An Author Interview from Books At a Glance
Every Christian instinctively knows that the Old Testament points us to Jesus, but just how does it point us to Jesus? And in particular, how does Moses in the Pentateuch point us to Jesus?
Greetings, I’m Fred Zaspel, and welcome to another Author Interview here at Books At a Glance. Today we are talking to Dr. Kevin Chen about his stimulating book, The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch.
Kevin, welcome – great to have you with us.
Chen:
Thank you, Fred. I am happy to be with you. Thanks for having me on.
Zaspel:
Talk to us about the purpose of your book and your central thesis. You tell us upfront (p.5) that your purpose “is to argue that the Pentateuch itself sets forth an authorially intended, coherent portrait of the Messiah as the center of its theological message.” That is significant – tease that out for us a bit.
Chen:
To put it another way, the purpose of the book is to show that Moses wrote in the Pentateuch about Jesus. He did so intentionally, with a strategy, and not as a peripheral concern to the Pentateuch, rather as a central concern. In other words, the Pentateuch is Genesis through Deuteronomy. The first five books or actually just one book. It was written by Moses with a strategy. Not just to tell of the past but to tell the true story of history. Things like creation, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Also, it tells of the wilderness, the approach to the Promised Land, and the giving of the law.
The strategy ultimately centers on drawing the reader to hope for the coming Messiah, who will crush the serpent’s head and save humanity at the end of history. It spends a lot of space talking about history which is important. It does not leave us there; it tells us where history is going. Moses’ writing strategy is explicitly expressed in direct messianic prophecies, he talks about the king coming in the last days. And other supporting passages that might not be a messianic prophecy per se, but they are related to them.
Zaspel:
In your Introduction, you refer to some claims by Jesus in this regard, especially in John 5, and you make a wonderful point concerning his own estimation of the Pentateuch and its intended meaning. Tell us about that.
Chen:
The book opens with a quotation from John 5:46. Jesus makes the following statement to unbelieving Jews, “if you believed in Moses, you would believe in me, for he wrote about me.” Jesus is saying that Moses wrote about him. If they rightly understood the Pentateuch, they would believe in him too. The context of this whole statement is when Jesus has healed someone on the Sabbath, as he often does, and unbelieving Jews are upset about it. They think he should not do that kind of thing on the Sabbath. On the surface, the unbelieving Jews have a meticulous observance of the Sabbath. This is to be seen as devotion to Moses with some tradition mixed in. The Sabbath was one of the many laws that Moses mediated to Israel. The Sabbath was in the ten commandments.
Jesus recognized their devotion to Moses. He says they put their hope in Moses. His statement in John 5:46 suggests they got something wrong. They treated Moses and Jesus as an either-or. For them being devoted to Moses meant rejecting Jesus. Jesus did something they thought should not be done on the Sabbath. Jesus is saying it is not an either-or. It should be Moses and me, rather than Moses or me. In just a few chapters earlier, we see an intentional contrast by John. Phillip says to Nathaniel, “we have found the one who Moses wrote about in the law.” That shows that there are different interpretations of the same text, the Pentateuch in the Old Testament. Paul teaches that the Gospel of Jesus was in full accord with the whole Old Testament.
Zaspel:
You tell us upfront that your work builds on that of John Sailhamer. So, for those who are not familiar with him, tell us about Sailhamer and his work. What is the trajectory he set that you seek to explore further?
Chen:
He was a leading evangelical Old Testament scholar in the previous generation. He retired in 2010 and went to be with the Lord in 2017. He taught at a lot of evangelical seminaries, Trinity, Southeastern, and others. He is known for his books on the Pentateuch. A couple of books include the The Pentateuch as Narrative and The Meaning of the Pentateuch. A lot of his work was directed to this very question. He attempted to show the Old Testament is fully messianic in the New Testament sense of the term. He did it at the highest scholarly level and was still able to explain it to Christians in general. I was trying to continue his project by exploring some passages that he did not deal with in the Pentateuch. I also put my own spin on some passages he did deal with. His books on the Pentateuch were dealing with a lot of the entire Pentateuch and issues related to the law. I wanted to write something that focuses on the messiah almost exclusively in the Pentateuch.
Zaspel:
And we should emphasize that your point is not just that there are historical patterns or “types” in the technical sense but textual patterns that provide clues to the sustained and developing messianic theme. Can you give us some samples?
Chen:
That is a very important point and distinction. I am not just trying to draw parallels in history even though those are fascinating. I wanted to show that Moses was writing about the coming of the Messiah. You must show it from the words of the Pentateuch. I will share a couple of examples of textual patterns that are in the Pentateuch related to the messiah. These are not all original to me.
In Genesis 3:15, there is the seed of the woman prophecy. Adam and Eve sinned and God, in speaking to the serpent, gives a promise of salvation to all humanity. He says the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. The serpent will crush his heel. It is a brief statement, but it already tells of a future deliverer. This seed will gain victory and will be injured in the process. This initiates a textual pattern that gets picked up later. One of the clearest passages that have this pattern would be Numbers 24:17. This is a messianic prophecy, but it uses the language of a star of Jacob. He will rule as king.
When you look carefully at the words that are used to describe this star of Jacob, it says he will crush the forehead of Moab and bring down the sons of Seth. Focusing on “crush the forehead,” even though it’s not using the same Hebrew words for crush and forehead as are found in Genesis 3:15, the theme and imagery are the same. It looks like an allusion. This is a great example of a textual pattern where something in Genesis 3:15 is repeated all the way out in Numbers 24:17.
Zaspel:
How is our understanding of the Pentateuch as a single work by a single author important in this regard?
Chen:
That is key because the Pentateuch is one book, Genesis through Deuteronomy, it was not originally five books. Moses wrote it as one book with one strategy. That gives us good reason to link passages all the way throughout the Pentateuch. There is an intention behind this book. That increases the likelihood that they are supposed to be looked at together. If the Pentateuch is not a single book and it was originally written as five books, the connection is still there but it is just a little weaker.
Zaspel:
So how does this work? When most of us read the Pentateuch, we tend to notice the narrative sections and the laws, and the occasional messianic prophecies. Explain how we should hold all that in mind as we read, with the coming messiah as the central concern. And maybe give us a few examples.
Chen:
Where there is no dispute is when you look at the content of the Pentateuch itself, in terms of quantity and proportion most of it is narrative and law. These messianic prophecies, even though they are brief and take up a smaller proportion, their impact is great. Because of their impact, they shift and even center the meaning and intention of the entire Pentateuch. For example, Genesis 3:15, says the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent and have his own heel crushed in the process. That one line, in that one verse, is already telling us what eschatological salvation is and what it will look like. There will be a man who is born of Eve in some sense. He is going to defeat the snake who defeated us to begin with.
If we keep that in mind as we read the Pentateuch in Genesis 4 and onward, it will have a major impact. When we read about Israel coming out of Egypt, we think it is a great example of salvation. But lay it against Genesis 3:15 and think if the seed of the woman crushed the serpent while having his own heel struck. The answer is no. Certainly, the pharaoh and Egypt are opposed to Israel and God. But it is not in this story. Yes, it is an act of historical salvation but not actually fulfilling Genesis 3:15.
The laws are very important and take up so much space, but Genesis 3:15 still stands. Salvation has always been predicted as coming through a seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent. How does the law fit with that? It does not seem like it does, nothing wrong with the law itself, but it is not bringing about the final eschatological salvation that Genesis 3:15 is promising. It is not only Genesis 3:15. You can add other passages like the lion of Judah in Genesis 49. Has this king come in the end times yet? As great as Moses was, he was not that end times king. The law is not tied directly to the coming Messiah. He comes after the law has been shown to be a failure.
Zaspel:
Before we let you go give us a brief overview of your book so our listeners can know what to expect.
Chen:
In the Introduction, I try to make a case that the Old Testament and especially the Pentateuch is bearing a direct authorial intent to Christ. I argue that that makes a strong argument for the validity of the Christian faith, the Bible, and the Gospel. This author is Moses, who writes with a strategy to encourage hope in Christ. The bulk of the book is examining passages in the Pentateuch. I believe they are direct prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, or closely related to these direct prophecies that they shed light on. I call that intentional foreshadowing. There are two different kinds of passages, direct prophecy, and intentional foreshadowing. I look at some well-known passages and look at some other ones not as well known. Finally, I have one chapter about how Israel is continually breaking the law in the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch shows the law itself is not the answer.
Zaspel:
We are talking to Dr. Kevin Chen about his wonderfully helpful book, The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch. If you want to explore how the Old Testament points us forward to Christ, or if you are preaching through the Pentateuch, you will not want to be without this help.
Kevin, thanks much for your faithful work and for talking to us today.
Chen:
Thank you so much, Fred. It has been a pleasure.
