Exegetical Step 8

Biblical and Theological Context

Exegetical Step 8-Biblical and Theological Context 1. Look at the relationship between your

passage and other passages in the NT There will be some overlap with step 7 Here you are looking for concepts and not just

words 1.A Look for NT parallels

Use the GNT/Synopsis Check English Study Bibles Use other works (e.g., Pauline Parallels)

Exegetical Step 8-Biblical and Theological Context

1.B Examine the parallels in their own contexts Don’t spend too much time Find out the impact on your passage Make sure it is a true parallel Take a quick glance at a commentary

Definitions-see Herm. Spiral Ch. 14 fn. 1 Quotation- also called a citation, contains a

portion of the source text, usually word for word

Allusion- an indirect, imprecise or passing reference in which verbal correspondence to the source text is relatively remote

Echo- may contain a few words, but usually contains concepts or themes from the source text

Questions

These Questions come from the COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT edited by D. A. Carson and G. K. Beale, 2008.

Questions

1. What is the NT context of the citation or allusion? Establish the topic of discussion, the flow of thought, and/or the literary structure, genre, and rhetoric of the passage.

Questions

2. What is the OT context from which the quotation or allusion is drawn?

-Sometimes one must expend much time and energy to demonstrate that a brief phrase or idea does come from a particular OT phrase and nowhere else.

Include reflection on not only the use of the OT in the NT but also the OT in the OT (called intertextuality).

Questions 3. How is the OT quotation or source

handled in the literature of Second Temple Judaism or (more broadly yet) of early Judaism?

-This may show how these texts were understood by sources roughly contemporary with the NT.

-They sometimes show that Jewish authorities were divided about some passages.

3 continued

-In some instances the readings provide a foil for early Christian writings

-In a handful of cases, NT writers apparently display direct dependance on sources belonging to early Judaism in their handling of the OT (e.g., Jude). What is to be inferred from such dependence?

Questions

4. What textual factors must be borne in mind as one seeks to understand a particular use of the OT? Is the author citing the LXX, the MT, Targums (Aramaic translations and commentary on the OT), or a dependence on memory?

-Is there a significance in tiny changes? -Are there textual variations in the citation?

Questions

5. How is the NT author using the OT text? -Is the connection simply a connection of

language? -Is the NT writer faithful to the OT text? -What does “fulfillment” meant to the NT

writer? What kind of exegetical technique does the

author use?

Questions

6. To what theological use does the NT writer put the OT quotation or allusion?

-Writers apply OT passages that speak of YHWH to Jesus.

-Writers apply OT passages that speak of Israel to Jesus.

-Is this common among Jewish exegetes?

1.C Determine how the parallel passages impact the passage that you are studying. Pay attention to context Don’t put an inordinate amount of weight on a

parallel

Exegetical Step 8-Biblical and Theological Context 2. Look at your passage and quotations,

allusions, and verbal parallels in the OT This is a very complex area of study. You should do some extra reading on this.

2.A Identify the OT quotations, allusions, and verbal parallels Use the GNT Use secondary sources

Exegetical Step 8-Biblical and Theological Context 2.B Become familiar with how the OT

passage is used in its own context 2.C. Determine how the NT uses the OT text 3. Look at the relationship between your

passage and the broader arena of Christian Theology Consult Sys. and Biblical theologies Consult theological dictionaries

Exegetical Step Nine

Using Commentaries Finding the best When to use them in the process

Using Special Studies Finding the studies When and how to use them