Epistemology

Literature

Internal medicine

Philosophy

Sociology

New Testament

Psychology

Theology

Fluency

Vocabulary

Faith

Face (sociological concept)

Linguistics

Analogy

Old Testament

Medicine

Argument (complex analysis)

Bulletin for Biblical Research

This volume treats the OT as a language, the mastery of which can open up possibilities and significantly improve one’s existence in God’s kingdom, while its loss can impede and limit the fullness and abundance of life God offers to his children. The book consists of three parts that analyze the OT as a foreign language that can be lost or learned, six appendixes that provide supporting data mentioned in the chapters, and Testmonia, which presents the framework of the author’s argument. Quotations from famous biblical scholars and Scripture itself speak about the significance of the OT.Part 1, “The Old Testament as a Dying Language,” includes three chapters. Chapter 1 explains the linguistic analogy between a language and the OT. As a language, the OT presents a certain reflection of a religious society and constructs its own worldview. The author suggests that fluency in the OT, as a language, is essential for confessing one’s faith (p. 14); however, his diagnosis is that the OT is a dying language.Chapter 2 looks at four data sources that support this diagnosis: (1) The U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey demonstrates that Christians in general are quite illiterate about basic biblical knowledge and lack the vocabulary to articulate the foundations of their faith (p. 26). (2) The analysis of Best Sermons series shows that they mostly use NT texts, while neglecting significant parts of the OT. Thus, the “experts” of the text do not use or educate their listeners in the full language of Scripture (p. 37). (3) The study of Psalms in mainline hymnology reveals a focus on select themes and a disregard of the richness of the entire Psalter. The lyrics tend to interpret the Psalms perpetuating, at times, a flawed understanding of Scripture (p. 43). (4) The examination of the Revised Common Lectionary determines that the OT is drastically underrepresented, which again points to the reduction and underuse of the full language of Scripture (p. 55).Chapter 3 addresses the linguistic side of the volume’s metaphor and describes different stages in language development from a pidgin (a greatly abbreviated contact language used by people who do not share a common language) to a creole (a pidgin language that has become the dominant language of a people group) to a full language, and then to its death. The author then applies “the linguistic side of this metaphor” to the OT (p. 59).Part 2, “Signs of Morbidity,” assesses three areas that evidence the death-like status of the OT. Chapter 4 examines the writings of Richard Dawkins and other scholars of the New Atheism and their profound misunderstanding of the OT. Dawkins’s and others’ criticism of theism is based on their limited knowledge of the Bible and their deficiencies in the understanding of the field of biblical studies (p. 87). According to the author, the New Atheists only speak pidgin; however, they present their arguments as though they spoke the full language of Scripture. Their greatly lacking pidgin is, unfortunately, characteristic of the Christian majority, which makes it harder for Christians to know what the Bible says (p. 100).Chapter 5 investigates the disparaging attitude toward the OT in the writing of Marcion (2nd century AD) and the Marcionites of our times. The author argues that that Marcion’s inability to reckon with the complexity of the full language of Scripture caused him to redact the OT and create a new “abbreviated language artificially constructed” (p. 108). Von Harnack and other modern Marcionites still intend to “withdraw canonical authority from the OT” (p. 127) and repidginize the full language of Scripture.Chapter 6 treats a linguistic phenomenon of creolization, the process when a pidgin becomes the mother tongue of second-generation speakers. The author demonstrates the ways in which the preaching of Joel Osteen and other “happiologists” is “all bad and completely wrong . . . because it is exactly the full language of Scripture that is so obviously missing from . . . prosperity gospel preachers” (p. 138).Part 3, “Recommended Treatment,” proposes ways to prevent the OT’s demise and save the patient. Chapter 7 draws insights from children’s language learning and second-language acquisition to suggest that the OT will survive only when Christians understand that they are language speakers, who need to learn to speak Scripture, both the NT and the OT, as a new language and do it consistently (p. 176).Chapter 8 draws on the example of the book of Deuteronomy to demonstrate the ways in which the full language of the OT can survive when it is embodied in the life of the community speaking this language (p. 209). The author chooses the book of Deuteronomy as example, because the OT understands it as “Law” or “Instruction” (p. 195). He then traces the strategies of Deuteronomy’s instruction to teach the language of the Torah from Joshua to Josiah and performing Deuteronomy in different ways, places, and times (p. 204).Chapter 9 advocates for the consistent and extensive use of the full language of Scripture at the formative moments in the Christian life (p. 214). This use should extend beyond preaching and teaching into hymns and songs, based on “the full counsel of God” (p. 215). Pastors and leaders should have “adequate linguistic training” (p. 217), which prepares them to be bilinguals equipped to teach the full language of Scripture to different audiences. The OT should be expressed in song and poetry, committed to memory, and taught to children, the ones who will speak it as their mother tongue.This volume raises extremely important questions and concerns about the survival of the Christian faith that is rooted in Scripture. The author is correct that only consistent and intentional reading of the OT and use of it in worship and education can remedy the situation for the survival of the OT and the entire Bible as well. This book is a valuable addition to the field of practical theology and biblical studies and a source of enriching discussions on the authority and use of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment