The Pentateuch as a Whole

Sailhamer-

The Meaning of the Pentateuch Introduction (pp. 29-33)

The Pentateuch as a Whole

"The most inflential, yet subtlest, feature of an author's rendering of historical narrative is the overall framework within which he or she arranges it." (29)

" 'A prophet like Moses never did arise in Israel, one knew God face to face' [Deut 34:10] That is quite a revealing statement. Clearly, the author who made this statement knows about the entire line of prophets who followed Moses. ... A huge jump is made here at the end of the Pentateuch, taking us from the last days of Moses to the last days of the prophets." (31)

"Creation thus is cast as an act of grace, unmerited favor. From the point of view of the structure of the Pentateuch, the giving of the law, the promises to Abraham, and nature itself are grounded in God's gracious gift of creaturehood. The Pentateuch ultimately is about creation and grace (creation/grace). The simple structructural observation that Gen 12:1-3 is grounded in Genesis 1 has many implications. A direct link is established at the beginning of the Pentateuch between God's work of creation and his work of redemption." (32)

"The fact that the Pentateuch ends with Israel still in the wilderness leads one to draw a remarkable conclusion: the author of the Pentateuch leaves open the question of the time of the fulfillment of the patriarchal blessings. He does not allow the reader to understand the conquest as fulfilled with the Pentateuch. ... He also knows about Israel's subsequent failures (Deut 30:1-3). It is those failures that occupy his attention." (33)

“Looking beyond the initial optimism of Joshua 21:45, the author reflects the same sober realization of Israel’s failure to keep God’s covenant (Isa 6; Hos 1).” (34)

Comments

John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ. On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion. The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin. The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...

Berkoff: "The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. "

The giving of the law did not effect a fundamental change in the religion of Israel, but merely introduced a change in its external form. The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. Many of the Israelites, indeed, looked upon the law in a purely legalistic spirit and sought to base their claim to salvation on a scrupulous fulfillment of it as a body of external precepts. But in the case of those who understood its real nature, who felt the inwardness and spirituality of the law, it served to deepen the sense of sin and to sharpen the conviction that salvation could be expected only from the grace of God . L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 498–499.

F.F. Bruce: ...know their father's will...

The NT does not contain a detailed code of rules for the Christian. Codes of rules, as Paul explains elsewhere, are suited to the period of immaturity when the children of God are still under guardians; but children who have come to years of responsibility know their father’s will without having to be provided with a long list of “Do’s” and “Don’t’s.” What the NT does provide is those basic principles of Christian living which may be applied to varying situations of life as they arise. So, after answering the Corinthian Christians’ question about the eating of food that has been offered to idols, Paul sums up his advice in the words: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Phrases current in worship, like “to the glory of God” or (as here) “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” were given a practical relevance by being applied to the concerns of ordinary life. Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the...

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