The Typology Of David’s Rise To Power: Messianic Patterns In The Book Of Samuel -- By: James M. Hamilton, Jr.

Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 16:2 (Summer 2012)
Article: The Typology Of David’s Rise To Power: Messianic Patterns In The Book Of Samuel
Author: James M. Hamilton, Jr.


The Typology Of David’s Rise To Power:
Messianic Patterns In The Book Of Samuel1

James M. Hamilton, Jr.

James M. Hamilton, Jr. is Associate Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In addition to his role on the faculty, Dr. Hamilton also serves as preaching pastor at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to his role at Southern Seminary, Dr. Hamilton served as Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Houston campus. He is the author of dozens of articles and essays, as well as a number of books, including God’s Indwelling Presence: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments (B&H, 2006), God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2010), and Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (Crossway, 2012).

This essay is dedicated to Professor E. Earle Ellis in gratitude for his many contributions to the study of the Bible, and especially for his clear statements on the subject of typology.

Daniel Treier has asserted that “the issue of how we may read the Old Testament Christianly” is “the most acute tension with which academic biblical theology faces us.”2 This recent statement reflects a long-standing question, as can be seen from the fact that the relationship between the Old and New Testaments is the major issue dealt with in Reventlow’s Problems of Biblical Theology in the Twentieth Century.3 Progress on this question will only be made by those who embrace an interpretive method practiced by the biblical authors themselves as they interpreted earlier passages of Scripture: typology.4 As Francis Watson puts it, “What is proposed is not an anachronistic return to pre-critical exegesis but a radicalization of the modern theological and exegetical concern to identify ever more precisely those characteristics that are peculiar to the biblical texts.”5

After briefly stating the significance of typology and defining what it is, this presentation will consider whether we are limited to the examples of typological interpretation seen in the Old and New Testaments,6 or whether, taking our cues from those examples, we can build upon them. The theory that we can learn to interpret the Bible typologically from the authors of the New Testament and apply the method to passages they thems...

You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe
visitor : : uid: ()