今日黑料

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I recently wrote a book review[1] in which I attempted to highlight some interpretive problems concerning how some Christians have approached the Old Testament in general and the law in particular. The book I reviewed is Tremper Longman III, Old Testament Essentials (InterVarsity Press, 2014), which is actually a fine workbook that I would recommend for accessibly presenting the Old Testament in a Christian small group setting. For whatever reason, however, some of my comments about the law were omitted in the final published version of the review. So I want to offer the full quotation of that section here:

Longman鈥檚 comments about law and ritual (in chapters 8-9) need some clarification in my view. He works with the commonly-used categories of 鈥渕oral,鈥� 鈥渃eremonial鈥� and 鈥渃ivil鈥� as a heuristic for interpreting the law (see pp. 97, 99, 101), even though it would make little sense to an ancient Israelite (in which moral matters can be ritual matters and vice versa) and it is not explicitly employed in the New Testament.

Furthermore, Longman may give readers the mistaken impression that the Old Testament sacrifices have no significance by themselves: 鈥淭heir only significance is that they anticipate the sacrifice that would really matter, namely Jesus鈥� (p. 113; see also p. 11). But it is also important to explain that in ancient Israel, the ritual system primarily served to purify sacred space/objects so that God would remain present in the midst of his people (see J. H. Walton, "Equilibrium and the Sacred Compass: The Structure of Leviticus" Bulletin for Biblical Research 11/2, 2001: 295-299).

Also, Longman鈥檚 remarks on pp. 99-101 may give readers the mistaken impression that Jesus鈥� fulfillment of the law means that ritual laws are 鈥渘o longer observed,鈥� while the moral laws 鈥渃ontinue to be relevant鈥� (p. 99). He states: 鈥渢here are some laws whose 鈥榩urpose is achieved鈥欌€aws that theologians today call 鈥榗eremonial鈥欌€� The same is true of a group of laws known as civil laws鈥� A third category of laws, called moral laws, are still relevant鈥� (p. 101). But such parsing of the law may actually conflict with Jesus鈥� statement that 鈥渦ntil heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of [the Torah] will disappear until its purpose is achieved鈥� (Matt 5:18; NLT, emphasis added). That鈥檚 because a major (if not the primary) purpose of Torah鈥攊ncluding the so-called ceremonial and civil laws!鈥攊s to reveal God (see D. A. Dorsey, 鈥淭he Law of Moses and the Christian: A Compromise鈥� Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 34/3, 1991: 331-334). Jesus fulfills Torah because his character is congruent with YHWH鈥檚 character as revealed in Scripture.

The question then for Christians should not be 鈥淲hich of these laws are relevant?鈥� but rather 鈥淗ow are all these laws relevant?鈥� Instead of stating that 鈥淧riests, holy places and sacrifices鈥re not part of the Christian experience鈥� (p. 111), one would do better, in my opinion, to show how God is revealed through these and how God specifically relates to the ritual categories of space, status and time in contemporary Christian experience (cf., Rom. 12:1; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 5:6-13; 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 2:14-17; 6:14-18; Eph. 2:11-22; Heb. 10; 1 Pet. 1-2; etc.).

In addition to the helpful resources I cited above on this topic (Walton鈥檚 鈥淓quilibrium鈥� and Dorsey鈥檚 鈥淭he Law of Moses鈥�) I would also recommend D. I. Block, "Preaching Old Testament Law to New Testament Christians鈥� Hiphil 3 (2006): 1-24; J. D. Hays, 鈥淎pplying the Old Testament Law Today鈥� Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (Jan-Mar 2001): 21-35 and J. H. Walton and A. E. Hill, Old Testament Today (Zondervan, 2013).

In a future post I hope to show how these principles apply to specific examples such as how a Christian approaches the dietary laws.