I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation: A Book Review

This post is a review of the book I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation (Salt Lake City, UT: American University & Colleges Press, 2008) by Val D. Greenwood.

The subtitle of the book says that the book contains “Old Testament stories as told by Val D. Greenwood.” In the preface of his book, the author says that the purpose of his book is to make the great stories of the Bible “available for adult study in a simple, straightforward style” (p. ix). His goal is to help readers of these stories gain a deeper appreciation for the Old Testament. He said: “I hope . . . that the stories you read here will introduce you to the Old Testament, enhance your scriptural experience, and help you find deeper meaning in the Old Testament canon.”

After reading several stories from the book, I found many problems of interpretation and a large amount of eisegesis which take away the pleasure of reading and enjoying these Old Testament stories.

Since my time and space are limited, I chose to select two stories from the book in order to highlight some of the problems I have with the way Greenwood tells his stories. I have posted these two selections here. If you have not read them I suggest that you read the two selections before reading my review.

These are only some of the problems I found; I could mention several others. Take, for instance, story number 2, “The Serpant [sic] Deceived Me.” In Greenwood’s story Adam said: “I now know that she is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man, and the two of us together shall be one flesh. And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife.” This is a paraphrase of Genesis 2:23-24.

There are two problems with Greenwood’s interpretation. First, the addition of “and the two of us together shall be one flesh,” is not in the text and reflects a modern day effort to emphasize the sanctity of marriage. There is nothing wrong in emphasizing the sanctity of marriage, but this emphasis is not present in the story.

Second, Adam did not say “And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife.” This statement was said by the author of Genesis in order to explain what Adam said about Eve.

Greenwood wrote: “God told Adam and Eve that they could eat the fruit of every tree, except that which came from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” This is a paraphrase of Genesis 2:16-17. Greenwood’s statement is false. The problem with his interpretation is that God spoke these words only to Adam, not to Adam and Eve since Eve was not yet in existence.

Greenwood wrote: “Adam and Eve enjoyed their lives in the garden and were kept busy caring for it. They were also busy naming the animals.” This statement is also false, since in Genesis 2:19-20, Adam names the animals before Eve was created. In fact, it is during the naming of the animals that Adam realized that there was no one who could be his partner.

As for story number 6, “In You and In Your Seed,” the story as told by Greenwood is filled with inaccuracies and misstatements. As most Bible students know, the word “Chaldeans” in Genesis 11:28 is an anachronism since the Chaldeans did not come into prominence until the seventh century B.C. But since Genesis 11:28 mentions the Chaldeans, the presence of the Chaldeans in Greenwood’s story is acceptable. What is not acceptable is to say that “The Egyptians had great influence among the Chaldeans.” I do not know where the author found this information; the statement is historically inaccurate.

It is also inaccurate to say that “Abram's father and most of his family, worshipped the false Egyptian gods.” This is not true. At Shechem Joshua told the Israelites: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors -- Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor -- lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods” (Joshua 24:2). If Terah and his family worshiped other gods, and they did, these gods were Mesopotamian gods, not Egyptian gods.

It is also inaccurate to say that “Abram, however, because of his righteousness, did not turn to idolatry,” since as Joshua 24:2 clearly says that Abraham worshiped other gods. The truth is that Abraham abandoned the gods of his father after he came to the knowledge of Yahweh.

To say that “A great famine swept the land of Chaldea and Abram's family suffered greatly. As the famine reached its peak, Terah left Ur” is just a guess because the Bible does not say that Terah and his family left Ur because of a great famine. Personally, I believe that this is not true. If one would guess a reason for their migration, probably the wars in Mesopotamia at the beginning of the second millennium would be a better reason.

The statement, “Terah eventually died at the age of 205 years. After Terah's death, when Abram was 75 years old, Jehovah appeared to him in answer to his prayers and told him to take Lot and go to the land of Canaan,” is not true. Genesis 11:26 says: “When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” If Abraham was born when his father was 70 years old and he left to Canaan when he was 75 years old, then he could not have left after Terah’s death, since Terah died at the age of 205.

The statement, “Abram left Haran as Jehovah commanded him, taking his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, the people they had converted in Haran, and . . . arrived at a place called Jershon,” is not Biblical since the place called “Jershon” does not appear in the Bible but in The Book of Mormon. According to The Book of Mormon, the land of Jershon was located “on the east by the sea, which joins the land Bountiful, which is on the south of the land Bountiful.”

Another statement that is full of inaccuracies and eisegesis is the statement about Abraham and Sarah in Egypt. Greenwood wrote:

The Pharaoh was pleased with Sarai because of her beauty, and he pleaded with Abram because of her–offering many gifts if Abram would give Sarai to him for a wife. But, though Abram declined, Jehovah brought great plagues upon the Pharaoh and his house because of Sarai.

The Pharaoh became very angry when he finally learned that Sarai was Abram's wife. "Look at the trouble you have caused me," he said to Abram, accusing him. "Why did you tell me she is your sister and not your wife? Do you not know that I might have taken her as my wife? You must take her now and leave my country."

Greenwood said that Abraham declined Pharaoh’s offer, but he did not: “Therefore he [Pharaoh] treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels” (Genesis 12:16).

Greenwood put these words in Pharaoh’s mouth: “Do you not know that I might have taken her as my wife?” But this is not correct. Genesis 12:19 says: “Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife?”

I could go on and on pointing to problems of interpretation in Greenwood’s stories. Anyone who reads this book will not gain a better understanding of the Old Testament. To the contrary, the many inaccuracies that I found in only two stories, the faulty exegesis of the text, and the incorporation of Mormon geography into the stories of the Old Testament demonstrate that those who read this book will get a distorted view of the Old Testament.

Although I wish Greenwood well, I cannot recommend his book to anyone. As an Old Testament teacher, I am very jealous about the correct teaching of the Old Testament and I feel that this book does not present a good overview of the true teachings of the Old Testament.

Anyone who wants to read the stories of the Old Testament in “a simple, straightforward style” should get a copy of the Good News Bible, or the New Living Bible, or even The Message and enjoy God’s word in a style that is easy to understand.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Abraham, Adam, Eve, Sarah

A Book To Be Reviewed

Once in while I receive requests from authors asking me to review their books on my blog. Generally, these people are authors who are seeking an audience for their books. Since my blog has a large audience both nationally and internationally, some authors believe that a review by me can expose their book to a large audience.

Recently, I received an email from Val Greenwood, asking me if I would be interested in reviewing his book. The following is an excerpt from his email:

Dear Dr. Mariottini,

I hope you will forgive me for contacting you this way, but I admire the work you do at the Northern Baptist Seminary and have also appreciated your informative blog.

The reason for this contact is to invite you to review my forthcoming book of Old Testament stories on your blog (though I know that it is extremely rare for you to do such reviews).

My book, entitled I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation, will be released on Feb. 2, 2009. The publisher is American Book Publishing (under the imprint "American University & Colleges Press"). Perhaps you have already heard of this unique book.

The book is a collection of more than 200 Old Testament stories written for Christian adults and young adults in modern English. It is not a scholarly tome and does not pretend to be so. Rather, it is an easy to read book that is intended to help the typical Christian understand and appreciate the Old Testament. You will find it to be simple but not simplistic. A review on the Christian Book Reviews website gives it 5 stars as an essential tool for those involved in religious education.

My son read one of the stories on the publisher’s web page and encouraged me to review the book. After I received the review copy, I read several of the stories in preparation to review the book.

Before I publish my review of the book, I have decided to give you, the reader, an opportunity to read excerpts from the book so that you can make your own judgment. Below are two excerpts, taken from story # 2 and story # 6. Read these two excerpts, evaluate what you read, and then come back tomorrow and read my review of the book.

What follows are the two excerpts from the book:

2-THE SERPANT (sic) DECEIVED ME
(Genesis 2-3)

After God created the first man, he gave him the breath of life and named him Adam. Then God planted a beautiful garden in a place called Eden and put Adam in the garden to tend and cultivate it.
God, understanding that it was not good for man to be alone, took a rib from Adam's side and created from it a woman to be Adam's wife and his help. The woman was essential to God's plan because his full purposes for his children could never be accomplished by man alone. Adam called the woman Eve because she was the mother of all living, and Adam and Eve lived together in the Garden. Adam understood that man was not complete without woman and that Eve, as his wife, was part of him. Said he, "I now know that she is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man, and the two of us together shall be one flesh. And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife."

The garden was filled with trees, and the trees bore much fruit. Among those many trees were two of special significance-the tree of life and, standing in the middle of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat the fruit of every tree, except that which came from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. "You are free to choose for yourself," God said to them, "but remember that I forbid it. And you will surely die in the day you eat the fruit of that tree."

Adam and Eve enjoyed their lives in the garden and were kept busy caring for it. They were also busy naming the animals, for God had told Adam that whatever he called an animal, that would be its name.

6-IN YOU AND IN YOUR SEED
(Genesis 11-13)

About 200 years after the Tower of Babel," a young man named Abram-a descendant of Shem-lived with his family in a place called Ur, among a people known as Chaldeans." Included in Abram's family were his father Terah, his brothers Nahor and Haran, and his wife Sarai.
The Egyptians had great influence among the Chaldeans, and many of the people, including Abram's father and most of his family, worshipped the false Egyptian gods. Abram, however, because of his righteousness, did not turn to idolatry. Rather, he sought to have the blessings of God in his life
A great famine swept the land of Chaldea and Abram's family suffered greatly. As the famine reached its peak, Terah left Ur, taking with him Abram, Sarai, and Haran's son Lot. They traveled to a place that they named Haran after Abram's late brother who had died at Ur. They settled for several years in Haran, and it was there that Terah eventually died at the age of 205 years.
After Terah's death, when Abram was 75 years old, Jehovah appeared to him in answer to his prayers and told him to take Lot and go to the land of Canaan. He also made great promises to Abram, what we call the Abrahamic covenant. "You will be a minister to bear God's name in a strange land," Jehovah declared, "and I will give this land to you and your seed forever if they will obey my voice. Indeed, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. I will make you a great nation, and in you and in your seed shall all families of the earth be blessed."

Abram left Haran as Jehovah commanded him, taking his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, the people they had converted in Haran, and all the substance that they had gained there. Journeying southward toward the land of Canaan, they dwelt in tents along the way. But travel was difficult because there was a famine in the land.
When the travelers arrived at a place called Jershon, Abram built an altar and prayed to Jehovah that the famine would be turned away from his father's house so that they would not perish. When they reached Shechem, Abram felt uneasy because the land was filled with Canaanites and he did not know what to expect from them. When he prayed for guidance, his prayer was answered by a visit from Jehovah, who told him, "Behold, Abram I will give this land to your seed." And Abram built an altar at Shechem to Jehovah.
As Abram and Lot moved slowly through the land; they worshipped God and built many altars. One of these was on a mountain east of Beth-el, a place to which Abram and Lot would later return when the famine was past. But, for fear of perishing from starvation, they determined to go into Egypt, where they lived for many years. As Abram prepared to enter Egypt, he spoke to Sarai: "You are a woman very fair to look upon," he told her. "When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'She is his wife,' and they will then kill me and save you. However, if you tell them you are my sister, we shall both live."
When the Egyptian princes saw Sarai, believing her to be Abram's sister, they spared both of their lives and took Sarai into the Pharaoh's house. Abram, at the same time, was given great honors by Pharaoh.
The Pharaoh was pleased with Sarai because of her beauty, and he pleaded with Abram because of her–offering many gifts if Abram would give Sarai to him for a wife. But, though Abram declined, Jehovah brought great plagues upon the Pharaoh and his house because of Sarai.
The Pharaoh became very angry when he finally learned that Sarai was Abram's wife. "Look at the trouble you have caused me," he said to Abram, accusing him. "Why did you tell me she is your sister and not your wife? Do you not know that I might have taken her as my wife? You must take her now and leave my country."

Read my review and evaluation tomorrow (click here).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Abraham, Adam, Eve, Sarah

Abraham and the Promises of God

In an article dealing with the call of Abraham, Brian D. Russell wrote that the call of Abraham is the beginning of a story of holiness, mission, and community. Abraham left a legacy that affects all believers today. He became a “model for living as a sojourner in a foreign land.” (To read the article, click here)

Abraham’s legacy as a model of a believer living as a sojourner in a foreign land is based in part on God’s promise to Abraham. At the time God called Abraham, God told Abraham to leave his country, his people and his father's household and go to the land he would show him (Genesis 12:1).

Abraham left Haran and came to Canaan at the call of God (elsewhere, I have discussed whether Abraham left from Ur or Haran. To read my article on Abraham, click here). When Abraham came to Canaan, he “traveled through the land” (Genesis 12:6). In Shechem God promised Abraham: “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7).

The descendants of Abraham would be the heirs of what God had promised to him, but the promise was made to Abraham: he would receive the land. More than once God promised that he would give the land to Abraham himself:

“All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever” (Genesis 13:15).

“Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you” (Genesis 13:17).

“He also said to him, ‘I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it’” (Genesis 15:7).

“The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8).

God’s promise to Abraham was renewed to Isaac. At the time of the famine in Canaan, God told Isaac not to go to Egypt, and then made him this promise: “Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham” (Genesis 26:3). The promise to Isaac was that God would give to him, Isaac, and to his descendants, the land God promised to give to Abraham.

Then, the same promise was made to Jacob. At the time Jacob was fleeing from his brother Esau, God appeared to Jacob in a vision and promised to give him the land of Canaan. The Lord spoke to Jacob and said: "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying” (Genesis 28:13).

Each of the patriarchs received a promise from God that they, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would receive the land in which they lived. Throughout their lives, the patriarch lived as sojourners in the land God promised to give to them. Abraham “traveled through the land,” “pitched his tent” here and there, moved from one place to another, walking through the length and breadth of the land as if claiming the land God had given to him.

This brings me to Mr. Russell’s article. Writing about the fact that Abraham was a sojourner in the land of promise, Mr. Russell wrote: “Abraham died before seeing the fulfillment of God's promise of the Land of Canaan. It was for later generations to experience the gift of the land. Abraham spent his days moving around the land of Canaan living as a stranger in a strange land.”

However, if Abraham died before receiving the land, what then of God’s promise? God promised Abraham: “Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you” (Genesis 13:17). And how about God’s promise to Isaac and to Jacob that they too would receive the land? Did the patriarchs die without receiving God’s promise?

There is, however, another way of understanding the fulfillment of the promise God made to the patriarchs. When Sarah died in Hebron, Abraham bought a parcel of land in Canaan (Genesis 23). In his dealings with the owners of the land, Abraham bought a cave in which to bury Sarah and a large field with many trees in it.

When looked at from the perspective of God’s promise to Abraham, the purchase of the cave of Machpelah is very significant. The writer of Genesis is emphasizing that Abraham became the owner of a portion of the land of Canaan legally, the same land that one day would belong to his descendants. In fact, the plot of land became the final resting place for the patriarchs and their wives. On the land Abraham bought to bury Sarah, he was buried. In addition, there Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah were also buried (Genesis 49:29-32).

In his book Old Testament Theology. Volume 1: Israel’s Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), p. 232-33, John Goldingay wrote: “Abraham and Sarah do come into secure legal possession of land in Canaan, even if it is a burial possession. It is a mere foothold, or rather skeleton-hold, in the land, but it means that Sarah, and in due course Abraham, Isaac, Leah and Jacob, will be able to rest there forever in the land Yhwh promised.”

God’s promise to give Abraham the land of Canaan raises a question: Can God’s promises be trusted? The narrative about Sarah’s death fits well within the perspective of God’s covenant with Abraham. Gerhard von Rad, in his commentary on Genesis (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1961), p. 245, wrote: “Did the patriarchs who forsook everything for the sake of the promise go unrewarded? No, answers our narrative. In death they were heirs and no longer ‘strangers.’ A very small part of the Promised Land, the grave, belonged to them.”

The writer of Genesis is showing that Abraham came into possession of the land as a gift from God, as evidence that God’s promise was already being fulfilled in the days of Abraham. In the New Testament, Paul says that the presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers is a “deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:22). In death, the patriarchs received a portion of the land and that burial ground became a deposit, guaranteeing what was to come.

The above comment is not a criticism of Mr. Russell’s article. Rather, it is an attempt to clarify one important aspect of God’s dealing with Abraham. I encourage you to read Mr. Russell’s article.

Claude F. Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Further Reading:

For another perspective of this topic, read Abraham’s Altars.



Tags: Abraham, Hebron, Machpelah, Promise, Sarah