A hermeneutic that has captivated many in the Reformed community is often called Vosian biblical theology. Its fount has its source in the writings of Geerhardus Johannes Vos. He was professor of biblical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1893-1932. Johannes Geerhardus Vos, professor of biblical studies at Geneva College and RPCNA teaching elder, was his oldest son.

Geerhardus Vos formulated a distinctive evangelical and Reformed approach to biblical theology. The irony is that during his lifetime Vos was little known in evangelical circles and not even well known in Reformed circles. However, the breadth of his scholarship and defense of the authority and reliability of the Scriptures was recognized by fellow scholars. He was twice invited by Abraham Kuyper to be professor of biblical studies at the Free University in the Netherlands and was successfully recruited to Princeton Seminary, although it took two offers and several pleading letters from William Henry Green (Old Testament), A.A. Hodge (systematic theology), B.B. Warfield, (New Testament) to persuade him.

Today Geerhardus Vos’ biblical theology is one of the distinctives required of every professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, and his hermeneutic is known if not embraced by biblically conservative evangelicals and even more latitudinarian evangelical scholars throughout the world. Even popular-though-controversial author N.T. Wright often mentions his indebtedness to Vos. James Dennison in his excellent book The Letters of Geerhardus Vos writes that Vos moved “in two worlds of liberal higher criticism and the world of orthodox supernaturalism; the world of Dutch Americans and the world of Holland Nederlanders; the world of Grand Rapids and the world of Princeton.”

Vosian biblical theology explicates the bond between the partial and preparatory words of promise in the Old Testament and the final word spoken in Jesus, the Son who is the Word. Every passage, while seen in its distinctive period and culture, must be related to the horizontal progressive unfolding that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Luke 24:25-27, 44-49). I have listed below some books that explicate this methodology much more fully.

How does all of this relate to the J.G. Vos many of us know personally or know through the influence of his writing on the RPCNA and beyond? I believe that the myriad disciples of Geerhardus Vos’ scholarly and popular hermeneutics owe J.G. Vos a debt of gratitude. However, most of them are unaware of it. J.G. was the major editor and rewriter of most of his father’s books. Thus he made them readable, accessible, and useful. The books The Self Disclosure of Jesus and The Teaching of the Epistle of Hebrews were assembled from J.G. Vos’ notes and from class syllabi. Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments was assembled and rewritten sentence by sentence from mimeographed editions aided again by lecture notes taken from J.G. Vos’ class notes while taking his father’s course at Princeton. Also the detailed index was added by J.G. Vos. In the preface to Biblical Theology, Geerhardus writes: “The editing of the material for the press has been done by my son the Rev. Johannes G. Vos, who studies this work as a student at Princeton Theological Seminary and is in hearty agreement with the theological viewpoint of the book.” As a frustrated student under J.G. Vos’ teaching I once said to J.G., “Your father’s writing is difficult to understand.” He replied, “You should have seen it before I rewrote it!”

I believe it can be said that without J.G. Vos the revival of interest in Vosian biblical theology would not have occurred.

An interesting addendum to this little-known story is that Geerhardus Vos retired to Santa Ana, Calif. He and the family worshiped regularly at the Santa Ana RP Church, and as Jim Dennison writes, “no doubt because…their oldest son Johannes was an ordained missionary of the RPCNA to Manchuria.” Geerhardus’ wife, Catherine, was received as a member in 1933. Following three years of illness and her death, her funeral was conducted by Rev. Sam Edgar (RP pastor) in 1937. The RPCNA was able to minister greatly to the man and his family who has contributed so much to the evangelical and Reformed community.

—Dr. John H. White

Some reading related to J.G. Vos:

James T. Dennison, ed., The Letters of Geerhardus Vos, P&R Publishing

John H. White, The Book of Books: Essays on the Scriptures in Honor of Johannes G. Vos, P&R Publishing

Some books on biblical theology:

Edmund P. Clowney, Preaching and Biblical Theology, P&R Publishing

Graeme Goldsworthy, According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, IV Press

Mark Strom, The Symphony of Scripture: Making Sense of the Bible’s Many Themes, P&R Publishing

Dennis E. Johnson, Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures, P&R Publishing