Customer Reviews

Israel's Messiah in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls

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This book was not what I expected. I guess I was expecting a treatise on the messianic concept in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Hebrew Scriptures. But the book turned out to be a series of essays by evangelical Old Testament scholars, followed by brief replies from critical reviewers. I really enjoyed this format. The most interesting article was the opening one by Daniel Block, where he tried with all of his might to show that the Messiah in the Old Testament was a kingly messiah all the way through, even in the suffering servant passages of Isaiah 42-53. It was hard to see where Block was coming from, and why he felt the way he did. I felt that Richard Hess did a great job of exposing some of the fallacies of Block's thinking.

There was also a good article by Craig Evans about the messiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls (it was hard to follow at times, but I learned a lot about the teacher role of the Messiah in these writings). The last article seemed out of place. It was about the Latin American messianic concept in response to some of those who hold to liberation theologies. The man who wrote that article was quite a wordsmith, and wrote with an engaging style. The female scholar who critiqued his article had nothing but glowing comments.

I recommend this book for scholarly pastors and those who are interested in learning more about messianic theology from a Christian perspective.