Old Testament Theology, vol. 1, Israel’s Gospel (review)

Israel’s Gospel, which is the subtitle of John Goldingay’s first volume of Old Testament Theology betrays the orientation of the book, but not in an obvious way. At first blush, the designation Israel’s Gospel signals an unashamedly Christian perspective on the Old Testament—or the “First Testament,” as Goldingay prefers to call it. In a sense, this is true, but not as most laypeople in the Church would understand it. In his helpful introduction, Goldingay states that he is not interested in reading the Old Testament as witnessing to Christ, as pointing to Christ, as prophesying or predicting Jesus, as concealing what is revealed in the New Testament, as foreshadowing the New, or as law that is succeeded by the gospel (27). Instead, the Old Testament is gospel in the sense that “God reaches out in grace to a people who in no way deserve such an initiative” (27). This is characteristic of both Old and New Testaments, and Christians applied the term gospel to the story of Jesus because they “were thinking of his story in terms that had already applied to Israel’s story” (28).

Story is the focus of this first volume in Goldingay’s trilogy. Thus, the Pentateuch and Historical Books are the main focus of the book, although viewpoints from Wisdom Literature, Psalms, and the prophets are also considered, inasmuch as they reflect on Israel’s story. For example, the first chapter, entitled “He Began,” does not present first the speech of God in Genesis 1, but the thought of God as reflected in his insight, which is portrayed in Isaiah 40:13–14, Job 28, and Proverbs 3 and 8. The book is structured according to the chronological nature of Old Testament narrative. The phases of this story form the structure of Goldingay’s book. He characterizes these as God began, started over, promised, delivered, sealed, gave, accommodated, wrestled, preserved, and sent. Each of these actions finds a corresponding response from humanity or Israel (36).

The first chapter after the introduction, “God Began,” focuses on creation, but Goldingay chooses to avoid that word in the chapter heading in order to create “de-familiarization,” and because the Hebrew word bara’ is not the word for beginnings most favoured in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. Before dealing explicitly with creation, Goldingay discusses the topics God Thought, God Spoke, God Birthed, and God Prevailed. After God Created, he covers the topics God Arranged, God Shaped, God Delegated, God Planted, and God Relaxed. Following this outline, after writing about “God Thought,” Goldingay traces the trajectory of Genesis 1:1–2:4a, while unpacking and nuancing the theology of this chapter with multiple references to other Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern literature.

In chapter 3, “God Started Over,” Goldingay explicates his definition of gospel. The good news of God’s grace was not emphasized in the period of Creation, but Creation and humankind need the gospel after the sin of Adam and Eve. Goldingay argues that the promise after the flood is the first gospel-preaching in Scripture (179, 183). In the next chapter, “God Promised,” the reader glimpses the gospel “in the fact that God is making promises come true through the whole story and not only through its acceptable features” (287).

The chapter “God Sealed” covers the giving of the law. Many readers may view a chapter on legalism as the antithesis of the gospel; not so in Goldingay’s book. Law is good news and should not be dismissed as legalism. Christians need reminders of right behaviour too.

In “God Gave,” Goldingay treats the possession of the land of Canaan. Here, unlike in previous chapters, he addresses the historical issues of Canaan’s conquest and settlement. In characteristic style, he affirms the complexity of the issues but sees data in the biblical text supporting four major scholarly theories. He includes a particularly helpful discussion of the notices in Joshua that the promise...