Original Story: God, Israel, and the World, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2006 by Reid, Garnett

The Original Story: God, Israel, and the World. By John Barton and Julia Bowden. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004, xvi 318 pp., $20.00 paper.

"Boring and barbaric"-that is how John Barton of the University of Oxford and Julia Bowden of Guildford High School characterize the way many people today view the OT. Their purpose in The Original Story is "to open up the Old Testament for readers in the twenty-first century" (p. vii) and so correct such misconceptions.

Five sections comprise the authors' effort in this volume. They begin with introductory matters including OT canon and content, Israel's geography and setting in the ancient Near East, and major literary genres. section 2 covers notable OT themes such as God and his relationship with Israel, human nature, ethical concerns, theodicy, and "religious experiences." In the third section, "History and the OT," the authors discuss issues of historicity and truth, asking what we can know about Israel's early history, the monarchy, the exile and return, and the second temple period. OT institutions provide the focus for section 4, featuring Israelite society, prophecy, worship, wisdom, historians and "story-tellers," law, and (strangely) "apocalyptic literature." In the final segment the authors examine OT source, form, redaction, and literary criticism.

Certainly the breadth of material this volume attempts to cover is impressive. Accordingly, the engaged reader will find much for which to commend the authors. It is hard to imagine a more reader-friendly layout than they provide. The format includes wide margins for note taking as well as sidebars with additional data on key terms, people, and subjects. Other handy graphics include simple Hebrew language and word studies plus clearly presented charts and diagrams. The chapter on archaeology is an excellent primer for anyone seeking an orientation to the subject. Barton and Bowden offer insightful comments on a number of fronts: background on the idea of "covenant" (pp. 53-64); a critique of Drosnin's The Bible Code (p. 268); and the acknowledgment of historical roots (p. 122) and a "foundation of fact" underlying parts of the biblical record (p. 135).

Despite these commendable traits, however, the authors offer almost no quarter to the reader who takes seriously the OT's own testimony regarding its nature as revealed truth from the mouth of God. I take issue with the work at several points, though I will limit the "bones" I pick to five. First, I found myself puzzled repeatedly at the authors' unabashed devotion to the arbitrary, much-discredited conclusions of modernistic source criticism. In spite of Rendtorff, Carr, Whybray, Kitchen, McConville, Blenkinsopp, and others who have insisted that Wellhausen dogma no longer offers a common presupposition for OT study, the authors seem stuck in a time warp defending it: "Modern biblical scholarship takes Wellhausen's basic scheme as its starting point... all subsequent biblical studies are 'after Wellhausen'-there can be no putting back the clock to a time before his breakthrough" (p. 280). The point is that the clock has moved ahead to a time where reconstructing hypothetical sources is a relic of the past. Rhetorical and canonical criticism, a more sophisticated understanding of linguistic patterning and transmission history, and inherent logical problems with the theory have advanced OT critical method beyond speculative conjecture in the great race to put faces on J, E, D, and P.

A second observation about Barton and Bowden is their deficient treatment of literary criticism. Although it receives a nod in their final section, the majority of their attention swings disproportionately to the roles of Auerbach and Alter, then to reader response theory and to feminist and liberation theology. More needs to be said about the role of the author, rhetorical devices, poetics, and formalism, as well as the contributions of key figures such as Berlin, Sternberg, Bar-Erfat, Alonso-Schökel, and Longman. For example, consideration of rhetorical style and structure would answer some of the problems they raise with regard to Joshua 3-4 (p. 280). This diminution is not surprising, however, since Barton dismisses structuralism elsewhere (Reading the OT).

Third, Barton and Bowden seem conflicted regarding the reliability of OT history. Though they acknowledge a historical "feel" to the Bible, the authors work from an obvious skepticism toward and even a denial of its accuracy at times. The text "is far from supplying straightforward historical reporting of events" (p. 125); instead, it is a chronicled reshaping of legends, tales, and traditions to fit a theologically motivated construct (pp. 120-26). Consequently, Genesis 3 is no more factual than Santa's sliding down the chimney (p. 121). The Pentateuch "is not a work of history" (p. 132), and Abraham and Moses are "figures of legend" (p. 131). In fact, say the authors, "It is not clear that we are dealing with genuine historical information in the OT" until the eighth century BC (pp. 133-34). Ruth, Jonah, and Esther are imaginary characters (p. 243). OT history may be called "faction," they suggest-real events blended with imaginary ones (p. 28)-though it is anybody's guess as to definitive criteria distinguishing the one from the other.