This Strange and Sacred Scripture: Wrestling with the Old Testament and Its Oddities by Matthew Richard Schlimm. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015, 272 pages, $22.99, paper.

In this book Matthew Richard Schlimm addresses some theological questions raised by the Old Testament, providing pastoral insights alongside his biblical scholarship. He offers strategies for reading and appropriating these sacred texts, showing how the Old Testament can shape the lives of Christians today and helping Christians appreciate the Old Testament as a friend in faith. Schlimm discusses twelve theological and biblical issues found in the Old Testament. Here is a summary with assessment for each chapter.

1. Is The Old Testament an Enemy, Stranger, or Friend to the Christian Faith?

In this chapter, Schlimm shows how the Old Testament, despite its age, can give the church fresh ways of thinking about God, humanity, and creation.

2. Our Fleeting Moments in Paradise

Many in the evangelical world would disagree with Schlimm’s argument in this chapter as he tries to make the case for reading the stories in Genesis 2–4 symbolically rather than being historical narratives. For Schlimm, trying to read the narrative historically would completely miss the point. According to Schlimm, the characters of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel are simply mirror images of ourselves as representatives of humanity as a whole. Therefore, these chapters tell a story about us. This conclusion seems to go against the way in which the rest of the Scripture understands these chapters and their characters.

3. Darkness Over the Face of the Deep

Schlimm argues here that the Old Testament critically borrowed ideas from surrounding cultures. Therefore, Christians should be critically open to evolution and see science as a friend to Scripture. The question that Schlimm does not address is to what extent Christians should be open to evolutionary theories and scientific discoveries that plainly contradict the Scripture? Who determines the truth of the matter, the God-given Scripture or man-made theories? While Scripture and science can in fact be friends, this can only happen under some firm terms. These terms must make science subordinate to Scripture and always allow science to be shaped by the truths of the Scripture, rather than changing the truths of the Scripture, which is infallible, to allow it to be conformed to the discoveries of science, which are fallible and change all the time.

4. The R-Rated Bible

In this chapter Schlimm explores different ways interpreters have wrestled with the Bible’s morally questionable stories. He discusses different approaches including, on the one hand, searching for saints in the text to uphold them as examples to follow, and on the other hand, the “pursuing paradigms” approach which admits that no human in Scripture provides a perfect model for us to emulate. Another approach is searching for ethical principles that undergird the stories. Schlimm is not satisfied with any of these. Instead, he argues that reading stories well requires us to understand the story experience, which reflects real-life experiences. The problem with this approach is that it moralizes the purpose of these stories without looking deeper to their contribution to biblical theology as they are situated in redemptive history.

5. Killing All That Breathes: Violence in the Old Testament

Schlimm in this chapter seeks to correct some mistaken premises when one reads the Old Testament violence. These assumptions involve imitating the characters’ actions, God’s actions, applying the text directly to life, or trying to find answers to every question raised by disturbing texts. He makes helpful hermeneutical observations that description is not prescription, we should not imitate God, we should not apply such texts directly to our daily lives, and we should not read individual passages in isolation from other passages. According to Schlimm, we need to admit that we do not have all the answers. Rather, we need to approach biblical passages with humility and prayerfully question violent texts. For Schlimm, the Old-Testament-as-our-friend-of-faith model gives Christians permission to question the Bible and disagree, and clash, with some texts about violence to the point of not seeing the usefulness of them in our own lives. This approach does not seem to be helpful to those who are committed to the sacred status of the Bible. Rather, one needs to seriously consider these passages in light of their purposes in redemptive history and as they point to the finished work of Christ on the cross and the consummation of this work in his second coming.

6. Male and Female, God Created Them: Gender and the Old Testament

Building upon the assumption that the Bible uses ancient languages and reflects ancient ideas of gender, Schlimm suggests we should be honest about scars that patriarchy has left on the text. This approach requires rejecting biased interpretation and seeking gender equality. He suggests counteracting male-centeredness by questioning troublesome texts and by recovering neglected texts that work against male domination. This approach, however, does not consider the Bible’s own voice and assumes that there are texts that speak against male domination while others reflect patriarchy. Thus, it blames the Bible for not being consistent on gender issues.

7. God Commands Us to Do What?! The Strange Laws of the Bible

In this chapter Schlimm lays out some laws that seem strange in the Old Testament, including dietary, purity, and ritual laws. He discusses three approaches Christians take to these laws: splitting grace and law (Old Testaments commandments are outdated and obsolete), dividing the law into categories (moral, ceremonial, and judicial; with only moral commandments abiding on the church), and sticking with it (turning these laws to different angles and considering them in different lights). Schlimm suggests that we read these laws with sympathy and openness, paying attention to culture’s customs and relating particulars to the whole. While Schlimm seeks to relate some of the Old Testament laws to the culture of that time, he does not try to read them in light of their divine purpose and the person and work of Christ.

8. Is The Law Engraved in Stone? The Dynamic Nature of God's Law

Schlimm invites us to think of the Old Testament as a law professor in whose class we encounter issues that invite serious theological reflections—matters like holiness, poverty, disgust, food, sacred space, and sacrifice. This law professor reminds us that God’s law is alive and dynamic, changing as the living God interacts with the different needs of his people. It is true that the Lord’s laws are alive and dynamic; however, the dynamic nature of these laws does not necessary call for thinking of them as changing. It is because the Lord is unchanging that his laws are unchanging. The applications of these laws might be different based on time and place in history, and certainly as they point to the finished work of Christ.

9. Truth Is Many Sided

Schlimm deals with the question whether the Old Testament contradicts itself. He admits that there are many sorts of theological and ethical tensions within the Bible. He argues that since God is transcendent, his truths in the Bible are much bigger than we are and are presented to us as conversations about who God is and what he wants from us. According to Schlimm, these conversations continue, extending beyond the pages of Scripture into our own lives. A better way of formulating this is to say that these inspired conversations speak into our lives since they communicate God’s self-revelation. While it is true that the Bible often presents many perspectives on certain topics, instead of speaking of these perspectives in terms of contradictions or even tensions, it is helpful to seek their purposes in light of the larger biblical and theological picture.

10. Drowning in Tears and Raging at God

Schlimm reflects on the prayers of complaint in the Bible to highlight their acknowledgment of the grief, anger, and anguish that normally accompany life. But there is also hope: that night shall end, and a brighter day shall arrive. We can learn from the Old Testament, which thoroughly incorporates human emotions into the life of faith, how to pray when prayer is most difficult. Amid tragedy, we can speak with full honesty to God, and then wait as he shows up and gives us songs of joy. This chapter addresses human emotions and how biblical prayers present them. What it lacks is the basis on which one can overcome these emotions. It is through Christ, who himself experienced grief (Isa. 53:3), anger (Mark 3:5), and anguish (Heb. 4:15), that we conquer them and find our ultimate hope.

11. Great and Terrible Is the Wrath of the Lord

In this chapter Schlimm seeks to explain God’s anger, which is complicated, to show how the Old Testament reveals a God who is deeply concerned about evil—but also slow to anger. He argues that God’s anger exists in uneasy tension with his love. Looking at the matter from a different perspective reveals that it is in fact because God loves his creation and his people that he is angry at the evil that seeks to destroy them. True love necessitates righteous wrath. Schlimm concludes that the Old Testament shows four characteristics about God’s anger: 1) it is real; 2) it needs to be taken seriously; 3) God is slow to anger; and 4) This anger does not endure. Schlimm is not clear in this chapter about his views of God’s eternal wrath being poured righteously on the wicked in hell.

12. The Old Testament's Authority

Schlimm presents three ways of thinking about the Old Testament’s authority: 1) no or limited authority; 2) the drill-sergeant model (the Old Testament tells us what to do, and we do it); and 3) the inerrant-infallible model. Rejecting these ways, Schlimm offers his model, which controls his arguments throughout this book—the Old Testament is our friend in faith. According to this model, the Old Testament offers an invitation to a richer, fuller, and more faithful life. The main criticism for this model, however, is that it does not have room for seeing Christ as the center of the Scripture. Rather, it sees man as the focus of the Bible, and the Bible itself becomes a manual for a happy or godly life. It also does not take seriously the Bible’s own witness but seeks to interject its understanding of how things should be done.

Appendix: A Literal Translation of Genesis 2:4b–4:16

Schlimm provides his own translation of this passage based on the Hebrew text. Worthy of note here is Schlimm’s translation of the Hebrew names אָדָם (adam) “earthling” (2:5), עֵדֶן (eden) “Delight” (2:8), חַוָּה (havvah) “Life” (3:20), קַיִן (qayin) “Spear” (4:1), and הָבֶל (hebel) “Fleeting Breath” (4:2).

This book touches upon important issues that cause trouble to some as they read the Old Testament. It seeks to invite Bible readers to see the Old Testament as a friend of faith, thus it becomes accessible, personal, and practical. The book incorporates multiple voices and includes breakout boxes intermittently with quotations by scholars about the topic at hand. Each chapter ends with a list of annotated books and recommended resources for further study.

Working under the false assumption that the Old Testament is an enemy, Schlimm tries to make a friend out of it. The weakness of Schlimm’s suggested model is not recognizing that the Scriptures primarily bear witness to Christ and his work (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39). Thus, any reading that dismisses Christ and his work from its focus misses the purpose of the Old Testament and its role as a Christian Scripture.

Sherif Gendy is a member of Mission Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a licentiate in the Presbytery of the Midwest (OPC), and a PhD student at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Ordained Servant Online, August-September 2015.