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Kaiser, a longtime Old Testament professor from Gordon-Conwell, argues by looking a numerous Old Testament "messianic" texts, that these texts predict clearly the details of Jesus' life and second coming. He assumes a strong messianic expectation that begins at the very earliest stages of the Old Testament--Genesis 3:15--a text which introduces what Kaiser calls the "promise-plan of God". The Old Testament is from beginning to end pointing, by means of specific predictive prophecy, toward Jesus' life and work.
Kaiser examines the most obvious "direct" prophesies in a sort of commentary fashion. At times the discussion is much more technical than the average reader would likely appreciate, delving into issues of grammar, employing technical language ("conjuntive accent"), and sprinkling the discussion with Hebrew and Greek words. Overall, however, Kaiser's objective is to encourage all of us to hold firmly to what we have learned in Sunday school, that the Old Testament writers had visions of a coming messiah which they then recorded, and Jesus came and fulfilled each prediction.
This affirmation is encouraging to one's faith but it may not do justice to quite a number of texts which Kaiser refers to as "messianic". It appears that Kaiser is quite aware of this himself when he starts describing how this or that text has Jesus as the "ultimate" but not immediate referent (p.94).
Kaiser has provided a helpful volume for those wanting to locate Old Testament texts that have traditionally been identified as messianic--the charts in the appendices are particularly useful here. But the somewhat tedious nature of the book--over 60 different texts are examined--will lead many readers to explore only the introductory chapter and then pick and choose from there.
Ken Esau is Old Testament Professor at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C.
My first exposure to Bible stories came from my father's readings from an old Biblischegeschichte. As a Sunday school pupil I delighted in graphically told Bible stories. Later I learned to read such stories for myself in both English and German and as a Sunday school teacher I worked hard at telling the stories well.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of my job as an elementary school librarian is reading stories out loud to children. It was with this background that I read Ralph Milton's The Family Story Bible.
Ralph Milton has done an excellent job of retelling a wide selection of Bible stories from creation to consummation. Margaret Kyle's illustrations provide a splash of colour and detail to almost every page. The stories follow the Bible's own chronology, thus giving children a sense of the order in which the events of the Bible occur. The stories are told in easy to understand modern English. Where specific words or allusions to biblical cultures might not be understood by the modern child, Milton provides concise and understandable explanations.
Any Bible story anthology is necessarily selective. This one carefully leaves out some of the more violent accounts and provides simple, but not simplistic, explanations for the existence of violence and suffering. Milton has done an excellent job of paraphrasing examples of Psalms, the Lord's Prayer, the epistles, and John's apocalypse. In addition to providing readable stories, Milton serves the cause of educating children in the biblical tradition by providing explanatory notes at the beginning of each section. Some of these notes explain the different genre found in the Bible. Others explain how various narratives functioned in the lives of the ancient Israelites and the church. He also tells us how the narratives moved from oral to written tradition.
I would highly recommend this Bible story anthology to families, churches and elementary schools. It could be used for children's features in church services and various other church ministries. A volume like this would be very appropriate to place in a public elementary school library's religion section.
Linda Matties is a school librarian in Abbotsford, B.C., and attends West Clearbrook Community Church.
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