A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
by Fred G. Zaspel
Required reading for all serious study of the Torah.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: Approaching the Text as Revelation
1 Understanding the Nature and Goal of Old Testament Theology
2 Finding the Author’s Verbal Meaning
3 What Is the “Historical Meaning” of Biblical Texts?
4 Finding the Big Idea in the Final Composition of the Text
Part Two: Rediscovering the Composition of the Pentateuch Within the Tanak
5 Textual Strategies Within the Tanak
6 The Composition of the Pentateuch
7 Exploring the Composition of Legal Material in the Pentateuch
Part Three: Interpreting the Theology of the Pentateuch
8 The Nature of Covenant and Blessing in the Pentateuch
9 Is There a “Biblical Jesus” of the Pentateuch?
10 The Purpose of the Mosaic Law in the Pentateuch
11 The Theme of Salvation in the Pentateuch
Conclusion
Selected Quotes
- “The purpose of the Pentateuch is not to teach a life of obedience to the law given to Moses at Sinai, but to be a narrative admonition to be like Abraham, who did not live under the law and yet fulfilled the law through a life of faith.” (14)
- “Theology is the restatement and explication of God’s written revelation, the Bible. It intends to state what should be heard as normative for the faith and practice of the biblical reader.” (63)
- “The approach advocated in this book is the “historical-grammatical” method as originally practiced by evangelical biblical scholars.” (100)
- “In the Pentateuch the Messiah is a prophetic priest-king modeled after Moses who will reign over God’s kingdom, bring salvation to Israel and the nations, and fulfill God’s covenants. This messianic vision is part of the compositional strategy of the whole of the Pentateuch.” (236)
- “The basis of the Sinai covenant (Ex 19-24) was the same as the patriarchal covenant: obedience from the heart (Ex 19:5) exhibited by faith (Ex 19:9).” (354)
- “The OT promise is an assurance of a relationship rather than an expectation of fulfillment.” (435)
- “Hence, along with being a historical question about Jesus, the quest for the biblical Jesus is also a biblical theological question that asks, ‘What does the whole Bible tell us about the identity of the historical Jesus we come to know from reading the whole Bible?’.” (461)
- “Thus, the aim of the Pentateuch is not to tell its readers what the saints of old believed, but what, and how, we, the readers, should believe. Our concern should be what the author of the Pentateuch intends to teach us in the Pentateuch about our faith.” (566)