While Catholic and Lutheran commentators tend to find Christ more immediately in the Psalms, Reformed commentators generally prefer to use the language of typology. We can see this in Wolfgang Musculus’s (1497-1563) exegesis of Psalm 21. Reading this royal psalm, he argues that the text looks beyond its historical context and that through the lens…

Elijah’s rapture by a burning chariot pulled by burning horses is one of Scriptures most captivating images. Besides inspiring a film title, the phrase “chariots of fire” continues to circulate as an invocation of a powerful mystical experience. For Reformation theologians like the German Johannes Piscator (1546–1625), Elijah’s ascent provides an opportunity for typological exegesis, that…

We have all had that experience of reading “the boring parts” of Scripture—the laws and building designs and lists of names and so on. We know building the temple was important, but we want to skip ahead to the “meaty stuff.” By applying the hermeneutic tool of typology, whereby the Old Testament is read as a…

Desiderius Erasmus on Luke 24:25-27 The Jews honor Moses almost as a god because he led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and in the desert he gave the law for them to observe and thus obtain salvation and come into a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet what else was that Moses…