Telling the Old Testament story : God's mission and God's people / Brad E. Kelle

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelle, Brad E., 1973- author.

Series:

Core biblical studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible as literature.

Bible. Old Testament--Introductions.

Bible.

Bible. Old Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible. Old Testament--Relation to the New Testament.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 235 pages)

Place of Publication:

Nashville, TN : Abingdon Press, [2017].

Summary:

The Old Testament is the story of God's mission to restore creation and form God's people as an instrument to participate in that mission. While honoring the historical context and literary diversity of the Old Testament, Telling the Old Testament Story is a thematic reading that construes the OT as a complex but coherent narrative. Unlike standard, introductory textbooks that only cover basic background and interpretive issues for each Old Testament book, this introduction combines a thematic approach with careful exegetical attention to representative biblical texts, ultimately telling the macro-level story, while drawing out the multiple nuances present within different texts and traditions. The book works from the Protestant canonical arrangement of the Old Testament, which understands the story of the Old Testament as the story of God and God's relationship with all creation in love and redemption--a story that joins the New Testament to the Old. Within this broader story, the Old Testament presents the specific story of God and God's relationship with Israel as the people called, created, and formed to be God's covenant partner and instrument within creation. The Old Testament begins by introducing God's mission in Genesis. The story opens with the portrait of God's good, intended creation of right-relationships (Gen 1-2) and the subsequent distortion of that good creation as a result of humanity's rebellion (Gen 3-11). Genesis 12 and following introduce God's commitment to restore creation back to the right-relationships and divine intentions with which it began. Coming out of God's new covenant engagement with creation in Gen 9, this divine purpose begins with the calling of a people (who turn out to be the manifold descendants of Abraham and Sarah) to be God's instrument of blessing for all creation and thus to reverse the curse brought on by sin. The diverse traditions that comprise the remainder of the Pentateuch then combine to portray the creation and formation of Israel as a people prepared to be God's instrument of restoration and blessing. As the subsequent Old Testament books portray Israel's life in the land and journey into and out of exile, the reader encounters complex perspectives on Israel's attempts to understand who God is, who they are as God's people, and how, therefore, they ought to live out their identity as God's people within God's mission in the world. The final prophetic books that conclude the Protestant Old Testament ultimately give the story of God's mission and people an open-ended quality, suggesting that God's mission for God's people continues and leading Christian readers to consider the New Testament's story of the Church as an extension and expansion of the broader story of God introduced in the Old Testament. The main methodological perspective that informs the book includes work on the phenomenological function of narrative (especially story's function to shape the identity and practice of the reader), as well as more recent so-called "missional" approaches to reading Christian scripture. Canonical criticism provides the primary means for relating the distinctive voices within the Old Testament texts that still honor the particularity and diversity of the discrete compositions. [Publisher]

Contents:

Preface : Story and the old Testament

1. Introduction : A Story for the Next Generation ; Starting Points ; Frames of Reference ; A Christian Telling ; A Canonical Telling ; A Narrative Telling ; A Missional Telling

2. The Old Testament as Story : Approaching the Old Testament as a Story ; Reading the Old Testament as a Story ; Engaging the Old Testament as a Story

3. The Introduction of God's Mission (Genesis 1-11) : Genesis 1-11 in the Larger Old Testament Story ; Creation Made Perfect (Genesis 1-2) ; God's Creation and God's Image ; A Relational, Interconnected Creation ; God's Good Creation of Right-Relationships and Blessing ; Creation Unraveling and the Need for God's Mission (Genesis 3-11) ; A Crisis within God's Creation ; The Unraveling of God's Good Creation ; The Introduction of God's Mission ; Toward the Beginning of God's Mission

4. The Calling and Creation of God's People (Genesis 12-50) (Exodus 1-15) : The Calling of God's People (Genesis 12-50) ; Genesis 12-50 in the Larger Old Testament Story ; God's Missional Calling of a People (Genesis 12:1-3) ; The Implications of God's Missional Calling ; Living as a Divinely Called People: Israel's Fathers and Mothers (Genesis 12-50) ; Abraham and Sarah: A Tension-Filled Journey ; The Promise and the Call Continue ; The Creation of God's People (Exodus 1-15 ); Enslaved People and the God of Freedom ; Deliverance and Creation at the Sea

5. The Formation of God's People (Exodus 16-Deuteronomy) : The Formation of God's People in the Larger Old Testament Story ; The Wilderness Journey as the Way of Formation ; Into the Wilderness on the Way to Sinai ; A New Dimension of the People's Identity (Exodus 19:1-6) ; Law and Formation at Sinai ; A People Commanded to Right-Relationships (The Ten Commandments) ; A People Who Carry God's Presence ; A Holy People with a Holy God ; Leaving Sinai and Raising a New Generation ; Shaping a New Generation ; Conclusion

6. The Life of God's People (Part 1): In the Promised Land (Joshua-2 Kings) : The Pivotal Moment in Israel's Story ; The Life of God's People in the Larger Old Testament Story ; Obedience, Disobedience, and the Entrance into the Land ; War, Violence, and the Mission of God ; Life under Monarchy and the Practice of Disobedience ; Threats, Fears, and Replacement Kings ; Kingship and the Mission of God ; Kings, Idols, and Alliances : More Practice of Disobedience ; An Ending in Exile?

7. The Life of God's People (Part 2): Exile and Return (1 Chronicles-Esther) : The Life of God's People in the Larger Old Testament Story (Continued) ; Exile and the Mission of God ; Return and Restoration ; A Long Return ; Identity, Mission, and a New Era ; Into the Future

8. The Voices of Israel's Poets, Sages, and Prophets (Job-Song of Songs; Isaiah-Malachi) : New Voices within the Life of God's People ; The voices of Israel's poets and sages (Job-Song of Songs) ; Wisdom, experience, and the life of faith ; A world that makes sense? ; Worship, prayer, and the life of faith ; Israel, the worshipping community ; Worship, prayer, and the mission of God ; The voices of Israel's prophets (Isaiah-Malachi) ; YHWH's spokespersons and their messages ; Prophetic voices before exile ; Identity crisis and character transformation ; Israel, the nations, and the mission of God ; Prophetic voices in exile ; A new hope and a new heart ; YHWH's servant to the nations ; Prophetic voices after exile

9. The end is the beginning: The ending of the Old Testament and the ongoing story of God : The ending of the Old Testament story ; The ongoing story of God ; Jesus and the mission of God ; The church and the mission of God ; God's story and our story ; A story that shapes us ; A story that prompts a response.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and scripture index.

Other Format:

Online version: Kelle, Brad E., 1973- author. Telling the Old Testament story

ISBN:

9781426793059

1426793057

9781426793042