Geerhardus Vos

Geerhardus Johannes Vos (March 14, 1862 – August 13, 1949) was an American Reformed theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical Theology.

Biography

Vos was born to a Dutch Reformed pastor in Heerenveen in Friesland in the Netherlands. In 1881, when Geerhardus was 19 years old, his father accepted a call to be the pastor of the Christian Reformed Church congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Geerhardus Vos began his education at the Christian Reformed Church's Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, before moving to Princeton Theological Seminary. He completed his studies in Germany, receiving his doctorate in Arabic Studies from the Philosophy Faculty of Strassburg University in 1888.

Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper tried to convince Vos to become professor of Old Testament Theology at the Free University in Amsterdam, but Vos chose to return to America. Thus, in the Fall of 1888, Vos took up a position on the Calvin Theological Seminary faculty. In 1892, Vos moved and joined the faculty of the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he became its first Professor of Biblical Theology. At Princeton, he taught alongside J. Gresham Machen and B. B. Warfield and authored his most famous works, including: "Pauline Eschatology" (1930) and "Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments" (1948).

Vos' wife, Catherine, authored the well-known "Child's Story Bible". She died in 1937, after 43 years of marriage. They had three sons and one daughter, and their son Johannes Geerhardus Vos studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and also became a minister.

Writings

* [http://www.biblicaltheology.org/mop.html "The Mosaic Origin of the Pentateuchal Codes"] (1886)
*"The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church" (1903)
*"The Self-Disclosure of Jesus: The Modern Debate about the Messianic Consciousness" (1926)
* [http://www.biblicaltheology.org/jpia.pdf "Jeremiah's Plaint and its Answer"] in "The Princeton Theological Review" (1928)
*"The Pauline Eschatology" (1930)
* [http://www.biblicaltheology.org/charis.pdf "Charis, English Verses"] (1931)
* [http://www.biblicaltheology.org/westernrhymes.pdf "Western Rhymes"] (1933)
*"Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments" (1948)

Published posthumously:

*"The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews" (1952)
*"Grace and Glory" (1994)
*"The Eschatology of the Old Testament" (2001)

External links

* [http://www.kerux.com "Kerux: The Journal of Northwest Theological Seminary"] , which republishes Vos's work and expands on his ideas
** [http://www.kerux.com/documents/keruxv14n1a1.htm "The Nature and Aims of Biblical Theology"] by Vos, republished in "Kerux"