In this book, Sidney
Greidanus answers a difficult, but important question, ‘How should one preach (and
by implication, read and understand) the Old Testament?’ I will first summarise
the flow of the book and consider some of the content:
1.
He presents the case
for the necessity of preaching Christ from the Old Testament (chapters 1-2).
2.
He traces the
history of preaching Christ from the Old Testament (chapters 3-4).
3.
He studies how
the New Testament preaches Christ from the Old Testament (chapter 5).
4.
He presents his ‘Christocentric’
method for preaching Christ from the Old Testament (chapter 6).
5.
He gives some practical
steps and examples to preach Christ from the Old Testament (chapters 7-8).
I appreciate
how he is sensitive to the objections to and challenges of preaching Christ from
the Old Testament. He does not dismiss these oppositions, instead he gives
justice to these concerns whilst arguing for his own position. Thus, his
assertions do not come across as dogmatic or narrow-minded.
I particularly
like his chapters on the history of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. They
are excellent in providing a basic overview of how the church has grappled with
this issue since the Apostolic fathers. However, he often has to generalise and
highlight certain aspects of the preaching of individuals and he can be accused
of over-simplification. Nevertheless, he is critiques with grace and acknowledges
the contributions of these preachers while exposing the fault in their
methodology. The first half of the book might seem to be superfluous, but that
shows how deeply and widely Greidanus has studied and thought about this topic.
And it is like a starter which whets our appetite for the later section where
he present his own position.
The
subtitle of the book tells us that he will be putting forward a hermeneutical
method. And I must say that I am quite satisfied with the method he proposes. He
proposes ‘7 ways’ which lead us from the Old Testament to Christ and explores
each in detail:
1.
The way of redemptive-historical
progression
2.
The way of promise-fulfilment
3.
The way of typology
4.
The way of
analogy
5.
The way of
longitudinal themes
6.
The way of New Testament
references
7.
The way of contrast
He derives
these 7 ways from the how the New Testament preached Christ from the Old Testament.
He is also aware of pitfalls and the need for guidelines, which he duly
suggests.
However I
should mention that some of these ways overlap and he does not give examples of
‘difficult cases.’ For example, I don’t think he mentions interpreting Ecclesiastes,
Esther or Job. So the reader has more work to do after reading this book. Also chapter
7: Steps from Old Testament text to Christocentric sermon presupposes the
reader is a preacher and familiar with how to interpret a Biblical passage.
Greidanus’
writing style is easy-to-read, it is scholarly in content, but not in tone or presentation.
This is not a book merely for the erudite. Kudos to him for managing to make difficult
concepts understandable and relevant. I definitely think Greidanus is a
must-read for a better understanding of the Old Testament – not just for the
preacher – but for any Christian wanting to read the Old Testament and to understand
it’s relevance for today. This book is a call to Christocentric gospel reading
(hence, preaching) of the Old Testament.
It is always a challenge to preach from the OT. How does one prevent what is preached as merely some moral lessons. To do this will be doing injustice to the entire sweep of Scripture. It cannot be that the author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit would merely allow a passage of the Bible, and in this case the Old Testament to be merely moral lessons. From the review here, I gather that Greidanus is providing a primer on Biblical Theology, which is an attempt to bring a single coherent theme to Scripture. Example is clearly shown from the 7 ways that he suggested for moving the Old to the New. That is to Christ Jesus himself, hence the Christocentric approach.
ReplyDeleteI will certainly get hold of the book to read as a guide to reading the Old Testament. In some circles the OT is not often preached and if preached, it is not in the context of the providing a bridge between the OT and Christ himself.
I believe the section on history of preaching Christ would be a very useful guide as we in the current century learnt of the struggle and the attempt to bring a unifying approach to understanding the entire Scripture. It ought to make the reader and the Bible student adopt a humble spirit in studying and teaching from the OT. If our forefathers had these struggles, dare we in this century assume that we have got all the answers in hand and that we have got the entire understanding of Scripture in hand and intact.
Understanding Scripture is a discipline that can be cultivated under the anointing and guidance of the Holy
Spirit. Without much prayer and a humble spirit of dependence, we who are students of Scripture may become boastful - full of knowledge but with the wisdom and understanding to live lives in accordance to God's plan and purposes for us as disciples of Christ.
The reviewer is to be congratulated for highlighting key points of the book and for having whet the readers appetite for more i.e get and read the book itself.