Time and the Word presents the first significant theological account of the foundations and methods of the figural reading of Scripture, reintroducing contemporary scholars to a traditional approach to biblical interpretation that dates back to Jewish practice from before the time of Jesus. Figural interpretation continued in prominence through the early church, the Middle Ages, and into the early modern period before being forcefully rejected with the rise of historical criticism.
Embracing "spiritual," "allegorical," and "prophetical" ways of understanding the Bible, figural reading once offered a broad approach to reading Scripture - an approach that Ephraim Radner here engages through a foundational theological lens. In Time and the Word Radner first uncovers the theological presuppositions of figural reading, historically and philosophically, focusing especially on the Christian understanding of time and the divine. He then moves from the theoretical to the concrete, looking at examples of how figural reading of the Bible gives rise to specific doctrinal claims about God and informs Christian teaching and preaching.