In this close reading of a text central to the story of David, the author, using the tools of linguistic pragmatics and poetics, exposes the text's promotion of a prophetic-based ideology, through a polemical rhetoric that polarizes David and Yahweh around the opposed notions of king (melek) and leader (nagid). He then goes on to analyse the context, in ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and in Samuel, for how the text develops this opposition, and finally reflects on its promulgation of the supreme mediacy of the prophetic word.
Scholars studying the ANE have noticed that Canaanite kings ruled as a representative of their god and served in a priestly role. Yahweh allows Israel to have a king "like all the nations" (Deut 17:14), but he shapes the monarchy according to his covenant. A key question remains, does God's allowance for a king "like all the nations" include a king-priest model? This study presents a synchronic view of the king as a priest within the MT of Samuel, analyzing the motif and considering how the narrator heightens the hope for the coming anointed one, whom the narrator describes as both king (1 Sam 2:10) and priest (2:35-36). This study will argue that, from the monarchy's inception, Yahweh considered Israel's kingship a sacral task. My study examined the king as a priest through a synchronic literary-theological approach.
Compares perspectives from critical methodologies in Old Testament study with perspectives from the history of interpretation of key Old Testament political texts
In The God Who Goes before You, Michael S. Wilder and Timothy Paul Jones establish a foundation for Christian leadership that draws not from human assumptions, but from the wisdom of God. By considering the whole canon of scripture as their supreme and sufficient authority, Wilder and Jones present both pastors and laity with a Christ-centered, kingdom-focused vision of godly leadership. When it comes to leadership, there is much to be learned from empirical research and from marketplace leaders. However, without Scripture as our authority, flawed views of God's purposes and human nature will skew our understanding of the character and practices of God-called leaders. In this book, Wilder and Jones redefine leadership as Christ-centered followership and present a radically countercultural perspective on leadership practices in the church today.
Melchizedek is a mysterious figure to many people. Adopting discourse analysis and text-linguistic approaches, Chan attempts to tackle the Melchizedek texts in Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and Hebrews 5-7. This seminal study illustrates how the mysterious figure is understood and interpreted by later biblical writers, "... Using the “blessing” motif as a framework, Chan also argues that Numbers 22-24, 2 Samuel 7 and the Psalter: Books I-V (especially Psalms 1-2) provide a reading paradigm of interpreting Psalm 110. In addition, the structure of Hebrews provides a clue to how the author interprets the Old Testament texts.
Much of the drama, theological paradox, and interpretive interest in the Book of Samuel derives from instances of God's violence in the story. The beginnings of Israel's monarchy are interwoven with God's violent rejection of the houses of Eli and of Saul, deaths connected to the Ark of the Covenant, and the outworking of divine retribution after David's violent appropriation of Bathsheba as his wife. Whilst divine violence may act as a deterrent for violent transgression, it can also be used as a model or justification for human violence, whether in the early monarchic rule of Ancient Israel, or in crises of our contemporary age. In Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel, Rachelle Gilmour explores these narratives of divine violence from ethical, literary, and political perspectives, in dialogue with the thought of Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum and Walter Benjamin. She addresses such questions as: Is the God of Samuel a capricious God with a troubling dark side? Is punishment for sin the only justifiable violence in these narratives? Why does God continue to punish those already declared forgiven? What is the role of God's emotions in acts of divine violence? In what political contexts might narratives of divine violence against God's own kings, and God's own people have arisen? The result is a fresh commentary on the dynamics of transgression, punishment, and their upheavals in the book of Samuel. Gilmour offers a sensitive portrayal of God's literary characterization, with a focus on divine emotion and its effects. By identifying possible political contexts in which the narratives arose, God's violence is further illumined through its relation to human violence, northern and southern monarchic ideology, and Judah's experience of the Babylonian exile.
A study of the growth of Joshua and Judges illustrates how the theme of divine anger has been used differently, according to different historical and social settings. In the deuteronomistic texts the main reason for God's anger is idolatry, which symbolizes a totally negative attitude to everything that God has done or given to the Israelites. This theology of anger is deeply bound to experiences of national catastrophes or threats of crises, and reflects the theological enigma of the exile. A century later, post-deuteronomistic theology gives a wholly different view: the anger of God becomes an instrument of the power struggles between the Israelite parties, or is used for protecting existing leadership.
The widely heralded New American Commentary series continues with this second volume on the Old Testament book of Isaiah, detailing God's intimacy and grandeur.
Exploring the Old Testament in Asia is the first evangelical Old Testament textbook written both from and for an Asian cultural context. Rooted in the theological conviction that God still speaks through the Old Testament in all its fullness, the twelve essays in this book address key theological issues pertinent to the diverse cultures and contexts of Asia. Touching on topics from polytheism and kinship bonds to Scripture translation and the biblical conception of wisdom, the writers position themselves in conversation with Asia’s rich spiritual, cultural, and literary heritage. The result is a theological contribution that is both contextually relevant and biblically faithful.
Servant leadership has been broadly and enthusiastically embraced by Christians as a model of leadership marked by humility and modeled by Jesus. But behind that attractive veneer is an approach to leadership that is problematic theologically and anemic biblically with humanistic goals and assumptions that are derived more from secular theory than biblical research. Careful examination of the servant metaphor in Scripture reveals that a leader is not primarily called to be a servant after all, but rather a slave who is obedient and ultimately accountable to God as his or her Master. This provocative picture conveys a much richer and more demanding model of leadership than servanthood when understood within its cultural context. Slaves of the Most High God provides a rigorous exegetical, historical, and theological analysis of the slave metaphor in Luke-Acts. The pattern of Christ’s slave leadership in Luke and the practice of slave leadership in the early church in Acts outline a paradigm of a leader who is in authority and under authority, redeemed by God to serve his people. The author proposes a countercultural model of slave leadership outlining seven practical principles drawn from the metaphor of slavery and shaped by personal pastoral experience.
