Book Review: Pursuing Justice by Ken Wytsma

As Ken Wytsma unwraps his argument for Pursuing Justice, one sees that he speaks from a place of deep personal conviction and passion. Beginning with a story for background and context, Wytsma recounts how his grandfather had immigrated, with his family, to the United States following World War II. His father, just 8-years-old at the time, “never forgot where he came from” (xvii). He told the ways his father and mother reached out to the needy and downtrodden with a heart to help the hurting. Wytsma himself, however, confessed he grew up with a western sense of entitlement. He viewed life as being about him and for his pleasure and he lived accordingly. Upon God grabbing hold of his life, Wystma began studying the Word and drawing nearer to God. Through this time, he became more and more convinced that all of Scripture points toward the pursuit of justice – noting the continual concepts of caring for widows, orphans, and foreigners.

Personally, I find myself leery anytime someone tries to explain the entire Bible through one key motif which they hold dear. Certainly one reads a heavy emphasis on justice for the downtrodden throughout the Bible – the law of Moses, the work of kings and the teaching and miracles of Jesus all bear this element. But to say it is the one thing that holds all Scripture together may be a little too strong. That said, Wytsma does a nice job of walking the reader through different theological and exegetical principles in Scripture.  He points out the many instances where social justice seems to factor into the situation in a sometimes quite profound way.

With a caution against casting all of Scripture into one light that may be too focused, I would encourage reading this book. With many excurses which bring light from other authors and Wytsma’s own very readable and passionate style, this book can challenge the reader to further embrace care for the downtrodden which may slip by unnoticed.

Book Review: A Reader's Hebrew and Greek Bible by Zondervan

In April of 2010, Zondervan released A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible. Finally, this work combined their reader’s editions of Old and New Testaments into one volume. For those not familiar with the concept of a “reader’s” Bible, I’ll take a moment to explain. For those that do know, on to the next paragraph. (For those that don’t care, well you probably won’t read this for much longer anyway, though you are most welcome.) A reader’s edition of an original language Bible is a little like a bike with training wheels. Open up the front cover and you’ll find the Greek New Testament. As a student new to the Greek language (or even not so new), you will come upon words that are not used very frequently in the NT. For these words (specifically those used 30 times or less), the notes at the bottom of each page will show you the word with an English gloss. Handy, right? I know. If you begin at the “back cover” (or the other front cover, since Hebrew is read right to left), you’ll find the Hebrew Old Testament with similar notes for words appearing 100 times or less in the OT. Like I said, a bike with training wheels – you’ve still got to put in work to read, but it provides that little bit of extra stability right there on the page, rather than sending you off to check a lexicon several times per paragraph.

The OT is based off the Westminster Leningrad Codex, the accepted official text of the Hebrew Bible. The font is clear and readable. And notes are clear and straightforward with numbers in the text coinciding with the Hebrew word and English gloss in the notes below. For a verb, they also supply the stem (Qal, Nifal, etc.) with the gloss to aid in your reading. Proper names are grayed out just a bit in order to save you from spending a great deal of time trying to parse Amalek. The NT text is “the eclectic text that underpins the Today’s New International Version” (page 9 of the Introduction). This gave me pause when I originally looked at this Bible. I found, however, that any place their “eclectic text” differs from that of the United Bible Society, they’ve placed a note marking the discrepancy and stating the UBS reading. The notes for the NT are not quite as clear as those in the OT. The italic font that they use is a little difficult to read at a glance, but it stands as a great improvement over Zondervan’s first edition for a NT reader (which I declared I would not even consider buying until they fixed the text). The content of the notes are fairly simple – the Greek word, English gloss or two with a note on the passive gloss (if directly applicable).

Dividing the two testaments is a brief lexicon for the Greek words used over 30 times and Hebrew over 100 (based on the BDB). Let’s face it, just because I learned the word in class, doesn’t mean it’s always going to spring to mind while I’m reading. 8 full color maps grace the center of the division between the testaments.

This volume makes a great addition to a student’s library. It serves now as the Bible that I take to church with me. That offers the chance to be able to practice the language skills into which we’ve invested so much time and money in a great setting. If the pastor ever called on me to read before the church, you’d better believe I’d be borrowing my wife’s Bible. But for reading along during the sermon, this is a great exercise.  The notes are ok. I prefer the way the UBS has parsing and, in my opinion, a better format for their notes (columns rather than inline notes), but they only offer the NT. For a whole  Bible reader, this offering from Zondervan is my go-to.

Book Review: Jesus: A Theography by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola work together to bring this volume on the life of Jesus, perhaps the first of its kind. What makes this piece unique from biographies of the life of Jesus is that Sweet and Viola highlight their way from Genesis through Revelation identifying Jesus throughout the pages of Scripture. In considering the reason this differentiates it from other works, they point out that those writing such biographies are usually by individuals pursuing the question of the “historical Jesus” and they rarely regard the entire canon for their purposes (though I certainly would not accuse them of not reading it). Those who do look to bring the whole Bible into a unified work are often tracing the metanarrative and are not focused simply on Jesus. Yet, these men set out to do just that. And why? As they point out, because Jesus Himself did so (xiii). Among other justifications for this hermeneutic, they note the Emmaus Road pericope at the end of Luke’s Gospel where, “beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). So that is precisely where these men head.

Beginning in eternity past, they note the pre-existence of Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity. Following this are two chapters on creation where they parallel the days of creation with epochs of Jesus’ life in the first and regard specific details of creation noting parallels in Christ’s life in the second. The bulk of the book are taken up with chapters that do work through different segments of Jesus’ earthly existence but with a heavy look back to the First Testament (Sweet and Viola’s term for the Old Testament, meant to reveal the two parts of the Bible not as separate and distinct writings but as the continuation of one story). They round out their work with a look to the “Return of the King” in Revelation.

It is a well-crafted book. It is easy to read and has some interesting appendices and notes for further study. The authors define their audience early and well. They admit whole-heartedly that they are writing to the general Christian population. This book is not overly academic and it does not spend much time defending a Christian worldview. Those are discussions for a different time.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”