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The Logos Academic Blog

Christotelic Hermeneutics and Typology: What the Church Needs to Know

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The following post is by Dr. Dale Brueggemann, Contributing Editor at Faithlife Corporation. 

Christ in the OT

Do we know for certain that Jesus can be found in the OT? In our efforts to “read backwards,” are we finding Christ where perhaps he should not be found? Or do we have license as Spirit-led interpreters of Scripture to allegorize as we see fit, and as it benefits our listeners?

In this post I’m going to address these questions by discussing the biblical mandate for a method of interpretation called “Christotelic” hermeneutics. Look with me first at the evidence from the NT directing the church to engage in Christ-centered exegesis of the OT. [Read more…]

A Strategic Approach to Reading Background Texts of the New Testament

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While many NT scholars may know a whole lot about Matthew–Revelation, many lack the ability to pick up and read Josephus and Clement in the original Greek, or Seneca and Cicero in Latin. This reveals not just a severe lack of language ability, but, more importantly, a lack of familiarity with the ideas and historical contexts of Early Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Early Christian authors and texts.

My belief (and I’m not alone in this) is that, as a NT and Early Christian scholar, I must do more than be mindful of the vast body of literature outside the NT; I actually have to read it. [Read more…]

Abraham’s “allegiance” to King Jesus? Part 4 of the Matthew Bates interview

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Welcome to the fourth installment of our Hot Seat interview with Matthew Bates, author of Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017).

In this segment, we discuss Bates’ interpretation of Abraham’s pistis in Romans 4:1-25, Teresa Morgan’s definitive work on pistis in the ancient world, and the potential contribution of “allegiance alone” to recapture the heart of the Christian gospel in the church today. [Read more…]

Salvation by Faith, or Allegiance alone? Matthew Bates in the Hot Seat (Part 1)

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Not since the Reformation has there been a challenge to the five solas as persistent and potentially persuasive as Matthew W. Bates’ third book, Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017). This book has generated a groundswell of controversy that continues to build as more theologians, pastors, and laypeople are exposed to Bates’ nuanced proposal.

Bates’ thesis, at once radical and obvious, is this: [Read more…]

How to do New Testament Research

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As the writer of Ecclesiastes mourns, and as John the Evangelist hints, there is no end to the number of works one might consult for acquiring knowledge. When commencing research for a paper or sermon, a critically important skill is that of discerning the most important sources outside of the biblical text itself. [Read more…]

Revisionist History: Exodus 32–34 in and around the First Gospel

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“Revisionist history” is inherently redundant, since all history is revised.1 As George Bernard Shaw writes: “History is always out of date,” and is rewritten to lie, to burn, and to stick in our throats.2 That is to say, a revision may seek to humiliate and harm—especially when the social stakes are high. And the higher the stakes, the more prone the historian is to oversimplify, castigate, and construct binary oppositions.3 [Read more…]