Lecture #2

Question 1

What is heterosis of pronominal reference?

Answer 1

A shifting around of the pronoun that’s unexpected in English but common in Hebrew

Question 2

What is the hermeneutical “prime directive”?

Answer 2

Recover the meaning of the text that best represents how an original competent reader would have understood it

Question 3

What are three points answering how the OT points to Christ according to him and the rest of the NT?

Answer 3

1. ) The OT points to Christ in terms of its many explicit promises: (Jn 5:39-40; 2 Cor 1:20; Kaiser’s ‘The Promise Plan of God’)
2. ) Typologically (predictive and appropriated)
3. ) Christ is the end of the law and so the OT points to Christ in a pervasive way not just in terms of ceremonial law but also of the ‘three uses of the law’

Question 4

What are the three uses of the [moral] law?

Answer 4

1. ) Civil
2. ) Pedagogical
3. ) ‘Third’ or Normative

Question 5

What is the civil use of the law?

Answer 5

Communitarian norms; provides a guide, applicable to non-theocratic societies (Dt 4:5-8), for laws that protect life and property and promote a just and well-ordered society (fostering public works and civic righteousness, while restraining and punishing evil).

Note: Evangelistic purpose in the law. OT first legal system ever in which no differences in penalty depending upon your socio-economic class. You can then imagine other societies saying, “Hey! I want to live by these rules!”

Question 6

What is the pedagogical use of the law?

Answer 6

Gal 3 (causes us to see how far short we fall, which drives us to Christ)

Question 7

What is the ‘third’ or normative use of the law?

Answer 7

Tells us how to live, not to earn God’s love, in response to what God has done for and to you. Helps us measure correctly.

Question 8

What and how many are the categories of law?

Answer 8

Three: 1. Moral, 2. Ceremonial, and 3. Civil
or
Two: 1. Moral (with civil subcat), and 2. Ceremonial (with civil subcat)

Note: OT is surprisingly libertarian. E.g.: prostitution always condemned but there were never legislative laws against it, hated as it was.

Question 9

How is the Moral Law defined?

Answer 9

Either of two equiv. ways:

1. ) Laws that are designed to replicate in humans the moral likeness of God [imitatio dei/Christi] (Lev 19:2; Jn 13:14-15)
2. ) Laws that express love for God or for fellow creatures (Lev 19:18; Mt 22:36-40; 7:12; Ro 13:8-10)

Question 10

Define the two types of typology

Answer 10

1. ) Predictive: original readers would know this type points to a future fulfillment (like the Ram in Genesis 22 or David in Jeremiah 30:9)
2. ) Appropriated: later authors use this type illustratively (like Sarah and Hagar in Galatians 4)

Question 11

What are the three ways the ‘Ceremonial Law’ is defined versus the Moral Law?

Answer 11

The ceremonial law is:

1. ) Less Important [admits exceptions because it does not derive from the imitatio dei. admits/allows for situational ethics]
2. ) Less Permanent [“has an expiration date”]
3. ) Governed mainly by symbolical interests or a typical intention (to point to Christ as a shadow points to the reality that has now come, rather than by the imitatio dei

Question 12

What are 7 common (mis)understandings of the days of creation?

Answer 12

1. ) Facts speak for themselves: the place of faith
2. ) The Bible requires a small universe
3. ) The Bible requires a young earth (c.f. Selective Genealogies)
4. ) The Bible excludes plant, animal death before the Fall
5. ) Genesis offers an exclusive/exhaustive explanation for the origin of the universe
6. ) The nature of miracles and the possibility of an apparent past
7. ) Seven (literal) days of creation

Question 13

What are 10 Evangelical views on creation?

Answer 13

1. ) GAP VIEW 7 literal 24hr days of re-creation (Scofield Reference Bible, 1917)
2. ) FLOOD GEOLOGY (7 24hr days): Fundamentalism
3. ) APPEARANCE OF AGE: 7 24hr days w/ appearance of age (Philip Gosse)
4. ) MOSES REVELATION: Moses honestly recording what God revealed to him over 7 24-hr days.
5. ) DAY-AGE/PROGRESSIVE CREATION (7 days= ages/epochs)
6. ) LAND OF EDEN (eretz)
7. ) EXTENDED ANTHROPOMORPHISM
8. ) INTERMITTENT DAYS (John Lennox)
9. ) ‘FUNCTIONAL’ CREATION (John Walton of Wheaton)
10. ) ‘FRAMEWORK’ HYPOTHESIS (Kline, Hugenberger)

Question 14

What is the Framework theory of creation?

Answer 14

Days 1-3 = Kingdoms; Days 4-6 = Kings

Question 15

Examples in Church History of those who have held to a non-literal view of Genesis 1:

Answer 15

1. Clement of Alexandria (150 - 220 AD)
2. Origen (185 - 255 AD)
3. Cyprian (200 - 258 AD)
4. St. Augustine (354 - 430 AD)

Question 16

How would original readers have understood Genesis 1, and why?

Answer 16

They would have thought, “The same God who rescued us from Egypt created all things in the same manner as we ourselves were redeemed from Egypt,” because:

A) Both accounts begin with a theophany of the Spirit
B) God speaks his commands out of the Spirit theophany
C) The first effect of the spirit theophany brought light and darkness
D) The theophany creates by works of separation

Question 17

What is the “Promise Plan” of God, according to Kaiser (claim and points)?

Answer 17

Claim: the OT is full of crucial promises that define the overall narrative:

1. ) Gen 3:15 (Seed of the Woman): Crucial promise text on which redemptive history depends [Hugenberger would say it’s the kingdom of God that ties the OT together]
2. ) Gen 925-27 (Shem): “He” and “His” need to be interpreted. “He” = God and “his” = Shem. What we have is a “heterosis” of pronominal reference.
3. ) Gen 12-22 (Seed of Abraham)
4. ) 2 Sam 7 (Seed of David)
5. ) Jeremiah 31 (New Covenant)