A Geerhardus Vos Anthology: Biblical and Theological Insights Alphabetically Arranged

by Danny E. Olinger, Danny E. Olinger (Editor)

Over a period of sixty-four years, Geerhardus Vos "put before Christendom an unmatched Reformed biblical-theological corpus," writes Danny E. Olinger. "In [these] books, reviews, articles, sermons, and poems, Vos consistently labored to show that the diverse strands of biblical revelation from Genesis to Revelation are centered in Jesus Christ. . . ." For the first time, passages have been extracted from Vos’s published and unpublished writings and organized by subject, giving twenty-first–century readers an unparalleled opportunity to learn firsthand what Vos wrote on more than 350 topics.

Genres: Theology

400 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2005

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

In some ways an anthology might be the best way to start with Geerhardus Vos. His material is not always simple. And for the advanced reader who is familiar with Vos, this is a handy resource. One thing to note: this material pre-dates the release of Vos’s systematic/dogmatic theology.

The main Vosian themes are the Two Ages, the Tabernacle, and Anthropology

Abbreviations

GG = Grace and Glory
BT = Biblical Theology
SW = Shorter Writings
PE = Pauline Eschatology

Two Ages

We are at the intersection between the old age, the current world, and the Age to come. On the other hand, Vos might not be saying that the old age = the evil age. He writes, “In Hebrews…the old age is the Old Testament” (Vos 33, TEH 52). It is the world of shadows and copies.

On the whole, though, when the New Testament, and especially the Apostle Paul, speak of the two ages, it is in a more negative sense.

The Copy of the Heavens

Vos points out that the biblical model does use a dualism of sorts. Platonism said there was a dualism between the higher world of forms and this world, the copy. The higher world has more being. It is more real. Vos does not do this. There are two realms, to be sure, but they have their starting points in the Two Ages.

With dualism, we acknowledge a world of shadows. Pace mystery cults, however, the world of shadows applies to the Levitical system. Moreover, the earthly tabernacle/temple is a copy of the heavenly one. “Heaven is the primordial, earth the secondary creation” (125: HM/GG 113).

The Old Covenant refers not to “the entire period from the fall of man to Christ, but the period from Moses to Christ” (218: BT 26).

The Platonic method, on the other hand, is a negation of the physical as a way of participating in the eternal forms. Rather, biblical man recognizes “in the things unseen…the enduring things of the world to come” (240: PE 292).

Anthropology

With a skill that few have matched, Vos delineates the nature of pre- and post-Resurrection bodies: sarkikos – pneumatikos – and psykikos-pneumatikos. “Psychic man is the natural man as such. The sarkic man is the sinful natural man” (73: KC/SW 541-542). Therefore, when we are raised, and the text says we have a pneumatic body, it doesn’t mean a ghostly, Gnostic body.

When the NT speaks of sarx, flesh, it does not mean simply corporeality. “It is an organism, an order of things beyond the original man” (116: EAP/SW 123). This order takes on a hostile dimension due to Adam’s fall. On the other hand, yet quite in keeping with the Tabernacle typology elsewhere in the NT, “the old covenant is spoken of as sarkikos and sarkinos.”

Conclusion

This should be near the student’s hand as he studies Scripture. Vos walked so we could run. There are areas that need to be explored. One, for example, is a “tabernacle Christology.” It was anticipated by the Antiochian school in the 5th century, but their Nestorianism colored the project. This volume also makes for good devotional reading.

[Hobart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S A GEERHARDUS VOS ANTHOLOGY ABOUT?
Danny Olinger literally wrote the book on Geerhardus Vos,* but he's been studying him for a lot longer than that. As a part of his own personal study, he's taken notes—he's written quotations that meant a lot to him, seemed important, and so on—basically (as he put it in the Preface) "the best" of what he was reading. He built upon this foundation to assemble this anthology.

* 2018's Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian.

Arranged topically (and those topics are arranged alphabetically), this is a collection of excerpts of varying lengths (all pretty short) from his published and published writings—the crème de la crème of one of the best of the 20th Century.

There's also a great introduction by Olinger outlining Vos' importance and work.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT A GEERHARDUS VOS ANTHOLOGY?
My guess is that this book isn't meant to be a devotional read, it's a resource—a reference book. A quick way to find some of Vos' insights and then know what work to consult for more. That's a better use for it, for sure. But I liked the way I read it.

So I took this as a letter at a time (although some letter's entries were long enough that I split them in two). It made for a nice few minutes once a week to think about a variety of bite-sized nuggets of Biblical Theology.

Some were pithy, some took a little chewing to get through—all were insightful and useful (although some took some thinking to figure out how they were useful). Most of all, each one made me curious about the work they were excerpted from.

One aspect (I'm not sure if it's a pro or a con) of this book being a collection of short (1 sentence to 4 paragraphs or so) thoughts is that some jumped out at me more than others, I'm pretty sure that I could restart it today and different things would grab my attention.

This is a great way to get an easy-to-read introduction to Vos. Grace and Glory might be better—but this is nothing to sneeze at.

[Lu Tsun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply very handy for Vosian study.