Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

OT in the NT

Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

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This 964-page (and 900,000-word) book has been in the works for six years:

Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

G. K. Beale, D. A. Carson, Benjamin L. Gladd, and Andrew David Naselli, eds. Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023. [Available from Logos, Amazon, and Westminster Bookstore.]

For a list of all the articles and contributors along with some sample essays, check out the 99-page PDF sample at Westminster Bookstore (click “Read Sample” under the book cover).

The book supplements Beale and Carson’s Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament.

The book includes …

  • 35 surveys of the use of the OT in the OT (e.g., the use of the OT in Jeremiah)
  • 19 surveys of the use of the OT in the NT (e.g. the use of the OT in Matthew)
  • 53 biblical-theological essays (e.g., covenant, image of God)
  • 22 essays related to inner-biblical exegesis (e.g., typology, letter couriers)
  • 7 essays on Jewish exegesis (e.g., the use of the OT in the Pseudepigrapha)
  • 5 theology essays (e.g., theological interpretation)

In addition to serving as one of the editors, I contributed two essays:

  • “History of Interpretation: 1800 to Present” (pp. 319–27)
  • “Serpent and Antichrist” (pp. 775–79)

Students can use this resource to learn the field. Pastors can use it for sermon prep. And scholars can use it for its bibliographies and breadth of topics.

Update on 11/7/2023: In this 50-minute podcast episode, Matt Harmon interviews Ben Gladd: “Introducing the Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament.”

Update on 11/15/2023: Ben Gladd and me at our book display at ETS:

Three Views on Israel and the Church: Perspectives on Romans 9–11

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This debate-book releases this week:

Jared M. Compton and Andrew David Naselli, eds. Three Views on Israel and the Church: Perspectives on Romans 9–11. Viewpoints. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2019.

You can preview the book with Amazon’s “Look inside” feature. [Read more…] about Three Views on Israel and the Church: Perspectives on Romans 9–11

A New Massive Book on the Bible’s Authority

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enduringThis book officially releases today:

D. A. Carson, ed. The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.

It’s massive. And it was an honor to contribute 44 of its 1240 pages. (More on that below.)

Here is a nearly 18-minute interview with Carson about the book:

Carson explains in the preface (p. xvi), [Read more…] about A New Massive Book on the Bible’s Authority

Psalm 110 and the Logic of Hebrews: An Interview with Jared Compton

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comptonThis book recently released:

Jared Compton. Psalm 110 and the Logic of Hebrews. Library of New Testament Studies 537. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015.

Jared (@jaredmcompton) entered the PhD program at Trinity one year after I did, and he and our wives became close friends. While we were at Trinity, we both joined CrossWay Community Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and learned so much from Mike Bullmore. After serving as a NT professor at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary for a few years, Jared returned to CrossWay Community Church as one of their pastors.

Both Jared and I wrote our dissertations under Don Carson on the use of the OT in the NT. Jared focused on how Hebrews uses Psalm 110, and now it’s in the prestigious LNTS series. Jared kindly agreed to answer some questions about his new book:

1. What sparked your interest in Hebrews and this topic?

[Read more…] about Psalm 110 and the Logic of Hebrews: An Interview with Jared Compton

12 Primary Ways the New Testament Uses the Old Testament

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bealeThe below list comes from an excellent new handbook:

G. K. Beale. Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012. xviii + 173 pp.

A 39-page PDF that includes the table of contents is available here.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy this book is to read. I’ve read a lot of Greg Beale’s work (books, articles, reviews), and this book is by far his most readable work I’ve read. His other works tend not to follow the maxim, “Omit needless words,” and his syntax and word choices often seem like they’ve been translated from German into English by a Frenchman (hyperbole alert).

(I just lost my credibility with my fully Reformed friends because they regularly plow through the writings of Puritans and old Presbyterians and don’t understand how I could possibly find Beale difficult to read.)

Chapter 4 lists 12 primary ways the NT uses the OT (pp. 55–93): [Read more…] about 12 Primary Ways the New Testament Uses the Old Testament

Progressive Covenantalism: A Via Media between Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism

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gentry-wellumLast week I finished plowing through this ambitious 848-page book:

Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum. Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

The book argues for a via media between covenant theology and dispensationalism that the authors call progressive covenantalism (similar to new covenant theology).

Wellum and Gentry routinely distinguish their view from each of the two major systems in a distinctive way: [Read more…] about Progressive Covenantalism: A Via Media between Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism

From Typology to Doxology: Paul’s Use of Isaiah and Job in Romans 11:34–35

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typologyThis book just came out:

Andrew David Naselli. From Typology to Doxology: Paul’s Use of Isaiah and Job in Romans 11:34–35. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2012. 201 pp.

It’s available in print (unlike the last one) and will soon be for Kindle.

From the Back Cover

At the end of Romans 11, Paul quotes both Isaiah and Job. As with other New Testament uses of Old Testament texts, this raises several questions. What is the context of these Old Testament passages? How are they used in other Jewish literature? What is Paul’s hermeneutical warrant for using them in Romans 11? What theological use does Paul make of them? How, if at all, does their use in Romans 11 contribute to the broader discussion on the use of the Old Testament in the New? In addressing these questions, this book reveals a remarkable typological connection that climaxes in the doxology of Romans 11:33–36, exalting God’s incomprehensibility, wisdom, mercy, grace, patience, independence, and sovereignty.

(Endorsements from Don Carson, Tom Schreiner, and Bob Yarbrough are listed here.) [Read more…] about From Typology to Doxology: Paul’s Use of Isaiah and Job in Romans 11:34–35

The Importance of Extracanonical Jewish Literature for NT Studies

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Richard Bauckham, The Jewish World around the New Testament  (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010), 211:

The NT student and scholar must use the Jewish literature in the first place to understand Judaism. Only someone who understands early Judaism for its own sake will be able to use Jewish texts appropriately and accurately in the interpretation of the NT. The famous warning issued by Samuel Sandmel against ‘parallelomania’ in NT studies has its most general application here. Someone who knows the Jewish literature only in the form of isolated texts selected for the sake of their apparent relationship to NT texts will not understand those texts in their own contexts (literary and otherwise) and so will not know whether they constitute real or only apparent parallels and, even supposing they are real parallels, will not be able to use them properly. A principle which NT students and even NT scholars rarely take to heart is that, for the sake of a balanced view of the relationship of Christianity to early Judaism, it is just as important to study Jewish texts which are least like anything in the NT as it is to study those with which the NT writings have most affinity.

Related:

  1. Six helpful resources that explain the nature and significance of extracanonical Jewish literature
  2. Tom Schreiner warns, “Too often in NT studies alleged background material is used to ‘prove’ various interpretations. Anyone who reads in NT studies knows how speculative such reconstructions can be. In reading such reconstructions I have often wondered why we complain about systematic theologians being speculative!”