This book review of Sydney Greidanus’s Preaching Christ from the Old Testament was written as part of Pastor Lane’s doctoral course work, and as such, it is written in a more formal, academic tone than the rest of this blog’s posts. Still, we hope the audience will find these academic book reviews useful, which is why we have published them for your reference.
Sydney Greidanus received his B.A. from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, his B.D. from Calvin Theological Seminary, also in Grand Rapids, and his Th.D. from the Free University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has served as pastor of two Christian Reformed Churches in Canada, taught at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, The King’s College in Edmonton, AB, Canada, and since 1990, has been professor of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary. He has published many articles, sermons and numerous books, especially focused on his contemporary hermeneutical method of preaching Christ from the Old Testament.
The author’s purpose in writing is to provide seminary students and pastors with a method to correctly and responsibly preach Christ from the Old Testament. He challenges scholars to broaden their focus and understand the Old Testament in its historical context and in the context of the New Testament. Pastors, seminary students, and scholars are the primary target.
The theological orientation of the author is conservative evangelical. This is obvious from his writing, his purpose in writing, and his teaching contexts. His tenure of teaching, writing, and colleagues demonstrates a strong commitment to evangelical Christianity. Another indicator of his theological orientation is evident in his approach and handling of the Scriptures.
The significant and unique contribution of this book is the nature of its subject matter and the extent to which the material is covered. This is a comprehensive treatment of the principle issues, challenges, history of, principles for, and a model for practicing this hermeneutic. I would say the scope of this book is its most distinguishing contribution.
Preaching Christ from the Old Testament builds a foundation for the student or pastor to learn this method Old Testament hermeneutic. It is a classical textbook that gives more than just “how-to,” but builds a foundation of understanding to present the practical steps. This allows the reader to frame the content matter in a way that is most helpful for the student or pastor to understand what they are doing, even in historical terms somewhat, and where they are headed. Theory is included in this book, but it is very practical in explaining the methodology.
Preaching Christ from the Old Testament begins with a compelling foundation for preaching Christ. He defines preaching Christ as a relationship between preaching the cross, resurrection, and the kingdom of God as a whole, not divided entities to choose between. He offers the three defining facets of Christ’s person, work, and teaching to shape a complete understanding of all it means to preach Christ.
The second part of this chapter addresses the necessity of preaching of the Old Testament. A detailed discussion of reasons for not preaching and difficulties in preaching from the Old Testament are identified and briefly addressed. Six reasons are given for why the Old Testament must be preached. This is a thorough introduction and compelling argument for faithfully preaching the Old Testament.
Chapter two covers preaching Christ from the Old Testament. A detailed orientation to the Old Testament is set forth to show its unique character, relationship to the New Testament, how it witnesses to Christ, and the benefits of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. This chapter is difficult because it highlights errors that most every preacher will make in learning to preach Christ from the Old Testament. Thankfully the author provides a strong explanation and walks the reader through an appropriate relationship of the Testaments that builds a hermeneutic for correctly handling it in preaching Christ.
Two chapters are given to a history of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. These chapters show the historical progression of handling the difficult matter of interpreting the Old Testament. Chapter three traces history from the first century to the Middles Ages. It covers three basic hermeneutical practices, allegorical, typological, and fourfold interpretation. Each practice is introduced, a brief background is given, central figures are identified and briefly evaluated, and the chapter concludes with valuable contributions and shortcomings of the practice.
Chapter four continues the historical timeline identifying the christological interpretation method of Martin Luther, the theocentric interpretation of John Calvin, and modern christological interpretations of Charles Spurgeon and Wilhelm Vischer. Each model is again explained, illustrated, and evaluated. There is more in-depth discussion of each model and principle person in this chapter. This is helpful since greater development of and influence for modern day methods still rely heavily on this period. The development of key principles for later chapters and the influence of these preachers and historical events that were taking place is a real strength for these chapters.
Chapter five gives New Testament principles for preaching and establishes a foundational relationship for the author’s model of preaching. Three basic principles are offered:
- Christ-centered preaching must be God-centered.
- The Old Testament must be interpreted from the reality of the Christ.
- There are many roads that lead from the Old Testament to Christ.
Six ways are distinguished as these “roads” to preach Christ from the Old Testament to Christ. Each of the six ways is given an explanation to introduce it to the reader. This section is helpful to introduce each way by showing examples of the biblical authors.
Chapter six explains the christocentric method of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. The author explains his redemptive-historical christocentric interpretation method falls between Luther and Calvin’s method, hence the new name. The author’s principle concern is “to view the whole counsel of God, with all it’s teaching, laws, prophecies, and visions, in the light of Jesus Christ.” Two basics of interpretation are introduced as the preacher’s responsibility, understanding the passage in its own historical context and understanding the message of the passage in the context of the Canon and redemptive history. Seven ways are then identified for how a preacher can preach Christ from the Old Testament. The first six are introduced in the previous chapter as ways found in the New Testament of preaching Christ. The seventh, New Testament references, is established here with the completion of the New Testament. I will briefly overview each way.
- The redemptive-historical progression is the first and foundational way to preach Christ from the Old Testament. This is the bedrock way that supports all the other ways that lead to Christ, the unified history of the whole Bible. This approach is most naturally preached through the narrative, but can be traced through the psalms and wisdom literature. This way sets a passage in its historical setting that culminates in the eternal truth of Jesus Christ.
- The promise-fulfillment is the second way to preach Christ from the Old Testament. The author establishes two rules for using this method, that God usually fills us his promises progressively and in interpreting one usually moves form the Old Testament to the fulfillment in Christ and then back to the Old Testament. The danger here is in reading the New Testament into the Old and missing aspects of the hope and promise. This way can be preached from the prophets, narratives, and psalms and is an good way to enlarge people’s view of the full scope of kingdom history.
- Typology is the third way. The author points out that some have criticized this way because of its closeness to allegory. Typology “is limited to discovering the specific analogies along the axis of God’s redemptive history as revealed in Scripture.” Typology takes history into account where allegory does not. Some scholars argue this is not proper exegesis because types are not necessarily predictive. The author states his belief that it is a “both-and” issue. The distinction drawn from promise-fulfillment is that types are historical and that it typically moves from the New Testament fulfillment to the past type. Several dangers of this method are identified as well. The most helpful portion of this section is that typology is defined and characteristics are given, rules for using types are listed and examples are shown. Obviously this is an area where the reader must take great care to clarify this approach to use it correctly.
- Analogy is the fourth way. Analogy is often used as a way to apply the message today. But the author states that this is not sufficient for the purpose of analogy. He offers it as a way of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. “The pivotal position of Christ in redemptive history enables preachers to use analogy to direct the Old Testament message to the New Testament church” (p. 262). Analogy can be used in a wider variety of texts, including narrative, law, prophecy, psalms, and wisdom. One must make sure though that the connection of “only in Christ” is clear.
- Longitudinal themes are the fifth way to preach Christ form the Old Testament. This method traces the history of revelation where God reveals himself, his plan, and will in order to save his people. Biblical theology is identified as a primary discipline to help us trace this theme form the Old to the New Testament. A few examples are given of this method.
- New Testament references are the sixth way identified by the author. This is the method added by the completion of the New Testament Canon, referenced in the last chapter. When using the references from the New Testament, the preacher cannot always follow the writer’s use and the writer is not always intending to give a definitive interpretation of the passage. They also use the ways of promise-fulfillment, typology, or longitudinal themes. The use of these references can help draw lines to Christ that may not have otherwise been immediately recognized otherwise. Examples are again given for this method.
- The way of contrast is the final method. This method is clearly centered on Christ because he is primarily responsible for any change between the messages. Examples are given for preaching the way of contrast in narrative, law, prophecy, psalms and wisdom literature.
Chapter seven covers the steps from the Old Testament to the christocentric sermon. This chapter sets forth ten specific steps and explains each for the reader. A final example is used to apply the steps to Genesis 22. In this example the seven ways are explored to discover several ways to preach the passage.
The final chapter is intended to help the reader apply the ways to different passages and provide exercises to reinforce the method. This is an excellent chapter for the reader to conclude the book and strengthen one’s own practice.
Preaching Christ from the Old Testament is clearly a standard setting text. It is comprehensive in its treatment of the topic, explanation, examples, and practice. The author’s method is set forth and is one that other books must regard in writing about the same material or contrasting with other methods. This textbook is helpful to teach the reader and to keep as a reference work. The author writes in a very reader-friendly way. The flow, organization, and content of the book are easy to follow and process. His style fits his purpose very adequately.
I am most excited about two aspects of this book. The first is the seven ways that the author presents for preaching Christ clearly from the Old Testament. These ways are easy to understand and learn. They strengthen one’s confidence for a clear gospel message from the Old Testament without unclear methods. The second aspect of the book I am most encouraged by is the two history chapters. I appreciated the author’s breakdown of methods that preachers have used historically. This provided a very helpful context to understand the development of the seven ways presented.
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