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Literary analysis of the bible
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Recommended: Literary analysis of the bible
In Biblical Theology, Geerhardus Vos provides the results of his biblical understanding that he obtained from his 39 years of teaching at Princeton Seminary. The book is a compilation of his teaching notes edited by his own son to make it available for publication. (vi) In this collection, Vos provides an account of the unfolding plan of God in the history of redemption by analyzing God’s special revelation. While mapping out the history of redemption, throughout the book he is constantly dialoging and refuting the liberal theories of the history of religions school and the speculations of the higher critics from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The book is divided into three segments: the Mosaic epoch, prophetic epoch and New Testament epochs of revelation. Vos begins in the first two chapters by defining Biblical Theology as that branch of exegetical theology, which deals with the process of the self-revelation of God deposited in the Bible. (5) Biblical theology develops progressively, as God reveals Himself in history through both His actions and words to us in Scripture. In chapters three through five, Vos covers the pre-redemptive revelation to Adam, the Noachian revelation, and the period between Noah and the Patriarchs. Then in chapters six and seven we explore revelation during the patriarchal period and the period of Moses.
In part 2, the prophetic epoch of revelation is explored and a fundamental understanding of the prophetic is first developed. Followed by discussion of the theories, concepts, mode, reception and content of prophecy in the biblical revelation.
In part 3, the revelation of the New Testament is explored with primary and exclusive focus on the gospels and Jesus. Revelation connected with the...
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... writes, “we are not warranted, however, in seeking an exclusively personal reference to the Messiah here, as though He alone were meant by ‘the woman’s seed’. Old Testament Revelation approaches the concept of a personal Messiah very gradually.” (43-44) But when taking into consideration later biblical revelation, it is clear that the Messiah is being referred to in Genesis 3:15. It can also be deduced that a virgin born Messiah may be in view.
A final weakness of Vos’ work, primarily because it is a compilation by his son, is that it unfortunately does not extend the discussion of Biblical Theology to the Pauline epistles and also provides no discussion on the Apocalypse. But overall, Biblical Theology is a dense and deep theological read packed with truth and deep theological reflection throughout. Definitely a must read for the serious theological student.
Much of Revelation is the source of debate. Many passages are symbolic in nature, and the exact meaning of the symbols can be difficult to determine. Some passages can be interpreted in various ways. The identity of the Four Horsemen, the 144,000, and Babylon the Great in particular are points of contention. Nevertheless, proper hermeneutics and careful study can illuminate these difficult passages.
One of the most distinct feature of dispensationalist view is the millennial kingdom in Revelation. The thousand year reign of Christ will take place on the earth. Based on grammatical-historical exegesis of chapter 20, Thomas provides
It is the reader and his or her interpretive community who attempts to impose a unified reading on a given text. Such readers may, and probably will, claim that the unity they find is in the text, but this claim is only a mask for the creative process actually going on. Even the most carefully designed text can not be unified; only the reader's attempted taming of it. Therefore, an attempt to use seams and shifts in the biblical text to discover its textual precursors is based on a fundamentally faulty assumption that one might recover a stage of the text that lacked such fractures (Carr 23-4).
N.T Wright (2008) stated that “When we read the scriptures as Christians, we read it precisely as people of the new covenant and of the new creation” (p.281). In this statement, the author reveals a paradigm of scriptural interpretation that exists for him as a Christian, theologian, and profession and Bishop. When one surveys the entirety of modern Christendom, one finds a variety of methods and perspectives on biblical interpretation, and indeed on the how one defines the meaning in the parables of Jesus. Capon (2002) and Snodgrass (2008) offer differing perspectives on how one should approach the scriptures and how the true sense of meaning should be extracted. This paper will serve as a brief examination of the methodologies presented by these two authors. Let us begin, with an
Metzger, B. (1997). The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. New York.
Stanton, Graham. Gospel Truth?: New Light on Jesus and the Gospels. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995. Paperback.
The book consists of three parts. The first part has five chapters of which focuses on explaining what the key questions are and why we find them difficult to answer. The second part has nine chapters explaining in detail what N.T. Wright considers Jesus’ public career and the approach he had in first century Palestine. The third part of the book, the last chapter, challenges readers to wrestle with the questions of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Revelation identifies itself as “both an “apocalypse”…and as prophecy”, making it distinctly different from the rest of the New Testament. “Jewish apocalyptic literature flourished in the centuries following the completion of the OT canon”, and it is scattered throughout the Old Testaments in books such as Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. Apocalyptic literature is full of “visions that dramatize the prophet’s admission to God’s heavenly council”, and convey their meaning primarily through symbolism. John brings a “balanced message of comfort, warning, and rebuke” in Revelation, testifying to the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Apart from the OT literature, Revelation shows a distinct optimism toward the end of days, for “Christ’s death has already won the decisive victory over evil”, with the Kingdom of God already among believers. This book was written in “approximately A.D. 95 on the island of Patmos”, which is still standing to this day. It was written under the emperor Domitian, with Roman authorities exiling John “to the island of Patmos (off the coast of Asia)”. The events in Revelation are also “ordered
Verstraeten, J. Scrutinising the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007.
No part of the Bible and its interpretation is more controversial than the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the last profound book in the New Testament. It conveys the significant purpose of Christianity by describing God’s plan for the world and his final judgment of the people by reinforcing the importance of faith and the concept of Christianity as a whole. This book was written by John in 95 or 96 AD. What is, what has been, and what is to come is the central focus of the content in Revelation.
The term millennium does not appear anywhere in Scripture. The idea originated from a thousand year period of time that characterizes the reign of the Messiah. In fact, the phrase “thousand years” is stated six times in Revelation 20. There are three main schools of thought based upon one’s view of the thousand-year reign of Christ. These views are: Amillennial, Postmillennial and Premillennial. Over the centuries these prophetic differences have caused conflict within the body of Christ and are still currently widely debated. Instead of the book of Revelation being the basis of comfort (1 Thess. 4:18) among Christians it has become a bone of contention. However, this controversy should not deter Christ’s disciples from receiving the blessings that Revelation has to offer (Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). Rather, one should study prophecy under the Spirit’s guidance and look at the data provided within the full context of the Word assessing each of the views for correct motives and presuppositions. Therefore, this paper will examine the nature, timing, and duration of the millennium as well as the occupants of the millennial kingdom and the relationship of Israel and the Church to the millennial kingdom. The aim of this paper is to address “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV).
In the days of Christ’s life on this earth, believers did not have access to the Bible in its entirety as we know and are familiar with today. Believers in this ancient time period only had access to the Old Testament. However, through their access to the Old Testament, believers were provided a foundation for New Testament times. This foundation provided New Testament believers with the Lord’s established principles of right and wrong they were expected to follow. In addition, the Old Testament is overflowing with accounts of people whose lives exemplified the future life of Christ on this earth. These pictures allowed the Israelite nation to begin to have an understanding of why Christ needed to come as their Messiah and the work He needed to do on earth. Finally, there are common themes that are interwoven throughout the entire Old Testament. Three of these themes: transgression, redemption, and consummation point to the purpose of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. These themes portray God’s work both in the lives of Old Testament believers, but they also foreshadow God’s desire and plan for believers in New Testament times and beyond.
The Bible has a large amount of stories about war and destruction. Some of the stories are historical writings, but not all. God of the bible is omniscient and God uses this to give humanity a unique look into our future. The stories of destruction that this paper will look at are some of the future visions given to humanity by God. The apocalyptic literature are the recorded visions given to believers and they are used to warn people of the impending doom of the world. The bible takes different approaches to the same topic in order to make the message fully know.
Wenham, G.J., Moyter, J.A., Carson, D.A. and France, R.T., eds. New Bible Commentary. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1998.
Thiselton, A. C. (1980). The two horizons: New Testament hermeneutics and philosophical description. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, xix.