According to the Scriptures: The Origins of the Gospel and of the Church's Old Testament [Paperback]

Mr. Paul Matthews Van Buren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 1998

This book calls for a reevaluation of the Old Testament and its role in the Church. It is written out of the conviction that the church needs to claim the Old Testament as its own but also to grant the legitimacy of the Jewish claim on Israel's sacred Scriptures. The author is concerned to debunk several ideas, including the popular notions that Paul was the real inventor of Christianity; that a great gulf exists between the Old Testament and the New Testament; that the early Christians used the Old Testament to prove their already established belief in Jesus; and that Christianity is less credible or valuable if it is seen to depend on Jewish traditions. Van Buren's starting point is an exploration of the meaning and origin of the early Christian confession, "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures" -particularly the last part of the confession. Van Buren argues that the wording of this early, pre-Pauline gospel confession was the result of a creative application of early Jewish interpretations of scripture, especially of the Binding of Isaac story in Genesis 22. Christians need to affirm the legitimacy of their understanding Christ in light of the Old Testament, argues van Buren, but they also need to grant the legitimacy of the Jewish reading of scripture. The interpretive traditions of both religious communities-Judaism and Christianity-need to be respected. Clearly and elegantly written, this book represents a sensitive ecumenical effort at fostering Jewish-Christian dialogue: a book that both Jews and Christians can read with profit.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The late van Buren, author of several important books on religion and language, including The Secular Meaning of the Gospel (1963), is published posthumously here in a work that represents the maturation of his scholarship. He employs his well-known fundamental methodological principle to seek a nontranscendental interpretation of the Gospel through linguistic analysis of the text. Historical, biblical, and theological issues are also considered. The first section grounds the Christological assertions of 1 Cor. 15:3-5 in the re-interpretation made by Second Temple Judaism. In the second section, van Buren re-evaluates the validity of the Old Testament for both Jews and Christians, considering differing historical experiences and interpretations of the original message. This book presents a well-written, tightly argued, challenging argument that is most useful for academic libraries with graduate religion or theology programs.?Pius Murray, Holy Apostles Coll. & Seminary, Weston, MA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Van Buren argues that early Christians received a gospel "according to the scriptures" --the scriptures of the Jewish tradition, that is. Their reading of the story of the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) helped them "discover" the good news, which means that Christianity is located not in the "New" Testament but in what, once the discovery was made, could be called the "Old" Testament. Thus van Buren restores the normative status enjoyed by the Old Testament in the community that discovered the gospel by reading old stories in the light of new problems--a practice deeply rooted in the tradition out of which both Christianity and contemporary Judaism grew. Reclaiming that tradition, van Buren argues, would not only enrich Christianity but also enable more constructive dialogue in a world of more than one religion, in which God's love is not restricted to a single people. Steven Schroeder

Product Details

• Paperback: 158 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (October 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802845355
• ISBN-13: 978-0802845351
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh perspective on the "Old Testament", July 30, 2003

By 

Charles S. Houser (Binghamton, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: According to the Scriptures: The Origins of the Gospel and of the Church's Old Testament (Paperback)

In defending the use of the name "Old Testament" for the Scriptures Christians inherited from Jews (by way of the Septuagint), van Buren makes an elegant argument for a dual reading of those works that both Jews and Christians hold sacred. "What we can and must object to, however, was the growing conviction of the church that those scriptures were originally, and so exclusively, addressed to them. In its place we have argued for a dual reading of those texts, a reading that reflects God's preservation of both the Jewish people and the Christian church as bearers of Israel's story into the future" (p. 131).

He builds his argument on Jewish and Christian understandings of the aqedah, the Binding of Isaac, and concludes his volume with fresh readings of the stories of Sarah's appeal to Abraham to expel Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 21); Esau's discovery that he has been robbed of his blessing (Genesis 27); and the New Testament story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15).

Nowhere does van Buren argue for political correctness. In fact, as he presented his reasons for mutually respectful Jewish and Christian readings of the same texts I kept wondering why Christians hadn't taken this position earlier (and I mean centuries earlier). I suspect some Christians will be less convinced. But as for me, my reading of the Old Testament has changed forever.