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Christianity Today, February (Web-only), 2008 |

Theology in the News

Two Testaments, One Story

Top evangelical scholars team up for landmark commentary on New Testament use of Old Testament.

Interview by Collin Hansen | posted 2/08/2008 10:06AM

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You and Dr. Beale write, "This tension between what [the New Testament writers] insist is actually there in the Scriptures and what they are forced to admit they did not see until fairly late in their experience forces them to think about the concept of 'mystery' — revelation that is in some sense 'there' in the Scriptures but hidden until the time of God-appointed disclosure." How are Christian readers apt to misunderstand this notion of progressive revelation?

Carson: Sometimes Christians understand progressive revelation in a fairly mechanistic or linear fashion: More truth simply gets added to the pile, to make a bigger pile of truth. But this "mystery/revelation" tension shows that often something is actually there in the Old Testament text (according to Jesus and his apostles) that was not seen until the coming of Jesus made it clear. The most obvious example is the fact that interpreters of Scripture before the coming of Jesus did not happily put together the Old Testament promises of a Davidic king with Old Testament suffering-servant passages to anticipate a king who suffers, a king who would reign from a cross.

Collin Hansen is a CT editor-at-large and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists.

Related Elsewhere:

Previous Theology in the News columns are available on our site.

Books & Culture published Susan Wise Bauer's review of Enn's Inspiration and Incarnation.

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February (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52

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Rob Tamaki

Posted: February 15, 2008 2:05 AM

This sounds like a wonderful work, which I look forward to reading. I have found that in my NT studies, a solid understanding of how the NT writers are using the OT is indispensable. Too often exegetes and commentators have failed to appreciate how an NT writer is using a particular text, and usually they fail to even consider the function of the cited text within the canonical and extra-canonical corpus. And this has led, unfortunately, to innumerable problems with their NT hermeneutic, leading to distorted or superficial teachings in the present. OF course, I reserve final judgment until I read the book, but based upon this discussion, it sounds like it will be an important contribution to biblical studies.

Sara	Posted: February 11, 2008 3:34 PM

If what I have gathered so far from this article, these men are on the right track. Jesus, Paul and all of the Apostles taught from the "Old Testament". Everything that was taught was not new, it was old. The only thing new that was taught was the Renewed Covenant. “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Isn't it interesting that we are told since we now have the laws in our hearts we no longer have to observe the Laws of God?? Think about it...

jason johansen

Posted: February 09, 2008 8:16 PM


This sounds like a great reference tool. Also this article is well informed and has a lot of good points in it about biblical interpretation.

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