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The Old Testament and Ethics: A Book-by-Book Survey
The acclaimed Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (DSE), written to respond to the movement among biblical scholars and ethicists to recover the Bible for moral formation, offered needed orientation and perspective on the vital relationship between Scripture and ethics. This book-by-book survey of the Old Testament features key articles from the DSE, bringing together a stellar list of contributors to introduce students to the use of the Old Testament for moral formation. It will serve as an excellent supplementary text. The stellar list of contributors includes Bruce Birch, Mark Boda, William Brown, Stephen Chapman, Daniel Harrington, and Dennis Olson.
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2013
About the author
Joel B. Green
109 books56 followersJoel B. Green (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament interpretation and associate dean of the Center for Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Prior to moving to Fuller, he taught at Asbury Theological Seminary for ten years. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Theological Interpretation and has authored or edited numerous books, including the Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 25, 2023
This is an abbreviation of a larger, more substantial work. In my opinion, this collection has very limited usefulness. Generally, the topical entries are better than the entries for whole books. This is a fine springboard for further research, but it’s inadequate on its own.
January 14, 2014
Book info:
From the Back Cover
The acclaimed Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (DSE), written to respond to the movement among biblical scholars and ethicists to recover the Bible for moral formation, offered needed orientation and perspective on the vital relationship between Scripture and ethics. The Old Testament and Ethics utilizes material from the DSE to introduce students to the use of the Old Testament for moral formation. This handy book-by-book survey of the Old Testament contains key articles written by leading scholars and targeted to the needs of the classroom. It will serve as an excellent supplementary text in Old Testament courses.
Contributors
Samuel L. Adams
Bruce C. Birch
Mark J. Boda
William P. Brown
M. Daniel Carroll R.
Stephen B. Chapman
Linda Day
David A. deSilva
Chip Dobbs-Allsopp
Michael W. Duggan
Barbara Green
Joel B. Green
Daniel J. Harrington
L. Daniel Hawk
Else K. Holt
Brad E. Kelle
Micah D. Kiel
Ralph W. Klein
Jacqueline E. Lapsley
Eunny P. Lee
Joel M. LeMon
Robin C. McCall
Andrew Mein
Dennis T. Olson
Leo G. Perdue
Anathea Portier-Young
D. N. Premnath
Timothy J. Sandoval
Choon-Leong Seow
Daniel Smith-Christopher
Allen Verhey
Craig Vondergeest
Amy C. Willis
About the Author
Joel B. Green (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament interpretation and associate dean for the Center for Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Jacqueline E. Lapsley (PhD, Emory University) is associate professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
Review:
Have you ever had great hopes and anticipated enjoying something greatly only to be sorely disappointed? That is how I felt about this book.
I was expecting a book on Old Testament ethics; that is, ethics from the Old Testament. Instead I found a book that actually located ethics somewhat outside of the Old Testament. I guess that's what the title is "Old Testament And Ethics" instead of "Old Testament Ethics."
The contributors tend to present the Bible as the product of men who were the product of their times, with little room for Divine revelation and inspiration.
What happens when such a view is presented is that ethics are located within people and communities. That leaves us somewhat adrift. In fact, there is a strong tendency at times to lean toward what seems to me to be a relativistic ethic instead of an absolute.
What can one expect, however, when the absolute is denied its position as the ultimate authority? If the Bible is not truly the infallible Word of God (And it seems as if many of the contributors don't even value the Bible as the Word of God in any fashion.), then where is the standard for our ethics? By what do we measure right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate?
It is this approach that allows one to stand outside of the Scripture and look in as a judge and critic. It allows one to view the conquest of Canaan as genocide instead of the proclaimed judgment of God upon sinner whose time had come to be judged.
It is this approach that allows one to view the Scriptures, not as a united, coherent book of books, but as a group of relatively isolated books that often contradict one another.
It is this approach that allows one to look into Scripture and say that one can use a particular text to speak to the issue of feminism and God as mother. After all, if the ethic is located somewhere other than Scripture, perhaps our ethic will allow us to use the Scripture to say something that it doesn't. That certainly seems to be the case in this book.
When one comes to the Scripture as one whose presupposition is that it is just another group of books, he will then judge the Scripture as being no different than any other book. The problem is that Scripture will not allow us to do that. Not at all.
When we look at Scripture as if it is just another book, we can say that the OT people didn't recognize that homosexuals were born that way, or made thus by God. It will allow us to leave the door open to deviant behavior by imposing our ethic upon the Bible instead of the Bible forming our ethics.
In the end, this book isn't about Old Testament ethics. It is about the "Old Testament And Ethics", and the ethic that is brought to the discussion is faulty, sinful, and destructive.
The only bright spot that I found in all of the book is that there were a couple of times that it was mentioned that Israel was told to live their lives in view of their being in a covenant with God. Other than that, there is little positive to say.
I've never written such a strongly negative review before. I hope I never do again. Honesty will not let me write anything else. I am giving the book two stars, and I'm feeling that to be very generous in light of the impoverished view of God and Scripture.
From the Back Cover
The acclaimed Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (DSE), written to respond to the movement among biblical scholars and ethicists to recover the Bible for moral formation, offered needed orientation and perspective on the vital relationship between Scripture and ethics. The Old Testament and Ethics utilizes material from the DSE to introduce students to the use of the Old Testament for moral formation. This handy book-by-book survey of the Old Testament contains key articles written by leading scholars and targeted to the needs of the classroom. It will serve as an excellent supplementary text in Old Testament courses.
Contributors
Samuel L. Adams
Bruce C. Birch
Mark J. Boda
William P. Brown
M. Daniel Carroll R.
Stephen B. Chapman
Linda Day
David A. deSilva
Chip Dobbs-Allsopp
Michael W. Duggan
Barbara Green
Joel B. Green
Daniel J. Harrington
L. Daniel Hawk
Else K. Holt
Brad E. Kelle
Micah D. Kiel
Ralph W. Klein
Jacqueline E. Lapsley
Eunny P. Lee
Joel M. LeMon
Robin C. McCall
Andrew Mein
Dennis T. Olson
Leo G. Perdue
Anathea Portier-Young
D. N. Premnath
Timothy J. Sandoval
Choon-Leong Seow
Daniel Smith-Christopher
Allen Verhey
Craig Vondergeest
Amy C. Willis
About the Author
Joel B. Green (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament interpretation and associate dean for the Center for Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Jacqueline E. Lapsley (PhD, Emory University) is associate professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
Review:
Have you ever had great hopes and anticipated enjoying something greatly only to be sorely disappointed? That is how I felt about this book.
I was expecting a book on Old Testament ethics; that is, ethics from the Old Testament. Instead I found a book that actually located ethics somewhat outside of the Old Testament. I guess that's what the title is "Old Testament And Ethics" instead of "Old Testament Ethics."
The contributors tend to present the Bible as the product of men who were the product of their times, with little room for Divine revelation and inspiration.
What happens when such a view is presented is that ethics are located within people and communities. That leaves us somewhat adrift. In fact, there is a strong tendency at times to lean toward what seems to me to be a relativistic ethic instead of an absolute.
What can one expect, however, when the absolute is denied its position as the ultimate authority? If the Bible is not truly the infallible Word of God (And it seems as if many of the contributors don't even value the Bible as the Word of God in any fashion.), then where is the standard for our ethics? By what do we measure right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate?
It is this approach that allows one to stand outside of the Scripture and look in as a judge and critic. It allows one to view the conquest of Canaan as genocide instead of the proclaimed judgment of God upon sinner whose time had come to be judged.
It is this approach that allows one to view the Scriptures, not as a united, coherent book of books, but as a group of relatively isolated books that often contradict one another.
It is this approach that allows one to look into Scripture and say that one can use a particular text to speak to the issue of feminism and God as mother. After all, if the ethic is located somewhere other than Scripture, perhaps our ethic will allow us to use the Scripture to say something that it doesn't. That certainly seems to be the case in this book.
When one comes to the Scripture as one whose presupposition is that it is just another group of books, he will then judge the Scripture as being no different than any other book. The problem is that Scripture will not allow us to do that. Not at all.
When we look at Scripture as if it is just another book, we can say that the OT people didn't recognize that homosexuals were born that way, or made thus by God. It will allow us to leave the door open to deviant behavior by imposing our ethic upon the Bible instead of the Bible forming our ethics.
In the end, this book isn't about Old Testament ethics. It is about the "Old Testament And Ethics", and the ethic that is brought to the discussion is faulty, sinful, and destructive.
The only bright spot that I found in all of the book is that there were a couple of times that it was mentioned that Israel was told to live their lives in view of their being in a covenant with God. Other than that, there is little positive to say.
I've never written such a strongly negative review before. I hope I never do again. Honesty will not let me write anything else. I am giving the book two stars, and I'm feeling that to be very generous in light of the impoverished view of God and Scripture.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews