Review of Sailhamer's Meaning of the Pentateuch

Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch Review MSJ 23, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 154–56 John H. Sailhamer. The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009. 632 pp. $40.00 (paper). Sailhamer has authored a number of Old Testament studies, most focusing on the Pentateuch: The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary (Zondervan 1992), Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach (Zondervan 1995), and “Genesis” in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Zondervan 1990), see review, 148–49. He also has published works in other areas of OT studies: The Translational Technique of the Greek Septuagint for the Hebrew Verbs and Participles in Psalms 3–41 (Peter Lang 1991) along with a number of periodical articles and essays in collected works on a variety of OT topics. As professor of OT at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Brea, CA, he has a reputation for immersing his students in the Hebrew Bible. The Meaning of the Pentateuch comprises a compendium of conclusions Sailhamer has reached as the result of years of study, writing, and teaching. The volume focuses on “the compositional strategy of the biblical author of the Pentateuch” (11). Its goal is to identify the meaning of the Pentateuch for today’s readers (13). As Sailhamer unfolds his approach to the Pentateuch, he reveals that he holds to two editions of the Pentateuch (23), with the second coming after Malachi, the last of the prophets (24), and comprising the only edition to which the modern reader has access (24–25). He believes that the second edition has been retrofitted with “new ‘prophetic extras’” (51). Nowhere does the author explain why he would consider it impossible for the prophetic elements of the Pentateuch to be part of the first edition. In fact, he actually admits that the prophetic sources for the second edition were themselves “a product of the Mosaic Pentateuch” (52). This reviewer finds this two-way composition (Pentateuch > Prophets > Pentateuch) without adequate foundation. Sailhamer fails to present adequate evidence contrary to a view holding that the prophets only expounded the Pentateuch—a one-way relationship (Pentateuch > Prophets). In other words, the prophets did not inform a supposed final edition of the Pentateuch at all. Their revelation expounded on the Pentateuch’s message, but they did not expand the written Pentateuch itself. It was already in its final form long before they proclaimed their supplementary revelation. As far as the content and meaning of the Pentateuch is concerned, Sailhamer believes it to present a message quite “close in meaning to [the] NT book of Galatians” (27). He observes that Paul’s view of the law in Galatians approximates that of the Pentateuch’s view of the law (28). Just as in The Pentateuch as Narrative, the poems of the Pentateuch not only fill the seams of the Pentateuchal structure, they direct the readers to “the promise of a coming messianic king” (36)—a major and quite significant contribution of the Pentateuch. The author divides his volume into three parts: “Approaching the Text as Revelation” (57–218), “Rediscovering the Composition of the Pentateuch within the Tanak” (219–415), and “Interpreting the Theology of the Pentateuch” (417–601). Much of the first part involves an extended discussion of hermeneutics in which Sailhamer regales the reader with the historical development of grammatical-historical hermeneutics. He calls evangelicals back to a focus “on the meaning of the Scriptures themselves (sola Scriptura) (87). The question he asks concerns the “historical meaning” 1 Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch Review MSJ 23, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 154–56 of Scripture and the apparent movement to separate history from the text itself (100–48). In this somewhat lengthy and seemingly esoteric discussion, Sailhamer examines the contributions of Ernesti, Keil, Schleiermacher, Wellhausen, Geiger, and others to the relationship of history and the text. In addition to the role of history to the text, Sailhamer seeks to define and identify authorial intent (the big picture) in the biblical text (150–56). He associates authorial intent with the interpreter’s goal (153). The results of his analysis point to both “obedience to the law” and “living by faith” as the main emphasis of the Pentateuch as a whole (156). Part Two explores “an evangelical alternative to the approaches of both von Hofmann and Hengstenberg” (233) with regard to the messianic strategy of the Pentateuch and of the entire Hebrew Bible. Three propositions express Sailhamer’s approach: (1) prediction and identification are both part of the messianic prophecy of the Hebrew Bible, (2) in the final stages of composition the messianic vision’s fragments gain an increasing cohesiveness, and (3) the Hebrew Bible displays commentary as much as it does text (235). Again and again, Sailhamer declares that the true focus of the Hebrew Bible, even in the Pentateuch, resides in the new covenant (205, 243, 342, and 556). Basically, no substantial difference exists between what the Hebrew Bible conveys and what the apostle Paul taught (243). Accordingly, the author concludes that “the Pentateuch and its compositional strategy are strongly messianic” and that later stages of the Hebrew Bible “treat the earlier stages much like the NT treats the OT” (246). As Sailhamer points out, no interpreter need go to the NT in order to properly interpret Genesis 3:15 as messianic. In his words, One might be applauded for being careful not to see Christ too quickly in the words of the poem in Genesis 3:15, but in the end, one might also prove shortsighted in failing to find the author’s delayed identity of that “seed” within the further compositional strategy of the Pentateuch and its poems. The Pentateuch highlights the rising of a future king and the establishment of his kingdom (335, 582). The relationship of the part (e.g., Gen 3:15) to the whole inheres in the principle that “It is the whole that gives meaning to the parts” (491). The Pentateuch’s compositor employs even the exodus event itself “as a key messianic metaphor or image” (518). If the focus of the Pentateuch directs readers to the new covenant, how do its legal contents relate to that strategy? The author suggests that it is part and parcel of the propensity of mankind to seek gods other than the true God. That propensity necessitated the giving of laws to govern behavior and to turn people from idolatry (363). It is within the context of this discussion that Sailhamer’s narrative tends to be overly repetitious (cf. 388–98). Although the reader appreciates the author’s care to insure proper understanding, the length of some discussions can cause the reader to lose sight of the logical order of overall argumentation. Part Three of the volume examines the theological message of the Pentateuch, touching upon the themes of promise and blessing (419–59), as well as Messiah (460– 536). One chapter approaches the topic of Mosaic law by asking what the Christian’s relationship to that law might be (537). Sailhamer’s answer comes by first making a distinction between the law and the Pentateuch (e.g., 552), in order to counter the commonly held opinion that the Mosaic law and the Pentateuch are virtually identical. 2 Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch Review MSJ 23, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 154–56 Secondly, God intends the Pentateuch (with the law as only one part of the whole) “to be the object of meditation and reflection” that results in the imprinting of justice on the heart (562). The law supplements the new covenant focus by providing both “concrete and qualified situations” (562) for instructing believers in obedience to a holy and righteous God. The final chapter deals with the theme of salvation within the Pentateuch (563– 601). Although Sailhamer has touched upon unwritten (or primeval) revelation a number of times throughout the volume (e.g., 137, 184–97), he returns to it in discussing salvation, because God cannot have failed to communicate with fallen mankind concerning the solution to sin’s problem (566–70). Setting the matter of unwritten revelation to the side, the author narrows the question to what the Pentateuch tells its readers about salvation (570). Sailhamer argues that the Pentateuch identifies the power of sacrifice to break the curse resulting from the fall (596–97). In so doing, the sacrifice opens a way for a new life that might receive God’s blessing (601). Whether or not the reader agrees with everything within this volume, Sailhamer’s detailed study of the Pentateuch has much to commend it. Anyone interested in identifying the content of messianic revelation in the OT should not ignore this volume and its significant contribution to the topic. The reader will come away with a larger view of the Pentateuch, even if he cannot accept its two-Pentateuch model. No study of the Pentateuch should omit this volume from its sources. 3