This course was delivered in March in a highly encouraging and formative learning environment, marked by strong student engagement and evident pastoral enthusiasm. Dr. Harris noted that the students consistently demonstrated intellectual sharpness and a deep desire to return to their churches equipped to teach and serve more effectively. Translation support, provided by in country partners, was instrumental in ensuring clarity and accuracy, allowing complex theological and methodological concepts to be communicated effectively across language and cultural contexts.
The course took place amid growing challenges felt in church life and ministry practice. Recent restrictions have limited opportunities for public ministry activity. While these constraints create real challenges for local pastors, they also underscore the importance of rigorous theological training that equips leaders to steward Scripture wisely within formidable environments.
One moment from the week captured the heart of the course’s impact. An older, rural pastor—initially overwhelmed by the volume of material and unfamiliar interpretive methods—persisted through the difficulty. By the final sessions, he delivered one of the strongest exegetical presentations of the entire group. This transformation vividly illustrated the course’s aim: not merely the transfer of information, but the formation of confident, faithful interpreters of God’s Word prepared for enduring ministry.
An Overview of Old Testament Survey: Purpose, Method, and Theology
These teaching notes present a comprehensive Old Testament Survey designed to equip Bible college students with both theological depth and exegetical competence. The course integrates academic rigor with spiritual formation, seeking to cultivate love for God, Scripture, God’s people, and the lost while training students to read the Old Testament faithfully, responsibly, and Christologically.
The survey is structured around a five-day pedagogical framework. Day One introduces foundational concerns: why the Old Testament matters, what it is, and how it should be studied. Emphasis is placed on hermeneutics and exegesis, including a detailed example of expository interpretation drawn from Isaiah 6. Days Two through Four move canonically and thematically: the Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy), the Historical Books and Prophets, and the Writings (Poetry and Wisdom). The course concludes with synthesis, review, and student presentations, reinforcing the conviction that Scripture is not merely studied but proclaimed and lived.
A core concern throughout the notes is why Christians must study the Old Testament. The OT is presented as divine revelation, foundational for understanding Jesus, salvation, worship, ethics, and wisdom. It was the Bible of Jesus and the apostles and remains essential for grasping the unity of redemptive history. Rather than treating the Old Testament as a problematic or obsolete precursor to the New Testament, the course emphasizes its theological coherence, moral seriousness, and narrative realism.
Methodologically, the notes stress careful hermeneutics grounded in key evangelical convictions: inspiration, inerrancy, clarity, sufficiency, and authority of Scripture. Interpretation is framed as a bidirectional, formative act in which the reader approaches the text humbly, allowing the Word to shape belief and practice. Students are trained to attend to literary forms, historical and Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) contexts, canonical development, and theological trajectories. The exegetical method consistently moves from text and context to theology and application, resisting both proof‑texting and anachronistic readings.
Biblical theology provides the unifying framework of the course. Major themes—creation and new creation, covenant, seed and promise, exodus and exile, law and grace, kingship and messianic hope—are traced across the canon. The Torah introduces these patterns, which are then developed through Israel’s history, the prophets’ calls to covenant faithfulness, and the wisdom literature’s engagement with suffering, justice, and the fear of the LORD. Throughout, typology and progressive revelation are employed carefully, ensuring that texts are understood first in their own contexts before being related to Christ and the gospel.
Finally, the course underscores that the ultimate goal of Old Testament study is transformation, not information alone. Faithful interpretation should lead to worship, humility, ethical discernment, perseverance, and hope. By integrating historical awareness, theological coherence, and pastoral sensitivity, this survey models how the Old Testament continues to shape Christian faith, teaching, and life.