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Nahum-Malachi

By Elizabeth Achtemeier

Atlanta, John Knox, 1986. 201 Pp. $17.95.

Exegetes are often reputed for immersion in textual and linguistic technicalities that contemporary readers are not prepared to endure. At the same time, preachers who write biblical commentaries are apt to sway broadly beyond the edges of responsible scholarship or at least to miss the extraordinary enlightenment that modern methods of interpretation have brought to the understanding of Scripture. Elizabeth Achtemeier, who is a Visiting Professor of Bible and Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, is at home in both fields.

This commentary in the "Interpretation" series on Nahum to Malachi, the misnamed "Minor Prophets," might not attract at first glance the attention of contemporary pastors, but the author convincingly shows that the prophets who spanned tumultuous events from the death of Judah (sixth century B.C.) to the birth of Judaism (fifth century) were not "minor" in the popular and distorted sense of the word. They have a vital contribution to make within the contextual sacrament of the word.

Time has come for all the families of the universal church to gain breadth and inclusiveness of theological themes in preaching, especially through the discipline of the new ecumenical lectionary. The author happily refers to the lessons of the liturgical year. Her treatment of many passages that are often ignored in the pulpit or at the podium should open the eyes of many preachers and teachers.

Instead of dismissing Nahum as a merely nationalistic prophet who gloated over the fall of Nineveh in 612, one should remember with awe that human beings are not in the end the judges of history or, for that matter, of God's activity in the life of individuals and nations. In this respect, Achtemeier indicates that one cannot equate God with good. She might have strengthened her case if she had not yielded to the mistaken etymology which relates the name "God" to the word "good." It is now recognized that the root of the word "God" is gheu(e), meaning "to call, to invoke," with the suffix, "ghu-to," "the Invoked One." The word "good" appears to derive from "ghedh," meaning "to unite, to join, to bring together." Nevertheless, "there is indeed nothing more peculiar to God than goodness," said Calvin, who is aptly quoted here and

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elsewhere, as are also other great preachers and interpreters of the past such as Clovis Chappell, Malcom Macgregor, J. H. Jowett, Campbell Morgan, and, of course, the great Spurgeon. Calvin's pungent prayers and remarks enhance greatly the usefulness of the commentary. They also demonstrate indirectly that the often disparaged "Calvinism" has little to do with the Reformer's balanced genius and dedication. Luther's sermons and lectures might have received comparable attention.

Such appeals to the great homilies of previous centuries do not burden the volume with an obsolete theology. They rather bring into perspective the perenniality of theological themes under wholly different circumstances of history. For example, apropos of the Divine Warrior motif in Zechariah, chapter 9, we are told that "evil must be actively resisted and done away. It does not disappear by itself..." but we are left with the views of Colin Morris on the South African horrors. He wrote, in 1971, "Christians ... have an obligation to formulate a theology of violence which will lay down the conditions under which its use is permissible." To this Achtemeier added, "We human beings err terribly in our decisions about those conditions.... Far from promoting our warring tendencies, the biblical typology of the Divine Warrior is designed to lay a check upon them." Is it not at this point that canonical exegesis, from Zechariah to Jesus, should have brought into sharper light the dilemma between caution and daring?

An authentic sense of transcendence pervades the entire commentary,

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which frequently pinpoints the insidiousness of modern idolatry, that of individual, national, racial, and religious narcissism. At the same time, some readers might bristle at a certain survival of blunt Barthianism. To be sure, the author is right to declare, in connection with Zechariah, chapter 14, "No longer is [Yahweh] confused with any other god." However, canonical exegesis, which will never ignore the attitude of Jesus toward foreigners, pagans, and the "sinners," might not soften but displace the categorical dictum, "In our time [Yahweh] shares nothing with Allah or Buddha; ... nothing with a birthing, baalistic mothergoddess." In our age, dialogue with world religions is imperative, and in any case inevitable. There is a distinction between openness and syncretism.

Elizabeth Achtemeier is equally fluent in the language of the seminary and that of the church. She steers a steady course between a toneless didacticism and homiletical flights into "relevant" and, therefore, ephemeral application. She knows that the Christian sermon is not an after-dinner speech but a theological and artistic act. After more than two decades of pulpit neglect in many parishes and even centuries of eclipse in some denominations of Christendom, this book heralds a new era, when the sacramental preaching of the Word will regain its rightful place in public worship.

SAMUEL TERRIEN

Washington Depot, Connecticut