Category Archives: Old Testament

The ‘sensus plenior’ of Scripture

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What follows is based on ‘The problem of sensus plenior’, by Douglas Moo (chapter 5 of Hermeneutics, Authority, Canon, edited by D.A. Carson and J.D. Woodbridge (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986).  Moo’s chapter is available here.

A belief in the entire truthfulness and trustworthiness of Scripture raised a number of questions.  One question is this: ‘How can we accord complete truthfulness to [the New Testament] writings that appear to misunderstand and misapply those [Old Testament] texts from which they claim to derive authority and rationale for their most basic claims and teaching?’…

‘The biblical God requires child sacrifices for his pleasure’

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This is the strange theory advanced by John Loftus in chapter 4 of God or Godless?.

I call it ‘strange’ because I had not come across it before.  I hastily looked up the passage he cites (Exodus 22:29-30) to see what I had been missing all these years.  We read:

‘You shall not delay to offer from the fulness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses.  The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. 

…

How the Old Testament deepens our love for Jesus

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When we read the Old Testament,

  1. we are reading Jesus’ Bible – the Old Testament Scriptures were Jesus’ Bible
  2. we are learning Jesus’ language – his teaching was saturated with Old Testament words and concepts; more than that, he saw the Old Testament scriptures as fulfilled in himself
  3. we are singing Jesus’ songs – the book of Psalms was Jesus’ hymnbook
  4. we are feeling Jesus’ feelings – passages such as Psalm 22 and 69 display Christ’s sufferings in an especially powerful way
  5. we are hearing Jesus’ voice – as the one mediator between God and us, it is his voice that we hear speaking to and pleading with sinners
  6. we are seeing Jesus in action – as the ‘Angel of the Lord’ he visited the earth many times
  7. we are admiring Jesus’ trophies – considering how much less they knew, the Old Testament saints are in some way even more remarkable the those of the New Testament

Summarising this article by David Murray…

Instone-Brewer: the destruction of the Canaanites

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The Bible records several acts of hostility that would be probably regarded as ‘war crimes’ today. The problem is made worse by the fact that God is said to have commanded these acts.  Perhaps the most notorious involved the command to utterly destroy the Canaanites (see Deut 20:16).

What follows is based on an article by David Instone-Brewer:-

Curiously, it may be that this particular act of genocide never happened. Although Palestine contains many remains of ancient towns destroyed by warfare, very few date from the time of Israel’s conquest.…

Large numbers in the Old Testament

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To the reader who is inclined to take Old Testament history seriously, the presence of large numbers – particularly in military accounts – presents a significant problem.

What are we to make of

  • the standing army of Israel of over half a million (Num 1:46; 2:32; 26:51)?
  • the 27,000 Aramean soldiers who were killed by a collapsing wall (1 Kings 20:29f)?
  • the different accounts given of David’s census in 2 Sam 24 and 1 Chr 21?
…

How do we get from the Old Testament to the New Testament?

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It strikes me that the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament is one of the most important challenges in our understanding of the Bible.

I would like to jot down a few thoughts on ways in which it is possible to misunderstand the relationship between the two testaments.

1. Making too much of the difference between the two testaments.

(a) Marcionism

Marcion was a 2nd-century teacher who completely rejected the Old Testament, and regarded its god as a tyrant. …

Judges 19:11-28 – The priest and the concubine

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As evidence for the nastiness of the Old Testament and its God, Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, 240f) can find no better example than the account of an unnamed Levite and his concubine while travelling in Gibeah (Judges 19:11-28).

Quoting the Authorised Version (why?), Dawkins outlines the ghastly unfolding of events.  The two of them spend the night in the house of an old man.  While eating their supper, the men of the city come to the door and demand that the old man hands over his male guest so that they can have their way with him. …

Genesis or evolution: do we have to choose?

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‘What About Genesis?’, ask Denis Alexander, in his book Creation or Evolution: Do We Have To Choose?  What follows is based on Alexander’s discussion.

Two preliminary points.  The final authority of Scripture in all matters of faith and conduct is fundamental.  Although modern science can shed light on the interpretation of the Bible, the relationship between the Bible and science is not such that we should relying on science to determine the meaning of the biblical text, or vice-versa.…

God’s ‘two books’

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The habit of referring to God’s ‘two books’ – the book of Scripture and the ‘book’ of nature – goes back at least to Francis Bacon (1561-1626).  Michael Faraday (1791-1867) spoke in the same terms, as did Galileo (1564-1642).  Charles Darwin quoted Bacon in the preface to his Origin of Species:-

‘To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s work, or in the book of God’s word; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress of proficence in both.’…

Is the Old Testament ethical?

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Is the Old Testament Ethical?

Here is an interview with Dr Peter Williams, Warden of Tyndale House.  With the criticisms of Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, ch. 7) particularly in mind, Williams gives a cogent series of responses to some of the more difficult and pressing worries that we (whether we are believers or not) may have about the morality of some of the things we find in the Old Testament.

Of course, Williams cannot offer, in the limited time afforded by an interview, a comprehensive set of answers. …