spes clara

This is my third post thinking about a hermeneutical principle I have called in totidem verbis. That’s a Latin phrase which means “in just so many words”. It’s where a person reading the Bible relies on the explicit words and ideas presented in the text to determine what the Bible is trying to say. I have pointed out how natural and necessary this is. It’s really the starting point for determining the meaning and message of any written text. If the Bible says Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene after he was resurrected (John 20:15), then that is what we’re being asked to believe. If the Bible says Jesus visited the city of Jerusalem a number of times and at one point condemned it to be destroyed (Matthew chs 23-25), then that’s what the Bible is teaching us. If the Bible says the Apostle John saw a vision of heaven in which 24 people were seated on thrones (Rev. 4:4), then we take it plainly that a chap named John saw such a vision. In all these cases we’re just looking at what’s plainly meant by the text, “in just so many words”. It is a natural way of reading the Bible. But on its own, I don’t think it’s enough.

If we believe the Bible is a collection of divinely inspired documents, then we need to be open to the idea that the Bible possesses deep internal coherence and thematic connections which were intended by God and yet aren’t always immediately obvious in the explicit words of the text itself. I had previously described the explicit words of the Bible as being like the ground, which has underneath it an intricate system of subterranean waterways that bubble up to the surface at various points. It sounds a bit vague, but let me try to explain the thrust of what I mean. We can use the three examples given above to demonstrate this.

(a) Jesus, the gardener. In John’s gospel Jesus is presented as the eternal ‘Word of God’, through whom the world was created (John 1:1-3). And yet, anyone who’s read the Bible knows that from the very beginning, human beings have rejected their Creator’s rightful rule over them. In Genesis, Adam (which simply means ‘man’) was given the task of ruling the world as God’s viceregent – his image bearer – and charged to tend the garden of Eden, to make it grow and flourish. Thus, the world was to become full of productive, glorious, peaceful beauty – like any good garden. In rejecting God, this divine mandate fell into disrepair. Much later, God sovereignly chose the people of Israel to be the focal point of God’s work to bring his blessing into the world. Israel was to be “a light to the nations”, bringing blessing as they faithfully served and worshipped God. But they too failed in this task.

So. God sends Jesus – who is the true ‘Adam’, and the true ‘Israel’. And God’s plans for the blessing and beauty of the world rest upon his shoulders. In the beginning of John’s gospel, John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus has come do to something of global significance, which undoes the sinful rebellion of Adam and Israel (and us!). He achieves this in his death, resurrection and glorious ascension (not to mention the giving of his Spirit to empower his church). After dying his atoning death for our sin, Jesus was gloriously raised to life. This event heralds the beginning of what is called “the new heavens and the new earth”. Jesus has done something so profound that all of history hinges around it. He has dealt with the sin and brokeness that comes between us and God (and each other), and he has dealt death itself a fatal blow. Things will never be the same. The old order of things is passing away. The new is here.

In the context of this history-shaking reality, the resurrected Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene on that first Easter Sunday morning. In a moment of understated profundity, it says she mistook him for “the gardener” (John 20:15). Ironically, he is the gardener! He is the second and true Adam (1 Cor. 15:22). He is the one who brings the chaos of this rebellious world to the productive, glorious, peaceful beauty God intended for it.

Adam was a gardener, but he neglected his work. Jesus is the second and true Adam – the ultimate ‘gardener’ who will, by the power of his Spirit at work in his church, bring the chaos of this world into gradual subjection to his loving, cultivating rule.

This connection between the two gardeners – Adam and Jesus – is easy to see at this pivotal point in human history. But if we are only looking for biblical truth “in just so many words”, we will simply struggle to see God’s message to us in full colour, and Mary’s case of mistaken identity will remain just that. But what is actually going on is so much more than that. Thus, the in totidem verbis principle is essential, but not adequate to discover all that God has plainly put in the Bible for us to discover.

I will deal with the other two examples in the next post, and show how these underground waterways bubble to the surface in refreshing and obvious ways. SDG.