An Author Interview from Books At a Glance
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Greetings! I’m Fred Zaspel and welcome to another Author Interview here at Books At a Glance. Today we are pleased to have Dr. Desmond Alexander with us to talk about the new fourth edition of his very successful book, From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, a book that for some years now has won high praises.
Desi, welcome back, and congratulations on this new edition of your book.
Alexander:
Thank you, Fred. It’s a pleasure to be with you.
Zaspel:
Tell us what your book is all about, your approach, and what you set out to accomplish.
Alexander:
It is essentially an introduction to the Pentateuch that does two main things. It provides firstly an overview of the contents of the books of Genesis to Deuteronomy. It does so by focusing on what I perceived to be the major themes of each book. Then, secondly, it provides an introduction to and evaluation of the different critical methods that have been used by scholars in studying the Pentateuch. This forms part two of the book. The main emphasis of the book is to help readers understand what the Pentateuch is about, especially from a Christian perspective.
Zaspel:
You mentioned that you emphasize the themes of each book of the Pentateuch, but you do more than that. You also treat themes that transcend individual books, right?
Alexander:
Yes, I do some of that also. Some of these themes are interconnected, and the books build on one another. And it’s worth bearing in mind that the Pentateuch is not a finished story. It is the introduction to what comes after it in Joshua, Judges, and through the book of Kings.
Zaspel:
So your book is not quite a commentary but more a Biblical Theology of the Pentateuch. We all know the need and value of commentaries, but how is your approach helpful in ways that might be missed in the commentaries? And maybe your jigsaw puzzle analogy would help here.
Alexander:
Thanks for mentioning the jigsaw puzzle analogy. It seems to me that most commentaries dissect the text into lots of small pieces and commentators describe these pieces in great detail. However, they tend not to put the pieces together, giving you a sense of the bigger picture. It’s a little bit like looking at the different parts of the human body, studying them in detail separately, but never thinking about how the whole body fits together. We miss something important if we do not see the big picture and we may misunderstand the pieces if we don’t connect them to the rest of the picture.
For example, a very distinctive feature of Genesis is the way in which a younger brother takes precedence over an older brother. We see this with Seth, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, and Perez. These events are not just random coincidences. There is a pattern that needs to be appreciated. Commentaries don’t always pick up on such features and their significance.
Zaspel:
This new fourth edition is significantly larger than the original 1995 edition I have had for some years—what’s new?
Alexander:
In the first edition in 1995, I only looked at the themes of the Pentateuch. In the second edition, I expanded the book by discussing Pentateuch criticism. This material was placed at the beginning of the second and third editions. In the fourth edition, I have placed this material at the end, bringing it up-to-date with a survey of more recent scholarship. With each new edition, I have refined and hopefully improved the contents of each chapter. Also, a few new chapters discussing additional themes have been added since the first edition.
Zaspel:
You make a point throughout the book to consider how the New Testament writers understood the Pentateuch. That of course provides inspired commentary on Moses, but how would you compare or contrast this New Testament understanding of and approach to the Pentateuch with that of Christians commonly today? What do we need to catch up on here?
Alexander:
The New Testament makes considerable use of the Pentateuch to explain who Jesus Christ is and why he is important. By way of brief examples, the apostle Paul sees the origin of the gospel going back to the promise that God made to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. From a different perspective, the author of Hebrews explains Jesus Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary by drawing on the Old Testament material relating to the earthly tabernacle and the activity of the high priest. Viewed in another way, the Pentateuch provides a foundation for understanding the whole Bible by providing an explanation of God’s plan of redemption for the world. Some of these points are picked up by Christians today, but in the main, most Christians don’t understand how the Pentateuch is an essential part of the Bible and has a great deal to say to us.
Zaspel:
Give us a sense here of how the Pentateuch is foundational to the rest of Scripture.
Alexander:
I could say a great deal about this, but let me focus on two related ideas. In the book of Revelation in the New Testament, Jesus Christ is described as being both the lion of Judah and a lamb. If we are to understand the significance of these two ideas we need to turn firstly to the book of Genesis in order to see how God’s promise to overcome the serpent is linked to a king from the tribe of Judah. This helps explain the image of Jesus as the Lion of Judah. To understand the concept of Jesus as the lamb, we need to observe in the book of Exodus the significance of the Passover. This is the climax of the greatest salvific event in the Old Testament. As the New Testament writers reveal, Jesus’ death is associated with Passover and the apostle Paul speaks of Jesus being our Passover sacrifice. As the death of the lambs at Passover brought life to the Israelite firstborn males, so Jesus Christ’s death brings eternal life to those who believe in him
Zaspel:
In the last section of your book, you address matters of higher criticism. We all came through seminary learning of JEDP, and such. What is the status of Pentateuchal Criticism today? And how has its focus on disparate sources tended to skew our study of the Pentateuch?
Alexander:
The last 40 or so years have witnessed considerable fragmentation in how scholars approach the Pentateuch. There is no academic consensus today. Previously the documentary hypothesis advocated by Julius Wellhausen and others dominated academic discussion. This has changed considerably. Many of the criteria used to uncover source documents are no longer viewed as reliable. Nevertheless, some scholars still speak of the Pentateuch as containing texts that are unreadable. Personally, I’m not convinced that this is the case. The problem lies not with the texts themselves, but with modern scholars who fail to understand how ancient texts should be read.
By way of illustration, it is commonly assumed that the Exodus account of the tabernacle comes from a different author to the material that describes the making of the covenant at Mount Sinai. Read with this understanding, there is no reason to assume a connection between the events that take place at Mount Sinai and the construction of the tabernacle. Yet, there are strong grounds for believing that the tabernacle itself was modelled on Mount Sinai. Consequently, when the Israelites left Mount Sinai, they essentially took the mountain with them in the form of the tabernacle. For this reason, we never see the Israelites going back to Mount Sinai as a place of pilgrimage. They had no need to do this. Unfortunately, scholars too often assume that because material looks very different it cannot possibly be unified. This is not necessarily the case. We need to recover the importance of reading the Pentateuch as a unified set of five interconnected books.
Zaspel:
First, in just broad strokes, what is the story of the Pentateuch? And then just briefly and in broadest strokes, what are some major themes that carry that story?
Alexander:
In broad brush strokes, the Pentateuch is essentially the first part of a larger story that begins importantly with God appointing human beings to rule over the earth on his behalf. This is emphasized in the opening chapters of Genesis. However, when Adam and Eve listen to the serpent, they betray God. Although they were meant to control the serpent, it controls them. As a consequence, God’s ordering of the earth is overturned and the serpent, later revealed in Scripture to be the devil, takes control of the world. The rest of the Pentateuch describes how God sets about restoring his control over the world. The beginning of this process centres on the coming of a perfect vicegerent, a second Adam, who will rule on God’s behalf over the nations. As Genesis reveals, this future king will be a descendant of Abraham.
The process towards restoring God’s kingdom over all the earth focuses on the nation of Israel, but will be extended to include all the families of the earth. The Pentateuch creates the expectation that God will dwell with human beings on the earth. This presents a challenge however because God is holy and human beings are not. The books of Exodus and Leviticus explain how people may be sanctified in order to live in God’s presence. This provides a paradigm for understanding what Jesus Christ does.
Zaspel:
Let’s take a sample episode from the book of Genesis. How does the tower of Babel / Babylon incident factor in, or in what ways is it reflective of, the developing story and themes of Genesis, the Pentateuch, and the larger Bible story?
Alexander:
It is not always appreciated but from the outset of creation, it was God’s intention to dwell with human beings on the earth in a unique city. Consequently, human beings are innately city builders. However, even when they turn away from God, people continue to be city builders. In the early chapters of Genesis, the story of Babel is about the construction of a city that is the antithesis of what God desires. There is no place for God in Babel. Importantly, the term Babel is the Hebrew name for Babylon. Throughout Scripture, Babylon symbolizes the human rejection of God. We see this in the Old Testament and it is prominent again In the Book of Revelation. While this people look to construct communities that exclude God, God’s plan of salvation comes to fulfilment as we see in Revelation 21-22 in the creation of New Jerusalem on a renewed earth
Zaspel:
Explain to us the critical role of Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham in the Pentateuch and in the larger Biblical story.
Alexander:
Abraham occupies a very important place in the book of Genesis. He belongs to a unique patriline that runs throughout Genesis. The call of Abraham marks only the beginning of his special relationship with God. Genesis 12 introduces two important ideas that will continue to influence the ongoing biblical story. Firstly, Abraham will be the father of a great nation. Secondly, he will be a source of blessing to the nations of the earth. These two concepts are developed in more detail in Genesis 15 and 17 respectively. Unfortunately, many scholars tend to blur an important distinction between the two covenants mentioned in these chapters. In Genesis 15 attention is this given to Abraham being the father of one nation that consists of his biological descendants. In Genesis 17 attention is given to Abraham being the father of many nations. Here we have a metaphorical use of the term father. Abraham will be a source of blessing to the nations. This is the really important covenant and it subsumes the earlier covenant of Genesis 15. Abraham’s fatherhood of the nations includes his fatherhood of Israel. Unfortunately, many readings of Genesis tend to focus on Abraham being the father of Israel without adequately taking into account Abraham’s fatherhood of the nations. Ultimately, God’s plan of redemption is not simply about Israel, but about all the nations of the world. What begins with Abraham will find fulfilment in Jesus Christ who mediates God’s blessing to both Jew and Gentile. This is why Abraham’s obedience to God’s call is so important.
Zaspel:
We’re talking to Dr. Desmond Alexander about the new fourth edition of his highly successful book, From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. It’s just one of those “must-have” books. If you want to study and understand the first five books of the Bible you just don’t want to be without this help.
Desi, I really appreciate your work, and thanks for talking to us about it today.
Alexander:
Thank you, Fred, for having me.
