THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE Part 3

Helpful Principles of TIOS

Breakdown of Barrier Between Biblical Studies and Theology

One of the primary goals of TIOS is to bring exegesis and theology back together again. The university has pushed these two fields into two different disciplines which rarely intersect, resulting in theology-less exegesis and exegesis-less theology. The emphasis on the combination of theology with biblical studies is an important aspect for evangelicals and one that plays an important role in many evangelical seminaries, not to mention the churches of evangelicalism. In my own training (as well as the training of my classmates who went to evangelical schools) the two disciplines were engaged. In our exegesis classes we discussed theology and in our theology classes we did exegesis, a pattern that I think should be common. Naturally, a divide still stands: we have professors of theology and Old Testament, for example. But the link between exegesis and theology is one that should be affirmed by evangelicals, especially as we train pastors for ministry. A few pastors have the idea that if they just exegete the text well their job is done, and the reminder from TIOS of the importance of theology in exegesis is helpful for them. One possible idea to further the connection between theology and exegesis would be to have more interaction between professors in different departments, perhaps even team-teaching classes on occasion (an OT theology class taught by an OT scholar and a systematic theologian, for example).

Higher View of Precritical Exegesis

In the common parlance used by biblical scholars a “classical view” tends to be a view from the 19^th or 20^th century. TIOS says this is far too myopic and we need to pay greater attention to interpretation from before the Enlightenment. This fits with the other beliefs of TIOS, since many of the precritical interpreters operated under other TIOS principles, such as the rule of faith. Similar to our American culture, evangelicals as a whole have little knowledge of history (even evangelical history, let along broader church history), and as a result we are doomed to repeat mistakes made by our ancestors. Paying attention to history is more than surveying the literature over the past two hundred years, or even making a nod to Calvin. We need more evangelical commentaries which engage the history of interpretation, even if we do not always agree with those who have gone before us. The Ancient Christian Commentary Series is a help in this, although the removal of the quotations from their context is unhelpful. I would love to have a series like ACCS which was more bibliographic, not necessarily giving the quotations, but extending coverage further through church history and listing more of the places where a biblical text is mentioned.

Login to add comments