Leonard Goppelt wrote a gem of a commentary on 1 Peter.  I’ve been studying it as I prepare to exhort on the amazingly redemptively-historical 1 Pet 1:10-12.  Here is a typical quote from Goppelt on the text: Prophecy enables the Church to understand the Christ-event preached to it as fulfillment, as eschatological salvation, and, therefore, [...]

The history of biblical studies has seen a number of different approaches to the prophetical books.  In this post, I provide a brief survey of various critical approaches along with a few names of key figures. Historical Criticism Historical critics divide the prophetic writings into historical truths and metaphysical truths.  Historical critics begin with the [...]

Richard Pratt introduces an interesting topic in prophetical studies.  The idea may actually be unsettling to some. Pratt examines historical contingencies and their relationship to biblical prophecy.  In his study, Pratt identifies three types of OT prophecy:

Daniel 9:20-27 is one of those passages that gets the covenantal/dispensational fires going. It seemed discussions would constantly find their way to this passage back when I was having regular discussions with dispensationalists. I happened to be reading Meredith G. Kline’s “The Covenant of the Seventieth Week” recently and thought I would pass this quotation [...]

Recently, Christopher Fantuzzo, lecturer in Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary delivered a candidating lecture on Isaiah 59:21 and its position in the book.  The passage is as follows. 21″And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put [...]

Malachi 3:1-4 draws on several prominent prophetic themes.  Many intertextual and motific connections can be identified within the prophets and the broader Old Testament canonical context, and these connections lay the foundation for the New Testament revelation regarding the identity of “my messenger” as well as for understanding the eschatological significance and function of “the [...]

In issue 103 (1984) of the Journal of Biblical Literature, Bruce Malchow shared a few interesting thoughts on the identity of “the messenger of the covenant” in Malachi 3:1. I plan to share my own thoughts on the verse in future posts, but I will begin with an observation on Malchow’s notion of redaction in [...]

O. Palmer Robertson (affectionately called OPR by our good friend, Bishop NT Batzig) provides a helpful set of criteria for distinguishing between true and false prophets in his book The Christ of the Prophets.  First, the true prophet always comes in the name of the Lord.  If he does not prophesy in the name of [...]

Scholars often divide the words of the prophet into two categories.  First, the prophet forth-tells.  By forthtelling, the prophet applies the divine Word to the hearers’ current situation.  The prophet calls people to account for their current actions and speaks to various of the day. But secondly, the prophet foretells.  This perhaps is the more [...]