. For the Old Testament writers, history is revelation - revelation about the future. I should mention one further factor in this connection, a larger consideration that sheds light on the typological interpretation of the Old Testament, and that is the overshadowing context of covenant and promise that dominates the Old Testament. God had made important promises (e.g., Gen. 3:15), most famously to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3) and David (2 Sam. 7), which relentlessly rivet our attention on Christ. Seen within this context, the Old Testament’s symbolic anticipations are given much more light indeed. The point, simply, is that throughout the Old Testament, the note of anticipation is “built in” to the narrative of various persons, events, and institutions. For the Old Testament writers, history is revelation - revelation about the future. And so for Jesus and the New Testament writers, this hermeneutical structure was already in place. Yes, they were more detailed, and they pointed out further specific “fulfillments” that are not explicitly seen as predictive in the Old Testament. And we have yet to give precise definition of a legitimate “type” or identify the various factors that are necessary to a responsible typology that will keep our often overly-zealous imaginations in check. But we can see already that the patterns and structures embedded in the Old Testament itself provide a context in which Jesus’ and the apostles’ handling of Scripture was shown to be convincing. This, they insisted, is the way we must read Scripture.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 14:20:41 +0000