Confronting Old Testament Controversies: Pressing Questions about Evolution, Sexuality, History, and Violence

by Tremper III Longman

Overview

For many people, skeptics and believers alike, the Old Testament is rife with controversial passages and events that make both belief and sharing our beliefs with others difficult. Often our solutions have tended toward the extremes--ignore problem passages and pretend they don't matter or obsess over them and treat them as though they are the only thing that matters.

Now with clarity of purpose and fidelity to the message and spirit of Scripture as a whole, Tremper Longman confronts pressing questions of concern to modern audiences, particularly young people in the church:

- the creation/evolution debate
- God-ordained violence
- the historicity of people, places, and events
- human sexuality

Pastors, leaders in the church, and thoughtful and troubled Christians in the pews will find here a well-reasoned and faithful approach to dealing with the Old Testament passages so many find challenging or disconcerting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493416301
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	281,383
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Tremper Longman III (PhD, Yale University) is Distinguished Scholar and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California where he was the Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies for nineteen years before his retirement. Before Westmont, he taught at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia for eighteen years. He has authored or coauthored more than thirty books.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

1 Creation and Evolution: Are the Bible and Science in Conflict? 1

How Do We Interpret the Bible? 4

What Is Genesis 1-3 Teaching Us? 25

Excursus: Creation from Nothing? 48

Excursus: Does Genesis 1:29-30 Undermine Evolution? 54

Evolution and the Historical Adam and Eve 60

Excursus: Critiquing a Last-Gasp Effort to Undo Evolutionary Creationism 73

Conclusion 76

2 History: Did the Exodus and Conquest Happen, and Does It Matter? 79

The Controversy 80

The Question of Genre and History 90

The Historicity of the Exodus and Conquest 92

Excursus: The Dates of the Exodus and the Conquest 103

Conclusion 117

Excursus: Levite Origins of the Exodus? 120

3 Divine Violence: Does God Kill? 123

God's Violence 125

Silencing a God of judgment 144

Excursus: The Walton Thesis: Conquest as an Imposition of Order out of Disorder 172

God's Strategy for Defeating Human and Spiritual Evil 176

Concluding Reflections 195

4 Sexuality: Is Homosexual Practice Affirmed? 207

The Biblical Theology of Sexuality 210

Homosexuality and the Bible 219

Excursus: Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:16-19:29) and the Levite and His Concubine (Judges 19) 235

Excursus: David and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:26) 237

Responding to Objections 244

Now What? 251

Conclusion 263

Final Word 267

Bibliography 271

Author Index 285

Scripture Index 288

Subject Index 293