Old Testament Theology Volume One: Israel’s Gospel, by John Goldingay. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015, 940 pages, $45.00, paper.

This is the first of a three-volume Old Testament theology in which John Goldingay, professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, attempts to formulate the theology of the Old Testament without looking at it through a Christian or even New Testament lens, as he admits. In this volume, Goldingay treats the Old Testament as the story of God’s relationship with the world and with Israel. Goldingay’s approach is that of a narrative theology, highlighting how the Old Testament gospel comes in the shape of a narrative that tells Israel’s story and God’s involvement in a particular sequence of events in the world. Goldingay tells the story of Israel’s gospel as a series of divine acts. These acts form ten chapters that are preceded by chapter 1, which is the introduction, and followed by postscript.

From the outset, Goldingay lays out his goal to discuss the Old Testament’s own theological content and implications. He states that he does not focus on the Old Testament as witness to Christ, pointing to Christ, or as prophesying or predicting Christ. He does not talk in terms of that which is concealed in the old and is revealed in the new. Goldingay does not consider the Old Testament as foreshadowing the New Testament nor does he see it as law succeeded by the gospel. Rather, he examines the biblical order of God’s creation and interactions with the world and Israel. Throughout the chapters, Goldingay uses “First Testament” to refer to the Old Testament and “Yhwh” to refer to Israel’s God.

Ignoring the activity of Christ in the Old Testament presents a theological pitfall and goes against the essence of the Old Testament’s ontological claims about the oneness of God’s being. The apostolic confession that Jesus is one with the God of Israel who sent him is a theological judgment made necessary by claims about the oneness of God’s being inherent in the Old Testament (Deut. 6:4). The Father and the Son are one in their being, and the incarnation of Christ reveals his relationship with the Father—a relationship that did not begin to be true at the incarnation, rather, it has always been true from eternity. Therefore, if Christ’s claim to be the revealer of the Father is true (Matt. 11:27), then Christ has always been the revealer of the Father from eternity. Because this ontological reality about the incarnate Jesus holds true for both testaments, it ultimately establishes the ontological preconditions for the Christological witness inherent in the Old Testament. Thus, it is simply mistaken to suggest that reading the Old Testament in its own terms does not allow for a Christological witness.

Following the introduction, Goldingay discusses in chapter 1 God’s act of creation in terms of God’s adventure and working with “Ms. Insight” who was there at the beginning with God (Prov. 8). Goldingay speaks of God’s activities at creation where God thought, spoke, birthed, prevailed, created, built, arranged, shaped, delegated, planted, and relaxed. According to Goldingay, God prevailed in creation by defeating other dynamic forces and bringing order and structure. Worthy of note here is Goldingay’s take on the Hebrew verb בָּרָא (bara) in Genesis 1:1. He argues that it does not refer to creating out of nothing, or the beginning of things. Rather, its emphasis is on the sovereignty of what God achieves. In doing so, Goldingay reads the creation account against the Babylonian story, Enuma Elish, and argues that the narrative of Genesis 1 presupposes the existence of matter, or raw material, for God to use. The creation of man and woman in God’s image reflects, according to Goldingay, their commission to master the world as God delegated his authority to them over the rest of the animate world. While Goldingay brings new and insightful nuances to the creation account, he presents some challenges for many well-established biblical notions like creation ex nihilo—from nothing. Aside from the Babylonian story, it is difficult to justify exegetically from Genesis 1 the existence of raw material that God used for creation. Creation ex nihilo is the precise conclusion to which one arrives through responsible hermeneutics and careful exegesis of Genesis 1.

In chapter 2 Goldingay explores the different aspects of the Fall of man and the consequences of that fall, covering the events from Eden to Babel (Gen. 1–11). One of the results of the fall, according to Goldingay, is the patriarchy that ruled between Adam and Eve, which is indicated in Adam’s naming of Eve in Genesis 3:20. Goldingay argues that Genesis 1–2 shows that its society was able to portray egalitarianism. He does not explain, however, how Adam’s naming of Even is an indication of patriarchy or how before the fall egalitarianism was in view.

In discussing Adam and Eve’s action in Genesis 3, Goldingay prefers to call it “failure” and “loss” over “sin” or “fall,” claiming that the Bible’s two Testaments do not speak of this event as “sin.” This is not true since Romans 5:12, 15–17 are among some biblical passages that clearly speak of what happened in Genesis 3 as sin. Goldingay also suggests that the creation’s groaning in Romans 8 did not necessarily begin after the fall. He argues that the world by its nature is subject to decay and death from the beginning. A close reading of Romans 8, however, reveals that just as the creation has been groaning (v. 2), believers also groan as they wait eagerly for adoption, which is the redemption of their bodies (v. 23). Thus, both the creation and the humans’ groaning have to do with the fall and the state of misery, which only consummated redemption will reverse.

Chapters 4–6 focus on God’s promise to Israel’s ancestors through his commitment to Abraham (chap. 4), his delivering of Israel through Moses in the exodus (chap. 5), and God’s speaking at Sinai and disciplining through the wilderness (chap. 6). In discussing Yhwh’s covenant promise to Abraham, Goldingay argues that throughout Israel’s history Yhwh often takes the risk of serious self-binding where there is no way out of fulfilling the commitment. This is true as far as one considers the true recipient of God’s promises who perfectly obeys him. Paul tells us that Christ is the true seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16), and as such, all the promises were given to him and fulfilled in him (Rom. 15:8; 2 Cor. 1:20). Therefore, because Christ’s loyalty and perfect obedience are sure, Yhwh’s promises are truly self-binding and he ultimately fulfills what he promises. However, to Abraham and his descendants according to the flesh, Yhwh’s covenant promises are contingent upon Israel’s loyalty or lack thereof. Israel’s loyalty, in the form of obedience, is met with covenant blessings (Deut. 28:1–14), and Israel’s disloyalty, in the form of disobedience, is met with covenant curses (Deut. 28:15–68).

Yhwh’s promise to Abraham has three elements: gaining land, becoming a people, and becoming a blessing. These elements find partial fulfillment and are also imperiled. Goldingay masterfully unfolds the details of how these elements play out in the history of Israel’s ancestors. In describing God’s act as a king in the exodus, Goldingay speaks of the God who delivers his people, remembers, rescues, and acts forcefully through signs and wonders. Through the exodus, Yhwh shows his insistence to reclaim his son and reveals himself and his name. Following the exodus, Goldingay speaks of Yhwh’s sealing his covenant at Sinai, which involved his requirement of Israel to be committed to the covenant by obeying its stipulations. Yhwh’s meeting with Israel in Sinai reveals his splendor, goodness, and grace, which necessitates sacramental cleansing. Moreover, at Sinai Yhwh is setting up models for Israel. There are the models of servanthood where Moses is portrayed as a prophet, priest, teacher, and leader. There are also models of peoplehood where Israel is to be a family, assembly, organization, army, congregation, hierocracy, cult, whole, movement, and settlement.

Chapters 7–9 cover the God who gave the land, accommodated from Joshua to Solomon, and wrestled from Solomon to the exile. Here Goldingay continues to lay out the main events in the wilderness and Israel’s experiences with God. He highlights the people’s protest and rebellion on the journey and Yhwh’s reaction. The pattern set in the wilderness is repeated in the people’s subsequent life in the land. Goldingay rightly identifies the correlation between Israel’s experience and the church’s; the church needs to consider its destiny in light of Israel, being both holy and sinful, thus continually needing repentance and reform. This correlation is only possible and meaningful, however, through the work of Christ, which Goldingay fails to admit.

In discussing Israel’s wars as the means of receiving God’s gift, Goldingay suggests four models working together as follows: 1) military campaign where Israel came from outside and the process was abrupt; 2) migration where Israel came from outside and the process was gradual; 3) social revolution where Israel came from inside and the process was abrupt; and 4) cultural differentiation where Israel came from inside and the process was gradual. Goldingay’s textual justification for these models is not convincing and lacks coherent presentation.

Moving from Joshua to Solomon, Goldingay explains the stories of Israel’s life in the land, showing us the tragic dimension to human experience. According to Goldingay, these stories offer a series of studies of men doing what they have to do and portraits of women living in a man’s world. These stories give men raw material for reflection on their masculinity and give women pictures of what they need to know about men. Likewise, these stories manifest further variety in the way Yhwh’s activity interacts with human experience and decision making. Reducing the theological implications of these stories to such socio-economic interests and concerns misplaces their significance in redemptive history.

Goldingay describes the history from Solomon to the exile as the history of God’s disappointments. Since Yhwh alone is the God of Israel and ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations, he expects Israel to give him an exclusive commitment by wholeheartedly relying on him and maintaining proper worship in the temple. Israel’s failure, however, provoked Yhwh’s reactions of anger, rejection tempered by grace, pity, long-temperedness, and mercy that eventually runs out. Goldingay shows how Yhwh works by using natural and human processes, taking initiatives behind the scenes, sending prophets with bewildering commissions, using chance and the inexplicable, and through supernatural and natural force and violence.

Goldingay refers to the prophets as men with mysterious power whom God sends to take initiatives as humans who embody the divine. For Goldingay, the prophets are seers and sentinels who announce Yhwh’s intention although they are unreliable since their words do not always come true. Rather than describing the prophets as unreliable, it is better to speak of historical contingencies intervening between the prophets’ predictions and their fulfillments. These contingencies arise when certain events, which take place after the prophetic words, direct the course of history in ways not anticipated by prophetic announcements.[1]

Chapter 10 is about God preserving Israel through the exile and restoration. In the exile Yhwh abandoned his people, and in the restoration he returned to them. Goldingay argues that the biblical texts portray Israel after the return from the exile as a community that is restored, worshiping, listening to Moses’s teaching, distinct from the Gentiles, and subservient. In the context of the exile and the restoration, the First Testament presents Ezra as a priest and theologian, Nehemiah as a man who prays and builds walls, Daniel as a wise politician, and Esther as an intrepid woman.

The last chapter is about God sending Jesus. Goldingay speaks of Jesus as a herald of God’s reign, prophet and teacher, the man anointed as king, word embodied, divine surrender, and light of the world.

In the postscript, Goldingay discusses the relationship of Old Testament theology to history. He asserts that the Old Testament narratives were written in familiar ancient genres, corresponding to the nature of history writing in that ancient world. Therefore, biblical authors did not confine themselves to factual material in their narrative writing, that is to say, they did not intend to communicate facts or factual history. Using the story of the conquest of Jericho as an illustration, Goldingay refers to the archeological evidence that Jericho was unoccupied in Joshua’s day. Thus, the biblical story does not have the form of a factual narrative. He also asserts that Old Testament writers used their inspired creativity as they used their imaginations in composing speeches, conversations, sermons, and prayers that were not in fact uttered by the people to whom they are attributed. Goldingay believes that Genesis 1 and 2 are imaginative parables about the way God created the world.

One is wondering how Goldingay’s views on history and biblical narratives could be consistent with his claims of believing in the inspiration and authority of the Old Testament narrative. Old Testament narratives present themselves as factual history and later Old Testament writers, inspired by the same God, understood them and used these narratives in their writings as factual history. In similar ways, Jesus and the apostles treated these narratives as an accurate representation of true history. Biblical writers did not doubt the historicity of such narratives when they built their writings on what God has done in the history of Israel as faithfully recorded in Israel’s Scriptures. Redemption is rooted in history and unfolds itself in historical realties.

Although this volume is full of subheadings, there is no conclusion at the end of each chapter, and so it is hard at times to follow Goldingay’s main points and identify his arguments. He admits his weakness in finding it hard to write a conclusion. He does so because, according to Goldingay, the Bible story has no conclusion. This assessment is inaccurate since the biblical story does in fact have a conclusion in the finished work of Christ. The redemptive plan of God reaches its goal in the inauguration of God’s kingdom through Christ’s first advent, continuation of this kingdom through the work of his Spirit in the church, and consummation of the kingdom at Christ’s second coming.

Endnote

See Richard L. Pratt, “Historical Contingences and Biblical Predictions: An Inaugural Address Presented to the Faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary,” http://thirdmill.org/newfiles/ric_pratt/th.pratt.historical_contingencies.pdf.

Sherif Gendy is a licentiate in the Presbytery of the Midwest (OPC), a PhD candidate at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania, and serves as Arabic Theological Editor for Third Millennium Ministries in Casselberry, Florida. Ordained Servant Online, February 2016.