466 Biblical Studies and Scripture

David Observed: A King in the Eyes of His Court, Keith Bodner,

Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2005 (ISBN 1-905048-23-8), xii + 198 pp., hb $85

David is one of the best-known and beloved figures in the Bible today
as he was in his days. In many ways David was no different from us,
yet there was ‘something’ about David that attracted God’s attention,
the loyalty of numerous people of his time, and imagination of the
Western culture. We all know how much God adored David, choosing
him when God sought out a man after God’s own heart. In spite of
David’s mistakes and faults, God promised uncompromised loyalty
to him and his house (2 Sam. 7:15–16). It is not surprising that the
Israelites were enamored of the handsome young shepherd boy turned
charismatic warrior-king whom God seems to favor. Even the foreign-
ers gave their allegiance to him; many remained loyal to David in the
most difficult circumstances of his life at the risk of their own lives.
What was that ‘something’ that David had that attracted so many
people and God to his side?
David undoubtedly had a complex personality, even though people
often underappreciate David’s complex character and view him as a
one-dimensional figure, as a person of model faith or as the ultimate
underdog. Keith Bodner in this book explores the complexity of
David’s personality by reading the David story through the eyes of
David’s supporting characters. This is a close reading of the final form
of the text, using literary approach, particularly Bakhtin’s literary
devices, to interpret the text while introducing some basic principals
of biblical narrative in the process. He explores various characters –
Eliab, Ahimelech, Abner, Nathan, Joab, Ahithophel, Bathsheba, among
others – and texts ‘to enrich the narrative and illuminate the personal-
ity of David through a host of narrative configurations’ (p. 2). In par-
ticular, Bodner explores the tension between David as ‘the political and
military leader, and the one who has an uncommon theological vision’
(p. 18), which adds to the complexity of David. This is a well-written
book that will grip the reader’s attention through the entire book as the
author offers various angles to view David. Although the author sug-
gests that the primary audience is ‘students and interested readers
wanting a literary angle on various texts in the David story’, the fact
that some knowledge of Hebrew and Greek are required to fully appre-
ciate this book, I am afraid, precludes many of the targeted audience.
Bodner utilizes the theoretical work of Mikhail Bakhtin to analyze
the personality of David through views provided by Eliab the eldest
brother of David, Ahimelech the priest of the family of Eli, and Abner
the general of Saul’s army. In Chapter 2 he examines David’s eldest

Reviews in Religion and Theology, 13:4 (2006)

© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ,
UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Biblical Studies and Scripture 467

brother Eliab’s direct speech to David by utilizing Bakhtin’s notion of

‘double-voiced utterance’. Eliab statement – ‘I know your presumption
and the evil of your heart’ (1 Sam. 17.23) – is double-voiced because
there are at least two levels of meaning: one meaning in the dialogue
between Eliab and David and a second meaning directed toward the
larger story of David in the dialogue between author and reader.
Bodner argues that Eliab is used as a means of indirectly characteriz-
ing David and readers should not ignore an insight offered by Eliab
on David’s heart. Then in Chapter 3 he examines the possibility that
David and Ahimelech are partners in ‘collusion’ in deceiving Doeg
the Edomite when David was visiting Ahimelech at Nob. He uses
Bakhtin’s literary technique of ‘delayed exposition’ to argue that Ahim-
elech communicated to David that Doeg was in the sanctuary that day.
Moreover, he suggests that Ahimelech, like Michal and Jonathan, pro-
tected David’s life while risking his own because the narrator used his
action as an example of what Bodner calls the ‘motif of deceptive
alliance’. Bodner suggests that Ahimelech’s motivation for participat-
ing in the ‘motif of deceptive alliance’ is to fulfill the prophecy of
judgment against the family of Eli. Ahimelech saved David’s life at the
expense of destroying his whole family. In Chapter 4 he utilizes
Bakhtin’s ‘pseudo-objective motivation’ to examine David’s claim of
innocence in regard to the assassination of Abner. After Joab kills
Abner, David displays an extravagant mourning ritual for Abner, even
calling him ‘a prince and a great man’ (2 Sam. 3.38). The narrator states,
‘So all the people and all Israel understood that day that the king had
no part in the killing of Abner son of Ner’ (2 Sam. 3.37). Bodner argues
that this statement is an example of ‘pseudo-objective motivation’, that
is, the narrator gives the opinion of the people but the narrator’s actual
opinion is not stated. There is an air of doubt as to David’s innocence;
David’s dramatic change in his opinion of Abner is unconvincing.
Bodner summarizes, ‘David is successful insofar as public relations are
concerned. Yet as the episode concludes, there are more questions than
answers about David’s knowledge’ (p. 62).
From Chapter 5 and following Bodner does not engage with
Bakhtin’s work any further. It may be that he wrote Chapters 2 to 4
while working with Bakhtin’s literary theory and the rest of the book
was written perhaps before he got interested in Bakhtin’s work. He
could have easily employed Bakhtin’s literary devices utilized in
Chapters 2 to 4 on the rest of the book, but he does not.
In Chapter 5 Bodner examines three episodes where Nathan the
prophet and David interact – Nathan delivers the ‘dynastic oracle’ in
2 Samuel 7, he delivers a judgment oracle after David’s affair with
Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12, and he convinces David of making an ‘oath’
in 1 Kings 1. Bodner argues that ‘each of the three episodes build one
on the other, and draw a network of references back and forth’ (p. 76),
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468 Biblical Studies and Scripture

forming a coherent picture of the prophet who seems to act with the
sense of divine mission. David again is a beneficiary of God’s provi-
dence and Nathan is an instrument of God’s plan.
The next four chapters deal with 2 Samuel 11, which is considered
the ‘turning point’ of the whole David story and is ‘fraught with ambi-
guity’. It is ironic that a story that openly exposes David’s vulnerabil-
ity is shrouded in intentional ambiguity; perhaps it is fitting as this
story gives a view of David in all his complexity. From the first verse
of the story to the additional phrase – ‘armor-bearer of Joab’ – in a frag-
ment of text from Qumran (4QSama), from Joab’s interpretation of
David’s letter to the messenger’s interpretation of Joab’s message, from
David’s reaction in the Hebrew text to his reaction in the Greek text,
ambiguities abound in the story and the complexity of the personality
of David is laid bare for all to see.
In Chapter 10 Bodner examines Ahithophel’s motives for defecting
to Absalom’s camp by exploring the connection between Ahithophel
and Bathsheba – a strong case can be made that Bathsheba is
Ahithophel’s granddaughter. He suggests that Ahithophel’s advices
were personal vendetta against David for sleeping with his grand-
daughter. Although Ahithophel’s second advice – to seek out and kill
David – was ‘good’, it was frustrated by God’s ‘divine overrule’ (p.
134). In Chapter 11 Bodner examines the connection between 1 Kings
1 and Genesis 27. He argues that ‘Bathsheba’s negotiating with David
on Solomon’s behalf activates an allusion to the antecedent episode of
Rebekah’s negotiations regarding the blessing of Isaac’ (p. 140). In
Chapter 12 Bodner suggests that a high number of oaths in 1 Kings 1–2,
initiated by Bathsheba’s ‘reminder’ of David’s oath to have Solomon
succeed him on the throne, underscores Solomon’s character, which
resembles his father David and mother Bathsheba, ‘daughter of swear-
an-oath’.
Through it all Bodner is ever mindful of theological underpinnings
in the story of David. Although he acknowledges that human activities
play an important role in the unfolding of the David story, he is con-
vinced that God is behind David and his life. Behind narrative tech-
niques used by the narrator, he sees theological motivations behind the
telling of the story of David and his life. In commenting on the collu-
sion at Nob, he suggests that the reason for Ahimelech’s action for pro-
tecting David, which results in the massacre of the family of Eli, is to
fulfill God’s prophecy of judgment against the family of Eli. Bodner
comments that David’s speech at Abner’s funeral ‘serves to focus atten-
tion on God’s promise as the central reason for stability of the Davidic
kingdom, and not simply effective political decision-making’ (p. 65;
italics mine). Nathan’s conducts are motivated by ‘a sense of a divine
mission’ (p. 70). Ahithophel’s ‘good’ advice was ‘frustrated by divine
overrule’ (p. 134). In Solomon’s accession there is ‘a hidden providence
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 469

at work’ (p. 173). In the end he seems to suggest that David’s story
enfolded in the way it did because his life was part of God’s plan; it
was God’s prerogative. Moreover, the significance of David’s complex
personality is negated by the Deuteronomist’s single-minded theolog-
ical vision. As a result, Bodner describes the David story as an enter-
taining and sophisticated way of narrating God’s Heilsgechichte in
which human characters, including David, play their parts with much
creative improvising but within the limits of God’s script. If there was
something special about David, then it is something one cannot acquire
through one’s efforts or by imitating David. One can only hope that
one is part of God’s plan.

Uriah Y. Kim
Hartford Seminary

Rethinking the Pentateuch: Prolegomena to the Theology of Ancient

Israel, Antony F. Campbell, SJ and Mark A. O’Brien, OP, Westminster
John Knox Press, 2005 (ISBN 0-664-22809-7), xv + 183 pp., pb $29.95

Campbell and O’Brien are well known to Old Testament scholars as

authors of one of the most accessible guides to a documentary analy-
sis of the Pentateuch (Sources of the Pentateuch, 1993). So this book is, at
first sight, a little startling as its eye-catching headline is ‘No J! no P!’;
that is, the Yahwist and Priestly author have been disowned, not by
conservatives who never accepted them anyway but by those who pre-
viously have championed them. On closer inspection, however, Camp-
bell and O’Brien are well in tune with the currents of contemporary
Pentateuchal criticism. Disagreement with the understanding of J, E, D
& P held by, say, Wolff or von Rad is now the norm, and Campbell and
O’Brien share the current tendency to lower the date of the substance
of the Pentateuch to the exilic or postexilic period. They still recognize
‘priestly thinkers’; and within Exodus they offer their own two-
narrative hypothesis. Moreover, although they claim that their under-
standing of the Pentateuch as Israel’s ‘pondering its present’ before
God is part of a new paradigm shift, it is a perspective that I thought
was already well established.
The new development here is a view about the function of the Pen-
tateuchal texts, primarily the narratives, within the life of ancient Israel.
Campbell and O’Brien focus on: (1) the brevity of many Pentateuchal
narratives; (2) the well-known ‘duplications’ of narratives and propose
that these texts should best be understood not as an end point but as
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a starting point, a base for storytellers to select from and expand

upon. They offer detailed analyses to show how the text may be read
thus. Thereby textual features that were seen as difficulties from the
perspective of older source analysis and tradition history are now
positively transformed into hermeneutical opportunities. Although
Campbell and O’Brien say little explicitly about how readers of the text
today should use it, their implicit stance seems to be that readers today
should do something akin to users of old; the received text should be
seen as an invitation to the theological imagination to develop dimen-
sions of our own self-understanding before God.
The authors present their proposals in a laid-back Aussie way; a
recurrent emphasis is that their proposals are possible, not necessary,
and they invite the testing process of scholarly debate. From time to
time they address the concerns of faith that some readers might
have and reassure them that their proposals are genuinely helpful for
responsible understanding of the biblical text (though how far readers
will receive that reassurance remains to be seen).
I found it a stimulating book, though, like almost all works of Pen-
tateuchal criticism, it is not for the casual or beginning reader. I mention
three reservations. First, Campbell and O’Brien do not compare, as I
would have thought their thesis requires, those Pentateuchal narratives
that display fully developed storytelling with those that do not. The
Balaam narratives for some reason receive no discussion. The servant’s
quest for Rebekah in Genesis 24 is analyzed, but predominantly in rela-
tion to date and the traditio-historical role of Rebekah in the unifying
of patriarchal traditions; similarly Jacob’s deception of Isaac in Genesis
27. Fresh hermeneutical opportunities in practice get submerged under
old-style tradition history.
Second, the bibliography and scholarly engagement is surprisingly
patchy. The massive work of Blum is marginalized to a few footnote
references. T. L. Thompson’s Origin-Tradition of Ancient Israel (1987),
which anticipates some of their concerns, seems unknown to them; as
does my own The Old Testament of the Old Testament (1992), which also
proposed a new, and potentially theologically fruitful, paradigm to
reconceptualize Pentateuchal narratives. They could not, I think, have
written on election in the way they do had they read Jon Levenson’s
Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son (1993), one of the most sophis-
ticated analyses of Pentateuchal law and narrative since Wellhausen.
Third, even if their concept of the Pentateuch may be theologically
fruitful, their actual theological interpretation is disappointing: either
conventional, for example construing the text in terms of the difference
between the ‘ideal’ and the ‘real’ or a relational understanding of the
Sinai covenant, or undeveloped suggestions, for example, ‘[the text]
does not yield up its secrets easily. Perhaps there are no secrets, only
aspects of the mystery of being human’. Wolff and von Rad may seem
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 471

somewhat passé. But it is by no means clear that the quality of their

theological interpretation has been rivaled by their more fashionable
successors.

Walter Moberly
Durham University

Reading Romans through the Centuries: From the Early Church to

Karl Barth, Jeffrey P. Greenman and Timothy Larsen (eds), Brazos, 2005
(ISBN 1-58743-156-4), 223 pp., pb $24.99

The importance of Paul’s letter to the Romans for the development of

Christian theology is, of course, well known. ‘In every epoch’, write
editors Jeffrey P. Greenman and Timothy Larsen, ‘the church’s leaders
and teachers have been preoccupied with Romans’ (p. 13). With that
foundational role in mind, this helpful book attempts to trace how
Paul’s most famous writing has been understood by several of its more
influential readers – namely, Ambrosiaster, John Chrysostom, Augus-
tine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Calvin,
John Wesley, Charles Hodge, John William Colenso, and Karl Barth.
Following an introductory chapter by the editors, discrete chapters by
eleven recognized authorities treat Paul’s interpreters in turn (e.g.
Gerald Bray on Ambrosiaster; Timothy George on Martin Luther; Mark
Noll on Charles Hodge; and John Webster on Karl Barth). Greenman
and Larsen indicate that the choice of figures to be analyzed was
intended ‘to be suggestive, rather than comprehensive’ as they
‘focus[ed] on thinkers whose engagement with Romans has been sub-
stantial and whose work illuminates wider movements in the church’s
theological development’ (p. 15).
Each of the chapters provides well-written summaries of seminal
issues, though the contributions vary significantly in style and speci-
ficity. Some emphasize the relationship between particular texts from
Romans and major themes (e.g. Christopher A. Hall on John Chrysos-
tom); other chapters are arranged historically (e.g. Pamela Bright on
Augustine). Indeed, John Webster’s engaging chapter on Karl Barth
actually stops short of Romans itself, offering a worthwhile ‘prole-
gomenon to the study of Barth’s commentarial work on Romans’,
which, in the author’s own words, ends ‘where the real work of ana-
lyzing Barth’s practice should begin’ (p. 223). The obvious strength of
such variety is that the contributors are free to discuss what they find
to be the most salient issues at hand, without the constraints of a
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472 Biblical Studies and Scripture

uniform chapter structure and style. On the other hand, the contribu-
tions may prove less useful for comparative analysis; some will regret
the lack of subject and scriptural indices. On the whole, however, this
volume will find appreciative readers from a variety of disciplines (e.g.
biblical studies, history, theology) who seek to understand better the
role Romans has played in shaping Christian thought.

Michael Barram
St. Mary’s College of California

The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s

Scripture, Richard B. Hays, Eerdmans, 2005 (ISBN 0-8028-1262-7), xx +
201 pp., (+12 pages of indices), pb $20

The release of a ‘greatest hits’ collection may be relatively common

for artists of renown in the music industry, but the phenomenon is
comparatively rare in the field of biblical studies. The Conversion of the
Imagination – ten previously published essays by Richard B. Hays on
Paul’s use of scripture – complements the author’s other major work on
the apostle’s hermeneutics (Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), and thus, strictly speaking, does
not represent a complete canon of ‘greatest hits’. Nevertheless, given
Hays’s well-deserved reputation for significant and paradigm-shifting
contributions to Pauline scholarship, it can be tempting to view this
book as something of a scholarly analogy to the ‘hits’ genre. At the very
least, by pulling together studies originally published in a variety of
scholarly journals and books (1980–1999), the volume makes some of
Hays’s most important work more readily accessible to a new genera-
tion of readers. However one chooses to describe Conversion of the Imag-
ination, it merits sustained attention from all who seek to understand
better the role and function of scripture in Paul’s letters and thought.
The book contains the following essays (only the original publication
dates noted): ‘The Conversion of the Imagination: Scripture and Escha-
tology in 1 Corinthians’ (1999); ‘ “Who Has Believed Our Message?”
Paul’s Reading of Isaiah’ (1998); ‘Psalm 143 and the Logic of Romans
3’ (1980); ‘ “Have We Found Abraham to Be Our Forefather according
to the Flesh?” A Reconsideration of Rom 4:1’ (1985); ‘Three Dramatic
Roles: The Law in Romans 3–4’ (1996); ‘Christ Prays the Psalms: Paul’s
Use of Early Christian Exegetical Convention’ (1993); ‘ “The Righteous
One” as Eschatological Deliverer: Hermeneutics at the Turn of the
Ages’ (1998); ‘The Role of Scripture in Paul’s Ethics’ (1996); ‘On the
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 473

Rebound: A Response to Critiques of Echoes of Scripture in the Letter of

Paul’ (1993); ‘Salvation by Trust? Reading the Bible Faithfully’ (1997; re-
titled ‘A Hermeneutic of Trust’ in the current volume).
The essays demonstrate that Hays’s consistent interests in Paul’s
hermeneutic activity should not be construed as a narrowly focused
project. He deals with a wide range of topics. For example, in his most
recent writing (‘The Conversion of the Imagination: Scripture and
Eschatology in 1 Corinthians’), Hays shows how Paul worked ‘to teach
the Corinthian church to think theologically’ and ‘to teach’ it ‘to
reshape its identity in light of Israel’s Scripture’ (p. 6). In other words,
Hays joins those who argue that the Corinthians are not guilty of
having an ‘overrealized eschatology’ (see p. 7). He stresses again and
again that Paul’s interpreters must not limit their attention to explicit
scriptural quotations in Paul’s letters if they seek to understand the
ways in which scripture functioned in his thought and ministry
(passim). In ‘Who Has Believed Our Message’, Hays discusses his
‘seven criteria’ (from Echoes) for identifying ‘intertextual echoes in
Paul’ (p. 34; see pp. 34–45 for the ‘criteria’) and puts forward his fun-
damental argument that ‘Paul was a hermeneutical theologian whose
reflection on God’s action in the world was shaped in decisive ways by
his reading of Israel’s sacred texts’ (p. 28). The scope of subjects is
impressive; readers will find insightful examinations, for example, of
how Abraham, the law, and the Psalms function in Paul’s interpretive
work. One of the most interesting chapters is ‘On the Rebound’, in
which Hays responds to four critical assessments of Echoes. Simply put,
this volume offers a treasure trove of top-notch scholarship on Paul’s
use of scripture.
Notably, Hays’s scholarship reflects commitments to both rigorous
textual analysis and the vocational integrity of the Christian commu-
nity today. This dual focus is evident from the very beginning of the
book. In an introductory overview, Hays lists the ‘three theses’ that
inspire the collected essays: ‘(1) the interpretation of Israel’s Scripture
was central to the apostle Paul’s thought; (2) we can learn from Paul’s
example how to read Scripture faithfully; (3) if we do follow his
example, the church’s imagination will be converted to see both Scrip-
ture and the world in a radically new way’ (p. viii). A major appeal of
Hays’s work, for this reviewer, hinges on these all-too-often disparate
emphases. For example, following an insightful survey of the ways in
which Paul draws on scripture for his moral reflection (‘The Role of
Scripture in Paul’s Ethics’, 143–62), Hays characteristically considers
the implications of his exegetical findings:

Paul’s bold hermeneutical example may lead us in turn to reflect afresh

on what it would mean for Scripture to shape our communities. If we fol-
lowed Paul’s lead, we would immerse ourselves in Scripture and ask how
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474 Biblical Studies and Scripture

our lives fit into the ongoing story of God’s reconciliation of the world
through Jesus Christ. Ethics would not be a matter of casuistry, not a
matter of reasoning through rules and principles, but of hearing the word
of God and responding in imaginative freedom to embody God’s right-
eousness. To do that with integrity, of course, we would have to undergo
a conversion of the imagination: we would have to believe that ‘what-
ever was written in former days was written for our instruction’ and that
we are those ‘upon whom the ends of the ages have come’. The challenge
of Pauline ethics to the church is to take these claims seriously and to put
them into action. (pp. 161–2)

One could, of course, argue that Hays’s pragmatic turn toward the con-
temporary church crosses the line between theological presuppositions
and/or commitments, on the one hand, and responsible, dispassionate
scholarship, on the other (see, for example, Hays’s response to William
Scott Green in ‘On the Rebound’ [especially pp. 174–7]). Alternatively,
one could make a strong argument that Hays’s approach enables readers
to hear (and, potentially, act upon) scripture’s message today – without
shirking the many important questions modern scholarship seeks to
pose with regard to the text. Whatever one’s perspective may be, Con-
version is a must-read for all who are interested in Paul’s use of scripture.

Michael Barram
St. Mary’s College of California

Exodus Through the Centuries, Scott M. Langston, Blackwell Pub-

lishing, 2006 (ISBN 0-631-23524-8), xiv + 294 pp., pb £24.99/$44.95

Until quite recently scriptural interpretation was about finding meaning

and identifying an author’s intent of a particular text and only by doing
such could one gain an understanding (I use the term loosely) of its
content, historicity, and any potential veracity. However, in recent years,
biblical scholarship has seen a seismic shift in the way a text is read and
interpreted and many principles are now available that not only offer
alternative hermeneutic, but which also allow scholars to access the
content of a text in new and exciting ways. Scholars need no longer be
confined simply with traditional commentary methods that consider the
original meaning, authorship, source, and dating of a text, though this
still has its place, but they have now started to consider how these
(sacred) texts have affected and influenced their readers and the context
in which they operate in what has become a sort of postmodern reader
response, which offers a whole new interpretive structure.
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 475

The content of scripture, and the means by which people respond to

it, has and should have an important bearing on how a text is accessed
and understood, both generally and within the sitz im leben of its reader.
Although this might mean that some might access the text in different
ways than others, this does not, and should not, remove any of its inter-
pretive value and in itself illustrates the rich interpretive principles of
a text. In some ways this suggests that a text might have many mean-
ings, each of which is just as valuable and true as another, which is a
little postmodern for my liking, but the principle that the interpretive
value of a text for one person or group is just as valid as a different
interpretation is for another, is certainly not one to be hindered.
In this book, Scott Langston aims to show that the means by which
people read, make relevant, and subsequently respond to a text is just
as interesting and historically important as what its author originally
meant or intended it to mean, and that this very often becomes a means
by which people find a faith and assurance to deal with their current
situation and environment.
The book of Exodus is one of the key books of the Old Testament, fea-
turing the stories that tell us how the Hebrew slaves were set free from
slavery in Egypt and then set out on their sojourn in the desert, protected
by YHWH and led by Moses, as they made their way to the Promised
Land. Here, Langston demonstrates how the wonderful interpretive
value of Exodus has been influential in religious, political, social, and
secular settings throughout the centuries. In many cases, he shows how
it has served as a tool for dealing with issues of actual tyranny, liberation,
and collective/personal identity by using examples of Israelite slavery
and persecution as a means of communicating and justifying, how
oppressed people have not only confronted tyranny but also eliminated
it. He points out that, as such, Exodus acts as a paradigm for others strug-
gling against persecution as well as being an effective source of inspira-
tion and sustenance, as well as a tool for reorientation.
Using examples from philology, sociology, theology, and art,
Langston recognizes a metaphorical function within the book of
Exodus, particularly in those parts that refer to the Plagues and
Passover; the Parting of the Red Sea, and the giving of the Ten
Commandments, which gives a personal meaning and character to its
content that allows its reader to find a connection/relationship between
themselves and the people of the book. His aim, therefore, is not to
engage in historical thought, but to consider the nature of the text and
the means by which, and through which, it might speak relevance to us.
Langston’s agenda has an interesting prerequisite and I was inter-
ested by many of his theories. I was certainly pleased by his assertion
that a reader’s response to a text is just as valid as its author’s original
intent and I would even suggest that one’s preferred hermeneutic can
only ever be subjective, despite having connections to a particular
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476 Biblical Studies and Scripture

genre of study. Though a little repetitive in places, Langston has offered

an accessibility to the book of Exodus that opens the imagination
and makes relevant and brings life to a story that might have easily
been left to decay in commentaries of Heilsgeschicte. Biblical scholars
interested in sociology and anthropology should certainly read this
book.

Benjamin Bury
University of Birmingham

But Is It All True? The Bible and the Question of Truth, Alan G.
Padgett and Patrick R. Keifert, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006 (ISBN 0-
8028-6316-7), 187 pp., pb $16.00

The title of this nine-essay collection was inspired by contributor

Dennis Olson’s eighteen-year-old daughter, while its subtitle stems
from a 1999 colloquium entitled ‘Bible and Truth’. The answer emerg-
ing from the book is, of course, ‘yes’. It is all true. The real question is,
‘what is meant by truth?’ Though the contributors often disagree over
the answer, they all agree that biblical truth cannot be reduced to
merely propositional truth.
Dennis Olson explains how challenges to truth are far from unique
to the postmodern era. The Old Testament is filled with God’s partial
revelation of truth and the imperfect human attempt to discern it. The
central ideas grounding truth-questions in the Old Testament are hesed
(steadfast love) and ‘emet (faithfulness). In revealing his decrees, God
reveals that he is in relationship with human beings and sets before
them a choice to follow him. The Pentateuch repeatedly connects ‘emet
with human acts of judging objective truth, and objective truth is ulti-
mately understood as fidelity over time.
Nicholas Wolterstorff begins his essay by noting that few statements
in the Bible can be formulated as true–false questions. A more refined
notion of truth is needed. Wolterstorff reiterates the principles he intro-
duced in Divine Discourse (Cambridge University Press, 1995) as a way
of refining the notion of biblical truth. The Bible, Wolterstorff argues,
must be conceived as speech rather than revelation. Speech must be
conceived as action rather than symbol. Locutionary acts (i.e. utter-
ances that state) must be distinguished from illocutionary acts (i.e.
utterances that perform). Finally, divine speech must be conceived
within a double-agency framework (i.e. God speaks through human
writers). These principles lead Wolterstoff to a notion of truth as
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 477

‘measuring up’. The Bible is true insofar as its utterances measure up

in being and excellence to its core message.
The next three essays by Ben Ollenburger, Mark Wallace, and
Stephen Davis all take up Wolterstorff’s notion of truth. Ollenburger
criticizes Wolterstorff for focusing almost exclusively on sentential
truth. He argues that scriptural truth pertains to the text as a whole
rather than to individual sentences. Wallace argues that the primary
reality made present through biblical illocutionary acts is charity. By
encountering the scriptural texts, the reader is prompted by the Spirit
to act in a certain way. The extent to which the reader responds to those
promptings is the fundamental test of scriptural truth. Wallace employs
the rather controversial examples of homosexual ordination and same-
sex unions as ways in which the church might act upon the criterion
of charity with more compassion.
Stephen Davis criticizes Wolterstorff’s reliance on plausibility-theory
to explain the differences between the four gospels. According to
Wolterstorff, the early Christians were not concerned about discrepan-
cies in chronology and detail because they were convinced that their
version of the story, if not factually accurate, was at least plausible.
Davis, however, insists the evangelists wanted us to believe things
really happened in the way they relate them. Davis takes even stronger
issue with Wallace. If, as Wallace argues, charity-in-action is the ulti-
mate criterion for evaluating biblical truth, then there is little room for
realism. Davis points to Jesus’ statement ‘I and the Father are one’ (John
10:30) as a passage that begs for a realist explanation.
Alan Padgett relates the idea of biblical truth to confession. It is less
helpful to search for definitions than it is to articulate an ‘understand-
ing’ of truth. That is, the methods of addressing the question of bibli-
cal truth must rely more heavily on principles internal to faith itself.
Through faith, we begin to perceive truth as ‘mediated disclosure’. This
mediation can take a number of different forms – narrative, poetry,
painting, etc. Because these media, each in its own distinctive way, dis-
close being, they are just as ‘true’ as propositional statements. Scrip-
ture is true in the sense that it mediates God’s relation to human beings
and discloses God’s saving action among them.
David Bartlett approaches the question from the angle of preaching.
Truth is ultimately a matter of listening, for it is only by listening that
we come to know God rather than things about God. The truth of his-
torical narrative becomes clear only when it points to Jesus as alive and
active today. Paul stands as a witness to this notion of truth. In narrat-
ing the historical events of Jesus, Paul always refers to how these events
impact his own life. To preach the truth of scripture is to preach God’s
redemptive action here and now.
Patrick Keifert connects the question of biblical truth with theologi-
cal education. Theological training is sorely lacking when it fails to take
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478 Biblical Studies and Scripture

truth questions seriously. Effective theological education poses the

question, ‘how does the Bible present to me the truth of my own life?’
The privileged setting within which this question emerges is the Chris-
tian assembly. Liturgy and service are the means through which we
discern God’s ongoing action in the world today. Thus, the search for
truthfulness in the Bible is inseparable from the very worship and
service that make up the church’s life.
Ellen Charry harkens us back to sapiential theology as the way of
addressing the truth-question. Hellenistic philosophy developed a
notion of truth embracing the art of achieving happiness through good
living. Charry argues that this sapiential approach to philosophy and
theology was lost when the medieval schoolmen turned their attention
to speculative rather than practical matters. She insists that postmod-
ernism presents an opportunity to reappraise sapiential theology’s
potential. By reconnecting knowledge with wisdom and truth with
goodness, theology might redirect its attention away from rationalistic
epistemological concerns that, to a large degree, postmodernism has
already rejected. Charry elucidates her position by comparing the work
of Origen and Aquainas. The Platonism informing Origen’s thought
offers a much more positive vision of God’s relationship with humans
than is usually thought. It recognizes more readily the necessity of
grace for attaining knowledge of the good, and therefore knowledge of
the true. A thorough comprehension of scriptural truth can only be
attained against this sapiential background.
This book thrusts the question of biblical truth into the limelight at a
critical time. Joining The Da Vinci Code on recent bestseller lists are titles
such as The Gospel of Judas, The Jesus Papers, and Misquoting Jesus. The
burning desire to find out ‘what really happened’ is also leading people
to search for a more satisfying notion of truth. But is it all True? is a fine
tool for facilitating that search. At the same time, a deeper immersion
into the rich theological tradition of Christianity would facilitate the
search even more. Ollenburger is the only contributor to make even a
minor reference to the traditional four ‘senses’ of scripture: literal, alle-
gorical, moral, and analogical. Moreover, Aquinas’s theory of beatitude
and moral action is much more refined that Charry would have us
believe. Her claim that scholasticism assumed ‘there was only one right
answer’ is a gross misunderstanding of medieval theology’s approach
to scripture. Nevertheless, all of the authors in this volume make intelli-
gent and engaging contributions to a question of infinite importance.

Daniel B. Gallagher
Sacred Heart Major Seminary

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Biblical Studies and Scripture 479

Interpreting the Qur’an: Towards a Contemporary Approach, Abdul-

lah Saeed, Routledge, 2006 (ISBN 0-415-36538-6), ix + 192 pp., pb £16.99

As the author notes in his introduction, ‘Interpretation – unlike

revelation – is a human endeavour’ (p. 4). Because this endeavor is cer-
tainly complex and has been the arena for a great many theoretical dis-
putes, Saeed’s work is an extremely valuable guide for understanding
the various epistemological assumptions at the heart of Qur’anic
hermeneutics, both past and present.
Before laying out a thorough sketch of the differing methods of inter-
pretation available within Islam, Saeed proceeds to explain ‘the context
in which rethinking of the interpretation of the ethico-legal content of
the Qur’an is taking place today’ (p. 8). This revaluation seeks out ways
to make ‘the Qur’an accessible to contemporary Muslims’ and to lib-
erate the Qur’an from historically rigid and more literalistic interpre-
tations that many Muslims cannot relate to in this day and age (p. 17).
Because of Saeed’s sampling of disparate voices, this early portion
of the book works very well in outlining the internal disputes that
presently exist within Islam regarding the proper interpretation of
Muhammad’s message.
After setting up the general context of the book, Saeed moves
forward to outline the essential features of the very similar tradition
and textual-based forms of exegesis. Saeed does a masterful job in this
chapter of explaining how this interpretive outlook, while excellent in
many areas, has tended to monopolize Qur’anic interpretation and has
significantly ‘curtailed flexibility in the interpretation of the Qur’an’ (p.
53). In essence, this monopolization radiates outward from the ‘earli-
est Muslims’ and judges later interpretations as untrustworthy and
unnecessary innovations. In response, Saeed’s goal is to advocate an
‘interpretation based on reason’ (p. 57), which, in the author’s mind,
amounts to greater interpretive flexibility in recognition of the reader’s
socio-historical context. He writes, ‘Values change according to social,
economic, political, legal and intellectual circumstances. When this
happens, there should be a change in how we approach the foundation
texts that relate to those values’ (p. 124). What follows in the book
seeks to both elaborate and finally establish the credibility of Saeed’s
analysis. In this portion of the work, Saeed’s judicious scholarship
and temperate, yet scholarly, style greatly help to develop his core
thesis concerning the need to allow the Qur’an to breathe and flex
for the modern reader. In the epilogue, after having just laid out
a very thorough model of contextualist interpretation, the author
writes, ‘If meaning is fluid and susceptible to change, that is, it is
dependent on time, linguistic context and socio-historical circum-
stances, then that has to be an essential part of our approach to the text’
(p. 153).
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480 Biblical Studies and Scripture

Regarding its value as an historical overview of different interpre-

tive models used and advocated within Islam, this book is certainly a
must buy. However, in the end, the reader may be left wondering
whether or not Saeed’s contextualist approach to the Qur’an is the best
one. For example, when Saeed writes that, ‘From a Contextualist per-
spective, the meaning of the Qur’an is knowable. However this knowl-
edge is contingent on time, place and circumstance’ (p. 109), what does
this type of approach do to the authority of the Qur’an? More impor-
tantly, what does it assume about the author of the Qur’an? One thing
that Saeed fails to develop at any great length is why the contingent
context of the reader is more basic to interpretation than are the non-
contingent precepts of God. While he does, at times, speak about ‘uni-
versals’, Saeed prefers to understand textual precepts in the light of his
contemporary context, rather than understanding his contemporary
context in the light of unchanging and immutable textual precepts.
Regardless of Saeed’s careful intentions, the contextualist approach, not
incidentally, has most often tilted toward relativism, subjectivism,
and broad innovation. While Saeed is abundantly correct in critiquing
those inflexible interpretive methods that fail to understand that uni-
versal precepts are elastic in their contemporary application, he tends
to rely too heavily upon the contemporary and too little upon the
precept.

Jason Walsh
Phoenix, Arizona

The Bible and Empire: Postcolonial Explorations, R.S. Sugirtharajah,

Cambridge University Press, 2005 (hb ISBN 0-521-82493-1, pb ISBN 0-
521-53191-8), vi + 247 pp., hb $75.00, pb $27.99

This book is not an introduction to postcolonial biblical criticism, of

which R. S. Sugirtharajah has already produced several. Instead, it is
an exploration of specific examples of the use of the Bible in imperial,
colonial, and postcolonial contexts. The book may, therefore, be of
greatest interest to those who already have some knowledge of post-
colonial theory. I think it should also be of interest, however, to others
engaged in the broader postmodern project of decentering biblical
studies by focusing critical attention on texts which have been mar-
ginalized in mainstream biblical scholarship.
In the introduction, Sugirtharajah defines empire, the Bible, and post-
colonialism. He uses empire as a specific term for a system that
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 481

emerged out of European colonization between the fifteenth and

twentieth centuries. In this book, Sugirtharajah’s focus is on the British
Empire. The Bible to which he refers, therefore, is primarily the King
James Version, which the British brought with them to their colonies.
Finally, he defines postcolonialism as an interventionist approach
which does not accept dominant readings as unproblematic represen-
tations of the past but which enables marginalized voices to produce
alternative readings.
In the first chapter, Sugirtharajah examines The Precepts of Jesus by
Rammohun Roy (1774–1833) and The Life and Morals of Jesus by Thomas
Jefferson (1734–1826). Roy was among the Brahmin elite that emerged
as a result of colonialism in India, and Jefferson was among the found-
ing elite of the postcolonial United States. Both edited texts from the
New Testament in order to present Jesus as a simple teacher of moral
truths. Sugirtharajah argues that neither Roy nor Jefferson adopted a
subalternist perspective (i.e. the perspective of the marginalized). He
concludes that both works are examples of what postcolonial theorist,
Homi Bhaba, calls blasphemy. They are transgressive acts of cultural
translation, which challenged the notion that the gospels are the oracles
of God, but which did not challenge the content of the gospels. Neither
Roy nor Jefferson sought to invalidate the Bible, but rather each sought
to privilege his own version of it.
In the second chapter, Sugirtharajah analyzes the use of the Bible in
Victorian sermons preached in response to the Indian rebellion of 1857.
He argues that these sermons sought to define for the British a national
identity as God’s chosen people fighting God’s enemies. He sees in
these sermons a fusion of two types of precritical biblical interpreta-
tion: literal and typological. On the one hand, the Hebrew Bible was
interpreted as a literal history of Israel; on the other hand, Israelite
history was a type for the history of the British as God’s chosen people.
This permitted British preachers to apply the texts of the Hebrew Bible
directly to the situation confronting the British in India in a literal
manner.
In the third chapter, Sugirtharajah looks at the work of two Anglican
missionaries, John Colenso (1814–1883) and James Long (1814–1887).
Colenso primarily addressed the emerging educated middle class in
both Great Britain and South Africa, while Long primarily addressed
rural peasants in India. Colenso employed modern biblical criticism
and argued that the Bible was fallible, while Long focused on the sim-
ilarity of biblical proverbs and customs to indigenous Indian proverbs
and customs. Although their approaches were different, both used the
Bible to justify a Christian praxis of siding with the oppressed. Both
criticized British treatment of indigenous persons, but neither directly
challenged the British imperial mission. Sugirtharajah argues that their
works are examples of dissident reading, which seeks to humanize
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482 Biblical Studies and Scripture

colonialism. While dissident readings raise concerns about abuses of

imperial power, they do not seek to dismantle imperialism itself.
In the fourth chapter, Sugirtharajah examines the use of the Hebrew
Bible in the colonial context of India. On the one hand, British orien-
talists used newly discovered Asian texts to support the historicity
of biblical narratives, and British missionaries read the Hebrew Bible
through a lens of progressive religious development, in order to
encourage Indians to ‘progress’ beyond their ‘idolatrous’ practices,
as did the ancient Israelites. On the other hand, Arumuka Pillai
(1822–1879), a Saiva reformer from Sri Lanka, produced readings of the
Hebrew Bible that endorsed his own tradition’s worship practices, and
Arumainayagam Suttampillai (1823–1919) focused on Israelite ritual
practices as a foundation for the Hindu Christian Church of Lord Jesus
Christ that he started in 1857. Sugirtharajah concludes that these works
are examples of identity hermeneutics, which affirm the right of self-
definition and a sense of indigenous agency in resisting the negative
representations of one’s own group by colonizers.
In the fifth chapter, Sugirtharajah focuses on the use of the Bible in
two colonial novels: Sydney Owenson’s The Missionary: An Indian Tale
(1811) and Akiki K. Nyabongo’s Africa Answers Back (1936). The Mis-
sionary presented a critique of proselytization and dramatized the prob-
lems confronted by converts who tried to relate to both their old and
new religious traditions. Africa Answers Back examined the place of cul-
tural practices such as polygamous marriage in the wake of Christian-
ization and advocated a mixing of Western and African practices that
could benefit both. Sugirtharajah concludes that both novels offered a
critique of empire and established the importance of indigenous
agency and the richness of indigenous cultures.
Finally, in an afterword, Sugirtharajah offers his own perspec-
tives on the present status of empire and the Bible. He argues that
contemporary American and British leaders are articulating a
new imperial mission to remove political leaders who undermine
their authority, violate human rights, and threaten their financial
interests. He argues that there are two options for the future survival
of the Bible in this context: either it can become a mono-text or it can
become part of a mosaic of texts. Sugirtharajah advocates the second
option.
There are a number of glaring editorial lapses in the book, including
typographical, grammatical, and factual errors. For example, Thomas
Jefferson is once identified as the second rather than the third president
of the United States (p. 9), and Donald Rumsfeld is identified as the
American Secretary of State rather than the Secretary of Defense (p. 84).
Nevertheless, as someone who is convinced that postcolonial perspec-
tives are vital to contemporary biblical interpretation, I recommend this
book to those who seek examples of what it might look like to analyze
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 483

readings of the Bible in ways that attend to the imperial, colonial, and
postcolonial contexts in which they have been produced.

Sean D. Burke
Graduate Theological Union

Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, Kevin J. Van-

hoozer, Craig G. Bartholomew, Daniel J. Treier and N. T. Wright (eds),
Baker Academic, 2005 (ISBN 0-8010-2694-2), 896 pp., hb $49.99

There are four basic types of articles in the Dictionary: articles on texts,
hermeneutics, interpreters and interpretative communities, and doc-
trines and themes. All articles are written with theological concerns.
Many articles are cross-referenced to other articles. It has a list of arti-
cles by category, topical index, and scripture index in the back. The
introduction to the Dictionary by the general editor Kevin J. Vanhoozer,
explaining the rationale for this work was very informative and helpful
in understanding the need for such a work. He makes a good case that
the time is ripe for theological interpretation of the Bible, which focus
on the knowledge of God, because he believes that it can break the
impasse in biblical studies – the impasse caused by the modernist
approach to the Bible that focus on the ‘worlds’ of the text and the post-
modernist approach to the Bible that focus on the needs of the reading
communities. While acknowledging the contribution of the modernist
approach – historical criticism – to the Bible and sympathetic to the
postmodernist approach – feminist, liberationist, and other ideologi-
cally interested hermeneutics – he argues that the Dictionary’s (Chris-
tian) theological approach fulfills the real purpose of reading the Bible,
namely to know God. Therefore, the purpose of the Dictionary is ‘to
help promote the knowledge of God, the good, and the gospel via the
practice of biblical interpretation’, and the justification for the Dictio-
nary ‘is its utility in helping to promote the knowledge of what God
has done in Israel and in Jesus Christ for the good of the world’ (p. 24).
I used the Dictionary for about six months before writing this review.
I found myself opening the Dictionary regularly. It was very useful in
understanding various issues related to interpreting the Bible from a
Christian theological perspective. I was pleased that its treatment of
contemporary hermeneutics and biblical scholarship in general was
fair. I wish it had included more biblical personalities; however, I
understand that this would have made the Dictionary bigger than it
already is, and it is a substantial work – 896 pages long. Its writing is
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484 Biblical Studies and Scripture

highly accessible. I recommend the Dictionary to anyone interested in

Christian theological approach to reading the Bible with the caveat that
this work represents one among several Christian theological tradi-
tions. This work is a must-have for pastors and scholars interested in
theology and the Bible and needs to be included in one’s personal
library as well as in one’s institutional library. Even if one disagrees
with the assumptions and purpose of the Dictionary, this is a reference
work worth having.

Uriah Y. Kim
Hartford Seminary

Early Jewish and Christian Memories of Moses’ Wives – Exogamist

Marriage and Ethnic Identity, Karen S. Winlsow, Edwin Mellen Press,
2005 (ISBN 0-7734-6032-2), iv + 493 pp., hb £139.95/£84.95

The biblical stories that speak of the wives of Moses are curious and
intriguing, not least because of the nature of his exogamous relation-
ships with foreign or outsider women which was, ironically, forbidden
by Hebrew Law.
The Old Testament stories about Zipporah and the Cushite, female
characters who seemed to combat the trends of andro-centric exclu-
sivity during and after the time of the exile, reveal quite unexpected
results about the potential role of women in Israelite society and have
shed light on cultural values and its attitude toward exogamous mar-
riage at the time of Moses. They also offer an insight into ethnicity,
identity, and theological agenda of later religious communities and
their standard of ethic, for example, during the second temple period
and late Judaism.
In this book, Karen Winslow investigates and explores Jewish and
Christian traditions about Moses’ wives in an attempt to trace the
change in cultural attitude of ethnic identity, sexuality and patterns of
marriage, and the challenges it has brought to biblical interpretation.
Her studies provide significant results about changes and develop-
ments in religious and social conventions about insider and outsider
issues in Israelite identity and reset the boundaries for biblical
interpretation.
This is an interesting and ambitious book and a significant contri-
bution to Israelite scholarship. By reevaluating the manner in which
societies have responded to the biblical story Winslow challenges
us to rethink our own reading of scripture, demonstrating, quite
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Biblical Studies and Scripture 485

appropriately, that its intricate nuances are not as black and white as
we perhaps once thought they were!

Benjamin Bury
University of Birmingham

© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.