Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 57:4 (Dec 2014)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

What the OT Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Jesus’ Bible. Edited by Jason S. DeRouchie. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2013, 496 pp., $45.99.

This is not a standard OT survey textbook. In this work, Jason S. DeRouchie and sixteen other evangelical OT scholars combine to give the reader an Edwardsian view of the Bible Jesus read. Their purpose is to show how the Hebrew canon, along with the NT, combine to show God’s progressive revelation of himself “as the supreme Savior, Sovereign, and Satisfier of the world, ultimately through his messianic representative” (p. 33). Their purpose is not to make this work an extensive catalog of every critical issue in OT studies; however, the initial page of each chapter contains brief and adroit statements regarding the authorship, the time of writing, the historical setting, and the purpose of each biblical book. Since these authors see God’s plan of redemption as a cohesive whole, they delightfully bring together the entire Bible with this survey, aptly using sidebars to denote how many OT verses are either fulfilled or used in the NT.

DeRouchie employs the acronym “KINGDOM” to display the chronological flow of God’s kingdom-building program from creation to the eschaton. The letters “KINGD” represent the OT narrative and the letters “OM” represent the NT narrative. K = “kingdom and rebellion,” covering creation to the flood; I = “instrument of blessing,” encompassing the time of the patriarchs; N = “the nation redeemed and commissioned” to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, from the Exodus through the wilderness wanderings; G = “government in the Promised Land” from the conquest to the exile; and D = “dispersion and return of the nation”—thus, the end of OT history. The acronym skips the intertestamental period; the letter O designates the “overlap of the ages” from the time of Christ to the time of the church. The acronym ends with the letter M, thus marking that God’s “mission” culminates with Christ’s return and the consummation of the kingdom.

DeRouchie asserts that the law, prophets, and writings are the old covenant established, enforced, and enjoyed. The authors of chapters 1–6 (which cover introductory materials and Genesis-Deuteronomy) are all strident defenders of Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and provide ample supporting verses. They do, however, allow for the final form of the text to have come at a later date by the hand of an editor. Throughout these chapters, the authors assert that Gen 3:15 is the proto-evangelion, favor the early date of 1446 bc for the exodus, and hold that the Abrahamic covenant is the guiding narratival force that leads to the a...

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