The Problem of Biblical Illiteracy

Stephen C. Carlson at Hypotyposeis has a post in which he mentions a website with an interesting definition of “The Gospels.”

The website is called the Jargon Database. The purpose of this site is to define words that have become technical jargon. Under the Religious - General category, Jargon Database has the following definition for “The Gospels”:

The first five books of the bible, this term is originally of Greek origin for Good News.

The last time I looked, the first five books of the Bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And they were called The Pentateuch, not The Gospels.

Talk about Biblical illiteracy.

Stephen C. Carlson was right when he wrote: “Don’t Believe Everything You Read on the Web.”

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Biblical Illiteracy, Gospels, Jargon Database, Pentateuch

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

The Writers of the Bible

PBS will air “The Bible’s Buried Secrets” on Tuesday, November 18 at 8 p.m. The two-hour “Nova” program will focus on how the Pentateuch came into existence.

In preparation for the program, PBS has interviewed Michael Coogan, Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College and Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. In this interview Coogan presents his views into how scholars today understand the composition of the Pentateuch.

The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Most people may see the Bible as a single text, but is it?

Michael Coogan: One way of thinking about the Bible is that it's like an anthology of literature made over the course of many centuries by different people. Think of an analogy: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, which covers over a thousand years, from Beowulf into the 20th century. The Bible covers a similar span. The earliest texts in the Bible likely date to before 1000 B.C., and the latest texts go at least to the 2nd century B.C., and for Christians, into the 2nd century A.D. So it is an anthology of the literature of ancient Israel and early Judaism, and for Christians, of earliest Christianity, as well.

Like any anthology, it's selective. There were many other texts that the ancient Israelites and early Christians produced that we no longer have. We have reference in the Book of Numbers, for instance, to the Book of the Wars of Yahweh. Yahweh was the name of the God of Israel. And it must have been a wonderful book, but all we have is a kind of learned footnote.

Q: If it's an anthology, what ties the Bible together?

Read the rest of the interview here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Michael Coogan, Pentateuch

A God So Near

The following book review was published in Review and Expositor 101 (2004): 782-784.

A God So Near: Essays on Old Testament Theology in Honor of Patrick D. Miller, ed. by Brent S. Strawn and Nancy R. Bowen. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003. xviii + 439 pp. $47.50. ISBN 1-57506-067-1.

This volume contains a collection of twenty-four essays dedicated to Patrick D. Miller, Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Professor Miller has made significant contributions to the study of the Psalms and the book of Deuteronomy. The essays written in Miller’s honor reflect the interest of the honoree. The articles deal with the books of Psalms and Deuteronomy and other topics that are related to the main focus of the festschrift. The theological emphasis of many of the articles reflects Miller’s concern to bring together the work of academia and the work of the church.

The book is divided into two sections. Part I, entitled “‘Near Whenever We Call’: God’s Nearness in Israel’s Crying Out (The Psalms and Beyond),” contains the following essays:

“Reading the Lament Psalms Backwards” by H. G. M. Williamson (pp. 3-15); “‘Without Our Aid He Did Us Make’: Singing the Meaning of the Psalms” by W. Sibley Towner (pp. 17-34); “The So-Called Elohist Psalter: A New Solution for an Old Problem” by Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger (pp. 35-51); “A Fairy Tale Wedding: A Feminist Intertextual Reading of Psalm 45” by Nancy R. Bowen (pp. 53-71); “Notes on Psalm 93: A Fragment of a Liturgical Poem Affirming Yahweh’s Kingship” by Frank Moore Cross (pp. 73-77); “There the Blessing: An Exposition of Psalm 133” by James Luther Mays (pp. 79-90); “Certainty, Ambiguity, and Trust: Knowledge of God in Psalm 139” by Carolyn Pressler (pp. 91-99); “Quoth the Raven: Psalm 147 and the Environment” by James Limburg (pp. 101-111); “Prayer and/a Self-Address: The Case of Hanna” by J. Gerald Janzen (pp. 113-27); “Naomi’s Cry: Reflection on Ruth 1:20-21” by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld (pp. 129-43); “Jonah 2: A Prayer Out of the Deep” by Gerhard Sauter (pp. 145-52); “Songs in a New Key: The Psalmic Structure of the Chronicler’s Hymn (1 Chr 16:8-36)” by Mark A. Throntveit (pp. 153-70); and “Wild, Raging Creativity: The Scene in the Whirlwind (Job 38-41)” by Kathleen M. O’Connor (pp. 171-179).

Part II, entitled “‘As Just as This Entire Law’: God’s Nearness in the Torah (Deuteronomy and Beyond),” contains the following essays:

“Law in the Service of Life: A Dynamic Understanding of Law in Deuteronomy” by Terence E. Fretheim (pp. 183-200); “How Does Deuteronomy Do Theology? Literary Juxtaposition and Paradox in the New Moab Covenant in Deuteronomy 29-32” by Dennis T. Olson (pp. 201-213); “Keep/Observe/Do–Carefully–Today! The Rhetoric of Repetition in Deuteronomy” by Brent A. Strawn (pp. 215-40); “Divine Warrior Theology in Deuteronomy” by Richard D. Nelson (pp. 241-59); “Reading Deuteronomy 5 as Narrative” by Norbert Lohfink (pp. 261-81); “The Travail of Pardon: Reflections on slH” by Walter Brueggemann (pp. 283-97); “Circumcision of the Heart: The Journey of a Biblical Metaphor” by Werner E. Lemke (pp. 299-319); “Huldah, the Prophet: Reading a (Deuteronomistic) Woman’s Identity” by Renita J. Weems (pp. 321-39); “Prophets and Kings: A New Look at the Royal Persecution of Prophets against Its Near Eastern Background” by J. J. M. Roberts (pp. 341-54); “From Mountain to Mountain: The Reign of God in Daniel 2” C. L. Seow (pp. 355-74); and “Sola Scriptura? The Authority of the Bible in Pluralistic Environments” by Michael Welker (pp. 375-391).

The book concludes with a bibliography of the works of Patrick Miller written by Brent A. Strawn covering the years 1964-2001 (pp. 393-416). The 372 entries in the bibliography demonstrate the breadth and scope of Miller’s work and the influence he has exerted in Old Testament studies. The book also includes an index of authors and an index of Scriptures cited.

Because of limitations only a few articles are discussed here. Williamson’s essay begins the collection by offering an alternative interpretation to the accepted view that the psalms of a lament should be read from the perspective of the actual time of the suffering of the psalmist. He proposes the view that many of the psalms of lament should be understood from the situation presented at the end of these psalms. Thus, according to Williamson, the psalms of lament should be understood from the context of thanksgiving and celebration that arises after deliverance has been experienced and at the time the payment of the vows the psalmist had promised is made.

Fretheim’s article deals with a dynamic understanding of the laws of the Pentateuch and how individual laws can be applied to Christian faith and practice. Fretheim sees the laws of the Pentateuch as a gracious gift of God to Israel. These laws were given to Israel “for the sake of life, health, and well-being of individuals in community” (p. 184). Since life changes with time, the laws of the Pentateuch cannot be understood as unchangeable. The book of Deuteronomy offers many changes to the laws in the Book of the Covenant. These changes reflect the way God deals with his people. Since Christians also deal with the laws of the Pentateuch, Christians must study each and every law of the Pentateuch in order to discover whether these laws contribute to the health and well-being of the community.

Walter Brueggemann discusses the theme of Israel’s disobedience and divine pardon. Although Yahweh is known as a God who pardons the iniquity of his people, his pardon is not readily granted. Brueggemann declares that the issue of pardon is not a primary emphasis in Deuteronomy, for Israel was expected to obey the demands of the Law. The consequences of disobedience would be judgment and exile and Deuteronomy emphasizes that Yahweh was “unwilling to pardon” (Deut. 29:20) those who abandoned Yahweh to follow other gods This unwillingness to pardon was reaffirmed to Israel because of this sins of Manasseh. Brueggemann studies the biblical material to discover whether the concept of pardon was a theme in the theology of exile. At the end of his study, Brueggemann discovers that the biblical material concerning divine pardon goes from “absolute rejection . . . to a bid for repentance . . . through an insistence on the cruciality of obedience without pardon . . . to a full, unilateral pardon without reference to repentance” (p. 293).

These and the other essays contributed to this festschrift merit careful study for the contribution they make to Old Testament scholarship. The essays are a fitting recognition of the life and work of Patrick Miller and of the impact he has made on the life of his students and on those who admire his works.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Deuteronomy, Patrick Miller, Pentateuch