Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New

by Leonhard Goppelt

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 1982

Overview

Enrich your understanding of the New Testament by discovering its shadows in the Old. In this valuable text, Leonhard Goppelt examines typology and the typological interpretation of the Bible. Explore various scholarly definitions of typology. Discover views on typology from Palestinian Judaism, Hellenistic Judaism, the New Testament, apocalypticism, and Paul. Analyze New Testament passages that use Old Testament symbolism. With Goppelt’s Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New, you will gain a deeper understanding of a long tradition of scriptural interpretation.

Key Features

• Presents how the Old Testament anticipated the New Testament
• Explains various interpretations of Old Testament typology
• Analyzes New Testament passages that use Old Testament symbolism

Contents

• Palestinian Judaism
• Hellenistic Judaism
• The Synoptic Gospels and Acts: Jesus Christ
• The Synoptic Gospels and Acts: The Church of Jesus Christ
• The Pauline Epistles
• The Epistle to the Hebrews
• The Gospel of John
• The Nature of Old Testament Typology in the New Testament
• Apocalypticism and Typology in Paul

Top Highlights

“Harnack, in his interpretation of the nature of Christianity, described the development in the following manner: By accepting the OT, Christianity became a syncretistic religion; the church of the pure gospel must exclude the OT from its canon.” (Page 4)

“The fundamental question that divides the various schools of thought is about the relationship of the OT to Jesus Christ.” (Page 1)

“Without exception they indicate that typology is the method of biblical interpretation that is characteristic of the NT” (Page 4)

“The typological approach followed by Goppelt has been criticized for its attitude toward history. First, it is suggested that the NT’s typological interpretation of the OT is not a true ‘historical’ understanding but only a ‘reading back’ of the interests of the NT writers.” (Page xiv)

“Today there is a greater recognition of the subjective factors that influence every historian’s representation of the past.³⁵ As the reconstruction of a historian, history is interpretation since any reading, say, of the OT texts, no less than the typological, is done through interpretive spectacles. While it can be plausibly argued that the OT writers themselves had in view a future significance of the things they were relating,³⁶ this is not necessary for the argument that such a significance was placed in them by God as the NT claims.³⁷ Typological exegesis assumes a divine sovereignty over history, an assumption that admittedly not everyone is prepared to accept. But it may, nonetheless, be a defensible assumption.” (Page xv)

Product Details

• Title: Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New
• Author: Leonhard Goppelt
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 1982
• Pages: 286
• Religious Group: Evangelicals
• Resource Type: Topical
• Topic: Biblical Studies

About Leonhard Goppelt

Leonhard Goppelt (1911–1973) was professor of New Testament at Hamburg and Munich. His other publications include A Commentary on 1 Peter, Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times, and Theology of the New Testament.