Book Reviews - Old Testament

Review of Biblical Literature has published its latest edition of review of books in the area of biblical studies. Review of Biblical Literature is a publication of the Society of Biblical Literature.

The following reviews are of interest to students of the Old Testament:

Jim W. Adams
The Performative Nature and Function of Isaiah 40-55
Reviewed by Ulrich Berges

Description: Among linguistic philosophers, speech act theory has illuminated the fact that uttering a sentence does not merely convey information; it may also involve the performing of an action. The concept of communicative action provides additional tools to the exegetical process as it points the interpreter beyond the assumption that the use of language is merely for descriptive purposes. Language can also have performative and self-involving dimensions. Despite their clear hermeneutical importance, the notions expressed within speech act theory have been generally neglected by biblical interpreters. The few who have applied speech act theory to the OT typically subsume the discipline into an eclectic type of literary/rhetorical criticism. Such an approach, though, tends to discount the distinctive notions expressed by theoreticians. This dissertation presents the basic philosophical concepts of speech act theory in order to accurately implement them alongside other interpretive tools. The above analysis leads to applying these concepts to Isaiah 41:21-29, 49:1-6, 50:4-10, and 52:13-53:12. These four sections intricately function within the overall prophetic strategy of chapters 40-55: the call to return or turn to Yahweh. The way these chapters describe the nature of this return is for the reader to forsake sin, acknowledge and confess Yahweh as God alone. The first passage represents the basic concerns of chapters 40-48 and specifically Jacob-Israel's deliverance from Babylon through Yahweh's Cyrus illocutionary act. The final three passages represent the servant leitmotif running throughout the chapters and implore the reader through self-involvement to embrace the role of Yahweh's servant.

Philip Cary
Jonah
Reviewed by Jacek Stefanski

Description: Pastors and leaders of the classical church--such as Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Wesley--interpreted the Bible theologically, believing Scripture as a whole witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Modern interpreters of the Bible questioned this premise. But in recent decades, a critical mass of theologians and biblical scholars has begun to reassert the priority of a theological reading of Scripture. The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible enlists leading theologians to read and interpret Scripture for the twenty-first century, just as the church fathers, the Reformers, and other orthodox Christians did for their times and places. In the sixth volume in the series, Phillip Cary presents a theological exegesis of Jonah.

Deborah L. Ellens
Women in the Sex Texts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy: A Comparative Conceptual Analysis
Reviewed by Carolyn Pressler

Description: The writers of the bibilical laws, like the writers of other legal corpora throughout history, considered the regulation of sex to be of some importance. A study and comparison of the two groups of sex laws in the Bible, those in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, reveal that factors even more narrowly focused than the general desire to control social behavior shape the texts. These factors, as reflected in the text, are responsible for the differing conceptual matrices within Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Whereas the interest of the Leviticus sex texts is ontology, that is, the classification or oder of kinds and their relationships, the interest of the Deuteronomy sex texts is property, that is, the man's ownership of the woman's sexuality and its protection. Ellens shows how these differing interests influence subtle corresponding differences in the conceptualization of women in the two groups of texts.

Tremper Longman III
Jeremiah, Lamentations
Reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton

Description: The New International Biblical Commentary (NIBC) offers the best of contemporary scholarship in a format useful both for general readers and serious students. Based on the widely used New International Version translation, the NIBC presents careful section-by-section exposition with key terms and phrases highlighted and all Hebrew transliterated. A separate section of notes at the close of each chapter provides additional textual and technical comments. Each commentary also includes a selected bibliography as well as Scripture and subject indexes.

Paul Wilkinson
Archaeology: What It Is, Where It Is, and How to Do It
Reviewed by Aren Maeir

Description: This book has been written to be used by newcomers to archaeology in the field, and explains the techniques and methods that will help them understand and record the past.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Deuteronomy, Hebrew Bible, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Leviticus, Pentateuch, Old Testament, Prophetic Literature

Talk About Ignorance!

We live in “an age of rampant ignorance.” All of us are aware of the amount of Biblical illiteracy in our society these days. Most people do not read the Bible and know very little about what the Bible teaches. When people read the Bible, they are selective in their reading. They read a verse here and there; read a familiar chapter or a popular book of the Bible and that becomes the extent of their biblical knowledge.

The Bible is a library of books. Through its sixty-six books, the reader learns how God has revealed himself through the history of Israel and through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Through human writers, God speaks and teaches readers of the Bible his plan for the redemption of all human beings.

Whenever a person reads the Bible with an open heart, when he or she approaches the Bible with a desire to learn and understand, God reveals himself to the diligent reader. Bible reading provides a way for the reader to discover and understand the personality, the ways, and the plan of God for the world and for those who read.

Enter Chris Curry.

Chris Curry, a student at San Jose State University, was trying to understand God, the church and Christianity, so he decided to read the Bible. However, instead of reading the whole Bible as a book which tells of God’s love and concern for the men and women he created, with a storyline that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation, he chose to read only the book of Leviticus.

It is impossible for anyone to know the God of the Bible by just reading Leviticus. I hope that, by reading Leviticus, Chris discovered that God is a holy God and that the strange laws and requirements in Leviticus which he ridiculed, are part of God’s call to Israel to become a holy people, a people separated from the strange and unwholesome practices of its neighbor.

By reading only Leviticus, Chris never discovered that the God of the Bible is a God who cares for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. He never discovered that the God of the Bible is the giver of all good gifts, a God who provides instructions to keep people from harmful acts and thoughts, who is true to his promises to forgive those who truly seek forgiveness, a God who is just and fair.

By reading only Leviticus, Chris never discovered that the God of the Bible is a God who suffers with those who suffer, who weeps for sinful nations, and who agonizes because of the rebellion of his people. Chris never discovered that the God of the Bible is a gracious God, merciful, slow to get angry, and full of kindness.

By reading only Leviticus, he never read God’s loving words to a sinful people: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called him, the more he rebelled against me. How can I give you up, Ephraim? My heart cries out within me, how I long to help you” (Hosea 11:1-2, 8).

Because Chris stopped reading the Bible in Leviticus, he came to the conclusion that the God of the Bible is an evil God. But his approach to knowing God is flawed, as Chris himself recognized. He wrote:

A bit of a confession, though: I have not read the entire Bible. I have read the entire book of Leviticus, and it is this that I base my appraisal of the entire scripture’s current relevance.

I also realize that using one chapter in the Bible to condemn all religion is quite a jump, but Leviticus is a choice example from an age of rampant ignorance. It is to this age that the pillars of a vast majority of the world's religions date.

Chris speaks of the Biblical period as “an age of rampant ignorance.” However, what his attempt at understanding God reveals is rampant ignorance about God’s purpose for the world and God’s plan for his life. By reading only Leviticus, Chris never read of God’s loving concern for him and never heard the voice of God calling him to a life of faith and obedience. Maybe a paraphrase of the Hosea’s text quoted above will show God’s concern for Chris:

“When Chris was a child, I loved him, and while he was reading Leviticus, I called him. But the more I called him, the more he rebelled against me. How can I give you up, Chris? My heart cries out within me, how I long to help you” (Hosea 11:1-2, 8).

Maybe what Chris Curry needs is to read a little bit more of the Bible. Why stop with Leviticus? Begin with Genesis and think about man and woman being created in the image and likeness of their Creator. Then linger a little in Genesis 2 and 3 and reflect on how ingratitude and human rebellion affected their relationship with the Creator. Then, read all the things God did to restore that relationship. And Chris, when you finish reading Revelation, you also will be amazed at the God of the Bible.

In the end, however, I guess Chris Curry and our politicians have a lot in common:

Chris never read the Bible and came to the conclusion that God is not good. The politicians in Washington never read the massive economic stimulus bill and came to the conclusion that it was good.

Talk about ignorance!

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Biblical Illiteracy, Leviticus