Monthly Archives: October 2019

Review of Old Testament Theology and the Rest of God by Nicholas Haydock

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Haydock, Nicholas. Old Testament Theology and the Rest of God. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2016, 87 pp., $16, paperback.

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Nicholas Haydock with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students provides a short study of 86 pages on “rest.”  He notes how the field of Old Testament theology has devoted scant attention to the concept of “rest” with two noteworthy exceptions.  Gerhard von Rad supposes there were competing understandings and applications of the concept of “rest,” while Walter Kaiser, Jr. considers both Testaments to present a unified view.  Haydock intends to trace how the theology of “rest” developed and progressed through ancient Israel’s history and to show how its essence remained the same.  He defines “rest” as “having a holistic state of being, freely given by God in accordance to his word” (p. x).  It is never achieved by human effort but always a gift from God.  Haydock seeks to demonstrate the thesis that ancient Israel held one coherent theology of “rest” that was central in Old Testament theology and distinct in the context of the Ancient Near East.

He begins with “rest” in the creation narrative and Genesis 2:1-3 where God “rested” on the seventh day.  Haydock notes that God’s “rest” never ends and considers it to prefigure the eternal rest to come.  Then he examines the story of Noah, whose name means “rest,” and sees Noah as a second Adam of sorts and the post-diluvian world as a type of the new creation.  Yet because sin remains, there is a tension, which calls for God’s future resolution.

Haydock stresses the contrast between the biblical view and that of the Ancient Near East.  He summarizes how the motif of “rest” was treated in the Enuma Elish, the Atrahasis epic, and the creation myth of the Egyptian city of Memphis.  In the general outlook “rest” is the outcome of the conflict between the gods and chaos in whatever form, and humanity exists to carry the workload of the gods and thereby give the gods “rest.”

The author provides a brief study of Sabbath-rest (Exodus 20:8-11), its uniqueness in the ancient world and eschatological overtones.  Just as “rest” belongs to God (Psalm 95:11), so also the Sabbath (Isaiah 58:13; Ezekiel 22:8; Nehemiah 9:14).  According to the promise in Isaiah 56, the experience of God’s Sabbath-rest will be enjoyed by Gentiles.

He discusses the Tabernacle and the interplay between God’s rest, his word, and his presence (e.g. Exodus 33:14).  The theme of “rest” is closely tied to the land as an inheritance (Deuteronomy 12:8-12; 25:17-19).  God promised to give Israel “rest” from the surrounding enemies.  This emphasis governs the portrayal of the conquest of the land in Joshua (21:43-45).  It is God’s freely given gift and yet only those who hear his voice enter it (Psalm 95:7-11).  According to Judges, after the military victory of each judge, “the land had rest for (x) years.”  That expression is repeated through the period up to Gideon and then disappears.  Here the “rest” is cessation of war.  While the period of judges was marked by repeated turbulence and enemy attack, God promised to David and with him Israel “rest from all your enemies” (2 Samuel 7:10-11).  Again, God establishes “rest,” not human effort.  In this connection the author notes that promise given in Isaiah 11:10 regarding the future new David.

Haydock points out how “rest” is associated with Solomon’s temple but again, only to those who are faithful (1 Kings 8:56; 6:11-13).  The Zion theology flowing from the temple construction gives the eschatological hope of “rest” for all Gentiles (Micah 4:1-8).  He points out some prophetic texts that speak of “rest.”  According to Isaiah 28:11-13 and 30:15, God’s word and its call for faith would lead to “rest,” but Israel refused (cf. Jeremiah 6:16-17).  Instead they brought down upon themselves God’s judgment, which is the absence of “rest” (e.g. Micah 2:10; Habakkuk 2:5; Lamentations 1:3; 5:5).  Yet the prophets also promised a future restoration and “rest” from harsh subjugation (e.g. Isaiah 14:1-3).

The author considers the connection between “rest” and Purim in Esther (Esther 9:16-22) and sees it as having eschatological overtones along with the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths.  He concludes this survey with Chronicles where “rest” comes up fairly often.  Haydock states:  “The direction of the Old Testament continues to look forward to the coming eternal rest; a rest inaugurated by the coming king whose rule will be eternal and where warring nations will cease and turn to worship the living God” (p. 82).

By way of evaluation, Haydock does a nice job of bringing together the Old Testament texts that speak of “rest.”  He rightly emphasizes that “rest” is freely promised and given by God for Israel and also for the Gentiles, yet enjoyed only by those faithful to God’s word.  While the study makes a fresh contribution to Old Testament theology, I did not find some of it persuasive.  The author did not convince me that all the texts cited display one overall theology of “rest.”  Often he commits what lexicographers call an “illegitimate totality transfer” by downloading into one basket all of the statements using the vocable “rest.”  The word “rest” does not necessarily convey one general concept.  In this respect the study would have been stronger with more lexical work.  For example, the noun or verb “rest” implies “rest from something,” such as “rest from the attacks and raids of enemy nations” or “rest from war.”  His definition is too vague, “a holistic state of being.”  Moreover, certain key passages call for more exegesis, such as the promise in Isaiah 11:10, “and his resting place will be glory.”

In the conclusion the author suggests the need for further study of the New Testament on “rest.”  He helpfully points out that in Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus offers to give what only the God of Israel can give, the gift of “rest.”  In this connection one should also note the importance of Hebrews 3-4 on the theme of “rest.”  Haydock is to be thanked for highlighting “rest” in Old Testament theology.  He suggests that the Lord’s gift of rest “may well be a suitable way of presenting the gospel to those offering their busy lives to the idols of money and materialism in an attempt to earn rest” (p. 85).

Paul Raabe

Grand Canyon University

 

Review of The Greatest Possible Being by Jeff Speaks

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Speaks, Jeff. The Greatest Possible Being. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 175pp, $45.

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In The Greatest Possible Being, Jeff Speaks takes aim at critically analyzing the method of perfect being theology. Perfect being theology is a philosophical method for developing a specific doctrine of God. In particular, the method claims to guide one’s thoughts towards deriving the divine attributes. Speaks is skeptical about the ability of this method to accomplish this task. Over the course of eight chapters, Speaks offers an analysis of metaphysical, epistemological, semantic, and theological issues related to the task of perfect being theology.

Speaks starts out by offering an introduction to the general idea of perfect being theology. According to Speaks, perfect being theology involves two basic steps in order to derive a specific conception of God through reason alone. The method is meant to help one identify which attributes are divine attributes. In step 1, a perfect being theologian selects a modal principle about God’s greatness. In step 2, a perfect being theologian selects a greatness condition that fits with the preferred modal principle. In these two easy steps, one should have a recipe for identifying which attributes are God’s.

With regards to step 1, Speaks identifies three different modal principles that a perfect being theologian might use in order to derive the divine attributes. These principles are stated as follows: 1) God is the greatest conceivable being, 2) God is the greatest possible being, and 3) God is the greatest actual being. Once a modal principle has been selected, one connects this principle with a relevant greatness condition.

In step 2, a greatness condition is meant to help the theologian identify which attributes are possessed by the greatest actual, possible, or conceivable being. Speaks claims that there are two desiderata that a greatness condition must satisfy: entailment and informativeness. With regards to entailment, it should follow from the fact that some particular property F is a great-making attribute, and the relevant modal principle, that F is a property of God’s. The informativeness desiderata states that it should be possible, without relying on prior substantive claims about God, that a candidate divine property satisfies the greatness condition.

With these distinctions in hand, Speaks claims that there is an easy way to show that a particular modal principle is false. In order to show that a particular modal principle is false, one will need to show that certain implausible properties satisfy the modal principle and the greatness condition. These implausible properties are ones that are quite obviously not divine attributes. For example, the property being a well-shaken martini is quite obviously not a divine attribute. Yet, Speaks argues that this property can satisfy different modal principles and their relevant greatness conditions. Thus, implying that the modal principle is in fact false.

As a test case, imagine that one’s preferred modal principle is that “God is the greatest actual being.” Speaks says that whatever turns out to be the greatest actual being might not be that impressive. Speaks offers the comical example of Michael Jordan. Speaks argues that the modal space for the greatest actual being in our world might be much smaller than we think. It might very well turn out that the greatest actual being in our world is Michael Jordan. Surely, says Speaks, no one will think that Jordan is God. Of course, I should think that the perfect being theologian will deny that the modal space in our world is really so small that a being like Jordan turns out to be the greatest actual being. However, Speaks will say that the method of perfect being theology, by itself, does not specify how big the modal space is, and thus the method is not useful for clearly deriving the divine attributes.

What about the other modal principles? Speaks argues the conceivability modal principle is of little help to perfect being theology. Why? Because one cannot specify the relevant sense of conceivability without making the modal principle collapse into the ‘God is the greatest possible being’ modal principle. Speaks offers a helpful analysis of different conceptions of conceivability, and the problems that each view faces.

Yet, one might wonder what is wrong with the modal principle ‘God is the greatest possible being.’ Speaks offers an assortment of arguments for why this modal principle cannot be used to derive the divine attributes. However, I often found myself thinking that Speaks has ignored some obvious moves that perfect being theologians traditionally make. One worry that I have is that Speaks has not given a proper analysis of what it means to be the greatest possible being, nor of what makes a property a great-making property.

Traditionally, theologians and philosophers have said that a proper analysis of greatness entails that God has all of the perfections, or great-making properties, in an unsurpassable way. This sort of analysis can be found in Anselm, John Duns Scotus, and Leibniz, among others. This analysis has also received a rigorous defense in Yujin Nagasawa’s recent work, Maximal God: A New Defence of Perfect Being Theism. With this analysis of greatness, the perfect being theologian then gives an analysis of what makes a property a great-making property. Typically, it is said that a great-making property is a property that it is better to have than not to have. Traditionally, this has been analyzed as identifying fundamental properties that would make any being whatsoever intrinsically better. A classic example is being powerful. Any being with the property being powerful is intrinsically better than any being that lacks the property being powerful. Further, any being that has the property of being powerful in an unsurpassable way is better than any being who lacks this.

Speaks dismisses these kinds of attempts to fill out the method of perfect being theology as being impure forms of perfect being theology. Speaks claims that this analysis of God’s greatness is an impure form of perfect being theology because it does not allow one’s selected modal principle to play any role in one’s reasoning about God’s perfection.

I find this questionable. It seems obvious that a proper analysis of ‘greatest possible being’ entails having all of the great-making properties. Moreover, I find it obvious that this understanding of greatness would play a significant role in my thinking about God’s perfection. This is evidenced by the fact that many debates in philosophical theology are about which model of God includes more great-making properties, and which involve God in having those properties in an unsurpassable way. For instance, classical theists often argue that open theism provides a less than perfect model of God because open theism denies that God has certain attributes like exhaustive foreknowledge.

However, Speaks maintains that even this impure form of perfect being theology cannot be used to derive the divine attributes. In his critique of this impure method, I found that Speaks’ discussion of the candidate great-making properties continually focused on kind-relative properties like being a well-functioning cardiovascular system, instead of fundamental properties that are intrinsically great-making, all things being equal. Traditionally, perfect being theologians have tried to clarify this point by distinguishing pure perfections from impure perfections. Speaks does offer a brief discussion of the pure/impure perfections distinction, but Speaks dismisses this as trivial.

All in all, I think that Speaks’s exact analysis of perfect being theology is less obvious than it might have been; at points it is often difficult to pin down precisely where his objections lie and from where his objections come. That being said, Speaks clearly identifies a host of problems that perfect being theologians need to avoid when developing their method. More advanced theology and philosophy students will want to consider the problems that Speaks identifies, and make sure that they avoid them. Beginning students will be better off starting with a book like Thomas Morris’ Our Idea of God, or Yujin Nagasawa’s The Existence of God. Once beginning students have mastered this material, they should be in a good position to engage with Speaks’s arguments.

R. T. Mullins

University of St Andrews

Review of The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis by Steven E. Runge

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Review of The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis by Steven E. Runge

Runge, Steven E. and Christopher J. Fresch, eds. The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016. 688 pp. $34.99.

The topic of verbal aspect has been highly contested since the publication of Stanley Porter and Buist Fanning’s dissertations over twenty-five years ago. Despite the copious amount of literature written on the issue, there appeared to be no way forward in the debate. That is, the paradigms set forth by Stanley Porter, Buist Fanning, and those who followed did not create a paradigm by which solutions could be found. However, with the publication of Steven E. Runge and Christopher J. Fresch’s The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis, the apparent stalemate in this quarter-of-a-century debate shows tremendous promise for new ways forward. For that matter, the impact of Runge and Fresch’s new monograph upon the topic of verbal aspect within the Greek verbal system can be summarized in the remarks of Constantine Campbell, who states that this volume “deserves careful consideration” since it will “no doubt occupy a significant position within modern discussions of the Greek verbal system” (endorsements page).

In The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis, Steven Runge and Christopher J. Fresch edit a volume in which linguists and Biblical scholars come together and address questions concerning the Greek verbal system that have been debated for the last twenty-five years. What is more, these scholars address these questions in light of the most recent developments within linguistic studies, developments which in many respects are grounded upon discourse grammar. According to Runge and Fresch, the goal of this volume is not to give the definitive answer to these questions that have been debated for almost three decades. Rather, it is to “break the impasse and to see the discussion move forward” (pp. 3–4).  Furthermore, the thesis of this volume is that the most linguistically viable position is that the Greek verbal system is made up of a combination of both tense and aspect (p. 3). While it is beyond the scope of this review to thoroughly interact with each essay, after concisely providing a summary of the content of this book, I provide substantive interaction with a select article representative of Runge and Fresch’s work.

Runge and Fresch divide the book into three sections—section one: overview, section two: application, and section three: linguistic investigation. Section one consists of four chapters which seek to provide the theoretical framework for the thesis set forth in the book. For instance, in chapter two, Christopher J. Thomson interacts with the differences between the way aspect is defined in general linguistics and New Testament studies, and then in chapter three, Rutger Allan examines how the augment and perfect developed in classical Greek.

In section two, Runge and Fresch seek to apply the theoretical framework discussed in section one, incorporating essays which apply a discourse approach to various corpora. For instance, in chapter five Stephen Levinsohn seeks to demonstrate that within narrative genre, foreground is communicated through verbs that move the story forward while background information is set-forth in verbs that do not portray an event. In chapter 6, Patrick James applies his classical Greek training to examine the function of the imperfect, aorist, historic present, and perfect within John 11.

In section three, a selection of the most controversial linguistic issues is discussed; some of these include the historical present, the augment, the middle voice and the morphology, pedagogy, semantics, and discourse function of the perfect verb form. In chapter 11, Peter J. Gentry examines the function of the augment in Hellenistic Greek, diachronically tracing its origin and usage, and providing a wholistic analysis of the function of the augment both diachronically and synchronically.

Now that the content of Steven Runge and Christopher Fresch’s The Greek Verb Revisited has been briefly summarized, I will now more thoroughly interact with one of the essays within the book in order to provide a sampling of the type of work the reader can expect to find. In her article “The Historical Present in NT Greek: An Exercise in Interpreting Matthew,” Elizabeth Robar addresses the issue of the use of the present tense verb form in historical narrative. She argues that this form is used in narrative as an “editorial device to indicate thematic prominence” (pp. 341–346; 350). Further, she states that the scope of the present verb form in narrative is the entire discourse unit in which it opens (pp. 349–350). For this reason, Robar holds that one has to understand the broader discourse episode in order to determine the units in which the historic presents are located (p. 350). She maintains that identifying discourse units is based upon two discourse features, lexical choice and developmental markers (p. 349). Moreover, she suggests the following delimiters for determining the discourse units of the historic presents, basing them upon the section of the narrative episode in which the historic present is located—end section: the unit is the clause itself; middle section: the unit may be either a single speech unit or encompass multiple speech units; and beginning section: its scope is the entire narrative episode itself (p. 350).

Robar identifies with Steven Runge, stating that her thesis is very similar to his processing hierarchy (p. 332). Moreover, she comments that the traditional view that the historic present is used to communicate vividness, bringing an event from the past into the present, should not be completely dismissed but should simply be linguistically nuanced (pp. 332–333). That is, she replaces the traditional concept of vividness with prominence, in which the present verb form requires more processing time than the expected verb forms. What is more, in support of tense being a semantically encoded feature of the Greek indicative verb form, Robar traces the history of the historic present cross-linguistically and seeks to show that the historic present is far more prevalent in languages with a more developed tense system, particularly the present and future tense (pp. 333–335).

In conclusion, although the topic of verbal aspect will continue to be highly contested for many years to come, Steven E. Runge and Christopher J. Fresch’s The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis has made a significant contribution to this challenging topic. Although I found this work to be characterized by succinct, clear argumentation grounded upon solid research, I do have one minor criticism. Namely, I found the three-fold division to be a bit unclear. For example, in the third section the focus of the essays are supposed to be upon theoretical issues that lie behind the approach to the Greek verb by scholars represented in this work. However, the first essay within this section does not appear to match the parameters set forth in the section, since Elizabeth Robar is merely testing her theory within the book of Matthew. This essay would fit best within the second section, since it is applying the theory. Nonetheless, I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who desires to be conversant with and aware of the most recent research on this controversial and significant issue within Greek grammatical studies.

Michael Graham

Bar-Ilan University

Ramat Gan, Israel

Review of Called to Attraction: An Introduction to the Theology of Beauty by Brendan Thomas Sammon

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Review of Called to Attraction: An Introduction to the Theology of Beauty by Brendan Thomas Sammon

Sammon, Brendan Thomas. Called to Attraction: An Introduction to the Theology of Beauty. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017, pp. 160, $22, Paperback.

Brendan Sammon is an Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He teaches courses on both The Beauty of God and Beauty and Consciousness at the Movies. In his first book, The God Who is Beauty: Beauty as a Divine Name in Thomas Aquinas and Dionysius the Areopagite (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2013), Sammon examines the Medieval thoughts binding theology and beauty together. In Called to Attraction: An Introduction to the Theology of Beauty, he  broadly explores how beauty and theology have interacted from ancient origins to the twentieth century.

Sammon moves through time periods for each of the seven chapters of his book. A helpful introduction sets up the book with three introductory arguments to set  the boundaries for what he intends to accomplish in his short volume. First, he argues his theology of beauty is derived from a divine name approach. Consequently, all of his conclusions flow from the idea that beauty is an attribute of God. He writes, “These divine names could be called God’s public identity, or the appearance that God takes in the world outside of those faith traditions that have arisen around what is believed to be God’s revealed identity.” (p. 3). His second introductory argument is that beauty is a more helpful category for theological discourse than aesthetics. He argues beauty is more ancient and more meaningful, and so he is making a theology of beauty and not a theological aesthetics. Last, he highlights he limited his book in scope because as it is intended to be an introduction to the subject.

The seven chapters are titled: Ancient Origins of Beauty’s Association with God, The Beauty of God in the Early Church, Giving God the Name Beauty, Beauty at the Dawn of the Middle Ages, The Medieval Theology of Beauty, The Theology of Beauty in the Modern Period, and The Return of Beauty in the Twentieth-Century. Each chapter examines a few key people or themes considered significant for the period. These figures range from Plato and Augustine to Kierkegaard and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The themes highlight biblical books such as Genesis and focus on ideas such as the display of beauty or how theology developed to include beauty as a name for God.

This book hits on key figures throughout church history and holds most of the expected voices found in a theology of beauty. Such voices include Aquinas and Dionysuius the Areapogite, who the author has previous works written on. The sections on these two men are helpful and insightful. Sammon also writes on the Apostle Paul and St. Francis of Assissi. In these sections, he leads to reader to understand how these men of theological heritage contributed to the conversations on beauty. Their contributions validate the topic of beauty in theology.  However, it is worth noting that Sammon does not include Jonathan Edwards. In a book on beauty that surveys key figures, leaving Edwards out is an interesting choice. Edwards’s absence may be due to Sammon’s Catholic background. However, he includes Fyodor Dostoeyksy (Eastern Orthodox) in his chapter on the Modern era making Edwards’s absence curious.  It is also worth noting the shift from the Medieval to the Modern Era misses the significant conversations in the Renaissance on beauty.

For a biblical-theological student, this book is very helpful for an entry level class or discussion on beauty and aesthetics. It is manageable in both length and content, giving preliminary facts and details to help a reader know the theological importance of beauty through the centuries. Sammon has placed discussion questions at the end of each chapter to help the reader grasp and comprehend the themes. This inclusion may prove extremely helpful in an entry level class.

The theme of beauty is woven throughout the biblical text and human history, and this book highlights how the theme has been explored in various epochs.  It is helpful in giving a birds-eye view of the entire landscape for discussions of beauty. Anyone looking for a short and manageable read as in introduction to beauty and aesthetics will benefit from this book.  However, it should be paired with other material covering beauty from the Protestant tradition. At the very least, Sammon’s book should be supplemented with another that covers the works of Jonathan Edwards as it relates to discussions on beauty and theological aesthetics.

Amanda Jenkins

Grand Canyon University

Review of A Commentary on the Greek Text of Second Corinthians by Don Garlington

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Review of A Commentary on the Greek Text of Second Corinthians by Don Garlington

Garlington, Don. A Commentary on the Greek Text of Second Corinthians. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016, pp. 473, paperback.

It has been said that “of the writing of commentaries there is no end.” Even though this reality could lend itself to a stale treatment of texts already analyzed, A Commentary on the Greek Text of Second Corinthians is a welcome resource to Greek students and pastors alike. In distinction from other kinds of commentaries, this commentary by Pauline scholar Don Garlington has as its target audience “students of the Greek New Testament” and thus functions as “a kind of ‘halfway house’ between the likes of Murray Harris and Margaret Thrall, on the one side, and Philip Hughes and Mark Seifrid, on the other” (p. xi). The result of this endeavor is a commentary that focuses on analysis of the Greek grammar and syntax of 2 Corinthians. Even though Garlington occasionally mentions the historical-cultural background of a passage, the focus is more on exegetical insights deriving from grammatical and syntactical analysis. The introduction, therefore, is understandably minimalistic, with a brief section on the purpose of the letter (to prepare the Corinthians for Paul’s upcoming visit), the contents of the letter (the opponents at Corinth are deemed to be Judaizers), and the integrity of the letter (Garlington sees no good reason to doubt its integrity).

The strength of the commentary, therefore, is its ability to provide one with analysis of the Greek text of 2 Corinthians. At the outset of each subsection, the Greek is provided, although one needs to know Greek since no translation appears alongside. Further, the Greek text is divided into clauses or phrases and indented to show subordinate and modifying relationships. Even though the nature of the relationships aren’t always made clear, this user-friendly portrayal of a passage allows for easy analysis of the passage’s flow of thought at a glance. The commentary is also consistently conversant with the major Greek lexica (e.g., BDAG) and grammars (e.g., BDF, Zerwick), which is convenient to a Greek student learning how to use such resources. Additionally, the commentary utilizes syntactical categories that a typical second-year Greek student should recognize (e.g., anarthrous definite article, subjective/objective genitive, first-class conditional sentence, ingressive aorist, Apollonius’ Canon), and Garlington helpfully labels—and in some places defines—various rhetorical devices in the text (e.g., anacoluthon, asyndeton, hendiadys, litotes, paronomasia, metonymy, epidiorthosis, paraleipsis). Finally, whenever the syntax is ambiguous, the commentary lists the major interpretive options, with an asterisked option at the end marking the view preferred by the commentary (although the reasons for the preferred view aren’t always clear).

Two other strengths are worth mentioning. First, throughout the commentary there are select bibliographies for each subsection and categorized by topic. The bibliographies provide the best up-to-date secondary literature on the theme in question (e.g., suffering in 1:8-11). The bibliography for 5:14-21 is especially good, covering the categories of “flesh” as sin, Christ the last Adam, Christ the servant, the new creation, reconciliation, atonement/sacrifice/redemption, righteousness/justification (pp. 178-84). Students and pastors should find these focused lists helpful for deeper study of a passage.

Second, the commentary is aware of the prominence for Paul of the Old Testament in 2 Corinthians. Even though analysis is necessarily brief due to the focus of the commentary, Garlington still highlights biblical-theological themes in the letter, such as Paul’s greeting in 1:2 against the backdrop of God’s covenant love for his people (4), the triumphal procession in 2:14 as linked to the prophetic hope of the return to Zion (64), and the exodus imagery of 3:1-4:6 (p. 103). The last Adam imagery is likely overemphasized in a few places (e.g., 3:18; 4:4, 16; 5:21), and Garlington’s view of righteousness as covenant faithfulness won’t convince everyone (e.g., pp. 178, 290, 345), but this need not reduce the value of these biblical-theological highlights.

There are a few weaknesses of the commentary, although none significantly detract from its overall value. There is little discussion of the text-critical questions in various places in 2 Corinthians, even if occasionally the mention of such a question is raised (e.g., p. 392). Garlington also appears to commit an etymological fallacy in analyzing the meaning of katargeō in 3:13 (p. 93), and there are some questionable exegetical conclusions regarding whether or not a noun or prepositional phrase is emphasized based on where it appears in its clause (e.g., p. 129). Further, the many typos throughout the volume also may irritate some readers, even though authorial meaning is always clear.

Additionally, given the focus of the commentary on Greek grammar and syntax, it is rather surprising that the insights deriving from verbal aspect were not more prominent. The relationship between tense and aspect in the Greek verb is one of the most heavily debated questions among Greek grammarians, but the debate and its exegetical value played little role in the commentary. Moreover, many Greek grammarians believe time to be grammaticalized within the indicative mood, but almost none would argue that it is grammaticalized in the non-indicative moods. Nevertheless, Garlington appears to hold this view, labeling the aorist participles in 1:22 as indicating “past historical and once-for-all actions” (p. 39; cf. 262, 270), despite the fact that most Greek grammarians today would reject such an analysis of the aorist tense-aspect.

Nevertheless, these weaknesses do not detract from Garlington’s otherwise solid analysis of the Greek text of 2 Corinthians as well as the commentary’s user-friendly approach. The commentary should prove especially fruitful to a Greek student seeking to apply their knowledge to a book of the New Testament. Perhaps also a pastor preaching through 2 Corinthians would find this commentary useful in deriving exegetical and theological insight from an analysis of the syntax and structure of the Greek text.

Joshua M. Greever

Grand Canyon University

Review of Old Testament Law for Christians: Original Context and Enduring Application by Roy E. Gane

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Review of Old Testament Law for Christians: Original Context and Enduring Application by Roy E. Gane

Gane, Roy E. Old Testament Law for Christians: Original Context and Enduring Application. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017, 464 pp, $35.00, paperback.

Second Timothy 3:15–17 stands as a pillar text of biblical inspiration. Bible school students embrace it, pastors proclaim it, faithful Christians memorize it and recite it from a young age. Yet for all the attention this text receives, too many neglect one of its central claims: “all Scripture is . . . profitable.” The dearth of sermons, bible studies, devotional writings, and blog posts expounding the “profit” of Leviticus for Christians today suffices for evidence. Roy Gane, professor of Hebrew Bible and ANE languages at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, comments on the current situation, “A rich source of wisdom regarding values is contained in OT laws. However, Christians have generally neglected these laws, to our loss, because we have not regarded them as relevant to our lives” (p. xiii). So, in order to help Christians profit from “all Scripture,” Gane presents this guide to appropriating Old Testament law in every age of God’s people. While Gane surveys numerous approaches to applying God’s law as God’s new covenant people, he advocates for an approach he calls “progressive training in moral wisdom” (p. 198). Pulling from his extensive work to understand and apply difficult law passages (e.g., see his commentary on Leviticus and Numbers in the NIVAC series), he aims to see the riches of “all Scripture” benefit God’s church today.

Gane presents his case for a progressive moral wisdom approach (PMW) to God’s law in four parts: (1) an introduction to OT law [54 pp.], (2) an introduction to legal literature [72 pp.], (3) various Christian approaches to application [98 pp.], and (4) application issues and difficult texts [171 pp.]. In his introduction to OT law, Gane addresses the relevance of law for Christians in the words of Jesus and Paul, the nature of “law” in the Bible and how it was used in its original context, and the four-fold purpose of law: theological, covenantal, sapiential, and missional. He offers the preliminary definition, that “OT law is normative, exemplary, covenantal divine instruction” (p. 19). This divine instruction reveals the nature of the deity (i.e., theological purpose). This covenantal instruction “contributes to [the] preservation of an ongoing divine-human relationship that provides important benefits for God’s people” (i.e., covenantal purpose; p. 47). This exemplary instruction draws both neighbor and nations toward the deity (i.e., missional purpose). This normative instruction orders and addresses the most significant issues of living in a fallen world (i.e., sapiential purpose). Such normative, exemplary, covenantal divine instruction occurs in limited clusters but influences the entirety of the Old Testament.

While the influence of legal materials may be felt throughout the OT, not all legal passages bear equal weight. Gane introduces his survey of application approaches by laying out the hierarchical groundwork inherent in OT law passages. Just as Jesus recognized, “love is the paramount value and virtue” (p. 148). Thus, a general command like the Shema, “Love YHWH your God with all your heart, soul, and strength” (Deut 6:5), defines whole categories of legal material. Similarly, the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18) defines another broad category of laws. Gane presents the classic illustration of this from the Ten Commandments (p. 151), but also goes on to present various sub-categories between the crowning virtue of “love” and individual commands throughout the OT. This lays the groundwork for his “indirect application” of OT law passages by Christians today (p. 142).

In preparation to explore the progressive moral wisdom approach to applying OT law, Gane surveys other options from Christian history. He begins by discussing radical continuity (theonomy), moves on to radical discontinuity (practical impossibility, dispensationalism, Lutheran theology), and concludes with various medial approaches advocating some form of continuity and discontinuity (Reformed theology, principlizing, paradigmatic, redemptive-movement). Gane’s medial approach (PMW) places an emphasis on personal transformation in the process of intellectual application of specific laws. He writes, “the pupose of OT law only reaches fulfillment when decisions are lived out by a whole person, who consequently grows in moral character” (p. 201). The final 200 pages of the books detail the general process for employing a PMW approach and then demonstrate what it looks like on specific passages.

Gane’s progressive moral wisdom approach to reading OT law offers Christians a lot of opportunities to make all Scripture profitable today. PMW resembles the paradigmatic and principlizing approaches in a number of ways; yet it maintains a focus on the transformation of the individual through the process of applying God’s law to life. This dimension of PMW provides much needed perspective to a debate overwhelmed by nuts-and-bolts proposals. Nevertheless, PMW has its own nuts-and-bolts process: (1) analyze the law by itself, (2) analyze the law within the system of OT laws and the context of ancient life, (3) analyze the law within the process of redemption, (4) relate findings regarding the function of the law to modern life (pp. 202–203). Taken by itself, this process resembles the paradigmatic process of Christopher Wright (pp. 185–186) and the principlizing process of Peter Vogt (Interpreting the Pentateuch: An Exegetical Handbook [Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2009], pp. 136–146). Gane himself seems to indicate this (p. 201) but emphasizes that PMW aims not just at applying laws but at moral transformation.

The most difficult stage of Gane’s PMW process is stage four: relating findings regarding the function of the law to modern life. One question he introduces raises significant tension—“Does biblical development of the value exemplified by the law show a trajectory that moves beyond the law itself to a higher moral level that should be applied in the modern life situation?” (p. 203). This question arises specifically from Gane’s assessment of William J. Webb’s redemptive-movement model (p. 195). Gane is careful to critique the most troublesome aspects of Webb’s model (pp. 187–195), but his inclusion of Webb’s positive contributions here creates more problems than it solves (p. 213). Webb’s project aims to promote a male-female egalitarian hermeneutic based on the egalitarian trajectory in scripture with regard to slavery. Gane cites Galatians 3:28, “There is neither . . . slave nor free, . . . for you are all one in Christ,” which Webb also cites with regard an egalitarian position on gender roles. An extended footnote at this point would have assisted readers in differentiating Gane’s approach from that of Webb. Unfortunately, Gane simply uses this dimension of Webb to illustrate the concept of redemptive trajectory and leaves the reader to wonder how this relates to the issue of gender roles. Gane’s overall approach does not depends on Webb, so this appears to be an unnecessary inclusion of theological baggage that complicates his presentation of PMW. Gane would have been better served by simply presenting his own exegesis and redemptive-historical approach at this point (cf. Thomas Schreiner, “William J. Webb’s Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: A Review Article,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 6.1 [Spring 2002]: 46–64).

Despite this complicating factor, Gane’s work offers much needed guidance in our current cultural context. Now, more than ever, Christians need to engage with the difficult passages of Scripture in order to respond aptly to a hyper-skeptical culture. This constitutes the greatest asset of this book—extended examples of applying the PMW approach to reading legal passages. Often these examples cannot treat the issue in full, though for more extended treatments, readers may also consult Gane’s commentaries. Some issues seem to receive an imbalanced amount of attention (e.g., Sabbath, 7.5 pp.) compared to other issues in the same chapter (e.g., the first three commandments, 6 pp.). Other issues call into question modern Christian approaches to the law without offering a clear standard of application today (e.g., forbidden meat, pp. 352–358). Nevertheless, these discussions raise difficult, oft-neglected issues and attempt to walk Christians through the PMW approach to applying them so as to grow in wisdom.

Gane proves an able guide to applying difficult OT law passages through his progressive moral wisdom approach. While a reader may disagree with some of his interpretive conclusions, this books provides a wealth of wisdom for profiting from all Scripture (2 Tim 3:16). I would recommend this book for serious students of God’s word who seek to understand the relevance of God’s law for Christians today and aim to grow in the process. This will not be the only book needed to navigate such a difficult subject, but it provides a helpful orientation and process along with numerous case studies to work through. Most importantly, Gane serves the church today by exposing the exegetical issues that too many believers remain ill-equipped to address.

Marcus A. Leman

Dallas International University