# Backwards hermeneutic?



## Andrew P.C. (Aug 23, 2007)

> COVENANT SIGN AND SEAL
> The Symbolic Significance of Circumcision,
> and Its Application to the New Testament Believer
> Part 2 of 2
> ...



Isn't this backwards? Doesn't the NT interpret the OT?


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## Semper Fidelis (Aug 23, 2007)

Yes, the NT reveals the OT but it's the same way that reading the end of the Lord of the Rings reveals things that happen in the beginning and the middle of the book. If you haven't read the beginning of the book and just jump to the end you're thinking: 

"Who's Frodo? Who's Gandalph? Elves on ships? What are they talking about with these rings?"

What a lot of people do is they spend a bunch of time reading the very end and then they construct the story that preceded assuming: "This must be how they got there." Then when they're confronted with the actual beginning and middle they say: "Well, that can't be right because that doesn't comport with how I saw the story developing. This must mean something different for him."

If you look at Paul in the Book of Romans, recall that the people he's addressing don't have the New Testament Epistles. When Paul taught them the Scriptures he taught them the OT but then shed light on the meaning of them. He's not with us today but we have his Epistles to read but he expects us to read the things he's talking about. That way when we get to Galatians 3 we're not saying: 

"Who's Abraham? What Promise? Isaac? Ishmael? Circumcision?"


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