Lecture 5.docx

After the themes and after the purpose, we move into this area called literary structure, compositional strategy. Again, being reminded that what we are seeking in the structure is to see the coherence that is a characteristic of an authored document. A single author not only has a purpose, but then he works as he writes it out to fulfill that purpose in an orderly fashion. We talked about it last week. Our presupposition as we come to structure is the fact that there is coherence. We are not looking for contradiction. We are looking for how the author has brought the particulars together into a unified whole. Now if you begin with the presupposition there is no unified whole, which as I said is really directed Old Testament studies for about the last two to three hundred years, then you are not going to see the coherence. But there is a coherence that can be discovered and this as we assume that we have a literary unit, we look for it. Now we have already said enough that the traditional structural understanding of the Torah is the five books. It is most ancient. It goes back somewhere between 400 to 250 BC. We are looking at something which is over two millennium and of course has become part of our canonical tradition in our English Bibles so that the average person, any of you who can convince them that the Torah, the Pentateuch is one literary unit will still say, all right, so the basic structure is the five books because that is what my Bible has. My Bible has Genesis, Exodus, etc. Without realizing that obviously Genesis, Exodus have been added later. This was not something which was intrinsic to the text that was received by Israel into the canon. And the traditional five view approach is still followed by those who take the promise fulfillment, that first purpose statement that we gave. And Kleine's not only gave the theme of the purpose, the purpose of the Torah, but also gave the working out of that. And I started to give that to you as I broke down even his statement and how they reflected the different aspects of the Pentateuch. But this is his outline that there are two basic divisions to the Torah. Genesis 1 to 11 which he would say shows the need for Abraham and then Genesis 12 to Deuteronomy 34, the outworking of the promise to Abraham. And that flows out of, if the central passage is Genesis 12, 1 to 3, then the first 11 chapters lead up to, anticipate, lay the foundation for those three verses. And then everything that comes after Genesis 12, 4 is just an outworking of what is in those three verses. And I have to say this about Kleine's that he is consistent. This two-fold division then leads into the outworking of the promise to Abraham as I said. The giving of the seed, that is the descendants to your seed, I'm going to give this land. That is what is worked out in Genesis 12 through 50. So by the time we get to the end of Genesis we have a knowledge of who the seed is. Then that seed, the descendants of Israel in Exodus 1 through Leviticus 27, God establishes a relationship with them through the law. Obviously before that the redemption, the deliverance that then takes them from the authority of Pharaoh brings them under the authority of the Lord and the Lord gives his instruction to them. That's the establishment of the relationship. And then Numbers 1 through Deuteronomy 34 now anticipates going into the land. Why did he start that at Numbers 1? Because Numbers 1 is the census of the men of Israel over 20 years in age and above who can go to war. And so he would see Numbers 1 as beginning now. Instruction has been given, relationship has been established now. Israel has prepared itself to go to war to take the land. And so the giving of the land is what he would see in the latter part of the Torah. Now even Merrill, and I've never seen Merrill in print actually give an actual statement of his basic structure, but as I read him in the original volume, the theology of the Old Testament, it seems as though he had a basic threefold division, all leading to Israel in Exodus 1 through Deuteronomy 34. The preceding that is the patriarchal history, the primeval history, the ancient history, and then the patriarchal history, so that he still sees a division between Genesis 11 and Genesis chapter 12. And this is still the prevalent approach. The survey of the Old Testament by Hill and Walton, the most prominent approach, and I know that's somewhat faded, so let me give it to you. What they see is the literary plan of the Pentateuch. Notice again they divide Genesis between the first 11 chapters and then the last 39 chapters. It begins with creation, fall, and judgment, followed in Genesis 12 to 50 with covenant promise, election of Israel, and providential preservation of his family. And then in Exodus the emphasis upon the deliverance of Yahweh's people from bondage in Egypt and a covenant relationship expanded to Israel, has his people at Sinai, and the law given as the theocratic charter for Israel. Leviticus, an expansion of the covenantal law for the purpose of holiness among the people of Yahweh since he will dwell in their midst. Numbers is testing, purging, and purifying of Yahweh's covenant people in the Sinai wilderness, wandering, and then Deuteronomy is covenant renewal, and second law giving is preparation for entering the land of promise by the second generation of Yahweh's people. Now what is significant here is they spell out obviously the five-fold, but it becomes six-fold. This again is the influence of Kleine's and Genesis chapter 12 being the focal point of the Torah, and so even their literary plan becomes a six-fold division instead of a five-fold division. Now the Genesis has these two unequal parts that stand as it were in the same kind of importance as do Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis is not looked at as a whole, it's divided in its two parts, equal in importance Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And this is what you're going to find again and again as you read scholars as they deal with the structure of the Torah. Now even though I don't follow Sailhammer as far as purpose is concerned, I do think that Sailhammer has given us the best insight into the structure of the Torah as a whole. Now taking away our traditional divisions of Genesis through Deuteronomy, putting those to the side, so you can say that's added later, let's just take a look at the text as text. Again it's in Genesis 1 and going through Deuteronomy 34. He, and I give you his outline and failure of the patriarchs, followed by the faith and failure of the sons of Israel, anticipating the future failure of Israel in the land as the foundation for the future repentance and restoration of Israel to the land that takes place in the latter part of the Torah. But now just taking a look at why is he divided in these three ways. Obviously his statements flow out of his understanding of the structure of the Torah. But from Sailhammer I think we can get the essential structure of the Pentateuch. What Sailhammer shows is that there are three similar grammatical structures which come at concluding points in the Torah. Genesis 49, Numbers 24, Deuteronomy chapter 31. And here are these grammatical features. We have an imperative verb followed by a co-ordiative, followed by a statement of what will happen with a phrase that is only used four times in the Torah as a whole at the end or in the end of the days. Remember it begins with the beginning, in the beginning, and each one of these introductions to speeches looks and anticipates what God is going to do at the end, at the end of the days. If we compare this way that Genesis 1 is the beginning, and significantly the beginning of the days, days of creation, then here are statements that are anticipating what's going to take place at the end of the days, at the end of what began in Genesis chapter 1. While Genesis 49, 1, you can see it here, assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come or the end of days. Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel, your father. So after the summons, where Jacob tells exactly what he is going to tell his sons, beginning in verse 3 through verse 27, he spells out what is going to transpire, what is going to take place in every one of his sons, their descendants at the end of the days. And he says this before he dies, and this is the blessing with which he blessed them, and the blessing is something which is going to take place in their descendants in the future. Then in Numbers we have another narrative individual who has become the centerpiece between chapters 22 to 24 of Numbers, the pagan prophet Balaam, hired to curse Israel but can only bless them. And in his fourth discourse, he says, before he says it in verse 14 of chapter 24, And now, behold, I am going to my people. Come, and I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the days to come. So once again, come, and I will advise you what people will do to your people. There is what will happen in the days to come, at the end of the days. And then finally in Deuteronomy chapter 31, before Moses' discourse, the song of Moses, he says in verse 28, 29, Assemble to me all the elders of the tribes in your offices, that I may speak these words in their hearing, and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded, and evil will befall you in the latter days. Evil will befall you in the days to come. For you will do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands. So assemble yourselves, that I may speak these words, words about what's going to take place in the days to come because of your disobedience and the fact you're going to provoke the Lord to anger. Now the only other place where end of days is used in the Torah does not have this same grammatical introduction. It's in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 30. And here is Moses and within the context again he's speaking about the fact that Israel is going to go into the land and God is going to bring his judgments upon them because of their idolatry. And because of their idolatry, verse 27, the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you'll be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. But from there, verse 29, from among the nations you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, at the end of the days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to his voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God. He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to them. Then at the end of the days is when God is going to fulfill the Abrahamic promise, the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant made to your fathers. It's not going to happen before that. And it's going to happen when Israel in distress cries out to the Lord and searches for him with all their heart and with all their soul. And Moses returns to that idea in chapter 31, verse 27, I know your rebellion, your stubbornness, and I know, verse 29, after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you. And evil calamity is going to come upon you at the end of the days. But the echo of Deuteronomy 4, but this calamity is going to lead you to repentance and seeking of the Lord and the Lord in his compassion is going to respond and bring a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. And so here are the three basic places. Now interestingly you have a narrative leading up to these speeches. The speech is all that follow. What's going to happen at the end of the days for Jacob and Balaam and Moses are all given in poetry. So it's a poetic statement that is then given that then leads to a narrative where the one who speaks dies or with Balaam. We have the narrative of the intermarriage and then we find out in numbers 31 and that was instigated through the council of Balaam. So the literary style putting this all together is narrative followed by poetry with an epilogue where there is death. So the hope is at the end of the days. The hope is not in the immediacy because the immediacy is only death. Now does that tie in with what we see within the Torah and my answer would be yes. What is Genesis? Genesis is the narrative of the fathers of Israel and yes obviously 25 to 50 the particular Israel Jacob whose name was changed but Jacob himself is the son of Abraham who is a descendant of Noah who is the descendant of Adam. Right and so we have in Genesis we might put it this way we have the introduction to the nation of Israel. Israel you are associated with Adam you're associated with Noah you're associated with Abraham you're associated with Israel. And of course all that is very very vital. For in some way you play a role in what God said by covenant oath to Noah which as we're going to see goes back and codifies in covenant what was said to Adam in Genesis chapter 1. So I don't see a need for a damn it covenant because what was promised and what was stated to Adam is then sworn to by oath within the Noahic covenant and then the Abrahamic covenants. And then as Israel finds themselves as the sons of Israel God delivers them as he promised in the Abrahamic covenants and brings them to himself as in as in to the Mosaic covenant and within that covenant is also a priestly covenant which says that there is going to be a priesthood in Israel perpetually. By the way that is in the line of Phineas who is in the tribe of Levi not from the tribe of Judah. This is one of the great problems you have if you see Jesus Christ as being the priest who fulfills the priestly covenant he's in the wrong families in the wrong line and we're going to bring that up as we go through the Old Testament. Probably one of the greatest I think arguments for a premillennial as opposed to an amillennial eschatological position is the priestly covenant of Numbers 25 and how that is picked up in 1 Samuel 2 and obviously in Ezekiel 44 and 45 but to be continued when we get to those passages. And significantly from Exodus 1 through Numbers 25 we have the history of the first generation of Israel. Yeah chapter 1 of Exodus is the link between you know the death of Israel the death of Joseph and chapter 2 the birth of Moses and the generation that he will lead out of captivity in Egypt. That generation is numbered in Numbers chapter 1 and significantly when you get to Numbers 26 you have a second census taken of the fighting men of Israel that is the second census census taken of the fighting men of Israel that is the those who had died the first generation. So now we have a census of the second generation which marks the fact that beginning in Numbers 26 to Deuteronomy 34 now we have the second generation of Israel and so it fits. That's as we're thinking in terms of the first generation of national Israel and the narrative of how they were delivered and brought to Sinai. All right Genesis lays the foundation for this central division and obviously after they die we then see the the consequence of what God is going to do with Israel in the second generation of Israel and of course it's to this generation that the Torah is addressed. It's not addressed to the fathers or addressed to the first generation of Israel it's addressed to the second generation of Israel. Here's your background here's here's the promises God has made here is why God chose your fathers now as the sons of those fathers this is what God desires to do in and through you you know to fulfill what has been spoken previously. Yet Moses anticipates Deuteronomy 4 and returns to it in Deuteronomy chapter 31 that you're going to go in you're going to take the land and then be disobedient so much so that you're going to lose the land you're going to be scattered the curses of the covenant are going to come upon you and yet God has not forgotten the covenant with Abraham. It is going to be fulfilled at the end of the days. It is going to be fulfilled when God changes your heart. Is that change of heart going to come through the Mosaic covenants? When we get into Deuteronomy no it is going to come through another covenant that God is going to make with Israel in the future all tied together. Along with that notice the symmetry that when we we take a look at the word count approximately a quarter of the Torah is Genesis then half of the Torah the centerpiece of the Torah is Exodus through Numbers 25 and then balancing the first part of the Torah is a final 25 percent that gives the history and Moses's exhortations to the second generation of Israel. I have to admit it was salehammers you know pointing out these three and only three times three times in the Torah you have you know this same grammatical structure with the phrase the end of the days that then leads into these prophetic speeches that talk about what God is going to do at the end of the days and and how this fits into the general literary pattern of the Torah narrative to poetry to epilogue but then even more than that is then taking a look at okay put that into the Torah as a whole and lo and behold we have the very same junctures that narrative that first part is if I could put this way pre-national Israel the second great division first generation Israel and particularly first generation Israel at Sinai do you realize that Sinai is the heart of the Torah Exodus 19 to Numbers 10 is when Israel spends 11 months at Sinai what is the very literary heart of the Torah Exodus 19 to Numbers 10 right here in this center section where we're going to see you know Moses why with all the hundreds of years of history do you concentrate so much in the Torah on the 11 months that Israel was at Sinai I'd like to know more about creation I want to know more about the flood I want to frankly I want to know more about what happened in the wilderness how did God feed them for 40 years how did God take care of them yeah the wilderness is that's that's a lot of part of Numbers 10 through Numbers uh yeah we very beginning of chapter 21 I mean compared to the 11 months of Sinai you know he deals with the 37 and a half years of them were at the beginning years of them wandering in the wilderness very quickly I'd like to know more don't you know I'm a 21st century believer Moses that one of the great skeptical points you know of of the historicity of the Torah is there's no way that God could have taken care of over two million people in the wilderness in fact we have no evidence that there was ever two and a half million people in that wilderness can you think of my apologetic concerns Moses lo and behold they're talking a lot about you know the exodus couldn't have happened couldn't you couldn't you spend more time you know on Israel marching out of Israel then didn't you know what I'm going to have to face I'm just not that concerned about what happened at Sinai but Moses through the Holy Spirit says yeah but I am that's that is the the lengthiest part of the Torah is those 11 months and gentlemen you're going to camp with Israel and you're going to pray you get out of Sinai as quickly as possible and yell the Torah won't let you we're all going to love the narratives before and after but we're going to have to camp out for a couple of days with Israel at Sinai why because that's where the Torah camps out as far as the book is concerned but it all fits that at this heart of the book is what took place at Sinai with the first generation of Israel and and then the effects of that for the first generation and the second generation is prepared to go into the land so I am fully convinced in my mind that the Torah has a basic three-fold division and I hope again by the time we get to Deuteronomy 34 you'll be convinced of the same and again I'll point out even more you know literary structure as we go through the Torah which is going to go into enhance I believe our understanding of the Torah as this three-fold division this is the structure of the Torah and the emphases and notice how the emphases are based upon these covenants that God made the four covenants that we spoken about with another made though not experienced in Deuteronomy chapter 29 and 30 and we'll come back to that because that's probably the most important two chapters in all of the Torah are those two chapters in Deuteronomy but we'll continue with at that point now after that I just give you some bibliographic resources which has grown and grown and grown as the years go on so I guess you're groaning and groaning and groaning on how much it's been growing and growing and growing and that means you've been groaning and groaning and groaning there's more to read and yes there is in fact I've added some things even you know since you have received it but and now gentlemen so many of you are getting into you know electronic material and this can become so accessible to you and obviously you don't read it now but slowly but surely and there's a sense in which you say well what has influenced my thinking outside of just reading the Old Testament myself what has influenced my thinking about the Old Testament well here you go as far as the Bible is concerned two essential foundational works the Bible knowledge commentary and expositors Bible commentary and now we got the 13 volumes revised still if you can get the original 12 get it a very very good price to do so people are selling it because the revised edition is now completed and so if you can get a copy it's still very very worth having but that along with the Old Testament you'll need Kyle and Dalich everything that's been said in Old Testament studies in the last 150 years is a footnote that Kyle and Dalich you're going to see these men referenced again and again and again and along with that get Van Gimran's the New International Dictionary of the Old Testament Theology and exegesis he's the editor including articles by our own Dr. Rossani are in there and you'll need Van Gimran you know for Hebrew exegetical methods so somewhere along the line if you can get it start getting acquainted with it even this class and I've noted certain very pages in that correlate it with the notes as we go through we live in the age of biblical theologies people trying to put together the whole Bible from beginning to end and I have given you a significant list don't miss in the new biblical theology movement don't miss the the work by Talbot on God's plan of the ages the very beginning of the 20th century men already were trying to put the whole Bible together from beginning to end and Eric Sauer a German theologian Alva J. McClain and Walter Kaiser I say that because I've just been reading Tom Shry and his book The King and His Beauty which is in many ways a good book a good synthesis of some of these newer works in biblical theology and you know he doesn't make reference once to Kaiser nor McClain nor Sauer nor Talbot and there's a reason for that these are all can I use the term pre-enlightenment not in the philosophical sense but the new movement of biblical theology which tends to be covenantal and Shriner is covenantal as well and they forget that some non-covenantalists have also done work in biblical theology before they discovered it so and now I'm not going to say you shouldn't get Gentry and Wellam and Goldsworthy and Hamilton and Matheson and Shriner and Voss are all valuable as well and but this is I would say the new evangelical kind of put it fad although I think it's a good fad which is trying to understand the Bible as a whole biblical theology in that way and I think it is a welcome reprieve from again the last two to three hundred years where we just tore the Bible apart but men now trying to see how it all fits together again which is good so I praise the Lord for each one of these men but the ones I start don't miss them because they're unique you're going to look at the other books and as I said these four men don't exist as far as these other later authors are concerned along with that you can get old and New Testament theologies which are not whole Bible but just look at the individual testament itself I've added Bell from what you receive the theological messages the Old Testament books and then Dempsey through Walkie you have the New Testament theologies of Beel through Shriner are all you know beneficial obviously my favorite Old Testament theology you probably already picked up is the one by Merrill everlasting dominion and in New Testaments they're all very very worthy I would say if there is just one that I would read at this point I'm going to probably surprise you by saying I would read the one by High Howard Marshall though there are some things I disagree with I do like his approach of going from you know from the from the singular books and then starting to to build it out to the theology of the corpuses and then as far as the the Pentateuch as a whole is concerned you should have the dictionary of Old Testament the Pentateuch and I would say that the the work you probably picked this up that has most influenced me is the work by my friend John Salheimer the Pentateuch has narrative which I still which I still feel is a a much better place to start than his newer volume on the meaning of the Pentateuch so I would definitely recommend that you get a good introduction for about 100 pages and then a mini commentary on the Torah as a whole in the Pentateuch as narrative and these other books after that I've listed from Alexander the Wolf in alphabetical order they're all vital here's Klein's has booked the theme of the Pentateuch which has been the singular most influential book on the Pentateuch in the last 40 years so if you want to read what influences everybody else then take a look at David Klein's the theme of the Pentateuch but all of these are valuable resources that you should and you will make yourself familiar with here in seminary I know that because I know your Old Testament professors so you are going to be hearing about these works and so I just I just listed you know for you as these are some of the vital references for whole Bible Old Testament and Pentateuchal studies that that you can have in your library of these works that you were talking about here are there any of them that you would caution us with oh oh you know I don't think that I have listed anything that is not by a confessing evangelical but that doesn't mean a whole lot today all right you gotta you gotta exercise caution with every you know everything that isn't the Bible in fact check up on Dr. McArthur with his study notes make sure that he's really telling you what's in the Bible he is but I mean he would be the first one to say I mean you'll be discerning even from what he himself has written be discerning and everything that I tell you as well but no I haven't I haven't given you anything which is which is radically unorthodox here now that doesn't mean that I you know again accept every last thing which is in these works but but I would say during your you know your time here at the seminary you're going to gain great discernment and particularly the you know the higher critical approach and as I said none of you know none of these men are radical higher critics that I've you know given to you here and all of them would have an evangelical commitment but you're also going to learn in theology that evangelicals are somewhat across the theological map today as well so use that discernment as you use these books certainly Alexander and Baker sad to say that they they do have a number of articles which would not be by confessing evangelicals though the book itself the dictionary itself is you know from an evangelical perspective by and large but that doesn't mean still that the articles don't have some some value to them all right so there's my caution but but I've tried to weed out even here that you know I'm not throwing you into a cesspool of liberals with these works okay

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