Have you ever watched a movie in 3D? If so, you may have ducked to miss the incoming airplanes or screamed as sharks appeared to attack you. The sensory overload of three dimensions doesn’t change the movie, but it does intensify the experience.
In this essay, I will argue that we need to read Scripture along three horizons. Like 3D glasses at an IMAX theater, these three horizons help us discover God’s unfolding plan that finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. They help us see what’s going on (1) in the text, (2) in the covenant history of that text, and (3) how a multitude of texts revealed over time find their place in the whole Bible. In sum, this approach looks at the Bible along textual, epochal (or covenantal), and canonical horizons.
Faithful interpreters must consider the grammar and history found at the textual level; they must also attend to the place any passage stands in covenantal history; and they must explain how this individual passage contributes to the whole Bible and is itself informed by the rest of Scripture.
Only as we learn how to read the Bible along these three horizons will we be able see how
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