Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 52:1 (Mar 2009)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JETS 52:1 (March 2009) p. 121

Book Reviews

The Promise-Plan of God: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008, 419 pp., $34.99.

In Walter Kaiser’s Toward an Old Testament Theology, he convincingly showed how the OT is bridged together with consistency and continuity of theology in unfolding God’s promise throughout the complete OT work. In his thoroughly revised and expanded publication, The Promise-Plan of God, he shows how the unifying theme builds in the NT epangelia (promise) and combines that with the plans of God in the OT.

Toward an Old Testament Theology was foundational to this new publication as it presented a strong, evangelical biblical theology of the OT, Kaiser’s magnum opus. However, some reviewers suggested the first seventy pages of this work were dry, heavy, and difficult to work one’s way through. Kaiser first presented the history behind other OT theologies and argued they fell short in many ways. He then went on to present his OT theology and a precise hermeneutical approach requiring the reader to respect the intended message of each author. This was an excellent introduction, but it sometimes read like endless genealogies, and the mind had a hard time concentrating on the passage and being able to take in the full meaning. However, this time, the author built on Toward an Old Testament Theology and responded wisely to his critics in this new book by cutting out the first seventy or so pages of introductory material from his earlier work.

Many times OT scholars are so narrowly focused on their discipline that they are lost when they need to address a much broader subject matter. Kaiser’s well-established OT scholarship is equally supported by his wide breadth of expertise in producing books on archaeology, history, apologetics, biblical theology, ethics, missions, preaching, prophecy, and hermeneutics, as well as a sizeable number of commentaries. In addition, Kaiser allows his OT scholarship to be foundational for the understanding of the NT.

Beginning in the preface, the author presents the reason for writing this book in our postmodern times. There is a need to approach the truth of God’s Word today through biblical theology unfolded from the text of Scripture itself (p. 13)

Some attempts at biblical theology have been Christo-exclusivistic, seeing the promise of the coming Messiah as the central theme, but Kaiser’s approach is to develop a broader scope that unifies the Bible and builds the case for God’s Promise-Plan as revealed throughout the Scriptures with different characteristics. Kaiser’s “Epangelical” proposal for doing biblical theology attempts to go beyond the reformed/dispensational de...