Book Report: “Inspiration and Incarnation” by Peter Enns

Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament

Like many Bible-readers, the Old Testament puzzles me. Yes, I have assuredly found refreshment and respite in the everyday course of my life, through this ancient compilation of divinely-inspired Hebrew texts.

But I have also been supremely stumped.

I am not alone. Whether we are speaking of divinely-sanctioned violence, scientifically implausible creation accounts, or historical records that appear to be at odds with archaeological findings, the “problem” of the Old Testament is one with which many readers are familiar.

Unfortunately, many evangelicals pretend there is no problem with the Old Testament, at all. The problem, rather, is with us as overly-critical readers. According to its defenders, we need to give the Scriptures the benefit of the doubt as the divine document it is—even if this requires bending over backwards to avoid some of the Old Testament’s challenges.

Perhaps there is a third way—a path other than ignoring the Old Testament’s challenges and concluding that it is nothing more than another ancient religious book.

Old Testament scholar Peter Enns believes there is. Enns is a professor at Eastern University and author of Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament (2nd Ed., Baker Academic 2015). In this work, Enns identifies three realities that certain types of Christians are uncomfortable dealing with honestly. First, there is the matter that other ancient religious texts describe creation and flood stories very similar to the Bible’s. Second, the authors of the Old Testament clearly do not intend to write objective history, but “historiography”—or history with a purpose—in which historical accuracy is not as important as we believe it must be. And third, the Bible quotes itself in ways that challenge our own interpretative commitment to “authorial intent.” We as readers obsess over what the author meant to say, but when Matthew quotes Hosea, for example, he seems barely interested in Hosea’s intended message. (Look up “out of Egypt I called my son.”)

Plenty of Christians ignore these Old Testament difficulties. (And I haven’t even mentioned the problem of Old Testament violence, which is a separate—although not unrelated—matter.)

To Enns, though, the fact is that even as we acknowledge the divine inspiration of Scripture, we must also acknowledge the human authorship of the Book, written in ancient voice by ancient people according to ancient standards. This is one of the things that makes the Old Testament unique and special, that God would use human authors—and the manner in which they write and record history—to speak to his creatures.

In short, in order to encounter the divine authorship of Scripture we must start by appreciating it as a human document.

Sound crazy? Well, then so is what Christians think about Christ.

Dr. Enns believes that Christians have an obvious parallel in the incarnation of Jesus: the Son of God in human form. As God, Jesus was morally perfect and sinless. As a man, Jesus was subject to the limitations of all human beings: he suffered, bled, wept, died, and didn’t know certain things about the future. His humanity is an indication of how willing God was to speak on our level, in our terms.

Could the Bible be a similar attempt to speak to us on our level, in our terms?

Enns readily acknowledges the limitations to the analogy, which he discusses. He also understands that many will think him giving too much ground to modern Biblical criticism. Critics will think he is giving up the store. (Indeed, after the first edition of the book came out in 2005, he eventually resigned from his teaching post at Westminster due to the ensuing dustup. It’s an interesting story.) In this respect, the second edition of the book includes some helpful additional sections which address the ensuing controversy, and some of it’s detractors questions/critiques.

I have much more study to do regarding the Old Testament, and my reading will not end any time soon. But I found Inspiration and Incarnation helpful as I do my humble best to let God speak to me through His Word while also seeking to understand it as the ancient and sometimes puzzling document it is. You can do both at the same time. The Hebrew Scriptures are far richer, deeper, and more complicated than I could ever hope to understand.

I’m not at all offended by someone who seems to agree.

-MRH (January 2019)