Understanding and Applying the Old Testament: A Journey from Exegesis to Systematic Theology
Explore the twelve steps from exegesis to theology in the Old Testament, focusing on text, observation, context, meaning, biblical theology, and systematic theology. Learn how to discern key doctrines and apply them to your understanding of the Bible.
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HOW TO UNDERSTAND AND APPLY THE OLD TESTAMENT TWELVE STEPS FROM EXEGESIS TO THEOLOGY Jason S. DeRouchie, PhD Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology Bethlehem College & Seminary Elder, Bethlehem Baptist Church Spring 2019
STEPS IN THE JOURNEY Part 1: Text Part 2: Observation Part 3: Context Part 4: Meaning What does the passage mean? 10. Biblical Theology 11. Systematic Theology Part 5: Application
11. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Goal: Discern how your passage theologically coheres with the whole Bible, assessing key doctrines especially in direct relation to the gospel. What is Systematic Theology? How to Study Systematic Theology A Case Study in Systematic Theology
What Is Systematic Theology? Introduction: Definition: The study of Bible doctrine designed to help us shape a proper worldview. Presuppositions: o The Bible s gets reality right. o Scripture bears an overarching unity through diversity, progressive revelation, and the progress of redemption history.
Key Questions: o General: What does the whole Bible say about X? o Specific: How does our our passage theologically cohere with the whole Bible?
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) Eschatology
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) Eschatology (the doctrine of the last things)
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) Eschatology (the doctrine of the last things)
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) Eschatology (the doctrine of the last things) Calvinists vs. Arminians?
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) Eschatology (the doctrine of the last things) Complementarians vs. Egalitarians
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) Eschatology (the doctrine of the last things) Classic Covenantalists, Progressive Covenantalists, Dispensationalists
10 Categories of Systematic Theology: Theology proper (the doctrine of God) Bibliology (the doctrine of Scripture) Angelology (the doctrine of angels and demons) Anthropology (the doctrine of humanity) Hamartiology (the doctrine of sin) Christology (the doctrine of Christ) Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) Eschatology (the doctrine of the last things) Distinctions in Church Gov t
Theological Triage Level 1: Doctrines Essential to Christianity E.g., Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith alone, the authority of Scripture. Level 2: Doctrines that Generate Reasonable Boundaries E.g., The meaning and mode of baptism, role of women in the home and church, God s sovereignty in salvation. Level 3: Doctrines Addressing Minor Disagreements E.g., The millennium, the timing and sequence of Christ s return, and matters of conscience: should Christians practice Halloween? Public, private, Christian, or homeschool?
How to Do Systematic Theology 1. Ask God to supply both insight with reason and humility with love. We do not want to be ashamed of failing in rigorous, God- dependent thinking. o 1 Cor 14:20. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. o 2 Tim 2:7, 15. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything . Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. o 2 Pet 3:16. There are some things in [Paul s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
We need the Holy Spirits aid to gain the experiential knowledge that the Bible demands. o Jas 1:22, 27. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves . Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. o 1 Pet 5:5. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. o Luke 9:48. He who is least is the one who is great.
2. Catalogue and synthesize all the relevant passages. Using a concordance, collect the most relevant passages related to your topic. o Deut 9:25 29. So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to the LORD, O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness. 29 For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm. o E.g., Pray, prayer, confess, intercede, petition, supplication, prostrate.
2. Catalogue and synthesize all the relevant passages. Using a concordance, collect the most relevant passages related to your topic. Classify the text, carefully summarizing their points and organizing them into groups based on distinct patterns or features. Synthesize in one or more points what the Bible teaches on your topic and identify how your passage contributes to this understanding.
A Case Study in Systematic Theology Exod 19:4 6. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Which doctrines?
A Case Study in Systematic Theology Exod 19:4 6. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Which doctrines? Soteriology and Missiology
Soteriology in Exod 19:46 Similar structure of grace in the old and new covenants: Deliverance Exodus Call to Obey Sinai Sanctification Old New Justification
Soteriology in Exod 19:46 Similar structure of grace in the old and new covenants Different nature of grace in the old and new covenants: o Only in the new covenant are all hearts empowered to love God. Deut 29:2 4[1 3]. You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. Deut 10:16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. Deut 31:27. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD. How much more after my death
Deut 30:6. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
o Only in the new covenant would all hearts desire to keep Gods law. Jer 17:1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen or iron; with a point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart. Jer 31:33 34. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts .34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Rom 2:2629. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
o Only in the new covenant would righteousness become not only goal but ground. Deut 6:25. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us. Deut 9:6. Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Rom 5:9. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Rom 5:18 19. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19For as by the one man s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Rom 6:7, 22. For one who has died has been set free from sin. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Rom 9:30 32. What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousnessdid not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone. Rom 10:4 8.Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 or Who will descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim).
o Only in the new covenant does saving grace abound. Rom 5:20. Now the law came into to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. 2 Cor 3:7 9. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.
