Old Testament Theology for Christians John Walton Review

Walton, John H. Old Testament Theology for Christians: From Ancient Context to Enduring Belief. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, pp. 302, $35, hardback.

John Walton is one of the most well-known and prolific scholars of the Old Testament today, having published several Old Testament introductions, works on the conceptual and contextual globe of the Hebrew Bible, and various individual monographs such as the Lost World series. He currently serves every bit a Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate Schoolhouse.  An offering concerning the theology of the Quondam Testament from an author with his pedigree is therefore of pregnant involvement.

Walton's approach in this volume is to try to discern the contextual earth of the Old Testament authors and so to try to build a bridge from that thought world towards a Christian understanding of these concepts, or what Walton terms as "enduring theology." This methodology has several advantages, with perhaps one of the strongest contributions beingness the safeguarding against reading New Testament passages and their theological concepts back into the Old Testament, which may not teach those same principles. This is not to say that Walton holds that the Sometime Testament and New Testament are contradictory to ane another; rather, it is to say that Old Attestation concepts should not immediately be seen in calorie-free of a New Testament concept with similar terms. Walton raises "the spirit of the Lord" equally one example of this danger (281-282).

For Walton, the spirit of the Lord and the Holy Spirit are unlike concepts, and therefore Scripture should only be seen as teaching most the Holy Spirit if it specifically references the Holy Spirit. Old Testament teaching on the spirit of the Lord should not be conflated with these New Testament principles. In a specially poignant passage, Walton explores if the spirit of the Lord should be seen as indwelling in its nature. The Holy Spirit indwells, but the spirit of the Lord is never explicitly stated as indwelling. Walton encourages exegetes to avoid reading that New Testament concept of indwelling into these Sometime Testament Passages. In this way, Walton anchors Former Testament concepts in their context and seeks to bring them forward modernistic readers every bit a separate idea-category from similar New Attestation ideas. This volume utilizes this approach in exploring half-dozen major theological categories: Yahweh and the Gods (29), the Cosmos and Humanity (71), Covenant and Kingdom (105), the Temple and Torah (143), Sin and Evil (183), and Conservancy and Afterlife (225). Walton concludes with several helpful lists discerning certain New Testament teachings he feels are not in the Old Testament at all (such as the Trinity, 286-291) as well as some concepts about God that would be unknown if one did not have the Old Testament (such equally a theology of Cosmos or the concept of people as made in the prototype of God, 291-294).

These concluding lists are an excellent synecdoche for the existent strength of this book, which is a sharpened understanding of how the Old and New Testaments chronicle to one another. One of the strongest portions of the piece of work is the affiliate on Sin and Evil, in which Walton argues that the Old Testament concepts of sin, evil, satan, and demons are very different than common New Testament-informed understandings of the same. The Old Testament does non teach Original Sin as such nor does it hold that satan or a demon took an active role in human events (215). Walton offers his readers much wisdom by demanding a clear epistemology: is a concept or definition actually taught in the Erstwhile Testament or New Testament, or is that concept or definition something from the conceptual world of either testament, or is it perhaps a product of later interpreters? A as well-hasty unification of these ideals volition cause the two Testaments to appear to disagree where they may non actually. The concept of "evil" is unlike in the aboriginal Near Eastern thought world as compared to the Hellenistic thought world, which informed the New Testament, yet Walton does not experience that the New Testament definitions invalidate Old Attestation teachings. At the same time, he shows that the Old Attestation concept of evil offers insight to interpreters in areas left unexplored past New Testament passages. "The New Testament offers more than specificity theologically by factoring Christ into those purposes, but the Quondam Testament provides the basis on which this specificity is built." (217) By sharpening the differences betwixt the Onetime and New Testament, Walton is able to present his readers with a broader, deeper, truer agreement of each and the unified picture of God that they present.

While the primary strength of the work is the sharpened view of the differences and therefore the unity between the Erstwhile and New Testaments, the other major strength is in the agreement of the underlying concepts of temple and Torah, explored at length in affiliate 5. Far too often, attempts at understanding Old Testament Law from a Christian point of view are either too reliant on external, non-textual categorizations (such as the divisions between ceremonious, ceremonial, or moral aspects of the Law) or primarily interested in the Law as it intersected the lives of Jesus and/or Paul (such as the modern discussion regarding the New Perspective on Paul). Walton, in my view, gives the most satisfying, outgoing window into the Temple and Torah by finding their unifying role as arbiters of sacred space. For Walton, the idea of sacred infinite has similarities with guild and morality, though each of those are more properly understood as the stop results of sacred space rather than producers of it (143-144). State of israel was dissimilar than the surrounding culture by understanding their purpose equally partners with God in bringing His sacred space into the earth (155). Where the ancient temple was ofttimes conceived of as a sacred infinite considering of the presence of a god in that location, the Old Testament extends that space from the temple to the entire cosmos (146-147). The Constabulary, and so, served as directives to help maintain access to these sacred spaces besides as the way that God'southward presence would exist reflected to the outside world. "However, the Torah was contingent on the temple, non the other way around." (157) This focus the Police force has on maintaining Israel'due south status as a covenant people, marked out as holy, who live in proximity to sacred infinite is dissimilar other ancient Near Eastern people (159). Walton finds this coidentification the covenant people have with Yahweh every bit one of the enduring teachings of the Erstwhile Testament. In the New Testament, though, the covenant people are defined by a people group given holy status through Christ and the New Covenant. The purpose remains: to coidentify with Christ and to bring His presence and purposes into the world (174). The bridge that Walton builds from the Old Attestation conceptual world to a mod understanding of the community of Christ is a very sturdy 1.

This volume is first-class. Walton's lifetime of study is brought to conduct on this monograph, giving it a depth non ofttimes found in a work of this length. His item point of view is too refreshing, as Walton chooses to focus on concepts that other theologies of the Erstwhile Testament don't hash out in depth or see as fundamental. The forcefulness of his argumentation is such that readers will find themselves wondering why these categories aren't seen as the central thrust of Old Attestation theology! He finds a way to give voice to the unique contribution of the Old Testament while not totally sundering it from the New Testament nor subsuming its message and concepts to later New Testament ones. Time spent with this work will help a reader appreciate the whole phonation of Scripture every bit a unified view into the purpose, nature, and character of God while at the same time better understanding the variety of the theology contained in its pages. This is a chore that interpreters spend lifetimes on; few take succeeded every bit well equally Walton. This volume is recommended for all serious Erstwhile Testament students.

Richard Hannon

Oral Roberts University

pritchardmakentance.blogspot.com

Source: https://jbtsonline.org/review-of-old-testament-theology-for-christians-from-ancient-context-to-enduring-belief-by-john-h-walton/

Share this post