Bible Overview

This session was taught at the Christ Church Manchester School of Theology on Saturday 25th January 2020. The CCM School of Theology was set up to serve local churches in Manchester and beyond.

Topic: Bible Overview

In this session, we look at the story of the Bible.

Speaker: Liam Thatcher

Liam is the Teaching Pastor at Christ Church London.

LISTEN

Christ Church Manchester School of Theology · Bible Overview - Episode 1 - with Liam Thatcher

NOTES

God’s Story

The Bible is a collection of books that tell many stories, and yet one story. In this first session, we will consider the overarching narrative of the Bible, and consider the task of exegesis.

What is the Bible?

Narrative	Law	Wisdom	Poetry	Prophecy	Apocalyptic	Gospel	Epistle
Genesis, first half of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Jonah	Second half of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy	Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes	Psalms, Song of Solomon, Lamentations	Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi	Daniel
Acts					Revelation	Matthew, Mark, Luke, John	Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1, 2,& 3 John, Jude

What is the story of the Bible?

What is the story of the Old Testament?

What is the story of the New Testament?

What is the story of the Bible?

What is the story of the Bible?

Metanarrative: The whole universal plan of God. The story of redemption

Creation
Fall
Redemption
Restoration

The story of the Bible in 100 words (well… 107, with some cunning word-count-reducing-hyphenation!)

‘The OT storyline that I posit for the basis of the NT storyline is this: The Old Testament is the story of God, who progressively reestablishes his new-creational kingdom out of chaos over a sinful people by his word and Spirit, through promise, covenant and redemption, resulting in a worldwide commission to the faithful to advance this kingdom and judgment (defeat or exile) for the unfaithful, unto his glory. […] The NT transformation of the storyline of the OT that I propose is this: Jesus’s life, trials, death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit have launched the fulfilment of the eschatological already-not yet new creational reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to advance this new-creational reign and resulting in judgment for the unbelieving, unto the triune God’s glory.’ (G.K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology, p16)

Biblical and Systematic Theology

Biblical Theology:

Traces the unfolding history of God’s revelation to and redemption of His people.

Organised historically: How did people understand God and His work at this point of Salvation History?

Perhaps has a greater appreciation for the diversity of Scripture and themes that are distinctive to a particular book, or author.

Systematic Theology:

Synthesises and summarises what the Bible as a whole teaches about topics like God, humanity, Christ, salvation, etc

Organised topically: What does the whole Bible teach about the doctrine of x?

Strongly emphasises the unity of Scripture and asks ‘what is the full extent of truth we can know about this doctrine’

‘At their best, biblical theology and systematic theology interact and help to deepen one another. Systematic theology provides doctrines of God’s sovereignty, of revelation, of God’s purposes, and of the meaning of history that supply a sound framework of assumptions for the work of biblical theology.

Biblical theology at its best deepens the appreciation that systematic theology should have for the way in which, in interpreting individual texts and in uncovering their relation to a whole topic, the context of texts within the history of redemption colours the interpretation. Biblical theology may also bring to light new themes that can be the starting point for systematic-theological explorations into new topics that can receive fuller attention. For instance, the theme of life and death as it develops in the course of the history of revelation can become the starting point for discussing ethical questions about modern medicine and the issue of euthanasia’ (Vern Poythress)

Google Earth vs Tube Map (Matt Hosier)

Exegesis: God’s Word to Them

Context
Historical Context	Literary Context
Who – Author and Recipient(s). What is their relationship? – What – What’s written? How’s it structured? What’s the tone? – Why – What was the purpose of it being written? – Where – Author and Recipient. – When – When was it written?	What is the genre? – What is the surrounding context? – Immediate Context – Rest of the section – Rest of the book – Rest of the author’s work – Rest of the Bible

Content
Things to look for in sentences	Things to look for in paragraphs	Things to look for in discourses
– Repeated words – Contrasts and Comparisons – Lists – Cause and Effect – Figures of Speech – Conjunctions (but, and, for, therefore…) – Verbs – Pronouns	General and specific details – Questions and answers – Dialogue – Purpose statements – Means by which things are accomplished – Conditional clauses – Actions / roles of people, or God	Connections between paragraphs and episodes – Story shifts. Breaks and pivots – Juxtaposition and interchange – Chiasm (a, b, c, d, c’, b’, a’)

Goal: Summarise the passage in a sentence (past tense)

Things to bear in mind when approaching different genres.

Narrative

Law

Wisdom

Poetry

Prophecy

Apocalyptic

Gospel

Epistle

Purposeful
stories.

Consider the
following:
Plot
Setting
Characters
Narrator
Dramatic Tools

Law vs Laws
Apodictic and
Casuistic?
Reveals
something of
God’s character
Grace gift
(John 1:16-17)
Prophetic
(Matt 11:13)

Wisdom is the
ability to make
godly choices in
life.
Sayings must not
be extracted
from their
context.
Not hard and
fast guarantees,
but general rules
Proverbs are
typically:
Practical
Parabolic
Pithy

Addressed to the
mind, through
the heart.
Look for poetic
devices such as
metaphor.
Occasional
Purposeful
There are
different types of
Psalm:
Lament
Thanksgiving
Praise
Salvation-history
Celebration
Wisdom
Songs of Trust

Prophets called
God’s people
back to Him.
Covenant
enforcement.
<2% is
Messianic
<5% describe

the New-
Covenant age

<1% is about
events yet to
come

Apokalupsis =
disclosure
Literary
prophecy – an
intricate art form
Symbolic:
Numbers: 3, 4,
7, 10, 12, 1000
Allusions to
places or people
Images and
metaphors:
throne, crown,
mountain, horn

Narrative, but
with other
elements:
sayings,
teachings
Non-exhaustive.
Written for
particular
communities and
needs.

Occasional
Part of ongoing
dialogue: in
person, or letter
Designed to be
read in one go
Look for clues
about:
Author
Recipients
Date, time,
purpose.
Divisions

Three Levels of Narrative

1) Metanarrative: The whole universal plan of God. The story of redemption

Creation
Fall
Redemption
Restoration

2) Election: God choosing and redeeming a people for His name

Old Covenant
New Covenant

Creation, Exodus, Promised Land, etc. etc.

3) Micronarratives: The smaller stories that make up the bigger narratives

Compound Narrative: Abraham Story

Call, In Egypt, Lot, Covenant etc. etc.

Question: When Jesus said that the Scriptures testify to him (John 5:39), which level of narrative was he talking about?

Christocentric vs. Christotelic readings. Telos = purpose / end / goal

How does this story fit within the metanarrative of redemption, of which Christ is the goal?

What words or concepts does this story contribute to later interpretation of the life of Christ?

What view of God that we later find embodied in Christ can we see here?

How was God’s calling and redemption of His people analogous to His calling of us?

Augustine on The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37)

Item	Meaning	Item	Meaning
Man going down from Jericho	Adam	Good Samaritan	Christ
Jerusalem	Heavenly City	Binding of wounds	Restraint of sin
The Moon	Our mortality	Oil	Comfort of good hope
Robbers	The devil and his angels	Wine	Exhortation to spirited work
Stripping him	Removing his immortality	Animal	Body of Christ
Beating him	Persuading him to sin	Inn	The Church
Leaving him half dead	Spiritually dead because of sin, but half alive because of the knowledge of God	Two Denarii	Two commandments to love
Priest	Law – The priesthood of the Old Testament	Inn keeper	Apostle Paul
Levite	Prophets – The ministry of the Old Testament	Return of the Good Samaritan	Resurrection of Christ

Is this good exegesis? How would you summarise the Good Samaritan in a single sentence?

Recommended resources

General Resources

A lot of the material from this session has been adapted from two books, which I would highly recommend:
– How to Read the Bible for all its Worth – Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart
– Grasping God’s Word – J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays

Commentaries

Choosing a good commentary can be tricky, but bestcommentaries.com is a great place to look for reviews and recommendations. If you want to study a book in depth you may want to choose a selection of commentaries; some technical and some more devotional. But if you want to read in a devotional way, then a lighter, less technical commentary might be best. Here are some general recommendations:

– The Tyndale and Bible Speaks Today series is generally reliable and fairly accessible, though not as in depth as you may like.
– The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT) and New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT) series are more in depth, but also more technical.
– The Word Biblical Commentary series is very technical. Full of Greek/Hebrew. Only recommended if you want something really detailed!
– The Pillar New Testament Commentary series and Apollos Old Testament Commentary series are great. They are towards the technical end of the spectrum, but strike a good balance between being in-depth and accessible.
– Tom Wright’s For Everyone series are great little commentaries on the New Testament. They are more devotional, and not very in depth, but are great for helping with personal reflection
– Phil Moore’s Straight to the Heart series contains 60 bite-sized reflections. As a result, they don’t cover every passage, but are great for personal reflection.

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