A Compact Guide to the Whole Bible: Learning to Read Scripture’s Story ed. by Robert W. Wall, and David R. Nienhuis (review)

This edited book about reading the whole Bible is primarily aimed at undergraduates and adult Bible study groups (7). It follows the Christian church’s intention to treat the Bible as Scripture and thus approaches the Bible in terms of “its overall unity” (157). Rather than presenting a detailed introduction to the historical or contextual issues surrounding the text, this book aims to provide readers of the Bible with the big picture of the biblical story (8). Each chapter represents a canonical unit and begins by framing the books within their contribution to the biblical metanarrative, followed by a discussion of their arrangement and placement within the biblical canon, their literary features, and the theological questions they evoke concerning God, God’s people and God’s world.

In chapter 1, Daniel Castelo and Robert Wall explain the approach of the book in reading the Bible as Scripture. The approach is to read the Bible as a sacred text, which is based on “what the church believes about Scripture” (11). Scripture is approached in terms of how it “discloses the full measure of God’s promised salvation” and how it “provides the hope that this salvation is graciously delivered by God’s Spirit to all who believe in God’s Son” (13). The Bible is approached as the canon which the church “recognized” (23). The Bible is thus not considered as “a loose collection of writings from which the reader may pick and choose,” but as “a self-contained and singular whole” (23). David Nienhuis follows with chapter 2 in which he elaborates on reading the Bible in terms of a single “metanarrative” or “overarching story” (27) that broadly consists of God’s good creation, the fall of humanity, God’s covenant with them, the giving of the Law, God’s allowance to have kings ruling over the people, the subsequent split between Israel and Judah, their exile, Jesus who entered into creation, the new creation and spiritual transformation that Christ inaugurated in the form of a newly restored “Israel” that includes gentiles (the church), and God’s final act in setting all things right (27–35).

Sara Koenig discusses Genesis to Deuteronomy in chapter 3. After an overview of how these books contribute to the overall biblical metanarrative (39–42) and a discussion of these books’ shape and placement within the canon (42–44), she argues that the Law is “enveloped with the promise of the land.” Obedience to God is therefore the centre of God’s promises and their fulfilment. The land is thus “not something they are entitled to unconditionally” (44). In chapter 4, Frank Spina discusses Joshua to Esther wherein he problematises the historicity of these books (esp. Joshua) and argues that “Scripture goes beyond history.” For Spina, these books should be considered “transhistorical” (52). Yet the treatment of his perceived contradiction between Joshua 21:43–45 (arguing that “every last inhabitant of the land has been eliminated”) and 23:6–12 (where Israel is warned not to interact with the Canaanites) is somewhat simplistic and does not reflect the scholarly discussions in this regard (55), a symptom that probably might be expected in a work of this nature. Nevertheless, Spina strongly argues that Christians have not replaced Israel, but that nationalistic or political Israel “is not the same as the people of God.” This, he proceeds, “is why the modern state of Israel should not be naively equated with the chosen people” (63). Sara Koenig treats Job to Song of Songs in chapter 5. She divides the psalms into psalms of “disorientation,” “thanksgiving,” and “orientation” (73). She argues that the wisdom literature gives voice to many existential questions humans ask, focusing on the individual’s relationship with God (76). Bo Lim discusses the prophetic material (Isaiah to Malachi) in chapter...