrew and one semester of systematic theology and OT introduction. And he oversaw the PhD program I graduated from.) I’ll resist telling some entertaining Bell stories, and I’ll resists precisely marking up his book with a red pencil like he did so many of the projects, quizzes, and tests I submitted to him!

Here’s what’s on the book’s back cover (it’s heavy on the application-aspect of the book, perhaps to make it more marketable):

God says that all Scripture is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” But preaching from, teaching through, or even studying weighty books like Leviticus or 1 Chronicles can discourage both disciples and expositors. How can modern Christians be true to each book’s message and still make relevant application to their own lives?

This book suggests strategies for understanding and preaching every book of the Old Testament. Following the method for biblical theology outlined in its introduction, it bases each study firmly on the actual text rather than on imposed theological categories. Pastors will discover how to preach a sermon covering an entire Old Testament book or how to develop a series of sermons proclaiming that book’s themes. Also included are charts presenting data for each Old Testament book, as well as sample sermons on books and themes. Each chapter concludes with guidelines for applying its content to modern situations, making this book valuable for pastors, teachers, and students.

Robert D. Bell [born 1942] is chairperson of the Division of Graduate Studies and coordinator of curriculum and faculty development at Bob Jones University Seminary and Graduate School of Religion.

Dissertation Abstract

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In my last post, “Dissertation Defended,” I wrote, “I’ll share the abstract in a forthcoming post.” Here it is:

Doctoral Student: Andrew David Naselli
Dissertation Mentor: D. A. Carson
Dissertation Title: Paul’s Use of Isaiah 40:13 and Job 41:3a (Eng. 41:11a) in Romans 11:34–35

This dissertation examines the use of Isa 40:13 and Job 41:3a (Eng. 41:11) in Rom 11:34–35. Its structure generally follows the six-step approach used in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007). It addresses

    1. the NT context of Rom 11:34–35 [ch. 2]
    2. the OT context of Isa 40:13 and Job 41:3a [chs. 3–4]
    3. textual issues in Isa 40:13, Job 41:3a, and Rom 11:34–35 [ch. 5]
    4. relevant uses of Isa 40:13 and Job 41:3a in Jewish literature [ch. 6]
    5. Paul’s hermeneutical warrant for using Isa 40:13 and Job 41:3a in Rom 11:34–35 [ch. 7]
    6. Paul’s theological use of Isa 40:13 and Job 41:3a in Rom 11:34–35 [ch. 8]

    It concludes that when Paul quotes Isa 40:13 and Job 41:3a, he includes their larger OT contexts, which reveal a remarkable typological connection between the two OT passages and the end of Romans 11. The three rhetorical questions in Rom 11:34–35 communicate three of God’s characteristics that correspond to his ways in salvation history, and each carries simple and profound theological implications. By quoting Isa 40:13 and Job 41:3a in Rom 11:34–35, Paul typologically connects Isaiah 40 and Job 38:1–42:6 with Romans 9–11 in order to exalt God’s incomprehensibility, wisdom, mercy, grace, patience, independence, and sovereignty.

    The God Who Is There

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    Coming this July:

    D. A. Carson. The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010.

    • Leader’s Guide:
    • The chapters correspond to Carson’s fourteen-part overview of the Bible that he presented to Bethlehem Baptist Church in February 2009.
    1. The God Who Made Everything
    2. The God Who Does Not Wipe Out Rebels
    3. The God Who Writes His Own Agreements
    4. The God Who Legislates
    5. The God Who Reigns
    6. The God Who Is Unfathomably Wise
    7. The God Who Becomes a Human Being
    8. The God Who Grants New Birth
    9. The God Who Loves
    10. The God Who Dies—and Lives Again
    11. The God Who Declares the Guilty Just
    12. The God Who Gathers and Transforms His People
    13. The God Who Is Very Angry
    14. The God Who Triumphs

    This resource will serve the church well because it simultaneously evangelizes non-Christians and edifies Christians by explaining the Bible’s storyline.

    Update on July 29, 2010: Audio and video are available.

    Related:

    Master Scripture Index for New Studies in Biblical Theology

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    I recently prepared a master Scripture index for the New Studies in Biblical Theology series edited by D. A. Carson. I combined the Scripture indexes into a single spreadsheet and placed an asterisk by each page number where there is a discussion rather than merely a reference or brief comment. This is an especially valuable resource for those who are working on individual texts and would like to consult substantive discussions in the NSBT series.

    See the NSBT page hosted by The Gospel Coalition for the following:

    1. more information on how to use the master Scripture index (i.e., a massive Excel spreadsheet)
    2. Carson’s two-paragraph introduction to the NSBT series
    3. Carson’s introduction to each voulme in the NSBT series

    Below are the volumes in the series thus far:

    1. David Peterson, Possessed by God: A New Testament Theology of Sanctification and Holiness (1995).

    [Read more…] about Master Scripture Index for New Studies in Biblical Theology

    Quoting to Borrow Language and Ethos: An Illustration of How the NT Sometimes Uses the OT

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    Here’s an easy-to-understand illustration from Douglas J. Moo‘s Encountering the Book of Romans: A Theological Survey (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002). It’s entitled “The Many Uses of Quotations” (p. 161):

    We have encountered several places in Romans where Paul does not seem to apply the Old Testament in quite the way the original Old Testament context would seem to validate. This creates a theological problem. How can a New Testament writer use the Old Testament to claim that something is true when the Old Testament does not even teach what he claims it does? Such a procedure would be like our trying to prove a doctrine from a text that we have misunderstood. Understandably, we would convince few people. Answers to this problem, which theologians have discussed for years, are not simple. In fact, each of the texts has to be taken on its own, because they present different kinds of problems. But one part of the solution is to recognize that New Testament writers sometimes use the Old Testament not to prove a point but to borrow its language and ethos. An illustration will make the point.

    When I was young, and my sons were even younger, we often played basketball out on the driveway together. Then I, and they, grew. I became weaker and slower; they became bigger, stronger, and faster. Foolishly, I kept trying to compete. One day, I was playing one-on-one with my third son, Lukas. He had grown to about six feet six inches and 240 pounds, and was a very strong, highly skilled basketball player. I warned him, “Watch out, Luke, I’m going to take the ball to the basket on you!” He shot back, “Go ahead, Dad, make my day.” He was “quoting” the lines of the character Dirty Harry from the movie starring Clint Eastwood. Eastwood, portraying a cop, uses these words to dare a criminal to draw his gun on him. Luke did not have a gun; he was not threatening to shoot me. He did not intend to quote the author’s “original intention,” nor did I think that he was doing so. The language was a striking way of making a point: if I was foolish enough to try to take the ball to the basket on Luke, I could very well suffer the violence that Dirty Harry’s bad guy suffered in the movie. The quotation worked because we both knew the movie; it therefore communicated the point very well. So Paul and other New Testament writers often use Old Testament language. They know that their readers will understand it, and the application of the language often helps them to perceive a situation in a new light. Thus, in Romans 10:18, for instance, Paul quotes Psalm 19:4 not because he thinks that this text speaks directly about the preaching of the gospel to Israel; rather, he quotes it because the words would awaken echoes in his readers’ minds that would lend force to his assertion.

    Related: See G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, eds., “Introduction,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), pp. xxiv–xxvi. (Cf. my post on this volume.)

    A Test Case for How to Put the Bible Together: Baptism

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    Christians disagree—sometimes sharply—on how themes unfold in the OT and NT. Here are a few examples:

    1. the old covenant and new covenant
    2. law and grace
    3. Israel and the church
    4. promise and fulfillment
    5. type and antitype
    6. the Sabbath and Lord’s day
    7. circumcision and baptism

    People cannot study such issues in an isolated way without raising larger biblical and theological structural issues. The hermeneutical spiral is complicated, and the way people approach such issues reveals how they put the Bible together. That’s why, upon the recent recommendations of some friends, I spent several hours this afternoon carefully reading the following essay:

    BaptismStephen J. Wellum. “Baptism and the Relationship Between the Covenants.” Pages 97–161 in Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ. Edited by Thomas R. Schreiner and Shawn D. Wright. NAC Studies in Bible and Theology. Broadman & Holman: Nashville, 2006.

    (Note the free PDF.)

    This essay by Wellum, who is “neither Dispensational nor Covenantal (in the paedobaptist sense of the term)” (p. 123n44), is a fine example of what it looks like to approach an issue like baptism responsibly in light of Bible’s storyline.

    What follows is an outline of Wellum’s essay with quotations from the introduction and conclusion. (I’ve added the numbering.) [Read more…] about A Test Case for How to Put the Bible Together: Baptism

    Carson: “Mystery and Fulfillment”

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    I just read s-l-o-w-l-y through a 44-page article for the third time. (The last time I read it was fall 2006.) In my view this is the most brilliant academic article that D. A. Carson has written:

    D. A. Carson. “Mystery and Fulfillment: Toward a More Comprehensive Paradigm of Paul’s Understanding of the Old and New.” Pages 393–436 in The Paradoxes of Paul. Vol. 2 of Justification and Variegated Nomism. Edited by D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 181. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

    It richly repays repeated, thorough readings. But be warned: it’s dense. What follows is an uneven summary that doesn’t do it justice. (Read the whole thing. It’s worth the price of the book, which amount to a little less than $1 per page.) Understanding this article will help one make connections between the OT and the NT more richly.

    Note: Italics in quotations are in the original. [Read more…] about Carson: “Mystery and Fulfillment”