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Rating: 
Summary: A fresh perspective on the "Old Testament"
Review: In defending the use of the name "Old Testament" for the Scriptures Christians inherited from Jews (by way of the Septuagint), van Buren makes an elegant argument for a dual reading of those works that both Jews and Christians hold sacred. "What we can and must object to, however, was the growing conviction of the church that those scriptures were originally, and so exclusively, addressed to them. In its place we have argued for a dual reading of those texts, a reading that reflects God's preservation of both the Jewish people and the Christian church as bearers of Israel's story into the future" (p. 131).He builds his argument on Jewish and Christian understandings of the aqedah, the Binding of Isaac, and concludes his volume with fresh readings of the stories of Sarah's appeal to Abraham to expel Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 21); Esau's discovery that he has been robbed of his blessing (Genesis 27); and the New Testament story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). Nowhere does van Buren argue for political correctness. In fact, as he presented his reasons for mutually respectful Jewish and Christian readings of the same texts I kept wondering why Christians hadn't taken this position earlier (and I mean centuries earlier). I suspect some Christians will be less convinced. But as for me, my reading of the Old Testament has changed forever.
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