Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary

OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY: A THEMATIC APPROACH

BY ROBIN ROUTLEDGE

– A CRITICAL INTERACTION

Submitted to Dr. Gary E. Yates

in partial fulfillment of requirements for THEO 695

by

Elke B. Speliopoulos

Downingtown, PA

March 30, 2010

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1

SETTING A FRAMEWORK..........................................................................................................1

DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................2

CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION

Involving the writings of many authors utilizing many literature genres during many time

periods, the Hebrew Scriptures present the challenge of gleaning a biblical theology from its

pages for those seeking deeper meaning. Understanding what God meant to convey to his people

in the pages of the Old Testament is not an easy task.

In addition, the 21st century Western church has been rather neglectful of fostering

biblical literacy, which has led to a decline in overall Bible knowledge, but to an even larger

extent of the Old Testament. Due to its profound yet understandable insights, Routledge’s book

is a welcome addition to the offering of scholarly work on the biblical theology of the Old

Testament, and can serve as an excellent tool in equipping pastors and Bible students to better

comprehend and convey the message of the Hebrew Scriptures

SETTING A FRAMEWORK

Routledge does not wait too long to tell us about how he will organize the information he

seeks to convey: the title of the book itself tells his readers that he will use a thematic approach.

Before exploring these themes, however, Routledge takes a somewhat lengthy excursion into the

scholarly work done in the area of Old Testament theology. Of some importance to the reader are

two 20th century German theologians highlighted who serve as major contributors of ideas and

counter-ideas in the remainder of the book: Walter Eichrodt and Gerhard von Rad, both of whom

reacted with a return to biblical theology to the history of religions approach, which was largely

en vogue until the 1920s.1

From the historical review of the development of Old Testament theology, Routledge

proceeds to investigate the themes of the Old Testament via the vehicles of the depiction of God,

creation, election and covenant, worship and sacrifice, prophetic and wisdom instructions,

1
Robin Routledge, Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic,
2008), 32-37.
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kingship in Israel, ethical considerations, eschatology and mission to the nations. While offering

great insights into the message of the Old Testament, Routledge stays at a level of writing that

even those who are not deeply engrossed in Old Testament studies can gain great value, yet

offers an (almost over-)abundance of footnotes to allow for follow-up studies to a much deeper

level.

DISCUSSION

From the very first pages, Routledge provides insights into the Old Testament that propel

the reader to immediately pay attention. Reviewing the canonical order of the Christian Old

Testament vs. the Hebrew Scriptures and discussing the willingness by Jewish scholars to live

with the tensions in the text, Routledge gives an insight into why Jewish scholars are less willing

to enter the discipline of biblical theology than their Christian counterparts: just as the New

Testament is critical to Christian understanding, the Mishnah and Talmud are inseparable from

the Old Testament in Jewish thinking.1

For his readers coming from an evangelical Christian mindset, it appears important to

Routledge to remind them that when the Old Testament is spiritualized or Christianized, or

simply serves as backdrop for sermons, the danger arises that meaning might be imposed on it

that the original text does not bear. Routledge thus fears that the Old Testament is not allowed to

speak for itself.2

Yet focusing on the text alone also poses a challenge as external ideas might yet be

applied to it and since, according to Routledge, it is critical that “we also recognize that God

exists as a theological entity outside the text: he is not merely a character in a literary

construction”.3 To provide a framework for the derivation of a biblical theology, three critical

1
Ibid., 20.
2
Ibid., 26.
3
Ibid., 63.
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elements need to be considered: author, text and reader. At the same time, there are three

‘worlds’ behind the text: the one behind the text, representing the world of the author, the one

within the text and the one in front of the text, which represents the world of the reader.4 In

laying out this framework to investigate the text, Routledge stays in the generally accepted

hermeneutical approach of looking at biblical text.

Regrettably, while Routledge offers insights along the way in his book into viewpoints

other scholars express, he tends to not differentiate sufficiently whether he agrees with the cited

scholar’s opinion or not, leaving the reader to come to his or her own conclusion of whether

Routledge aligns with the expressed thought. An example here is the dating of the book of

Daniel, which Routledge states to be dated by many scholars around 165 BC5. There is no

indication to the reader whether or not Routledge agrees with this late dating, which would be a

critical element in evangelical thought, as Daniel’s prophecies speak of rulers and events dating

much into his future and therefore speak to the omniscience of God as expressed in the words of

Daniel. Likewise, in Routledge’s discussion of the afterlife, he makes a similar statement about

the dating of Daniel, again with no qualifier of when he sees the writing or whom he sees as the

author.6

On the other hand, Routledge does offer an opinion on the interpretation of certain

elements of the text, such as when he discusses Wisdom and expresses his conclusion that the

idea of a personification of Wisdom fits better within the context of the Old Testament than the

alternate view of a hypostasis, or Wisdom approximating a separate divine being7. For a student

4
Ibid., 64.
5
Ibid., 300.
6
Ibid., 307.
7
Ibid., 221.
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of the Bible, these interpretations are important, especially since Routledge offers a much

expanded discussion of the concepts of Wisdom in biblical literature in the footnotes8.

The discussion of human personality by Routledge is impressive and offers deep insights

into what exactly makes up this creature called man, according to the writers of the Old

Testament9. Even more profound is Routledge’s statement that “the OT does not view human

personality as tripartite (body, soul and spirit), or even bipartite (flesh and spirit); in the OT

human personality is a unity”.10 This shows how far Routledge seeks to truly find the biblical

theology of the Old Testament, rather than pressing a Christian New Testament perspective on

the text, which considers much more than the Old Testament the aspects of an afterlife and what

implications this has for the unity of nepeš, rûaH, lëb and bäSär.

One surprising and new element are Routledge’s highlighting of the connection between

the various covenants, but even more so what makes them critical to a Christian reader’s

understanding. Discussing God’s promises to Abraham, Routledge underlines that already here

God’s desire to expand the reach of his blessings, as “the divine blessing will extend to the whole

world” 11. He continues that in order “to share the blessing, the nations must also be brought to

share the relationship”12. As to the relationship between the covenants, Routledge brings

examples of partial fulfillment of one in another, such as the Sinaitic covenant partially fulfilling

the Abrahamic by calling Israel to serve as a nation of priests, and therefore offering a

“microcosm of the world”13 and modeling this blessing to all nations.

8
Ibid, footnote 44.
9
Routledge, Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach, 143-47.
10
Ibid., 146.
11
Ibid., 167.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid., 324.
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Routledge takes great pain to emphasize that “covenants have to with relationship”14,

bringing with them by default a conditional element. Likewise, not just for the Israelites, but for

all people and people groups stepping into a relationship with God, while “the promises and their

ultimate fulfillment are sure, …people can choose whether or not to be part of them.”15

Likewise, when discussing blessings that have been pronounced, such as the blessing in

Genesis 1:28, Routledge contrasts and compares this with other passages, in this case the

blessing pronounced to Noah in Genesis 9:1-3. Here, highlighting that the “second command, to

subdue the earth, is entirely missing, suggesting that the task has by now become impossible”16,

is elementary in understanding the toll sin has taken on mankind already at this early stage in

man’s history. Again, these are critically important insights into ultimately understanding why

sin grieves God so severely and why God’s plan for the redemption of mankind had to account

for the disobedience even of those who knew him.

Turning to eschatological hope, Routledge discusses the concept of the Messiah at great

lengths. To the Christian reader, Routledge provides a thorough and convincing summary that,

while the depiction and understanding of the Messianic figure evolved from the Old Testament

and the intertestamental period to the time of Christ, Jesus nevertheless fulfilled messianic

expectations.17 This is one example of Routledge taking great pain to pull the evangelical reader

back into a level of comfortable understanding after digesting the sometimes confusing

development of elements within the Old Testament (especially those sometimes eerily

reminiscent textual similarities from the ANE world’s writings) to what he or she understands

from the pages of the New Testament.

14
Ibid., 171.
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid., 156.
17
Ibid., 298.
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CONCLUSION

Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach can leave the reader spellbound (even if

this seems like a poor choice of a word in the realm of biblical studies) with the richness of the

Old Testament. While Routledge is not afraid to highlight difficulties in the evaluation of the

biblical text or to cite scholars whose opinion he may not share, he pulls the reader back to

orthodoxy, but now with a much enriched appreciation of both the nature of God’s Hesed and the

beauty of his Word. As Reid writes in his review of Routledge’s book, “the evangelical tone of

the work distinguishes it from the volumes of Walter Brueggemann and H.D. Preuss.”1

Routledge’s work left this reader with an exceedingly deep appreciation of the

continuation of God’s character from the Old Testament to the New, but also drove home the

very important point that God holds the same expectations for his covenant people today as he

did during the time of the writing of the Old Testament. As he writes, “God’s people cannot

fulfil their calling to be a nation of priests, to bring God’s blessing to the nations, unless they are

renewed, and God has provided the means by which that renewal may take place.”2

While Routledge nowhere in the book promotes a works-based salvation, his peeling

back the layers of Old Testament theology for his readers lets them realize for themselves that

God’s salvation by its sheer nature will result in his people “holding up their end of the bargain”.

With this, however, comes the assurance that God is the only God of the universe, who does not

act capriciously as the gods depicted in ANE writings, but rather that he has high regard both for

his creation and for his relationship with his people.

1
Garnett Reid, “Book Reviews,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 52, no. 4 (December
2009): 838.
2
Routledge, Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach, 325.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reid, Garnett. “Book Reviews.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 52, no. 4
(December 2009).

Routledge, Robin. Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach. Downers Grove, IL: IVP
Academic, 2008.