R. W. L. Moberly

The Mark Of Cain—Revealed At Last?

Then the lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. (Gen 4:15)

Does God lie to his prophets? The story of Micaiah ben Imlah as a test case.

The understanding of Hebrew prophecy has made great advances in modern biblical scholarship. To be sure, such is the diversity and complexity both of prophetic texts within the Hebrew canon and of contemporary methods of interpretation that many unresolved—perhaps irresolvable—issues remain. Yet recent hermeneutical debate, like the philological and historical work of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, can offer fresh lenses through which to read the text, in ways that at least sometimes may help make progress beyond seeming impasses. My purpose in this paper is to focus on one particular prophetic narrative, one which is often used as a case study: the story of Micaiah ben Imlah in 1 Kgs 22:1–38. I hope it may illustrate something of the kind of fresh understanding of a difficult prophetic text which is achievable.

To Hear the Master's Voice: Revelation and Spiritual Discernment in the Call of Samuel

The call of Samuel in the temple at Shiloh (1 Sam. 3) is probably one of the better known stories of the Old Testament. There is an obvious imaginative appeal about the mysterious voice of God coming to a child who is unable to understand what is happening and yet who becomes able to hear the word of God for himself. But although the story has received frequent commentary in recent Old Testament scholarship, and has even had a monograph devoted to it by R. Gnuse, the most memorable part of the story, Gods repeated calling to Samuel and Samuels running to Eli, has received relatively little attention. This paper will try to remedy that omission.

WHY DID NOAH SEND OUT A RAVEN

A survey of ancient and modern interpretations of Genesis viii 7 reveals the consistent assumption that the raven must perform the same function as the dove, which makes the presence of the raven puzzling - why two birds? Traditional commentators explain the raven in symbolic and moralizing terms, while modern commentators generally see it as a traditio-historical fragment. It is here proposed that the raven has a different task from that of the dove, in that its flying to and fro above the waters is a symbolic replication of Gods action through the ruah (Genesis viii 1) whereby the waters recede. This is related to the concept of imitatio Dei in Priestly thought.

New Heaven and New Earth. Prophecy and the Millennium

This Festschrift for Anthony Gelston contains nineteen essays on prophecy and apocalyptic. The papers examine a wide range of biblical and early Jewish texts, as well as the interpretation of the Bible in more recent times.

The Old Testament in Christianity

Some issues in life are not capable of final resolution. Questions such as ‘What is the good life?’ and ‘How can we get good government?’ and ‘Whom can I trust?’ are not amenable to definitive answers in the same way as many mathematical and scientific questions. Rather, such fundamental questions of living recur afresh in every age. Part of the thesis of this chapter is that the role of the Old Testament in Christianity is, in essence, such an irresolvable issue. Christians ancient and modern have not found unanimity or finality in understanding and using the Old Testament – and this may be a sign not of failure but rather of the intrinsic variety of the challenges that the Old Testament poses for Christian faith. A collection of religious literature that is pre-Christian in origin, written over centuries and initially compiled by Jews (as Israels Scriptures), and only subsequently appropriated by Christians (as the Old Testament), inherently poses intriguing, albeit enriching, questions to Christians. Lack of definitive resolution therefore should in no way call into question the importance of wrestling with understanding the Old Testament within Christian faith. A. H. J. Gunneweg, for example, wrote It would be no exaggeration to understand the hermeneutical problem of the Old Testament as the problem of Christian theology, and not just one problem among others…. If the interpretation of holy scripture is an essential task for theology, and if the Bible is the basis of Christian life, the foundation of the church and the medium of revelation, then it is of fundamental importance for the theologian to ask whether and why the collection of Israelite and Jewish writings to which the Christian church has given the name Old Testament are part – indeed the most substantial part – of the canon of scripture and what their relevance is. This question affects the extent and also qualitatively the substance of what may be regarded as Christian. Thus, engagement in debates about the understanding and appropriation of the Old Testament – debates which in practice probably take place more in contexts of worship and everyday life than in formal academic contexts – is itself part of what constitutes Christian faith.

WHOSE JUSTICE? WHICH RIGHTEOUSNESS? THE INTERPRETATION OF ISAIAH V 16

A majority of scholars, ancient and modern, interpret Isaiah v 16 as depicting the divine judgement on human sin as the embodiment and outworking of divine holiness. It is argued here that the word pair mispat and edaqâ in this verse should probably have the same sense that they have in the preceding song of the vineyard in Isaiah v 7, where they depict those human moral qualities which God looks for in Israel (in replication of Gods moral characteristics). The argument is advanced with reference to other usage of mispa and edaqâ in Isaiah i-xii. Contextual factors, in relation to similar language in Isaiah ii, and with regard to the redactional shaping of Isaiah v 1-17, are also taken into account. A subtly diverent interpretation, implied by the Masoretic pointing, is finally noted as a possible qualification to the argument.

Index of Sources

This Festschrift for Anthony Gelston contains nineteen essays on prophecy and apocalyptic. The papers examine a wide range of biblical and early Jewish texts, as well as the interpretation of the Bible in more recent times.

On Learning to be a True Prophet: The Story of Balaam and his Ass

The story of Balaam and his ass is one of the well known stories of the Old Testament. The overall story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 stands as a self-contained unit within the book of Numbers. The summoning of Balaam and his journey prior to his encounter with Balak is a natural subdivision within the larger story. Although there are many questions which might be addressed as preliminaries to an exposition of the text, this chapter concentrates solely upon an analytical exposition. Balak, king of Moab, knows of other peoples east of the Jordan whom Israel has already defeated and dispossessed, and is fearful lest a similar fate befall himself and his people. In terms of the narrators overall perspective and purpose, Balak foolishly supposes Balaam to possess the kind of power of speech which the narrator knows belongs only to God. Keywords: Balaam; Balak; book of Numbers; God; Israel; Jordan; Old Testament