Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 15:3 (Fall 1972)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

Book Reviews

Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi by Joyce Baldwin (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove, III., 1972, 253 pages, $5.95) is the fifth publication in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. The author is a tutor in Old Testament at Trinity Theological College in England, and her footnoting reflects largely English and Continental source material.

The commentary is written from a conservative point of view, with critical views being stated and handled. Malachi is taken as the personal name of the prophet. The unity of the message of Zechariah is upheld, although the unity of authorship is questioned. The basic thrust of the work is that of covenant theology. There is helpful, supportive material from archaeological and linguistic sources.

Since a large portion of these three prophets is devoted to eschatology, it is disappointing to find so much ambiguity on the subject in this commentary. Such terms as “God’s Kingdom,” “the Messianic age,” and “the temple” are often taken as eschatological, but no clear definition or frame of reference is attempted. What is meant by “eschatological” and how these factors fit in apparently are to be supplied by the reader’s own system of prophetic thought.

-Rolland D. McCune

The Flood Reconsidered by Frederick A. Filby (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1970, 148 pages, paper, $1.95) is, as its subtitle indicates, “a review of the evidences of geology, archaeology, ancient literature and the Bible.” Unfortunately the evidence from Scripture is not given its proper due. Filby, like many others who attempt to harmonize the Bible and modern science, is a uniformitarian fundamentally, and this approach is always fraught with Biblical and theological disaster.

The author allows that geologic history is hundreds of millions of years old, and has implicit faith in the geologic time

(This second half was originally found on page 44. We have moved it here in order to keep the book reviews under one contiguous article.)

table or time column. He places the flood after the end of the Ice Age, some four thousand years ago, based on evidence from the above sources. He attempts to find middle ground between the universal flood taught by Whitcomb and Morris and a local Mesopotamian deluge advocated by Ramm. His concept of the flood is that which “swept from the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Indian oceans over much of Europe and Asia to Alaska and even beyond” (p. 32). Evidence for this is gleaned from three basic areas: climate, man, and animals.

Biblical data is not given the same careful treatment as that accorded history or mythology for example. It is asserted that the universal terms in Genesis 6 ...