Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 52:2 (Jun 2009)
Article: Psalm 72: An Historical And Messianic Current Example Of Antiochene Hermeneutical "Theoria"
Author: Walter Kaiser

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JETS 52:2 (June 2009) p. 257

Psalm 72: An Historical And Messianic Current Example Of Antiochene Hermeneutical Theoria

Walter Kaiser*

* Walter Kaiser is distinguished professor of Old Testament and president emeritus at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 130 Essex St., South Hamilton, MA 01982.

It is an amazing fact that, despite the absence of the term theoria (the Greek term usually rendered as “sight,” insight,” or “contemplation”) from the vocabulary of the Apostolic Fathers, this term (which began to appear quite frequently from the third and fourth Christian centuries forward), should have had so little effect, or any major part, in the current discussions of evangelical biblical hermeneutics, even though the issues are very much the same today as they were then. The founder of the “Antiochene school” or the “Antiochian model,” of course, was Lucian of Antioch (d. ad 312), who along with such names as Julian of Eclanum, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodoret of Mopsuestia (c. 350-428), Severian of Gabala, Jerome (c. 347-420), Theodoret of Cyrrhus (c. 393-466) and John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), set the hermeneutical course for some solutions to many of the key problems afflicting evangelicalism’s debates in biblical interpretation today.

One of the few evangelicals who has contributed to this area is Bradley Nassif ’s Fordham University doctoral dissertation in 19911 on theoria. Nassif ’s work could supply the help evangelicals need to help them interpret the NT’s use of the OT and in its understanding of the prophetic texts of the older testament. Nassif’s contribution has enormous implications for much of the contemporary debate, though much of that research is basically unrecognized in most instances by evangelicals. The real significance of the theoria model is that in addition to the Antiochenes’ quest for the “historical,” “ethical,” “straightforward,” or “rational” meaning of the scriptural text, theoria also sought both the homiletical/spiritual aspect as well as the messianic aspects that were also to be found in the text itself rather than attaching ones ab extra to the underlying text.

Antiochenes stood over against the Alexandrian School, which used the allegorical method for interpreting Scripture. Nassif2 presented the Antiochenes as utiliyzing four essential features of theoria, namely: (1) the ground of all meaning in a text is found in the historical reality of the past event, which may however, serve as a mirror so that one sees, where it is

JETS 52:2 (June 2009) p. 258

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