Jul
20
2010
Mission in the Old Testament?
Those wanting a thoughtful exploration of the idea that Israel was to be an active witness to the surrounding nations might want to check out Walter Kaiser’s Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations.
Almost ten years ago now I reviewed the book in JETS. You can read the whole thing here, if interested.
Some excerpts:
Two views:
Two fundamentally different views of mission are at issue here. Kaiser distinguishes them as “centripetal” and “centrifugal” witnessing.
The former view understands Israel to have a passive, Zion-centered view of mission. It is, one could say, “come-and-see” witnessing.
The latter view understands Israel to have an aggressive missionary mandate, an outward-moving mission that one could term “go-and-tell” witnessing.
Kaiser’s thesis:
Kaiser’s thesis is that “Centrifugal witnessing . . . is the role assigned to Israel in actively sharing with others the Man of Promise who was to come” (p. 9).
What I think Kaiser gets right:
Kaiser has demonstrated, in a careful and powerful way, that mission is at the heart and core of the promise-plan of God, a truth that is often obscured or forgotten in contemporary discussions. This commendable emphasis, founded upon Kaiser’s exegetical rigor and theological analysis, constitutes the greatest strength of the book and will be helpful to students and scholars alike. . . .
Where I think Kaiser goes wrong:
I remain unconvinced, however, of the thesis that Israel received a missionary mandate—a proactive prescription—to take the Good News to the Gentiles. Many of the texts produced (with notable exceptions like Jonah and Psalm 67) fail to fall into the strict category of “prescription.” They seem to fit better into the categories of “prayers” for the nations, “promises” about the nations, or “pronouncements” over the nations.
While Kaiser maintains that the missionary mandate is consistent in the OT, he himself admits that it is “at times only rudimentarily” so (p. 82). Yet this seems to be a softening of his thesis that the theme of mission in the OT is a “driving passion throughout the entire Old Testament” (p. 7).