Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to "Holy Land" Theology [Paperback]

Gary M. Burge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2010

This accessible volume describes first-century Jewish and Christian beliefs about the land of Israel and offers a full survey of New Testament passages that directly address the question of land and faith. Respected New Testament scholar Gary M. Burge examines present-day tensions surrounding "territorial religion" in the modern Middle East, helping contemporary Christians develop a Christian theology of the land and assess Bible-based claims in discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Gary Burge has made a valuable contribution to the ongoing matter of the 'Holy Land' so contested by Israelis and Palestinians. He recognizes the powerful impulse to a territorial dimension in much of Judaism. But then he reflects on New Testament texts--notably those by Luke, John, and Paul--to see that Jesus and the early church distanced themselves from any territorial dimension of faith. This leads Burge to offer a powerful, compelling critique of 'Christian Zionism,' to which 'the NT says: No.' Clearly a faith that intends to reach Gentiles must, perforce, refuse any closed tribalism that makes exclusive territorial claims. Burge's reading of Scripture is persuasive and provides a fresh way to think about 'faith and land.'"--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"Burge writes out of a deep knowledge of Scripture and personal acquaintance with the Middle East to demonstrate how the concern for the geographical land in the Old Testament is transmuted into concern for a spiritual inheritance for God's believing people, both Jewish and Gentile, in the New Testament. His exposition of the biblical material offers a gracious corrective to some inadequate and misinformed ideas about the role of Israel in the plan of God and about the Palestinian-Jewish situation and has important consequences for Christian belief and behavior. I warmly commend this thorough and scholarly but nevertheless clearly and simply written presentation."--I. Howard Marshall, University of Aberdeen

"Burge may be American evangelicalism's foremost expert on a biblical theology of the land of Israel. This book reintroduces sanity, common sense, and exegetical acumen into a discussion that often sadly lacks these traits. Absolutely essential reading for any Christian who wants to hold a biblically defensible position on the topic."--Craig L. Blomberg, Denver Seminary

"Burge's accessible consideration of 'holy land theology' in relation to New Testament texts cannot be overlooked. From now on, Christians who wish to engage responsibly with this highly charged and controversial issue will need to interact fully with Burge's careful, constructive, and challenging presentation."--Bruce W. Longenecker, Baylor University

About the Author

Gary M. Burge (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. His published works include The New Testament in Antiquity: A Textbook for Students; The Bible and the Land; Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller; the NIV Application Commentary on the Letters of John; and the NIV Application Commentary on the Gospel of John. He has also been active as a speaker and writer evaluating Christian Zionism within the evangelical world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (April 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801038987
• ISBN-13: 978-0801038983
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gary M. Burge (Ph.D., Aberdeen University, Scotland) is a professor of New Testament in the Department of Biblical & Theological Studies at Wheaton College and Graduate School near Chicago, IL. Gary also keeps an active speaking schedule (see www.garyburge.org). In addition he has accepted invitations to lecture in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

Gary has authored a number of books both on the New Testament and the Middle East. His theological works include commentaries on the Gospel and Letters of John, a textbook on the New Testament, four volumes explaining the cultural background of Jesus and the gospels, and technical volumes on the study of Johannine theology. His book Whose Land? Whose Promise? (2003; 2nd ed. 2013) won national awards as a critical analysis of the current Arab-israeli conflict from a Christian perspective. His recent Jesus and the Land (2010) is a theological examination of this same conflict.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent analysis May 23, 2010

By Nathaniel Rhoads

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Burge's latest book on land theology and its political consequences is thoroughly exegetical and, IMO, utterly convincing. He demonstrates sound biblical theology, interpreting the OT promises in light of what the NT writers and Jesus say about them. The chapters on John's gospel and Paul's letters are worth the price of the book easily. The only drawback here may be that the discussion gets a bit technical at times. However, I'd strongly recommend the book as a noteworthy correction to misplaced Christian Zionist theology and ethics.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great one from Burge June 11, 2010

By Troy McClure

Format:Paperback

It is a shame that a reviewer who has an axe to grind and clearly hasn't even read the book can pull the rating down and dissuade others from reading it. I've read several books by Dr. Burge, and I always find him to be insightful, gracious, and biblically sound. He has spent a lot of his life studying and visiting the middle east, and this is a topic that he is passionate about. You may not agree with his conclusions (though I do), but in this book you will find a well reasoned, though respectful, argument against Christian Zionism.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Stuff February 18, 2011

By J. Mccormack

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I really enjoyed this book, and right after I started reading it I noticed two other authors I respected had also recently made mention of it, so I figured it should be a good read. The issue of Zionism, or those who feel Israel deserves to be back in their land due to some biblical, covenantal, or eschatological reason, really need to examine the issue further; and this book is a great place to start.

I was thinking it was going to just be a book to counter the many modern arguments in support of modern Israel, but instead it is a fairly thorough historical march through the Bible, covering the covenant, the promises, and the importance of the land along the way. Most of the way through, it spoke so much in favor of the importance of the land, that I thought it was going down a path other than what I thought the intent was. Then as he approached the New Testament, and the new covenant, the shift began, and the last couple chapters examine the view of the land in those last days for the Christians.

Kenneth Gentry recently commented, saying this book is one of a few books that has greatly shaped his view of Israel and the land, and that after reading this and the couple others, if someone still could cling to a modern dispensational view of the land, then they are probably beyond hope (that is a paraphrase as I understood it).

Maybe this book had more of an excitement and impact on me due to it's heavy look into Israel's past and understanding of the land, since I had recently finished the com/Resurrection-Restoration-Israel-Ultimate-Victory/dp/0300136358">Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life which examined a lot of historical understandings in Hebrew thought; but either way, this book was full of great content, history, and biblical conclusions. I have so many highlighted remarks throughout, it would be hard to narrow it down to give a brief synopsis, but I just encourage you to check this book out if you have any interest in the modern crisis in Israel over who has the rights to the land. Read more ›

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and argued! January 15, 2012

By Jerry K. Hatfield

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I just completed Burge's book and formerly coming out of a dispensational background (I still consider myself very conservative),I was most impressed with Burge's presentation. His research is most thorough and the biblical material quite well-placed to support his premise. Of course, I have for some time, before reading his work,understood quite a few places from NT Scripture where Jesus made bold claims regarding His own fulfillment in person of the promises and inheritance of place/space, land formerly in the OT being reinterpreted on a higher level later by Jesus and applied to himself. One notable place in the Gospel of John (2:19f NIV)when in dispute with the Jewish leadership just following the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus, he charges his hearers: "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it in three days." Incredulous by what they had just heard, they accused him, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" The narrator, John, then adds (v. 21 NIV), "But the temple he had spoken of was his body." This evidence, I think, clearly argues in favor Jesus prophesying here that the coming temple housing God's glory would be fulfilled most fully and appropriately in him. That is certainly why Jesus in a few chapters later in conversation with the Samaritan woman at Sychar's Well, proclaims, "Believe me, woman,a time is coming you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem" (Jn. 4:21 NIV). Many other examples could be offered, but space would not permit in this review. And besides, Burge does a very thorough job in his presentation.... As other reviewers had said, Burge is not mean-spirited in his arguments and even in a few cases neither does he attempt to sugar-coat or omit difficult verses such as the Roman's 11:26 verse,"So all Israel will be saved." Indeed, his assessments throughout the book seem more cogent and fairer than those claims of his detractors! Burge most certainly never shuts the door tight in the face of Israel whatever some mahy claim! Read the book for yourself and see! Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful November 27, 2012

By survivorman25

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The initial chapters are a bit dry, but as the book pregresses it isn't bad. As I've read my thoughts about the Holy Land have been challeneged and as I've paired the reading of this book with Bible study I'm begining to see more and more of what God has inteded. Good book for anyone interested in the land of Israel.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Job Gary Burge March 11, 2011

By ED the Country Coloradoan

Format:Paperback

I am very delighted and pleasantly surprised to find Professor Burge's wonderful book. I diligently read it through cover to cover and underlined it heavily. I have only recently come to question and see through the pervasive dogmas of today's Jews and today's Israel as so called "God's chosen people." Gary's book and his consistent logic helped to put it all together for me, from Matthew to Revelation. It's about time someone wrote this book.

A friend just suggested that I also read some of the chapters in THE GOD I DON'T UNDERSTAND by Christopher Wright which I shall order and read soon.

I think every Christian should read this book to get a clearer perspective on how the symbols and types and shadows in the Old Testament have transitioned into the bigger, broader realities in the New Covenant.

Lastly, I believe I did find one mistake in Professor Burge's thinking. This one error didn't surprise me because most Christians make it. The mistake is to overlook Israel #3 and to lump it together with Jews as if they were one and the same. I need to explain that.

As I see it, there are in the Bible and history five Israels. Errors are made when we try to lump them together.

Israel #1 was Jacob who wrestled with God and God renamed him Israel.

Israel #2 was the Nation of Israel that first came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership, went through the wilderness, conquered and settle the land. This Israel lasted through the Judges, then Saul, David and Solomon. This was the undivided Israel with all the tribes intact. However after the death of Solomon, the Greater Israel, all 13 tribes, split into two distinct nations: Judah on the south and Israel on the north.... This Israel on the north, made up of ten tribes under the leadership of Ephraim became Israel #3. Prophets such as Hosea were then sent to this Israel to give it prophecies that sent it down very different paths from the Nation or House of Judah on the south.

Israel #3 was the ten northern tribes under the leadership of Ephraim. They were called Israel because the right to use that name was included in the Birthright that Jacob/Father Israel gave to Ephraim in Genesis 48. Technically, only Ephraim and those under him have the right to be called Israel. Prophets such as Hosea gave to this Israel new prophecies that sent this group of people down very different paths from Judah's band on the south. SINCE THAT DIVISION, THEY ARE NOT TO THIS VERY DAY THE SAME PEOPLE. Hosea 1 prophesies that they will one day be reunited with Judah, but only when Messiah returns, when together they will go up from the land into the New Jerusalem made by God that comes down, not back to the old Jerusalem under Hagar, which is Sodom and Babylon.

Israel #4 is the overcomers among the born again body of believers. Most people miss this, but the Church did not replace Israel, but Israel became the Church. When Paul in Romans 9-11 says "all Israel will be saved" I believe he is speaking of both Israel #2 and Israel #3, but mostly Israel #3. That process of shifting from the Old to the New Covenant was prophesied in Hosea 1 and began to be fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost and continues to this day. I Peter 1 & 2 rehearse this and demonstrate that the process was well under way in Peter's time. As such, most of Israel #2 and Israel #3 as of our modern time have already been saved and have been starting in the first century. They became the Christian nations of Europe and the world.

Israel #5 I believe is a fraud. This is the Nation that calls itself Israel that was formed in 1948. When we look more closely we will see that this modern Israel was created by three groups of people, none of whom are under the blessings of Covenant with God. First, there was the bad fig Jews mentioned in Jeremiah 24, who rejected God and His Son and Messiah. Most of these went to Babylon and corrupted the Torah into the Babylonian Talmud and such. Second, there were the Edomites, who were conquered by Judah in 126 BC and forced to merge into Jewry where they have been to this very day. Long story there. Third, according to even Jewish sources, 90% of today's Jews and today's so called Israel actually came from the conversion of a crude race of people known as the Khazars, who converted to Judaism in the 700s AD. These are not descendants of Jacob/Father Israel, but trace their lineage back to Magog and before that back to Noah's other son Japheth. Therefore they are not even Semites, since they do not come from Shem. So to criticize them is not "anti-semitism", but rather anti-Japhethism. Now consider that to convert to Christless Judaism they rejected Christ and the Gospel, which puts them according to Jesus in John 3:36 under the wrath of God, not under some chosen people blessing. Jesus repeated this in John 15:1-6 where we are told they are cut off and thrown into fires for not abiding in Messiah. This third group of so called Jews are the Ashkenazi Jews. Read more about them in Arthur Koestler's book THE THIRTEENTH TRIBE.

Burge like so many mixes and matches and blurs the lines between these groups. The Jews of Romans 2 are not necessarily the same as the Israel in Romans 9-11 and are definitely not the same as Jews and Israel today. Read more ›