A Theological Introduction to the Pentateuch: Interpreting the Torah as Christian Scripture

Written by Richard S. Briggs and Joel N. Lohr, eds Reviewed By Mark Francois

This volume, written by former students and colleagues of Walter Moberly at Durham University as a Festschrift for his sixtieth birthday, serves as an introduction to the Pentateuch with a focus on theological interpretation. For these authors theological interpretation involves (1) engaging the text with the reader’s theological concerns in mind and (2) paying close attention to the theological interests of the text itself (pp. 3, 15). This contrasts with readers whose primary concerns are historical (i.e., the compositional history of the text) or literary. While historical and literary readings can be helpful for theological interpretation and, in many instances, are necessary, these types of readings often fall short of serious theological engagement with the text. This volume seeks to carry out and to encourage such engagement.

The introduction to this volume details the interpretive approach taken by the authors, paying particular attention to their understanding of theological interpretation vis-à-vis other approaches to the text. While theological interpretation is by no means the only appropriate way of looking at the text, it provides an important avenue for reading the text well. The next five chapters each deal with one book in the Pentateuch. The book concludes with a useful appendix surveying Moberly’s writings on the Pentateuch with a brief summary of the main characteristics of his work.

Each chapter essentially consists of two parts. The first part deals with basic introductory issues, focusing particularly on the place of each book in the canon and the book’s major theological themes. The second part of each chapter consists of one or two examples of theological interpretation from particular texts. The chapter on Genesis, written by Richard S. Briggs, focuses on the Tower of Babel incident in Gen 11:1–9. The chapter on Exodus, written by Jo Bailey Wells, deals with the covenant at Sinai in Exod 19:1–8. The chapter on Leviticus, written by Joel N. Lohr, deals with the Day of Atonement in Lev 16. The chapter on Numbers, written by Nathan MacDonald, focuses on critical and theological concerns in Num 20–21. The final chapter, written by Rob Barrett, focuses on the need to remember YHWH’s provision during times of plenty in Deut 8 and the cancelling of debts in Deut 15: 1–11.

There is much to be commended in this book. First, this book provides several very useful examples of theological interpretation. The chapters by Joel N. Lohr and Rob Barrett are particularly helpful in this regard. Second, much of the introductory material in each chapter is very clear and informative and will be helpful to readers less familiar with these books. Finally, this book provides a useful introduction to Walter Moberly’s understanding of theological interpretation and will, no doubt, encourage more readers to take up his writings.

Despite these strengths, this book also has a number of drawbacks. First, readers with a more conservative understanding of the compositional history of the Pentateuch and its historical reliability will find the authors’ views on critical issues somewhat problematic. While these issues are by no means front and center in each chapter of this book, the authors assume throughout the book that their readers are both familiar and comfortable with the basic conclusions of modern Pentateuchal criticism (e.g., the postexilic dating of the Priestly material). Second, given the theological focus of this book, it is surprising that the authors do not include a discussion of why they consider the Pentateuch to be theologically authoritative in light of their views on the compositional history of the Pentateuch and its historical reliability. While it is impossible to include a discussion of every significant issue related to theological interpretation in a book like this, a discussion of this issue would have been helpful for a wide variety of readers. Third, it would have been helpful if the authors provided a theological framework justifying which parts of the Pentateuch they view as being theologically normative for Christians and which parts are not. Given the fact that this book self-consciously seeks to interpret the Pentateuch as Christian scripture, it is surprising that, apart from a few references to how certain passages are taken up and used in the NT, very little is actually said about how the Pentateuch ought to function as Christian scripture. Fourth, it would also have been helpful if the authors distinguished their approach to theological interpretation from other approaches that go under the same name. The approach taken in this book is very different from the approach taken, for the most part, in the Brazos Theological Commentaries. Finally, some of the theological themes dealt with in the introductory material of each chapter seem somewhat peripheral to the books being dealt with (e.g., family values in Genesis, p. 30) while some themes are simply foreign to the text itself (e.g., ecology in the story of the plagues in Exodus, p. 59). Other more obvious themes are often overlooked (e.g., the Abrahamic covenant, God’s sovereignty in the Joseph cycle, etc.).

In short, this book will prove a useful conversation partner for OT specialists interested in the theological interpretation of Scripture.


Mark Francois

Mark Francois
Wycliffe College, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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