Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 13:2 (Fall 2022)
Article: About Whom Does The Prophet Say This? The Implications Of Prosopological Exegesis For Christ-Centered Preaching Of The Psalms
Author: Ryan J. Ross

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About Whom Does The Prophet Say This? The Implications Of Prosopological Exegesis For Christ-Centered Preaching Of The Psalms

Ryan Ross

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Abstract: Modern advocates of Christ-centered preaching have championed typology as one of the best strategies to preach Christ from the Old Testament. In this article, I seek to show that when it comes to the book of Psalms, prosopological exegesis offers a better way to preach Christ from many of the Psalms than typology. To demonstrate this claim, I first define prosopological exegesis, then provide examples of the practice from early church Fathers. After this, Psalm 22 and 69 are used as “case studies” to demonstrate instances where the apostles interpreted the Psalms prosopologically. Finally, I discuss the implications of prosopological interpretation for Christ-centered preaching of the Psalms, showing how it supplements typology as another exegetical practice to preach Christ from the Old Testament, and in many cases, provides a richer way to preach Christ from the Psalms than typology.

Key Words: Christ-centered preaching, exegesis, prosopological, prosopology, Psalms, typology.

The practice of preaching Christ from the whole of Scripture has experienced a renaissance in popularity over the past few decades.1 Preaching Christ from every text was considered normative practice during the first millennium and a half of the church, up until the Enlightenment.2 During the Enlightenment, the rise of the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation fragmented the sense of the unity of Scripture and divine inspiration and authorship. When this method was used, it evacuated

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the ability to legitimately see Christ in the Old Testament because the “meaning of the text” could be nothing more than what the human author intended to the original audience. Any Christological interpretation of an Old Testament text was considered a reading into the text because, under the presuppositions of this method, the human authors would not have been able to understand that they were speaking about Christ, nor would there have been any legitimate Christological “fuller sense” in the text that could be discerned in light of Christ’s incarnation and passion.

What was considered illegitimate during the Enlightenment and the rise of the historical-critical method is once again considere...