The Lord's anointed: Interpretation of Old Testament messianic texts

by Philip E. Satterthwaite (Editor)

At the heart of the earliest Christian self-understanding, explicit or implicit in much Christian use of the Old Testament, and crucial for Christian theology and interpretation, the concept of 'messiah' in the Old Testament has, however, been eclipsed by the pursuit of other goals in the Old Testament studies. Few recent sustained treatments have appeared from any school of thought. The Lord's Anointed aims to redress the balance. It also recognizes that the study of this topic must always be contemporary: Old Testament studies have changed dramatically in recent years, giving rise to new challenges as well as new opportunities for Christian reading of it.

Genres: Theology

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Jon Cheek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is a helpful work dealing with certain Messianic elements of the OT. Some chapters were particularly good: (1) Alexander: "Messianic Ideology in the Book of Genesis," (2) Provan: "The Messiah in the Book of Kings," (3) Hugenberger: "The Servant of the Lord in the 'Servant Songs' of Isaiah," (4) Block: "Bringing Back David."

I would have appreciated more emphasis on the Psalms. Only Psalms 16 and 72 receive significant treatment. Psalms 2, 22, and 110 seem to be deserving of more attention in a study like this, since the NT uses them so prominently.

The book does not attempt to discuss every (potentially) Messianic text in the OT; its goal is to identify key conceptual threads that support the idea of an OT Messianic expectation.

[Nicholas Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an arrangement of essays from various OT scholars. They largely deal with the concepts of Messianism and Messianic prophecies in the OT. The essays often deal head-on with critical pushback against the notion of an expectation for the Messiah throughout the OT and for that Messiah to be Jesus. The authors come from different places as to how they see Jesus in the OT, but the book overall is helpful.