NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1.“Aftermath, Part 3: Not Difficult,” YouTube, 39:44, “Andy Stanley,” April 30, 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShxFTNRCWI.

2.“Dr. Brown Interviews Pastor Andy Stanley,” YouTube, 50:19, “ASK DrBrown,” July 2, 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Jcu03lJso.

1 LEAVING EGYPT

1.This momentous event has similarities with the salvation we have in Jesus. We are invited to dine with him at the Lord’s table, with his blood as a sign that we are part of the renewed covenant and enjoy God’s protection. When plagues of judgment fall on all those who have rejected his rule, we will be kept safe to enter God’s kingdom in the new creation.

2.David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1993), 6:723.

3.With gratitude to Karl Kutz for this insight, from class notes to his Pentateuch class at Multnomah University.

4.For a helpful discussion of chiasm or ring structure with examples, see J. P. Fokkelman, Reading Biblical Narrative: An Introductory Guide (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1999), 97-122.

5.Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 1:156-58.

6.This instance of literary symmetry and those that follow are taken from Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973), 308-16; Robert L. Cohn, The Shape of Sacred Space: Four Biblical Studies, AAR Studies in Religion 23 (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981), 18; Mark S. Smith, The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 239 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997), 289.

7.Victor Turner, “Liminality and communitas,” 74-84 in Paul Bradshaw and John Melloh, eds., Foundations in Ritual Studies: A Reader for Students of Christian Worship (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007).

8.Information about Maslow’s work can be found in many sources. See, for example, Calvin S. Hall, Gardner Lindzey, and John B. Campbell, Theories of Personality, 4th ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998), 444-54.

9.Terence E. Fretheim, “The Plagues as Ecological Signs of Historical Disaster,” in What Kind of God? Collected Essays of Terence E. Fretheim, ed. Michael J. Chan and Brent A. Strawn, Siphrut 14 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 225-35.

10.Terence E. Fretheim, Exodus, Interpretation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2010), 175.

11.Fretheim, Exodus, 175.

2 SURPRISED AT SINAI

1.“Legend of Isis and the Name of Re,” translated by Robert K. Ritner in William Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, eds., Context of Scripture (Leiden: Brill, 2003), I.22:33-34. “Re” is an alternative spelling of Egyptian sun god, Ra.

2.Herbert Huffmon and Simon Parker, “A Further Note on the Treaty Background of Hebrew Yada’,” BASOR 184 (1966): 37n12; Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 69n1, 226n2; Moshe Greenberg, “Hebrew S^eǥullā : Akkadian Sikiltu,” JAOS.71 (1951): 172–74. For more bibliography and fuller discussion see Carmen Joy Imes, “Treasured Possession”: Peter’s Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter 2:9-10 (MA thesis, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2011), 37-40.

3.Bernard Grossfeld, trans., Targum Onqelos to Exodus, Aramaic Bible 7 (Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1988), 52-53.

4.Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 256.

5.As translated by Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, 3rd ed. (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2005), III.56, 763. Used by permission.

6.Foster, Before the Muses, 763-65. Emphasis mine.

7.Raymond Westbrook, ed., A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 1:17, 20, 98; John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 287-302; Michael LeFebvre, Collections, Codes, and Torah: The Re-Characterization of Israel’s Written Law, LHB/OTS 451 (New York: T&T Clark, 2006), 36, 90-91, 259, 261.

8.By the time we get to the New Testament, the Pharisees are quite fastidious about law enforcement, but they reflect a Hellenistic understanding of the function of law which is quite different than the approach of their Jewish ancestors. For a full defense of this claim, see LeFebvre, Collections, Codes, and Torah.

3 MAJOR DEAL

1.The Akkadian word is ade. Simo Parpola and Kazuko Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths, State Archives of Assyria 2 (Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1988), xv; Paul Kalluveettil, Declaration and Covenant: A Comprehensive Review of Covenant Formulae from the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East, Analecta Biblica 88 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1982), 31. For a more recent discussion, see Daniel I. Block, “For Whose Eyes? The Divine Origins and Function of the Two Tablets of the Israelite Covenant,” in Write That They May Read: Studies in Literacy and Textualization in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Scriptures: Essays in Honour of Professor Alan R. Millard, edited by Daniel I. Block, C. John Collins, David C. Deuel, and Paul J. Lawrence (forthcoming).

2.Jacob Lauinger, “Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Tablet Collection in Building XVI from Tell Tayinat,” Journal of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 6 (2011), 10–11.

3.“No. 56A Shattiwaza of Mitanni & Suppiluliuma I of Hatti,” in Kenneth A. Kitchen and Paul J. N. Lawrence, Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012), 1:391. Words in brackets are either assumed in the original text or are damaged or missing. Ancient tablets of clay or stone were susceptible to chips or wear over time.

4.“Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 34,” Resources, Reformed Church of America, www.rca.org/resources/heidelbergcatechism.

5.We’ll talk later about how (or if) they relate to us today.

6.For a discussion of the difficulty of counting the commands of the Decalogue, see Mordechai Breuer, “Dividing the Decalogue into Verses and Commandments,” in The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition, ed. Ben-Zion Segal, trans. Gerson Levi (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1990), 291-330; Daniel I. Block, How I Love Your Torah, O LORD!: Studies in the Book of Deuteronomy (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2011), 56-60; DeRouchie, “Counting the Ten: An Investigation into the Numbering of the Decalogue,” in For Our Good Always: Studies on the Message and Influence of Deuteronomy in Honor of Daniel I. Block, ed. Jason S. DeRouchie, Jason Gile, and Kenneth J. Turner (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2013), 93-125; Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai, 132-35.

7.Edward L. Greenstein, “The Rhetoric of the Ten Commandments,” in The Decalogue in Jewish and Christian Tradition, ed. Henning Graf Reventlow and Yair Hoffman, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 509 (New York: T&T Clark, 2011), 9; Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai: A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue, Bulletin for Biblical Research, Supplements 19 (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2018), 133.

8.Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4; 13:11; 24:7; 30:22; 31:1, 33; 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20; 14:11; 36:28; 37:23, 27.

9.Block, How I Love Your Torah, 32-33.

10.He has written about his adventure in Charlie Trimm, “Honor Your Parents: A Command for Adults,” JETS 60 (2017): 247-63.

11.Peter Enns, Exodus, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 426.

4 NOW WHAT?

1.For example, at Sinai, the Israelites are commanded not to make altars of cut stone, but rather altars of earth or uncut stone “wherever” God authorizes them to honor him (Exodus 20:24). However, in Deuteronomy 27:5, earthen altars are not even mentioned, and in Deuteronomy 12 the centralization of worship in one place on one altar is explicitly commanded. See Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 252, 263. The centralization of worship motivated a new set of instructions regarding meat-eating that is unconnected with tabernacle worship. When the tribes of Israel were spread throughout the land God promised them, it was no longer feasible for meat consumption to be linked solely to religious activities. See Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 316.

2.See Block, “Reading the Decalogue Right to Left,” 26-36. Also Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 243. Hittite treaties are the most similar to Israel’s covenant; later neo-Assyrian treaties lack a historical prologue and blessings.

3.The commands are addressed by default to male heads of households (“Do not covet your neighbor’s wife”), but with implications for each member of the family.

4.Ronald S. Hendel, “Sacrifice as a Cultural System: The Ritual Symbolism of Exodus 24,3-8,” Zeitschrift für die alttestementliche Wissenschaft 101 (1989): 385-88.

5.Hendel, “Sacrifice as a Cultural System,” 379.

6.Cornelis Houtman, Exodus, trans. Sierd Woudstra, Historical Commentary on the Old Testament (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2000), 3:643.

7.Credit for this illustration goes to Tim Mackie and Jon Collins; see “The Book of Leviticus,” YouTube, 7:21, “The Bible Project,” May 6, 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvyrLXoQio&t=16s.

8.The logic behind the clean and unclean food laws is difficult to discern, but Daniel Block makes a very plausible suggestion that the Israelites are invited to eat those things that Yahweh also accepts as sacrifices while they are prohibited from eating exotic or wild animals that have no part in tabernacle worship. Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 345-50.

9.For an explanation of how ritual works, see Victor Turner, “Liminality and cummunitas,” 74-84 in Bradshaw and Melloh, Foundations in Ritual Studies.

10.William H. C. Propp, Exodus 19–40, Anchor Bible 2A (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 528.

11.Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel: An Inquiry into Biblical Cult Phenomena and the Historical Setting of the Priestly School (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1985), 164-65. See also Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai, 157.

5 READY TO ROLL

1.A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1961), 1.

2.Duncan P. Westwood, “Risk and Resilience in Our God Image,” paper presented at the Member Care Conference at Providence University and Seminary, May 28, 2016.

3.Duncan P. Westwood, “God-Image as a Component of MHI/IHM’s Health Screening and Diagnostic Protocols,” Window on God Exercise presented at the Missionary Health Institute / International Health Management Staff Development meetings, June 21, 2013.

4.Austin Surls argues that rather than trying to figure out the meaning of the name Yahweh at the burning bush, we should direct our attention to Exodus 34:6-7, where God’s character is expressed. Austin D. Surls, Making Sense of the Divine Name in the Book of Exodus: From Etymology to Literary Onomastics, Bulletin for Biblical Research, Supplements 17 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2017).

5.See Muhammad A. Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia: From Nabopolassar to Alexander the Great (626–331 B.C.), ed. M. A. Powell and D. B. Weisberg, trans. V. A. Powell (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1984), 229-34, 488-89; Nili S. Fox, “Marked for Servitude: Mesopotamia and the Bible,” in A Common Cultural Heritage: Studies on Mesopotamia and the Biblical World in Honor of Barry L. Eichler, ed. Grant Frame et al. (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2011), 268; Sandra Jacobs, The Body as Property: Physical Disfigurement in Biblical Law, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 582 (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 205-14.

6.See John E. Hartley, Leviticus, Word Biblical Commentary 4 (Dallas: Word, 1992), 362. Jacob Milgrom sees vv. 31-33 as applying to the entire chapter, because of the inclusio in v. 2, or even to the entirety of God’s commands. Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22, AB 3A (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 1887.

7.Steven B. Sample, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002), 145.

INTERMISSION

1.For more on this painting, see Flavio Febbraro and Burkhard Schwetje, How to Read World History in Art: From the Code of Hammurabit to September 11 (New York: Abrams, 2010).

6 STRIKING OUT

1.See Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 624-29.

2.For a full-scale study of the altar on Mount Ebal, see Ralph K. Hawkins, The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal, Bulletin for Biblical Research, Supplements 6 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012).

3.Sandra L. Richter, The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology: L^ešakkēn Š^emô Šām in the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestementliche Wissenschaft 318 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2002).

4.A unique form of amar in the hiphil stem, occurring only here, functions as a declarative speech act. In the language of speech-act theory, the statement’s perlocutionary effect is the enacting of a new level of covenant commitment. For a full defense of this translation, see Stephen Guest, Deuteronomy 26:16-19 as the Central Focus of the Covenantal Framework of Deuteronomy (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2009).

5.David M. Howard, Joshua, New American Commentary 5 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998), 103. Rahab also roughly mimics Exodus 15:14-16, when she speaks of “dread,” “rulers,” and “melting away.” In short, her confession embodies classic Deuteronomic theology, despite the lack of a comparable expression from the Israelites in Joshua. See Robert G. Boling, Joshua: A New Translation with Notes and Commentary, Anchor Bible 6 (New York: Doubleday, 1982), 146-47.

6.John Goldingay, Israel’s Gospel, vol. 1 of Old Testament Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003), 464-65, 510-11. The parallels between these accounts are noted by Richard S. Hess, Joshua: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 177; Richard D. Nelson, Joshua, Old Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997), 131-32.

7.See David G. Firth, 1 & 2 Samuel, AOTC (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 115-16.

8.A recently discovered Ugaritic text speaks of the goddess ʿAthtartu as the “name of Baʿalu” who also wielded his name as a mighty weapon. See Theodore J. Lewis, “ʿAthtartu’s Incantations and the Use of Divine Names as Weapons,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 70 (2011): 207-27.

9.2 Samuel 7 has attracted much scholarly attention as to its source(s) and perspective on Davidic kingship and the temple. For a thorough discussion, see P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel, Anchor Bible 9 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 209-31. However the textual history is construed, the canonical text affirms that David’s “name” is a gift from Yahweh and that David understands his task as that of magnifying Yahweh’s name among the nations.

10.1 Kings 3:2; 5:3, 5; 8:16-21, 29, 33, 35, 44, 48.

11.Noted by Jeffrey Niehaus, God at Sinai: Covenant and Theophany in the Bible and Ancient Near East, Studies in Old Testament Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 243.

7 WHAT YAHWEH SEES

1.One of my students, Joel Schultz, deserves special recognition for the insights in this paragraph. He gave an excellent presentation to our class on 1 Kings 18.

2.“The ‘Aqhatu Legend,” trans. Dennis Pardee (Context of Scripture 1.103:351).

3.Peter Leithart, 1 & 2 Kings, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006), 141.

4.The NIV reads “den of robbers,” which distances the hearers from the problem. The temple is not a den full of other robbers; it has become a den for the people themselves, who are robbing God and one another.

5.See Daniel I. Block, Beyond the River Chebar: Studies in Kingship and Eschatology in Ezekiel (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013), 154-55. Block points to Isaiah 40:1-5 as a clear example that the covenant renewal is related to the outpouring of the spirit.

6.For renaming as a sign of redemption, see Isaiah 58:12 (“Repairer of Broken Walls”); 60:14 (“City of Yahweh”); 61:3 (“oaks of righteousness”); 61:6 (“priests of Yahweh”); 62:4 (“Hephzibah” and “Beulah”); 62:12 (“Holy People,” “Redeemed,” and “Sought After”). For reversion to old names, see Isaiah 47:1, 5; 48:8.

7.The Hebrew word tov describes Israel’s responsibility to do that which is good in the eyes of Yahweh as well as Yahweh’s blessing in response (“for your good”). For a longer catalog of covenant language from Deuteronomy, see Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 335, 343, 345, 346.

8.The words “not,” “not,” and “oh” make a loʾ, loʾ, luʾ sequence, while the pairs “called” and “split” (niqraʾ and qaraʿta) and “name” and “heavens” (shimka and shamayim) both share two consonants. The overall effect in Hebrew is striking: loʾ niqraʾ shimka ʿaleyhem // luʾ qaraʿta shamayim. In Hebrew the chapter break comes later.

9.Author’s translation. English translations are split over how to render 63:19. The NIV and a few others read it as a contrast between Israel and the nations: “We are yours from of old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name.” However, if Israel’s elect status (“called by your name”) has not been lost (63:19), then the plea for a return to Sinai in 64:1 makes little sense.

10.The New Testament book of Hebrews confirms this assessment. It reads, “If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people” (Hebrews 8:7-8, emphasis added). The problem with the covenant is the people’s failure to keep it.

11.2 Corinthians 3:6-10 is also a challenge. It says that the ministry of the old covenant brought death. But in what sense? Paul elsewhere affirms that “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12) so the deficiency is not with the law itself. Scott Hafemann explains, “Moses’ ministry brought about death to those who received the law (v. 7) because it declared and effected God’s sentence of condemnation on those who broke the covenant (v. 9a).” 2 Corinthians, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 150. The Sinai covenant is called “transitory” because of its constant need for renewal. The problem is not with Moses and his covenant, but with those whose hearts have not yet been transformed (2 Corinthians 3:14-16).

8 JUST GIVE ME JESUS

1.For discussion, see R. Kendall Soulen, The Divine Name(s) and the Holy Trinity: Distinguishing the Voices (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2011).

2.I owe this insight to Daniel Block, through personal conversation.

3.Moises Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 2:527-29.

4.R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 53.

5.Raymond Brown recognizes the connection with the wider biblical theme of name-bearing when he suggests that since Jesus replaced the temple, he is now the “place where God has put His name” (cf. Deut 12:5). Brown, The Gospel According to John (XIII-XXI), Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), 754.

6.For a full defense of this view, see Daniel I. Block, “A Prophet Like Moses: Another Look at Deuteronomy 18:9-22,” in The Triumph of Grace: Literary and Theological Studies in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Themes (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017), 349-73.

7.You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 21.

8.The word could be translated either personally or impersonally.

9.France, Matthew, 648.

10.France, Matthew, 648. See Malachi 4:5 and Deuteronomy 18:15-19.

11.France, Matthew, 644.

12.France, Matthew, 645.

13.Michael Harrison Kibbe, “Our Future in the Face of Jesus,” Christianity Today, July/August 2017, 68

9 BLOB TAG

1.See Darrell Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 118; Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 1:920-23.

2.For an illuminating discussion, see Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 41-45. Paul also quotes Joel 2:32 in Romans 10:13 with similar results. See Daniel I. Block, “Who Do Commentators Say ‘The Lord’ Is? The Scandalous Rock of Romans 10:13,” in On the Writing of New Testament Commentaries: Festschrift for Grant R. Osborne on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, ed. Stanley Porter and Eckhard J. Schnabel, Text and Editions for New Testament Study 8 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 173-92.

3.See Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 221-26.

4.See Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60–150, trans. Hilton C. Oswald, Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 287.

5.It is not certain what makes the name secret. It’s possible that the idea of secrecy arose from centuries of refusal to say the name Yahweh aloud. Greg Beale insists that “secret” does not imply that the name has not yet been revealed to the elect. That is, it is not necessarily a name other than Yahweh. G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 257-58.

6.“Jesus Prays for Himself (John 17),” sermon at Mt. Olive Evangelical Free Church, Three Hills, Alberta, March 11, 2018.

7.We usually call him Paul, but that name is only used when he is in Greek-speaking contexts. Saul is his Jewish name. If you read Acts carefully, you’ll see that his name is not changed in this story, as is so often taught. See Stephen B. Chapman, “Saul/Paul: Onomastics, Typology, and Christian Scripture,” in The Word Leaps the Gap: Essays on Scripture and Theology in Honor of Richard B. Hays, ed. J. Ross Wagner, C. Kavin Rowe, and A. Katherine Greib (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 214-43.

8.The NIV reads “proclaim my name,” but this translation obscures the connection with the theme of bearing Yahweh’s name. The word is bastazo, which means “to bear” or “to carry.”

9.For further discussion of this phrase, see Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai, 49-61.

10.Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016), 145.

11.Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 145.

12.See Karen Jobes, 1 Peter, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 287.

13.From the hymn by Thomas Chisholm, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” penned in 1923.

14.Daniel I. Block, “Reading Galatians with Moses: Paul as a Second and Seconding Moses,” in The Triumph of Grace: Literary and Theological Studies in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Themes (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017), 375.

15.See Block, “Reading Galatians with Moses,” 387-90.

16.Details regarding the seismic and eruptive activity of the volcano may be accessed in The 1980 Eruptions of Mt. Saint Helens, Washington, US Geological Survey, 1981 this US Geological Survey, https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1250/report.pdf. On Harry R. Truman, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_R._Truman and www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/05/17/mount-st-helens-people-stayed/27311467.

17.Michael Harrison Kibbe, Godly Fear or Ungodly Failure? Hebrews 12 and the Sinai Theophanies, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 216 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016), 215.

18.Kibbe, Godly Fear or Ungodly Failure?, 214.

19.For a fuller discussion, see Ryan S. Peterson, The Imago Dei as Human Identity: A Theological Interpretation, Journal of Theological Interpretation Supplement 14 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016); Catherine L. McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden: The Creation of Humankind in Genesis 2:5–3:24 in Light of mīs pî pīt pî and wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, Siphrut 15 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015).

20.John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009).

21.Suzanne McDonald conflates creational and covenantal election, but on the whole her theology of election is refreshing and helpful. See her Re-Imaging Election: Divine Election as Representing God to Others and Others to God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010).

10 WHO LET YOU IN?

1.See Exodus 19:5 for an example of this contrast.

2.For further discussion, see C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, 2 vols., International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998), 2:724; F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 293; Richard Bauckham, “James and the Gentiles (Acts 15:13-21),” in History, Literature, and Society in the Book of Acts, ed. Ben Witherington (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 154-84.

3.The Hebrew reads, “that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations upon whom my Name will be invoked” (author’s translation). This could imply military domination. The Greek Septuagint reads, “that the remnant of humankind, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, may earnestly seek me.” Rather than military domination, the Greek translation suggests global conversion. Still, both versions refer to the Gentiles as those “over whom my Name is invoked,” which is the principal point on which James depends. In Hebrew, “Edom” and “humankind” are almost identical, as are “possess” and “seek,” which partly explains the Greek translation.

4.Bauckham, “James and the Gentiles,” 169. Zechariah 2:11 is another potential example: “Many nations will join themselves to Yahweh on that day and they will be my people” (author’s translation). However, to “join themselves to Yahweh” may imply conversion to Judaism

5.Richard Hays contends that this chapter contains the teaching of Romans in a nutshell. Hays points out that not only is Israel’s “lack of faith” in view in Deuteronomy, but also God’s plan to include the Gentiles, the very message Paul is trying to proclaim. See Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 164.

6.Hays offers a chapter outline which is essentially the same as mine here, except he excludes verses 3-5, which I see as foundational to what follows. Hays, Echoes, 163-64.

7.He does not use the word faith here, but in both contexts the primary sin is forsaking the worship of God and turning to idols.

8.Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, ed. Frederick William Danker, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 945. Even if Paul’s “marks” in Galatians 6:17 are physical scars of his persecution, he knew that his sufferings were “for the sake of the name” which he “bore” (Acts 9:15-16).

9.Moisés Silva, ed. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, rev. ed. 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 4:375-77.

10.In English translations, it is unclear whether the angel is sealed or carries the seal. In Greek, the angel is “holding” it.

11.I read this as a single name, that is, the divine “name above all names” bestowed on Jesus and celebrated in the confession, “Jesus is kyrios” (i.e., he is Yahweh; Philippians 2:9-11). Ephesians 1:3 provides an example of a similar grammatical structure: “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” clearly refers to one person, even though two titles are joined by “and.” For other examples, see Nigel Turner, Syntax, vol. 3 of Grammar of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1963), 335.

12.For more on Israelite architecture, see Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel. Library of Ancient Israel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001) 28-35.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1.Andrew T. Le Peau and Linda Doll, Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength: An Anecdotal History of InterVarsity Press, 1947–2007 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 195.