Title: The Old Testament: a brief introduction. Author: Levin, Christoph Old Testament 191 p. Publisher: Princeton : Princeton Univ Pr, 2001

Uitti, Roger W.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 31Issue 2 Faith, Freedom, and the Academy Article 2011-1-2006The Old Testament: a brief introductionRoger W. UittiFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationUitti, Roger W. (2006) "The Old Testament: a brief introduction ," Consensus: Vol. 31 : Iss. 2 , Article 20.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol31/iss2/20depicting King Jehu of Israel bowing before the Assyrian kingShalmaneser III (742 B.C.E), is curiously never mentioned in the textof the book, although this oversight most probably is the fault of thecover and book designer, not the author. A second edition might addsuch detail on pages 269-270 or p. 29. Roger W. Uitti, Professor of Old Testament emeritusLutheran Theological Seminary, SaskatoonThe Old Testament: A Brief IntroductionChristoph LevinTranslated by Margaret Kohl. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UniversityPress, 2001191 pages, $22.95 HardcoverThe author, Christoph Levin, is currently Professor of Old Testamentin the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversity at Munich and is a minister in the Moravian Church. Asthe title implies, this crisp introduction, originally published inGerman in 2001, runs only 176 pages of expositional text in Englishtranslation. The reader is quickly brought up to speed on today’s criticalapproach to Old Testament. “At present, Old Testament scholarship isin the process of striking out in a new direction.… It is becomingincreasingly clear that ancient Hebrew literature has to be read as partof Ancient (sic) Near Eastern culture and religion.… The literarygenres and themes we find in the Old Testament, its socialbackground – even ancient Israel’s concept of God – are no longerwithout analogy.… On the other hand, analytical exegesis, especiallyas it is treated in German-language research, is penetrating ever moredeeply into the Old Testament text, and shows that its emergence isfor the most part the outcome of a long process of literary self-interpretation, the presuppositions for which can no longer be lookedfor in the monarchies of Israel and Judah, but actually belong to thepostexilic Judaism of the Second Temple period” (1-2). Thus primalevents such as the patriarchal stories, the exodus, the conquest, and168 ConsensusPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2006theological conflict in Canaan are much less assured in the light ofpresent internal literary analysis, local archaeological findings, andcomparable ancient Near Eastern resources. After its opening question, “Why Read the Old Testament?”, itsmini-20 chapters unfold along specific developmental lines. As aprolegomenon, chs. 1-3 discuss the Old Testament as text, canon, andscripture passed down by post-exilic Judaism. Ch. 4 details the rangeof the scriptural remnants from ancient Israel: wisdom books, annalsand historiography, law books, cultic lyrics, and priestly andprophetic materials. The crucial steps then begin. Ch. 5 deals with the two great redactions of the 6th century B.C.E,the Yahwist (the J redactor supposedly was in the circle around KingJehoiachin!) and the Deuteronomistic histories. The Yahwistichistory, the oldest of Judaism’s origins, according to this author,narrates an epic story of and for people living in exile. Ch. 9 unfoldsthe structure and patterns of the Priestly Source (P), while ch.10heralds the fixation of the Torah in a redaction that forged a singlePentateuchal salvation history out of the two earlier accounts (J & P).For the author, as the Priestly Source presupposes the Ezekieltradition, it cannot have originated before the second half of the 5thcentury B.C.E. The text which came into being through theamalgamation of the Yahwist’s history and the Priestly source wasstill far from being identical with the books of Genesis throughDeuteronomy as possessed today. By estimation Levin judges theportion of the text added afterward secondarily to be probably greaterthan the two former sources put together. The legal material likewiseis viewed to be more recent vintage, although it remains nearlyimpossible, in Levin’s eyes, to know whether or not such additionshad already been part of the earlier independent P source tradition.The most extensive text, however, claimed to be added later isDeuteronomy.Ch. 7 sees in the prophet Jeremiah the real beginnings of OldTestament theology. The “earliest” Book of Jeremiah constitutes thebasic text for a wider developing tradition in which fresh attemptswere repeatedly made to come to terms with Israel’s harsh exilic fate.The promise of a new covenant, which did not harbor seed for its owningrained failure, had to be a divine unilateral act of forgiving love,which had every hope of success, as it was founded on God’s sidealone. The Book of Jeremiah thus was reworked in such a way thatBook Reviews 169http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol31/iss2/20previous prophecies of salvation were made to concern not the peopleof Jerusalem, but the people in exile or recent returnees. According toLevin, however, it is the Book of Ezekiel (ch. 8) that is the mostprogrammatic text favoring Babylonian Jews and their right to returnhome from exile as opposed to those Judeans who remained behindin Palestine. Chs.11 and 12 are devoted to the growth and expansion ofprimary and original Isaianic material into three Isaiahs (1-39, 40-55,56-66). Herein there is a clear movement from disaster (to Israel) todisaster (for the nations) to Israel’s final salvation. Winding thingsdown, chs. 14-18 treat the Chronicler’s history, Psalms, the wisdomliterature, the Megilloth, and the Book of Daniel. The penultimate,next chapter informs the reader about the fixing of the text and theclosing of the canon. The style of the book and its movement of thought is rathersketchy and short-circuited. One would wish the author suppliedmore detail on the reasons for the positions taken. On the whole, thebook is thus rife with numerous debatable assumptions. One suchitem occurs in ch. 7 in the discussion of the theological significanceof the Law. The author posits two ways in which God’s will wascodified: (1) new divine law was drawn up on the basis of a propheticproclamation; and (2) already existing law was annotated from thestandpoint of the relationship to God. The author suggests both ofthese ways were followed, at about the same time. An example of theoutcome of the first would be the Decalogue; an example of thesecond way would be the Book of Deuteronomy, a collection workedover from the perspective of covenant theology. The initial claim isdebatable, as one might argue that the prophet Hosea or Amos did notcreate the command of God but only recognized its prior standing andvalidity. Which came first, the commandment or the prophet?Furthermore, the relationship of the Decalogue in Exodus 20 toDeuteronomy 5 deserves further scrutiny. Is the Decalogue inDeuteronomy 5 “a late doublet of Exodus 20,” or the other wayaround? Scholars have observed for some time that Exodus 20:1-17is easily removed without any loss to its present context, suggestingthat Deuteronomy 5 has been forwarded for inclusion at Sinai in aneffort to regain and sustain its former prominence once Deuteronomywas attached later to the Tetrateuch. The Book of Exodus seemssubtextually perfectly happy to live with its own “Decalogue,” the170 ConsensusPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2006primal apodictic commands regarding YHWH in Exodus 20:23-26 +23:10-19 and repeated in Exodus 34:17-26, in connection with theGolden Calf incident. To be sure, in agreement with the author, theBook of Deuteronomy does now give every indication of being ahomiletical exposition and expansion of the apodictic and casuistictexts of Exodus 20:18-23:19 and Exodus 34. One need but compareDeut 14:21b; 15:1-16:17 with Ex 23 and 34.Another dubious claim is the author’s undermining of thecustomary and credible historical setting of Second Isaiah. This iswhat happens in his postulation that the two passages, Isaiah 44:28and 45:1, where the datable 6th century Persian king Cyrus isexplicitly mentioned by name, are supposedly not originally part ofthe Second Isaiah text. The closeness to the language and thought ofthe Psalms suggests to Levin that the book originated in the vicinityof the Jerusalem Temple. Accordingly, it is no longer the people inexile who are addressed here, but the post-exilic communitydispersed worldwide. A final bone of contention is the author’s claim that behind theexpanded and redacted present Book of Hosea there lies not an 8thcentury Ephramitic background with Samaria in the time of JeroboamII (Hosea 1:1), but a 5th or 4th century conflict with proto-Samaritanism. Thus the Book of Hosea as we have it now issupposedly attacking not the idolatry of the Northern Kingdom butthe sanctuary on Mount Garizim (sic) near Shechem, the center of theSamaritan community, which refused to pay allegiance to the post-exilic Jerusalem Temple recently rebuilt.This introduction is best not read by everyone. As the authoradmits, “this introduction offers no more than one possible outline ofthe history of the literature and religion of ancient Israel” (3), yet itsproblematic and provocative assertions require careful and judiciousacademic re-examination or at the least more detailed scholarlyjustification.The final chapter concludes with this notable quotation on theOld Testament (175-176): “Right down to the present day, the Biblehas been misused for the purposes of self-defense, and to underpinreligious and even political claims, as if it came down from heaven.But the Bible is not an absolute book; it is a historical one. If itreveals the absolute, the absolute is veiled in the relative.Consequently the Bible resists any one-sided claim, but is open forBook Reviews 171http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol31/iss2/20many, even rival interpretations. The dispute about the Old Testamentcannot come to an end, and must never be allowed to do so.… All thisbeing so, what we hold in our hands is not merely one of the mostimpressive documents in the whole of religion. It is the testimony ofa faith which has been able to inspire men and women right throughthe centuries, down to the present day: Tolle lege – ‘Pick it up andread it!’” Roger W. UittiProfessor of Old Testament emeritusLutheran Theological Seminary, SaskatoonImagining RedemptionDavid KelseyLouisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2005106 pages. $13.30 SoftcoverDavid Kelsey’s latest book, Imagining Redemption, is an importanttheological work for all of us who struggle to relate the difficulties oflife and ministry to our theological traditions. The presentingproblem of the book on one level emerges when the author’s friendteaches an adult class at a church and poses the question: “Willsomeone please tell me what the word redemption means?” Hisquestion is met with silence. Kelsey recognizes that it is important toreclaim (perhaps redeem?) the word but refuses to do so from thestandpoint of conceptualization or interpretation. For Kelsey the keyto understanding redemption lies in the particularity of its language –particularly drawn from Biblical texts which describe (as in thepostliberalism of Hans Frei) what Jesus said, did, and underwent –and in the particularity of situations in which the term gains meaning.In the end, it is these commitments which shape Kelsey’s work andinvite his readers to join with him not in “interpreting redemption,”but in imagining redemption.Chapter 1 then tries to make sense of what redemption couldmean. Kelsey identifies three areas in language which, supplementedby “Christianly” views of the same, help make sense of the term.Redemption can “make up for a bad performance” (the batter172 ConsensusPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2006

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