Fatima Factualist: I am uneasy about our discussion because we have focused so much on principles of interpretation. We have become too abstract. It’s all floating in the air. Let’s talk about particular examples.
Peter Pietist: I too am uneasy, because when we generalize we can leave out the individual and the uniqueness of his personal communion with the Lord.
Missy Missiologist: Maybe we should consider an example, a case study coming from a particular culture.
The resurrection of Christ is the central event in God's dealings with us, and as such provides a pattern for understanding his plans throughout history. That is, the resurrection is an exemplar, a crucial example through which we understand the whole. This use of an exemplar is so crucial that it deserves separate discussion.
The Bible characteristically teaches using exemplars, that is, crucial examples. The exodus from Egypt is God’s exemplar to teach Israel what it means for him to save. Later acts of redemption are analogous to the exodus. The creation of Adam and Eve is God’s exemplar to show that he is the creator of each one of us. The later providential acts by which he brings each of us into being are analogous to the earlier creation. Christ himself is the exemplar for righteous living and the destiny of the righteous person. Christ’s resurrection is the exemplar for the future resurrection of the saints. The crucifixion of Christ is the exemplar of God’s righteous judgment against sin, in that Christ became our sin-bearer (1 Peter 2:24).1
I use the word exemplar rather than merely example because these examples are more than mere examples. They are not just one example among many, but the crucial example in their class. Each involves real historical events that, in their detailed texture are unique and unrepeatable. At the same time, these unrepeatable events are the foundation for all the rest—they furnish general, repeatable patterns for whole series of events. One event becomes the foundation for all later events in which God creates human beings. Or it becomes the foundation for all events of redemption, or resurrection. Since the one crucial event is unrepeatable, other events are not identical to it, but only analogous to it. But since the other events do genuinely relate to the exemplar, the analogy is genuine and important.
In this way the Bible teaches us by a combination of generality and particularity. The Bible includes general statements of truth about how God redeems, and also includes the exodus, with its particularity. Each helps to interpret the other. Similarly, it includes general statements about how God gives life, and also includes the account of Christ’s resurrection. The general truth gets fleshed out through the particular instance. The particular instance receives additional significance through general statements that indicate its relation to a general pattern. Moreover, the Bible is not merely a philosophy, a purely general, disembodied dogma. It announces the historical events of Christ’s life, the particulars of which are the very basis for our salvation. Since Jesus is Lord of all, the particulars of Jesus’ life have universal significance for all people and all history. Since Jesus is the one who is Lord of all, the generalities about the world and its history rest inextricably on the Jesus of first century Palestine.
Moreover, the earthly life of Jesus is the exemplar for who God is. The life of Jesus is the most crucial of all exemplars. As such, it is an exemplar for how other exemplars work in the Bible. Because Christ is truly central to the Bible (Luke 24:44-49), it is natural that we should be able to extend the list of exemplars almost indefinitely. Within the framework of the OT, the tabernacle is the exemplar for God’s dwelling with Israel. Moses is the exemplar for the prophets (Deut 18:18-22). David is the exemplar for kingship (cf. 1 Kings 11:4). Solomon is the exemplar of a wise man (1 Kings 4:29-34). Abraham is the exemplar of faith (Gen 15:6).
Each of these exemplars is rich in particularity. Each is unique. Each is in some crucial ways unlike the other instances of the pattern of which it is the exemplar. We see this uniqueness especially in the case of Christ. Christ is both God and man. Being God, he is unlike any other human being. And yet, he is not only one man among many, but the man, the representative and pattern for a new humanity (1 Cor. 15:45-49).
We are thus confronted with an analogy, but not pure identity, between Christ and other human beings. Christ’s resurrection is analogous to, but not identical with, our being raised to new life in the Spirit (Col. 3:1). Christ’s resurrection is analogous to, but not identical with, the coming resurrection of the bodies of the saints (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
In any analogy, there are points of similarity and points of difference. When we are dealing with exemplars, the analogies are richly structured and many-faceted, rather than confined to one minor point. There are thus many small points of analogy integrated into a larger pattern. But the larger pattern still leaves room for points of striking difference, including global difference.
How then do we judge the character and extent of an analogy? How do we judge which are the points of similarity and which are the points of difference? Can we do it only if someone explicitly enumerates all the points of similarity? This explicit, exhaustive enumeration occurs neither in the Bible nor in most ordinary analogies that human beings use. Rather, we grasp the main character of the analogy and naturally include in it some degree of detail. But some other details remain vague. We are often content to let the exact boundaries of the implications of an analogy remain tacit.
We are able to make judgments about analogy because we have a context. For example, the Bible provides much teaching about God. This larger context of teaching provides a context that enables us to understand any one particular analogy for God, such as God is the great king. As other parts of the Bible confirm, God issues orders, has the legitimate authority appropriate to his position, and has power to rule. In these respects, he is like a typical earthly king. But unlike an earthly king, his power is unlimited, his domain is the whole universe, and his rule is always just. Nor is he subject to the typical earthly limitations of a human king. We are confident of all these conclusions because we already know something about God and something about earthly kings.
In general, analogies work because we have some context for grasping the implications of an analogy. The same holds when we read an analogy in the Bible. We grasp the implications through knowledge of the context, and through knowledge of the author of the analogy, namely God himself. Hence our general knowledge of God influences in subtle ways what we make of an analogy. In many cases, it may not noticeably influence the more obvious, large-scale features and implications. But it will influence the subtleties. It affects just what further, more distant implications we draw, and it affects our judgment concerning more subtle similarities and differences.
Thus, using analogy makes sense only against a background of tacit knowledge. We must know God and know something of his creation. Even though analogies are open-ended and nonexhaustive, we can be confident that we understand because God knows all things exhaustively, he has made us in his image, and he has made a world in which there are many fruitful analogies.
To understand the structure of exemplars and analogies, we may fruitfully employ the earlier partitional triad of aspects namely classificational, instantiational, and associational aspects. These categories are themselves analogical in character. They apply first of all to an exemplar, namely God in his Trinitarian character. They apply subordinately to the creation and to aspects of creation.
We understand God by analogy. For example, how do we understand the associational aspect of God’s being, that is, the mutual fellowship and indwelling within the Trinity? It is a great mystery. But we have an analogy within our experience. God consents to have fellowship with us through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Preeminently, God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to us to dwell in us (Rom. 8:9-11). Through the Spirit, Christ dwells in us (Rom. 8:10) and the Father as well (John 14:23). God dwells in us as human beings. God dwells in himself in a manner that is analogous to his dwelling in us. God's dwelling in himself is the archetypal indwelling. God's dwelling in us an ectype. The two are analogous, not identical (John 17:23).
We also understand instantiation analogically. The Word is eternally the instantiation of God. By analogy, the Word became flesh and “instantiated” God in time and space (John 1:14). We understand the eternal instantiation by analogy with the temporal one.
We understand classification analogically. God reveals himself to us as one God. His revelation reveals his oneness. The revealed oneness is analogically related to his oneness that he has in himself.
The use of exemplars in God's teaching also expresses the classificational, instantiational, and associational aspects. First, an exemplar like the exodus is a particular event or thing. It is an instantiation. Second, an exemplar is an instantiation of a general pattern, a classificational generality. The exodus instantiates the classificational pattern of redemption. Third, an exemplar enjoys associational relations with a larger context, through which we come to understand it. The exodus is an exemplar for a pattern of redemption that displays many other embodiments in another instances. By seeing the relation to other instances, and to general statements, we grasp how the exodus functions as an exemplar.
1 Thus, I am not agreeing with an exemplary theory of the atonement. Christ is our example, to be sure, but is much more as well. He is the exclusive penal substitute for sin.