How to read without theology.
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”
Joshua 1:8
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the Law of the LORD, and who meditates on His Law day and night.
Psalm 1:1-2
The book of Genesis opens with an astounding statement. “In the beginning…” What happens before the beginning isn’t important. If it were, it would tell us what happened. Just as the word bereshit suggests, the book itself being called this in Hebrew, the book revolves around the patriarchs and the beginnings of God’s workings and dealings in the earth. “In the beginning” suggests that before we ever get to anything else, we must ponder what is unfolding. The Bible doesn’t begin with theology or doctrinal statements. It begins with narrative.
As I’ve remained here, I have become convinced that systematic theology cannot be established before we explore ontology, which is not just the study of “being,” but the study of the architecture by which God has established all things, and the relation of all things to Him and through Him. “Being” encompasses Theology Proper (the doctrine of God), creation, anthropology (the doctrine of man), time and seasons, and election. Everything else falls within how those relate.
I would actually propose that theology itself must begin with ontology, then discuss metaphysics, and once we’ve grasped the architection of heaven and earth, eternity and tellurian, and we grasp the metaphysical realities that govern the things chthonic and temporal, we move on to narrative. The Scriptures never give us explicit doctrinal statements. We have at best fragments to extract as “proof texts,” but these proof texts have contexts and connotations that derive from the first three movements of theological comprehension.
Beginnings are only beginnings when they describe everything, and not merely systematic theology. Therefore, we must learn to read as the text says, and not as we interpret it. Interpretation comes much later, even if interpretation and systematizing what we read is naturally what our minds do. Theology as we discuss it in modernity is not invalid, but it is downstream from the discussion of ontology, metaphysics, and narrative theology (a broader term of biblical theology). Only from there can we discuss systematic theology and consummation (usually labeled as eschatology).
I almost sense that systematic theology is the final capstone, almost like a lexicon, appendix, dictionary, or even concordance to what the previous discussions have developed. Within ontology, we must answer the questions of who God is, why He interacts how He interacts, what manner of relation He pursues, what mechanism He relates through, and what all of this says about Him. With metaphysics, we develop the axioms and assumptions that we bring into the Scripture. We develop logic, deeper architecture of things like worship, time, Zion, Eden, Temple, cosmology, and even what can be known of angelology/demonology.
Narrative establishes how God interacts in history, and how He chooses to develop history to His purposes. It gives us a trajectory of thought. It reveals to us how we are to understand, and the context of, the various terms and doctrines of the faith. How do we understand election if not through the consistent unfolding of election? How are we to understand inheritance if not through the development of the term through Scripture? How are we to understand salvation, atonement, forgiveness, sin, righteousness, blessing, prayer, or even covenant if not through the progression of Scripture?
From narrative we develop experiential and participatory theology. This is where ecclesiology forms. This is where the sacraments form. This is where the five fold ministry forms. This is where we find ourselves in the New Testament thought. Why do the apostles teach what they teach? Why does Jesus teach what He teaches? Why are they guiding us in lifestyle and purpose the way that they give direction and instruction? We cannot assume that the Spirit suddenly began to speak through these men something that had formerly not been present. Men steeped in the Torah, the writings, and the prophets aren’t speaking in a void.
These things will demand upon us a very specific way by which we can understand where all things are heading. That is consummation. It isn’t until we have truly wrestled with these things, by simply taking the effort to meditate instead of postulate, that we have the authority to begin to condense these things into doctrinal creeds.
What happens when we allow Genesis 1-3 to establish its own world before asking theology to explain that world? How does the foundations of Genesis 1-3 progress and deepen through the rest of Scripture?
Therefore, systematic theology comes after perception. If we rush through these chapters with already established definitions, we can recognize familiar doctrines while missing the architecture from which those doctrines arise. Our reading must begin at the beginning, just as our Bible does. We must read forward before we read backward. We need to learn to leave observations unnamed. Saying, “I see this, but I don’t know what it means,” is not a weakness. It is discipline. It allows the text to remain capable of correcting you.
Remember the texts cited at the beginning. Meditation produces something within us. The one who meditates is the one who “is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Before theology comes sight and perception. Genesis 1 gives us a world before it gives us a doctrine.
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