Lord's Anointed: Interpretation of Old Testament Messianic Texts, The

The Lord's Anointed: Interpretation of Old Testament Messianic Texts. Edited by Philip E. Satterthwaite, Richard E. Hess, and Gordon J. Wenham. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995, x + 320 pp., $19.99 paper.

Fourteen essays by as many authors offer a rather comprehensive overview of the messianic theme in the OT. The volume began with some of the papers offered at the 1994 annual Tyndale Old Testament Study Group. To this were added several other papers that were solicited to round out the collection representing a Biblical theology approach to the entire testament.

J. Gordon McConville introduces the messianic theme of the OT by correctly noting that "If the Old Testament is the problem of Christian theology . . , the Messiah is at the heart of that problem" (p. 2). After reviewing how modern OT scholarship has declared traditional Christian messianic interpretation of OT passages to be "exegetically indefensible," McConville encourages what might be called "'interested' readings, that is, those which read the Old Testament through the spectacles of a particular interested group" (p. 7). McConville prefers to leave us with the questions: How does one decide a text is messianic? How does the canonical context affect our "reading" of a text? Where does one date a text? And must a text be post-exilic to be considered messianic, as S. Mowinckel alleged? Can a study be exclusively an OT study? It is difficult to determine with certainty which way McConville would answer all of these questions, but there is little doubt that beside such passages as Isa 9:6-7, 11:1 and Jer 23:5-6, which he affirms are "transparently messianic," he would allow for some type of messianic "reinterpretation" of some OT passages. What this process is and how one determines where to use it are all left as open questions.

T. Desmond Alexander's treatment of "Messianic Ideology in the Book of Genesis" focuses expertly on the unique line of the "seed" from which a king will arise from the tribe of Judah and through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. However, Alexander disappoints us by concluding that "it is virtually impossible to sustain a messianic interpretation of [Gen] 3:15 . . . based solely within the context of [Gen] chapter 3" (p. 32). But he quickly adds, "Considered . . . in light of Genesis as a whole, a messianic reading of this verse is not only possible but highly probable" (p. 32). He finds a similar solution to the question as to whether Gen 49:8-12 is messianic, for it too is intimately linked to the unique line of the seed. Despite this single caveat, this chapter is extremely helpful.

Surprisingly, Satterthwaite finds only an ideal picture of God's anointed king in the books of Samuel, but the books of Kings do not look forward to a future ruler from the line of David who will restore the fortunes of that line! This is all the more startling since in Satterthwaite's discussion of the crucial 2 Samuel 7 text, no discussion is made of key issues such as the phrase in 2 Sam 7:19, wezo't torat ha'adam, which I have argued elsewhere can mean nothing less than "And this is the charter/law for humanity" ("The Blessing of David: A Charter for Humanity," in The Law and the Prophets [Presbyterian and Reformed, 1974] 298-318), a teaching that parallels the point of Gen 12:3b. This expression in 2 Sam 7:19 is parallel to the Akkadian term, terit nishe, which Henri Cazelles translated many years ago as "qui fixe le destin des hommes" (H. Cazelles, VT 8 [1958]: 322). Surely David is promised a "house, a throne and a kingdom" that will last "forever." It will do little good to protest that Cad Colam, and le

While surveying Isaiah 1-12 and 28-33, Daniel Schibler distinguishes between messianism and messianic prophecy: For him they are not the same. Accordingly, these chapters in Isaiah are examples of early prophetic messianism, which give expression to a hope and an expectancy for a Jerusalemite king. Whenever the king and the remnant practiced justice and righteousness, just as David did, there messianism arose. But what of the great messianic texts like Isa 7:10-17, 9:1-6, 11:1-9? They imply more than the messianism seen as a whole in the other sections of Isaiah surveyed here. But how? Only on the grounds of the hermeneutical principle of sensus plenior do they contain "incipient christological soteriology" (p. 101). That of course does not ground the exegesis on the words of the OT text, but leaves it somewhere between the lines of Scripture-definitely not graphs. Whatever else is true about the inspiration of the Scriptures, the apostle Paul's claim was that all graphe, "writing" of Scripture is God-breathed, not what is between the lines! And to retroject the NT meanings back on the OT is clearly a case of eisegesis, a reading into the text what was not initially, and therefore actually, there!

My colleague Gordon P. Hugenberger offers an extremely thorough study of "the Servant of the Lord" theme in the Servant Songs and a type study on a second Moses. Hugenberger argues that Isaiah's "Servant" is best identified with the expected "prophet like Moses" (Deut 18:15-18). To his credit, Hugenberger affirms that the Servant Songs offer "substantial support" for "the New Testament's messianic interpretation without presupposing that interpretation, as is often done" (p. 139).