Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

HERE is a link to Fretheim’s commentary on Exodus over at Google Books.  It is available in limited preview format.  The entire introduction to the commentary is available there.  He along with Walter Brueggemann are two of my favorite Old Testament theologians.  If you are interested in Fretheim’s other work you might consider checking out his article on Old Testament violence that I have interacted with HERE.

In today’s lectionary reading in Ezra 6, the people celebrate the Passover.  This is somewhat significant as according the Bible Background Commentary on the Old Testament there has been no mention of the Passover celebration since the time of Josiah which was more than 100 years earlier.  This is potentially an example of the idea that the Jews considered the return from Exile to be a type of “New Exodus.”  The idea of a New Exodus is prominent in the second part of the Book of Isaiah and also in places like the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is depicted as a new Israel (i.e. goes down into Egypt and then returns).

Yesterday there was a post on the Desiring God blog about “boring” passages in the Bible (why they put boring in quotes I don’t know; I would just call them boring), especially the Pentateuch.  There is so much wrong with the particular details of this post that it is difficult to really know where to go with this.  Do you deal with the fundamentalism or the anachronism or both?  I’ll try both.  I’ll just say a brief word about the fundamentalism.  Moses wrote the Pentateuch?  Really?  I’ll provide two quotes from the post, though there are a number:

For example, when listing out the instructions for how to build the tabernacle, Moses goes into great detail about all the materials and measurements. Did he intend for the reader of Exodus to actually build a tabernacle? No! That was Bezalel and Oholiab’s job (Exodus 31:1-11).

Rather, it appears that Moses included the full set of blueprints in order to convey to us, as we literally labor to read them, a greater sense of the weight and worth of God.

I thought that even the most conservative scholars that I respect were past this.  If you still think this, I recommend you read all of  Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch by Jean-Louis Ska.    Or, you should at the very, very least read chapter 3 of the book free HERE (or as much as you can free it’s probably my favorite book on the Pentateuch).  This is the best advice that I can give since most people who still believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch may take a lot of convincing otherwise.

Okay. Now, for anachronism.  How about this quote:

Consider this: Why does the Pentateuch contain so much material that describes the old covenant and its laws? One reason is that Moses wanted to increase our anticipation and appreciation of a new covenant.

Really?  Moses wanted to do that.  The covenant wasn’t even “old” yet; It was just the covenant.  Unless “Moses” was going 007, I really, really doubt this is what was going on.  “Okay I’m going to write down these laws, so that these people will think they are for them.  But, what I’m really doing is writing them to increase the anticipation and appreciation of some people over 3000 years from now.”  Maybe that’s being a little unfair, but that is literally what the post says is one thing that “Moses” wanted to do.  Do you truly think that “Moses” had anything to do with a “new” covenant in mind before the covenant was even “old.”