The opening words of Scripture establish the divine context for all human history and indeed for all special revelation: “In the beginning, God. . .” (Genesis 1:1). In other words, all biblical context is divine before it is human. Biblical content is divine before it is human. Human history, grammar, genre and situatedness serve divine ends; they do not confine the Spirit of God to their own limits or reduce the gloriously diverse text to something less than pure, supernatural revelation.

Worth Reading

Very little writing warrants reading more than once. Less still deserves numerous readings. An exclusive group of writings rises to the level of “must read once a year” for me. One of them is Geerhardus Vos’ inaugural lecture to his new post as Professor of Biblical Theology at Princeton on May 8, 1894. Today’s 121^st anniversary of that lecture warrants remembering some of Vos’ fruitful insights.

Exacting in scope and sophistication, Vos’ argument offers a distinctive approach to biblical theology—one which consistently honors the divinity of the Word while scrupulously embracing its essential historical character.  “Biblical Theology, rightly defined, is nothing else than the exhibition of the organic progress of supernatural revelation in its historic continuity and multiformity.”[1]

Three interdependent components warrant attention: the supernatural character of revelation, the unified historical character of revelation, and the diversity of revelation in history. I will touch briefly on each.

Supernatural Revelation in History

“The beginning of our Theology consists in the appropriation of that supernatural process by which God has made Himself the object of our knowledge.”[2]

At its most basic level, Vos’ approach to biblical theology depends on theology from above and the divine character of Scripture. In other words, Scripture is what it is because God is who he is. The Bible is not human reflection on divine activity or divine reflection on merely human events, but divine word about divine work. “Revelation as an act of God, theistically conceived of, can in no wise be associated with anything imperfect or impure or below the standard of absolute truth.”[3]

God’s Word then comes to us as God has created us and worked in redemption for us. In theology, “God takes the first step to approach man for the purpose of disclosing His nature, nay, who creates man in order that he may have a finite mind able to receive the knowledge of His infinite perfections.”[4]

For Vos, the sine qua non of biblical theology is the triune God and supernatural revelation. Faithful biblical theology starts with God, who is Truth itself. Revelation originates in and comes from the divine Revealer.

The importance of this Source simply cannot be overstated. In fact, in the present “evangelical” subterfuge of revelation by ostensibly winsome, but essentially damaging, constructions, the fact of Scripture as God’s Word—truly and actually—needs vigilant reassertion.

It also needs methodological dependence. Asserting Scripture as God’s Word andappropriating it as God’s Word are not the same. To be meaningful at all, confession of an orthodox view of Scripture mandates letting Scripture’s divinity entirely shape its handling and interpretation. Vos pleads for such meticulous and doxological care.

Because Scripture comes from God, its hearers must attend it with covenantal fidelity and humbly yield to its self-interpreting authority. The student of the Bible always sits under it, never over it. Inherent biblical authority repudiates every interpretive scheme that stifles or distorts its divine voice.

“The truth of revelation, if it is to retain its divine and absolute character at all, must be perfect from the beginning. Biblical Theology deals with it as a product of a supernatural divine activity, and is therefore bound by its own principle to maintain the perfection of revealed truth in all its stages.”[5] To put it in Jesus’ words, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

Unity: The History of Revelation

Make no mistake: the Bible is history, indeed sacred history.[6] But it is no “mere announcement and record,” because “no true history can be made by a mere chronicling of events. Only by placing the bare record of the facts in the light of the principles that shape them, and the inner nexus which holds them together, is the work of the chronicler transformed into history.”[7]

Biblical words interface with and depend upon divine acts on the stage of human history. The Bible is no abstract manual or philosophical textbook. It is no ethical anthology, psychological therapy primer, or emotional self-help manual. Scripture lands its relevance in that it communicates actual events—what God has done, and actualinterpretation of those events—why God has done it. Theological meaning tethers divine word with divine acts.

As the divine Word by divine purpose in a divinely orchestrated history, Scripture possesses a vital, Spirit-given unity. The Holy Spirit authorship of Scripture entirely shapes the meaning of the text, the history of the text, and the purpose of the text. More specifically, the Old Testament’s Christ-centeredness (1 Peter 1:10–12) depends on the Spirit of Christ who gives Scripture its Christological meaning at each point of its providentially governed, historical context.

“In point of fact, we find that the actual working of Old Testament redemption toward the coming of Christ in the flesh, and the advance of revealed knowledge concerning Christ, keep equal pace everywhere. The various stages in the gradual concentration of Messianic prophecy, as when the human nature of our Saviour is successively designated as the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of Judah, the seed of David, His figure assuming more distinct features at each narrowing of the circle—what are they but disclosures of the divine counsel corresponding in each case to new realities and new conditions created by His redeeming power?”[8]

Surveying Scripture’s unfolding revelation, Vos exposes the Christological glue that holds it together—historically and theologically. Revelation progresses by the Spirit of Christ’s will and wisdom. By divine intention biblical texts build telescopically around and toward the Messiah, so that with purpose, precision, and perfection, biblical revelation consists of organic, progressive, and Christ-centered unity.

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[1] Geerhardus Vos, “The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline,” in Peter A. Lillback and Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., eds., Thy Word is Still Truth(Phillipsburg, NJ: 2014): 996. All Vos quotes in this article will be italicized. The underlined portion of this quote reflects Vos’ original italics.

[2] Ibid, 988.

[3] Ibid., 997.

[4] Ibid., 988.

[5] Ibid., 992.

[6] See Ibid., 999.

[7] Ibid., 1000.

[8] Ibid., 994.