Thanks for joining me as we check our road map and begin our journey through the grand narrative of the Bible.

Why Start the Blog?

I started this blog to share my thoughts on biblical theology. I’ll talk of Old Testament, New Testament and whole-Bible theology. I hope my academic peers will begin to discover this blog and want to comment and contribute to the discussion of biblical theological exposition of Scripture. But I also want this to benefit the industrious lay Bible reader. So when I use technical terms or theological jargon, I’ll try to define and discuss my usage—call me out on this if you catch me slacking on that promise.

Love of Typology

A significant driving thought in how I teach and think about biblical theology is the role of typology. For now, I’ll just define “biblical typology” as divinely intended forward-looking symbolism. For example, some symbolic aspect of the Old Testament’s contribution to the grand narrative of Scripture finds its fulfillment in the New Testament, generally in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

I suppose when I mentioned “typology” readers had one of three possible reactions, and I’ll address each of those briefly:

1. Typology? Oh, I love typology!—If that was your response, there’s a good chance that we’re not yet on the same wavelength. You’re probably loving how people find specific New Testament truth in the tiniest little details of the Old Testament. I don’t think of that as typology at all. I call that “allegorization,” because people doing that are imposing an allegorical reading upon something that was never written as an allegory.
2. Typology? Most of that just disgusts me!—If that was your response, you’re probably having a justifiable allergic reaction to allegorizers who are trying to operate under the cover of “typology.” So we’ll do a lot to distinguish solid biblical typology from this allegorizing business.
3. Typology? I’m not sure what that is.—If that was your response, you’ve come to the right place. The earliest blogs will be all about how to understand what it is and isn’t.

So let’s get going.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Questions and Reflections

1. Would you like to learn how to read the whole Bible as Christian Scripture and not just think of it as finding some mottoes and memory verses?
2. What part of the Bible do you find especially hard to access as Christian Scripture, even though you know “all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Tim 3:16)?