Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 10.5)

Disciplines
Biblical Theology
For many Christians, scholarship – especially Biblical scholarship – is an arena to be avoided. We’re aware that, during the past 150 years or so, Biblical scholars undermined the integrity and authority of Scripture in the guise of claiming to understand it better. Higher criticism, theological modernism, and postmodern scholarship have reduced the Scripture to just another historical document, bearing only subjective authority, and that fleeting and variable.

It’s no wonder Christians – including many pastors – don’t take the time to read the works of Biblical scholars of the present or past.

But students of the Bible have nothing to fear from scholarship pursued in the light of and in submission to the Bible’s claims. Scholars who begin their work with the conviction that Scripture is God’s Word, and who then seek and submit to the mind of Christ and the Spirit in their research, can bless students of Scripture with the fruit of their study.

In his article, “The Place of the Book of Acts in Reading the NT,” Gregory Goswell renders a double service for students of the Word (JETS, March 2016).

First, looking at the book of Acts itself, Dr. Goswell shows how Acts serves to bring coherence to the rest of the New Testament by serving as a bridge and touchstone for divine revelation. By carrying the work of Jesus, begun in the gospels, forward through the Spirit into the next generations, Acts buttresses and extends the teaching of Jesus and the promises concerning His Kingdom. It powerfully demonstrates the continuity of the story of redemption from the Old Testament, through Jesus, into the days of the apostles and our own day.

Acts also serves, Dr. Goswell explains, to help us understand the rest of the New Testament by providing background – places, peoples, themes, events, and so forth – for the work of Peter, Paul, and other apostles. The New Testament epistles make more sense, and their teachings and relationship to one another are clarified, when we read them in the light of the story of Christ’s advancing Kingdom in the book of Acts.

Dr. Goswell further shows how Acts helps in keeping the themes and readers of the New Testament epistles in the larger framework of the one Body of Christ. It therefore serves to promote the unity of the Church, the consistency and complementarity of apostolic teaching, and the forward progress of the Gospel and the Kingdom throughout the Roman world.

Thus, Acts, in addition to serving as a bridge into our own day, is a kind of Rosetta Stone for Biblical interpretation, especially in the New Testament – a touchstone for the analogy of Scripture, the discipline of comparing Scripture with Scripture in order to gain more light for understanding.

Second, by studying the canonical arrangements (order in the New Testament) of Acts in lists from Church fathers of the second and third century, Dr. Goswell demonstrates the value of looking to our forbears for understanding into the Word of God.

Church fathers clearly understood the important place Acts should be accorded for understanding the rest of the New Testament. Dr. Goswell’s analysis shows that the views of Church fathers provide strong testimony to the work of the Spirit in superintending Biblical interpretation through the centuries. His appeal to Church fathers and their understanding of Acts demonstrate the value of the analogy of faith in guiding us to right understanding of God’s Word.

Vigorous, careful, scholarly study of Scripture does not automatically lead to liberalism. Submitting to God’s Word as such, following the internal evidence of divine inspiration and oversight in the composition of Scripture, and touching base with faithful forebears in the faith can lead to insights into Scripture that build confidence in the Bible’s authority and that clarify its role – both in its parts as well as the whole of Scripture – in Christ’s ongoing work today.

For reflection
1.  How do you use the work of competent scholars in your reading and study of Scripture?

2.  Have any particular Bible scholars benefited your walk with and work for the Lord? Explain.

3.  We’re wise to use scholarship carefully. What might be some signs, let’s say, in a commentary on a book of the Bible, that the author was not submitting to Scripture as he or she should?

Next steps: Ask a pastor or church leader for some recommendations of useful books to help you grow in your understanding of Scripture. Talk with some friends about how you might begin to incorporate such books into your daily time with the Lord.

Next week’s Scriptorium column begins a 22-week study of the book of Acts. For a brief video introducing the focus and direction of this study, click here.

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