Ark (Word) – Creation
Jesus answered and said to them, ”Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard:

Veil (torn!) – Division
that the blind see,

Altar (new four-cornered mediatorial Land from the Sea) – Ascension
the lame walk,

Lampstand (new rulers) – Testing
the lepers are cleansed,

Incense (new eldership) – Maturity
the deaf hear,

Laver (Jordan) – Conquest
the dead are raised,

Shekinah (Rest) – Glorification
the poor have the gospel preached to them.

I thought the lepers being at the centre was a bit weird, but the centre of the pattern is very often the cross or the tomb, or some symbol of these. Perhaps because the centre of the matrix is the wilderness testing (Numbers) and lepers had to live outside the city, outside the camp (Hebrews 13:13). He makes a new priesthood out of those who were the living dead, those who were excluded under the old Law. The Law itself would be slain and resurrected, transfigured by Jesus. It would become a Law (structure) filled with the Spirit (glory) that could truly impart Aaron’s priestly “clean”. The singular “Light” of the Ark (Day 1) became the plural “lights” of the Lampstand (Day 4 – Pentecost).

On point 5, Kelby commented:

“Seems to make sense, though I’m not completely sure how ‘the deaf hearing’ fits into the pattern of summoning an army/maturity/incense clouds. Seems to me a central idea of testing would be cleansing (baptism/investiture), or possibly the revelation of such a cleansing.”

I think Maturity here is a new generation of Israel who will hear a new Moses and His transfigured Law. Step 5 is Israel summoned to Moses in Deuteronomy. The clouds/swarms in the greater NT pattern are the Gentiles who joined the new Israel and rescued her from barrenness. [1] The completion of the Jew-Gentile church was Revelation’s seven trumpets to Herod’s Jerusalem.[2]

“Since they could not agree among themselves, they started leaving. But Paul said, ‘The Holy Spirit said the right thing when he sent Isaiah the prophet to tell our ancestors, “Go to these people and tell them: You will listen and listen, but never understand. You will look and look, but never see. All of you have stubborn hearts. Your ears are stopped up, and your eyes are covered. You cannot see or hear or understand. If you could, you would turn to me, and I would heal you.”‘ Paul said, ‘You may be sure that God wants to save the Gentiles! And they will listen.’”  Acts 28:25-28

Mike Bull is a graphic designer in the wonderfully named Katoomba, New South Wales, who writes about the Bible. He’s produced a massive “biblical theology of the whole Christ” entitled Totus Christus. There are a lot of juicy details here, but the overall scheme is to follow the heptamerous chiastic pattern of Creation, Division, Ascension, Testing, Maturity, Conquest, Glorification from Genesis to the end of the Bible. Some of it feels forced and schematic, but overall it’s a lively introduction to a richer reading of Scripture. With a lot of quotations from James Jordan and me, it’s a good summary of what we’ve been up to for the past couple of decades.

The second review is from Kelby Carlson:

Totus Christus is an astounding book in many ways. It is one of the best excursus on symbol, typology and structure in the Bible I have ever had the great pleasure of reading.  It is well-written and, in almost all cases, thoroughly engaging. So why am I bothering to write a review of it if I think it is so wonderful?

Well, despite this book’s many amazing characteristics, it has a deep flaw. This deep flaw many times impaired me from reading it, and I am very grateful I had the author to help clarify points as I went. And that’s the key word; clarify, which often Mike Bull does not do. He starts off by introducing the reader to the Dominion, Creation, and Feast patterns. However, he fails to really explain in any great detail what salient points these structures embody and the specific things one must look for. “Ascension” only takes on its intended meaning when you realize exactly what it means; that it combines a specific dominion step with a Firstfruits offering, and often uses a creation motif along with it. This is the way all of Bull’s structure works and I deeply wish he would consider re-organizing the book to provide a weightier introduction.

There are other points where often Bull does not seem to give enough detail (or substantiation) to some exegesis of a text. It seems obvious to him, I am guessing, and usually when you dig a little deeper it becomes blindingly inescapable. However, I think he has overestimated the lay-reader’s willingness to do this; even I, an interested armchair theologian, do not always want to try to scavenger hunt for specific answers when said answers could be so easily included. According to Bull, the five-point treaty structure is tremendously important; but he only directly deals with it a scant two or three times. He leaves the readers to infer the structure on their own; something which a beginner (or even an expert!) is not always capable of doing.

In Bull’s introduction, he states he wanted to provide a huge, jargon-free juggernaut as an introduction to biblical theology. Huge, juggernaut? Why sure it is, and I wouldn’t be at all averse to seeing it grow. But “jargon-free”? Far from it.  There is a ton of jargon in this book, jargon that is very meaningful but sometimes not well explained. (Sometimes it is well-explained. But oftentimes it gets introduced, used a bunch, and then explained in detail later, which is not an approach that works well.)

So should you read it? Oh yes, yes you should. It is deeply thought-provoking, even paradigm-shattering. It saturated me in the Bible and now I see structures and deep meaning in many, many passages of Scripture. But for it to be truly effective it is going to need some heavy re-organization and some lengthening; I know that these things can be done, and I know they will make the book a true gem everyone will read and love.

TOTREVIEW

This contribution by Kelby Carlson, who just finished my book. He deserves a big medal. He also thinks it should be longer!

For our English class we are reading The Scarlet Letter. It’s amazing how much symbolism there is in literature, and your book (Jordan’s, too, and a few others) have really started to help me see that. I think man fundmentally fits symbols into everything, even if sometimes it is unintentional. I am just amazed at how something that at first appears simple can say so much; which has me even more in awe of the Scriptures.

I was just reading Colossians 1:15-20 and had heard that those verses were structured as a liturgical hymn. This is an astoundingly compact and intricate series of verses and it is one of the best and most beautiful proclamations of the Gospel-Through-Word in the entire New Testament. It is structured both around creation and around the liturgy; its parallelisms are constant and rhythmic even in an English translation. It also reflects a pattern from Garden (ark-throne), to land (the holy people), to world (glorious reconciliation.) Here is an outline following the seven steps of the Dominion chiasm:

Creation (garden, light, ark, word): He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Division (firmament-heaven, veil, mediation: For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

Ascension (head, firstfruits): all things were created by him and for him.

Testing (lampstand, ruling light, mighty man): He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Maturity (incense-clouds, holy people, totus christus, garden to land): And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Conquest (Atonement, High Priest, final filling, land to world): For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven

Glorification (booths, final libation, wine, blood): by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

.

Concerning Totus Christus, Kelby wrote me:

“I just got through reading the chapter on Christ’s crucifixion. Let me say that almost every nitpick I might have had with any other section of the book was forgotten as I read this part. Whatever you charge for the book is what that chapter alone is worth. You could make an entire book out of that chapter; it says so much, so eloquently, and so concisely. Amazing.”

Introduction and chapter one are here [PDF]. I hope he sends me a list of the nits to pick too.

TOTREVIEW