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You are here: Home / Archives for Daniel Rowlands

Recognize Both Divine and Human Authors of the Bible

May 22, 2024 By Peter Krol

Daniel Rowlands suggests that one context we ought to keep in mind when reading the Bible is the context of the whole Bible. We can do this because, though the books of the Bible were written by various human authors, they were also written by the singular divine author.

Here is a taste:

The word of God in the Bible comes to us through human writers. We find the humanity of the writers in variations of vocabulary, idioms, structure, and style. For example, there is the difference between the exquisite Hebrew poetry and varied vocabulary of Isaiah and the straight-forward narrative of Joshua. Similarly, in the New Testament there is the difference between the complex and elegant Greek of Hebrews and John’s more elementary Greek. We can detect the presence of the human authors throughout all of Scripture.

On the other hand, and at the risk of sounding obvious, we ought not neglect the divine author, God himself. Here, the incarnation of the Son of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh (John 1:14), is a helpful analogy for understanding the human and divine together as one.

Check it out!

Filed Under: Check it Out Tagged With: Author, Context, Daniel Rowlands, Interpretation

Maintaining Both Human and Divine Aspects of Scripture

April 8, 2020 By Peter Krol

Daniel Rowlands has a helpful piece about how to maintain both the human and divine aspects of Scripture. When we aim to read Scripture “in context,” we must keep in mind both the immediate literary/historical context of the human author and the canonical context of the divine author.

In each place there is the immediate context, but there is a broader context—the context of the entire revelation of God contained in the Bible. There are different human authors (i.e. Moses, Hosea, and Matthew), yet there is one divine author—God himself. There is an immediate context, and there is an overall biblical context—the overarching story of God’s mighty acts of redemption in Christ Jesus.

We do not have to choose between these matters in our study of Scripture. We ought to maintain both.

Check it out!

Filed Under: Check it Out Tagged With: Bible reading, Context, Daniel Rowlands

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