Israel and the Nations: A Mission Theology of the Old Testament (review)

James C. Okoye's Israel and the Nations explores the foundations for a biblical theology of mission. Okoye traces the OT development of a conception of gentile inclusion into Israel, as well as Israel's movement towards being a missionary entity. While specific instances of missionary activity in the manner of the NT evangelists are seldom in the OT, Okoye claims models for mission do exist. Okoye organises his findings under four 'faces' of mission, which he identifies as models of mission that were operative for Israel at different stages within her development. According to Okoye, God requires righteousness of all the nations and therefore the scope of his salvation is also universal. Mission is both centripetal and centrifugal because the purpose of Israel's election is to be a witness to the nations.

The strength of Okoye's presentation lies in his contextual awarenessof the biblical texts. The texts from which he cites genuinely do address, in their original context, the issue of gentile-inclusion into Israel. The exegetical detail of Okoye's analysis is vast and often surpasses what is needed to forward the argument. Okoye demonstrates a good familiarity with the tools of biblical study, employing both contextual and inter-textual data in his diachronic study.

While Okoye makes a convincing case for OT precedents of gentile inclusion into Israel, he anachronistically equates Israel's attitude towards foreigners with Christian ideas of mission and evangelism and vice versa. Okoye's work is invaluable in that it faithfully locates OT texts where gentile-inclusive tendencies can be found; however, the method of im-posing the Christian schema of 'mission' onto the OT a priori poses some hermeneutical challenges. The extraction of biblical principles from the OT for a mission theology for the modern church may well be a worthwhile endeavour, but it should not precede nor be confused with the task of interpreting the OT on its own terms.

Israel and the Nations, with its occasional exhortations and summary questions at the end of each chapter, is written with the theological student in mind, and as such, provides many helpful insights into how the modern church can approach mission from an OT theology concerning the nations.