I have just downloaded Gordon Wenham’s Story as Torah in libronix format. It looks like it is going to be a great read. I became interested in this book for 3 reasons. 1) Gordon Wenham is on faculty at Trinity college, Bristol where I am studying. I figure that if I read faculty books then I may be given extra biscuits at the postgraduate seminars (2) It has implications for the New Perspective on Paul (3) Don Garlington posted a helpfull review.
I came across this great quote from the introduction,
So there is a paradox in Old Testament narrative ethics: on the one hand God is terribly demanding, he looks for nothing less than godlike perfect behaviour, yet on the other, despite human failings, he does not forget his covenant loyalty to his people, and ultimately brings them through the suffering that their sin has brought about. Old Testament ethics are therefore as much about grace as about law: they declare that God, the all-holy, is also God, the all-merciful.
Hi
I’m interested in this too and just beginning to think about with regards to Deut, where theological emphases are on the oneness of God, and his role in the history of Israel with a demand that his people love him and demonstrate this through covenantal fidelity. There is a real emphasis on grace; an internalisation of God’s decrees, which is expanded upon throughout the biblical canon, particularly in Jeremiah (31:31,33), Ezekiel(36:26) and Hebrews (Heb. 8:10). Jesus, of course, has much to say about this internalisation of the law and fulfilled all needs of redemption, replacing the ceremonial laws of Moses; but with stark warning for anyone who ‘breaks the least one’ of the Ten Commandments (Matt.5:19). St Paul gives to law and grace a weight of teaching, most notably in 2 Cor. 3. But I wonder if it is in Deuteronomy, Christians might begin an explanation of Christ’s fulfilment of the law and that law and grace co-exist, rather than cancel each other out. It is a common theological error to think otherwise. In many ways Deuteronomy points to this teaching so expanded upon under the New Covenant.
Good to meet you via facebook. I’ll drop in on you every now and then.
By: Rachel on September 6, 2009
at 12:00 am