Round the Sphere Again: Understanding Scripture

Exercise in Exegesis
Covenant or will in Hebrews 9?

What I find so fascinating here is that you have to carefully weigh your different principles of exegesis. What is most important? Concordance? Immediate context? General context? Consensus among commentaries and translations? 

(Bill Mounce at Koinonia)

Interpreting Historical Narratives
In the Old Testament.

When we read narratives, we can read them like we would read any good book, paying attention to things such as the characters, the setting, the conflict, and the resolution. Hebrew narratives are “scenic” in nature, like scenes in a movie, which drive the story. The narratives don’t contain everything that happened at those times, but they do include what is essential.

(Kim Shay at The Upward Call)

Our Passover Lamb

Two New Testament passages that connect Jesus’ death with the Passover sacrifice:

• 1 Peter 1:18-19. ”[W]e are told that ‘it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect’. Many of the Old Testament sacrifices specify the need for a lamb ‘without blemish or defect’, but whenever redemption is mentioned, with its connotations of deliverance from slavery, the events of the exodus cannot be far from any Jewish reader’s mind. The fact that Peter specifies Jesus’ blood as the means of rescue recalls the night of the first Passover, in which the blood of the lamb on the doorpost averted God’s judgment.”
• 1 Corinthians 5:7. “Paul says that ‘Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed’. In the context, Paul is urging his readers that as people redeemed by the sacrificial death of Jesus, there is no place for immorality among them. Paul urges them to rid themselves of ‘yeast’ of corruption, drawing on the imagery of the first Passover in which the Israelites were to ‘eat nothing containing yeast’ (Exod. 13:3; cf. 12:8, 15, 18-20; 13:6-7).”

The quotes are from Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, Andrew Sach. This section of the text concludes with the statement that “it is indisputable that the New Testament writers saw in the sacrifice of the Passover lamb a foreshadowing of Jesus’ redemptive death.”

Theological Term of the Week

You’ll find slightly different views in the quotes and links included. Good people differ on the issue and I’m still waffling a little.

threefold division of the law
The division of the Mosaic law into three categories: the moral law, the ceremonial law, and the civil (or judicial) law. Also called the tripartite division of the law.

• From the Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter XII, The Law of God:

For the sake of clarity we distinguish the moral law which is contained in the Decalogue or two Tables and expounded in the books of Moses, the ceremonial law which determines the ceremonies and worship of God, and the judicial law which is concerned with political and domestic matters.

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 19, Of the Law of God:

II. This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables: the first four commandments containing our duty towards God; and the other six, our duty to man. III. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly, holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated, under the New Testament. IV. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging under any now, further than the general equity thereof may require.

• From 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law by Tom Schreiner:

The distinction between the moral, ceremonial, and civil law is appealing and attractive. Even though it has some elements of truth, it does not sufficiently capture Paul’s stance toward the law. …Paul argues that the entirety of the law has been set aside now that Christ has come. To say that the “moral” elements of the law continue to be authoritative blunts the truth that the entire Mosaic covenant is no longer in force for believers. Indeed, it is quite difficult to distinguish between what is “moral” and “ceremonial” in the law. For instance, the law forbidding the taking of interest is clearly a moral mandate (Exod. 22:25), but this law was addressed to Israel as an agricultural society in the ancient Near East. As with the rest of the laws in the Mosaic covenant, it is abolished now that Christ has come. This is not to say that this law has nothing to say to the church of Jesus Christ today. …[I]t still has “a revelatory and pedagogical function.”

…Still, the distinction has some usefulness, for some of the commands of the law are carried directly over to the New Testament by Paul and applied to the lives of believers. It seems appropriate to designate such commands as moral norms. For instance, the injunction to honor fathers and mothers still spplies to believers (Eph. 6:2). Paul teaches that love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10), but he clarifies that those who love will not commit adultery, murder, steal, or covet (cf. Rom. 2:21-22; 7:7-8). Those who live according to the Spirit fulfill the requirement of the law (Rom. 8:4). The prohibition against idolatry still stands, though Paul does not cite the Old Testament law in support (1 Cor. 5:10-11; 6:9; 10:7, 14; 2 Cor 6:16; Gal 5:20; Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5). Other commands and prohibitions that reflect the Ten Commandments are found in Paul. 

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is the difference between the ceremonial law, the moral law, and the judicial law in the Old Testament?
2. Justin Taylor: On the Tripartite Division of the Law, A Primer on the Mosaic Law and the Christian
3. Richard Alderson: Law - Civic, Ceremonial and Moral
4. Mike Riccardi: Schreiner, the Threefold Division, and the Law of God

Related terms:

• antinomianism
• legalism

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work.

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.