The views expressed in this article are of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
The Prophets and the Apostolic Witness: Reading Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel as Christian Scripture
Andrew T. Abernethy, William, R. Osborne, and Paul D. Wegner, eds.
InterVarsity (2023). 345 pp.
During my years as a seminarian, I spent tremendous amounts of time learning to read biblical Hebrew and decipher its syntax. I also was taught the basic outlines of the history of Israel and the general historical backgrounds to the OT’s prophetic books. And while I learned to interpret various discrete oracles in the Major and Minor Prophets—the oracles we had time to dedicate class space to—I graduated from my MDiv still feeling at a loss as to how to understand, much less teach or preach, large portions of the prophets. I further had only hazy ideas of the various and contrasting hermeneutical approaches that Christians of differing interpretive tribes used to make sense of these biblical books. While my experience cannot be ascribed to all other seminarians past and present, I also doubt it was unique.
Andrew Abernethy, William Osborne, and Paul Wegner recognize the frequency of experiences like mine and thus put together this edited volume to fill a perceived gap in the literature. Specifically, this book attempts to provide “a robust template for how to read the prophets” (p. 2) or, perhaps more accurately, several different templates. Focusing on the Major Prophets, five chapters each are respectively devoted to reading Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel as Christian Scripture. Each set of five chapters is structured identically (p. 2).
How the apostles read [prophet] as Christian Scripture
We are not apostles: limits on reading [prophet] as Christian Scripture
Emulating the apostles: reading [prophet] as Christian Scripture in the footsteps of the apostles
The history of interpreting [prophet] as Christian Scripture
Preaching [prophet] as Christian Scripture
While the first chapter in each section provides an overview of the NT’s reading of that particular prophet, the second and third chapters of each section offer contrasting approaches to how we, as contemporary Christians, should and should not read the prophet in question. The “We are not apostles” chapters, while differing in approach, contend in various ways that we cannot or should not attempt to read the prophets like the NT apostles did. The apostles here are seen as either authoritatively adding meanings not intended by the original prophet to prophetic oracles or applying those oracles in ways that we as later interpreters should not. The “Emulating the apostles” chapters, in contrast, argue in one way or another that, in principle, we can and should attempt to read the OT prophets like the apostles did. As might be expected, the disagreements between these chapters have to do with varying views of typology, a sensus plenior, figural reading, the relationship between Israel and the church, and the legitimacy (or not) of a distinction between “meaning” and “significance.”
The final two chapters of each section offer brief and selective surveys of how Christians historically have read the prophet under consideration, and then give reflections from practitioners who have preached much or all of that prophetic book. Each set of chapters, to bring unity, while canvassing broader issues, also use shared passages as test cases, specifically Isa 42:1–4; Jer 31:31–34; and Ezek 37:1–14.
Overall, this is a fine volume at an affordable price. While I will leave its academic merits to biblical scholars to judge, as a pastor I found it helpful and also potentially useful as a resource to give to others. As my own academic expertise is in the history of biblical interpretation, one quibble I did have with the volume was that the history of interpretation chapters are all written by biblical scholars. While some of this is likely due to the unfortunate fragmentation of the modern academy (it seems that most or perhaps all of the chapters originated as conference presentations—p. 5), the history of exegesis is its own booming subfield of historical studies and there are many excellent works on the church’s history of reading the prophets which could have been consulted in this regard. That quibble aside, let me hasten to say that, as a pastor, I appreciated the focus on preaching the prophets, and found those chapters to be some of the most interesting. John Oswalt, for example, offers a sample sermon on Isa 42:1–9 (pp. 93–102), while Philip Ryken gives a series of mature reflections on how he went about attempting to responsibly preach Christ from Jeremiah (ch. 10).
Every pastor who preaches on the prophets, it seems to me, will have to come to settled convictions on the key hermeneutical issues that this volume repeatedly raises. This book’s great value, therefore, comes from concisely raising these interpretive questions all in a single place. It is a volume which I wish I would have had as a seminarian. Further, if used in a classroom setting, it seems to me a strength that the volume, rather than presenting a single hermeneutical approach, showcases a variety of different methods. While this could prove confusing, the essays are written at such an accessible level that readers are smoothly guided through what is a rather complex hermeneutical terrain. How to read the prophets as Christian Scripture is not an area on which contemporary Christians all agree. This volume, however, offers a helpful entryway to the key issues from an evangelical perspective.
Erik Lundeen (PhD, Baylor University) is the Adult Discipleship Pastor of Village Church of Gurnee in Gurnee, IL. He is a member of the St. Hildegard Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
