Category Archives: Old Testament

Adam and the Fall

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Donald MacLeod writes:-

Do not forget that God pronounced man, the apex of his creation ‘very good’ too. Modern theories of sin, in so far as they deal with the origin of sin at all, assume that man must have been sinful from the very beginning. It is, according to such theories, ‘only natural’ to sin. Sin is inevitable; a central and unavoidable part of our nature. But Scripture does not teach this at all.

The Bible’s story of the Fall is, apart from all else, a relief from the problems inherent in such a doctrine.…

Genesis 3 – traditional and revisionist readings

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I must admit that I’m not sure about where to place Genesis 3 on a scale between the two extremes of ‘literal history’ and ‘pure fiction’.  Here’s a summary of some the options:-

An historical account of a ‘Fall’

Traditionally, this account has been understood as a more or less literal description of an historical event in involving a ‘fall’ on the part of our first parents from a state of innocence.  According to Kreeft & Tacelli, for example,

‘there are three reasons why the Fall can’t be mere moral parable or fiction:-

First, if the Fall is not historical at all, then its effects—suffering and death—also are not historical.

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Were the patriarchs real people?

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A century ago, many Old Testament scholars had arrived at the view that the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their families) were fictional characters, or, at least, were based on vague historical reminiscences.

It must be acknowledged that, to this day, so-called ‘main-stream’ OT scholarship takes a more sceptical view than that summarised above. Ronald Helden, for example, states:-

‘We do not know whether Abraham actually existed. But even if he did, many (or most) of the details in the Abraham stories are legendary and not historical.’

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BBC’s ‘The Ark’ – better than the cute animals version

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Last night, the BBC screened its 90-minute drama ‘The Ark’.

It was a re-telling, by Tony Jordan, of the celebrated biblical story of Noah (variations of which circulated in other ancient cultures).

Those who confuse the ‘traditional’ children’s version of this story with the biblical version complain that we don’t get to see the animals go into the ark.  I was surprised to see Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali being (mis?)quoted as seemingly objecting to the animals being ‘banned’ from the ark in this film.…

Moses – a confusing story?

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Moses is the most prominent human character in Torah.  He leads the Israelites out of Egypt, and guides them towards Canaan.  He mediates the laws the Yahweh revealed on mount Sinai.

Critical scholars point out that there is no extrabiblical biblical evidence that Moses was a real, historical, person.  The accounts of him in Scripture were compiled centuries after the events they purport to describe.

According to Jeffrey Stackert, there is not one Moses in the Old Testament, but four.  …

Inspiration and incarnation

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On publication in 2005, Peter Enns’ book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament caused quite a stir.  It led, eventually, to his departure from his post as professor at Westminster Theological Seminary.

What was the fuss all about?

The main thesis of the book is that evangelicals need to take more seriously the human aspects of Old Testament.  Enns identifies three areas for exploration.

The Old Testament and the literature of the Ancient Near East

We need, says Enns, to recognise that the literature of the Old Testament has much in common with other literature from the Ancient Near East.  …

The Nuzi tablets

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Nuzi tabletsA number of stone tablets have been discovered at the site of Nuzi (in present-day northern Iraq).  These date from the 14th and 15th centuries BC.  Although scholars think that the parallels between the customs and practices recorded on these tablets and those recorded in Genesis may have been over-stated, they do nevertheless provide some historical background to the world of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob’s twelve sons.

According to Peter Enns (Inspiration and Incarnation) the commonly-agreed parallels would include the following:-

  1. In the story of Abraham, we read that he and his wife Sarah were childless.
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Adam: a historical figure?

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What options are available for relating the biblical account of Adam and Eve to the scientific account of the evolution of the human race?

Todd Beall lists some of the main alternatives.  Adam and Eve are variously considered to be:

(1) historical persons, though if there were many humans around at the same time, they would be chieftains of a tribe specially selected by God (Collins 2011, 121);

(2) archetypes but historical people, though not necessarily the first or only humans (Walton 2015, 96–103);

(3) literary figures who may or may not be historical (Longman 2013, 122); or

(4) not historical at all, though Paul thought that they were (Enns 2012, 120–122, 138).

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Jesus and the law

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The Old Testament has laws about all kinds of things – stealing, retaliations, charging interest, homosexual acts, and so on. How can we tell which of these Jesus intended to apply to his followers?

Various answers are given:-

  1. he intended all OT laws to apply (Christian Judaism)
  2. he intended only the moral and civil laws to apply (theonomy)
  3. he intended only the moral laws to apply (moral nomianism)
  4. he intended only laws he taught to apply (new covenant theology)
  5. he did not intend Christians to live by laws at all (antinomianism)

How can we begin to resolve this?…

Mythology and the Old Testament

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Ancient Near Eastern myths appear to have influenced OT thought in a number of ways:-

1.  Figurative expressions

These include: (a) the voice of God as thunder (2 Sam 22:14); (a) the wind as winged (2 Sam 22:11; Ps. 104:3; Hos. 4:19); (c) the sun as winged (Mal 4:2); (d) a mountain in the north (Isa. 14:13; Ps. 48:2 where the gods assembled; (e) the land “flowing with milk and honey”, which borrows from ancient concepts of paradise; (f) a Book of Fate, which recorded even pre-natal days (Ps.…