Author John Goldingay
Publisher Grove £4.95
Format pbk
ISBN 9781788272698
Twelve Prophetic Emphases
Author John Goldingay
Publisher Grove £4.95
Format pbk
ISBN 9781788272872
I suspect many ministers would confess that the so-called ’Minor Prophets’, the twelve short books from Hosea to Malachi, are amongst the most unfamiliar parts of the Bible. We may know some of Amos, Jonah and Hosea; and certain verses from Zechariah and Micah are reasonably well known if only from New Testament quotations. But who reads Nahum, Obadiah and Zephaniah? Yet through our relative neglect we may be missing important insights into Old Testament life and – as John Goldingay demonstrates in these two useful, succinct books – there are many ethical considerations that are worth considering. As he states: ‘Page for page, they are as major as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel…For all we know, they each did as much prophesying as the big three in that for all we know God gave all the prophets many messages beyond the ones in the books that bear their names.’ Although it would be fanciful to say that these two books comprise a commentary on the twelve prophets, they certainly provide a launchpad into their study and offer some interesting and arresting interpretations.
In Twelve Prophetic Virtues, Goldingay highlights verses from each prophet to illustrate the virtuous qualities they embody: for example, the courage of Amos, the inspiration of Zechariah, the conviction of Haggai. These are perhaps unsurprising prophetic virtues. But we may be more surprised, or intrigued, by the imagination of Joel, the witness of Nahum and the robustness of Malachi. Goldingay has a happy knack of discovering insights within the text which are easily missed on a cursory reading. In Twelve Prophetic Emphases, he turns the spotlight onto the turbulent military, political and legal life of Israel between the eighth and the fifth centuries BCE – before, during and after the great conquests by Assyria and Babylon – when the twelve prophets produced their work. We hear and appreciate the messages from God across a range of issues – the notions of honour in politics, attitudes to atrocities, xenophobia, the nature of empire, the need for compassion and – perhaps as an overarching theme – the covenantal relationship between God and his people. Combined, the two books therefore provide an interesting window into the ethical problems that faced the people of Israel and Judah across four violent and tumultuous centuries. It is appropriate that Grove books has classified both works under ‘Ethics’, not ‘Biblical Studies’.
As in the case of other works on the Old Testament by Goldingay, readers are challenged to think anew and sometimes to cast aside old assumptions. The Hebrew text is quoted frequently in both books, but this is always Goldingay’s personal translation, and thus we are sometimes jerked away from the familiar. What does God want from his people? We have got used to hearing the famous words of Micah 6:8: ‘To do justice, love mercy [or kindness] and to walk humbly with your God.’ But Goldingay has a radical, new translation which shifts the emphasis: ‘Rather, exercising authority, befriending commitment, and being modest in the way you live with your God.’ This is but one example of the way these books call us not only to think afresh, but also to understand the context in which the ancient Hebrew scripture was written. As Goldingay so rightly puts it, ‘God gave the prophets messages that made people say we must keep hold of them for the future.’ The question, of course, is whether we can translate Hebrew ethics from 800 BCE into the twenty-first century AD? It is not always easy, or even possible, but Goldingay makes strong, well-founded intellectual attempts. You may not always agree with him, but his wisdom is profound and he is always worth reading. I recommend both these books for their insights and the way they bring new life into a neglected part of the Old Testament.
Reviewed by PETER CLOUGH
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