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Walter C. Kaiser
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Recovering the Unity of the Bible: One Continuous Story, Plan, and Purpose Hardcover – October 24, 2009

by Walter C. Kaiser Jr. (Author)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 29 ratings
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Recovering the Unity of the Bible helps readers grasp the Bible’s progressive witness on various theological concepts. Walter C. Kaiser challenges the common scholarly posture that sees mostly diversity throughout the biblical canon, pointing instead to the way several Biblical themes substantially support the case for unity, including: - Messianic Promises - The People of God - The Law of God - The Doctrine of Salvation - The Mission of the Old Testament Recovering the Unity of the Bible exhibits sound techniques for students, pastors, and Bible teachers who seek to make sense of the Bible’s many and different texts.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Zondervan
  4. Publication date
    October 24, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    7.64 x 0.79 x 9.49 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0310320240
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0310320241
  8. See all details
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From the Back Cover

Recovering the Unity of the Bible helps readers grasp the Bible's progressive witness on various theological concepts. Walter C. Kaiser challenges the common scholarly posture that sees mostly diversity throughout the biblical canon, pointing instead to the way several Biblical themes substantially support the case for unity, including:- Messianic Promises- The People of God- The Law of God- The Doctrine of Salvation- The Mission of the Old TestamentRecovering the Unity of the Bible exhibits sound techniques for students, pastors, and Bible teachers who seek to make sense of the Bible's many and different texts.

About the Author

Walter C. Kaiser Jr. (PhD, Brandeis University) is distinguished professor emeritus of Old Testament and president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Dr. Kaiser has written over 40 books, including Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching; The Messiah in the Old Testament; and The Promise-Plan of God; and coauthored An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning. Dr. Kaiser and his wife, Marge, currently reside at Kerith Farm in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. Dr. Kaiser’s website is www.walterckaiserjr.com.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zondervan; 1st edition (October 24, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0310320240
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0310320241
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.26 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.64 x 0.79 x 9.49 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 29 ratings

About the author

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Walter C. Kaiser

Walter C. Kaiser

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Walter C. Kaiser Jr. (PhD, Brandeis University) is distinguished professor emeritus of Old Testament and president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Dr. Kaiser has written over 40 books, including Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching; The Messiah in the Old Testament; and The Promise-Plan of God; and coauthored An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning. Dr. Kaiser and his wife, Nancy, live in Oostburg, Wisconsin. Dr. Kaiser’s website is www.walterckaiserjr.com.

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
29 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Paul R. Bruggink
5.0 out of 5 stars Good summary of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2011
Verified Purchase
In an era when many scholars want to celebrate the diversity of the Scriptures and the abundance of contradictions, Dr. Walter C. Kaiser Jr. makes a strong case for the unity of the Scriptures, particularly the unity of the Old and New Testaments. The 16 chapters in his book are based on 16 invited lectures given by the author at the Cambridge Summer School of Theology (UK) in 2008.

Dr. Kaiser discusses the structural, historical, prophetical, doctrinal, spiritual, and kerygmatic unity of the Bible. He also provides nice summaries of the overall organization of the Old Testament and the unity between the two Testaments, stressing among other things, the importance of separating what the Bible reports from what the Bible approves. He also covers the Messianic promises, the doctrine of salvation in both Testaments, a discussion of Israel and the church, and the promise-plan of God, which is a summary of another of his books ("The Promise-Plan of God: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments"). He successfully demonstrates that the Bible is indeed one continuous story, plan, and purpose.

In his chapter on the unity of the New Testament he briefly covers the relationship between Jesus and Paul, the alleged distinctions between the Synoptics and the gospel of John, the Paul of Acts and the Paul of the Epistles, and the alleged differences between Paul and James.

His book includes a brief summary of possible sources of biblical discrepancies. For anyone who wants more, Dr. Kaiser happens to be a co-author of an 800-page book on the subject ("Hard Sayings of the Bible"). This book includes an 8-page Bibliography, an 8-page Scripture Index, a 3-page Author Index, and a 6-page subject index. As a bonus, it also includes what amounts to an introduction to biblical hermeneutics and a well-reasoned plug for expository preaching and teaching. I highly recommend this book as a very good introduction to the unity of the Bible.
21 people found this helpful
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Donald B. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Evangelical book recommended by Messianic
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2011
Verified Purchase
I saw that this book was recommended on a Messianic Jewish website, yet I know Kaiser is a evangelical. So I simply HAD to get it to see what it said.

He makes some great arguments to see continuity in the progressive revelation of the Bible.
3 people found this helpful
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J. Westlund
5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read on the Unity of Scripture
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2014
Verified Purchase
While I take a different view on its unity, this is a great summary of his argument and others similar to it.
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mohawk1953
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2016
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good read
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Joseph Dowell
4.0 out of 5 stars Met the Author good book to study
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2013
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I took a two day class with the Author and this was required reading. Lots of good information on the Prophecies of the scriptures and How they relate to the Messiah. This is the condensed version of the "Promise-Plan of God"
4 people found this helpful
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Robert Ball
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellence as usual from Kaiser
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2010
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This book is very well done and will be especially helpful to Bible students seeking an informative book that is not so scholarly it cannot be read by everybody.
4 people found this helpful
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Timothy Mills
5.0 out of 5 stars Walt Keiser's Promise-Plan theme
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2013
Dr. Keiser, beloved brother!, has given an excellent overview of why we preach from the entire Bible and nothing more or less. I believe that his thesis is a bit cumbersome, more simply the unifying theme of the Bible is Jesus, nothing more and nothing less, from the proto-evangelium in Genesis 3:6 to the closing lines of Revelation. This work is a worthy reminder of what we do as preachers and a sacred call to arms for our text. This work is a good read without being overly technical in it's writing! I will re read it again; the epilogue alone is worth the reading!
2 people found this helpful
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Nate Claiborne
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Defense of The Unity of Scripture
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2012
Rather than arguing for a specific center to unify Scripture, Kaiser explores different themes in Scripture that unify what seems like diversity. His opening chapters look at this history of the search for unity and types of unity possible (chapter 1), the different types of diversity actually present in Scripture (chapter 2), and different approaches to harmonization (chapter 3). Ultimately, as Kaiser concludes,

The theological unity of the Bible celebrates the diversity of the Bible but does so with the conviction that even though that unity can be tested historically, ethically, and otherwise, it has not detracted from the central case for the theological harmony that is found in the text. This has been the general conclusion of two millennia of Judeo-Christian exegesis (33).

Kaiser notes that while unity is in principle achievable, he does not diminish that there will be difficulties involved. To help present his case, he begins with two chapters exploring the overall unity of the Old Testament (chapter 4) and then the New (chapter 5). I was particularly fascinated by his use of the Decalogue and Israel's disobedience of it as a unifier. If we take the Hebrew Bible's organization of the books, the primary history comprises these books:

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Books of Samuel
Books of Kings

Kaiser then makes the case that a major episode showing Israel breaking each commandment occurs in each book and the history therefore ends with them in exile. An inclusio is formed by a double violation in Exodus and Kings, resulting in the following:

Apostasy and Idolatry (Ex. 32)
Blasphemy (Leviticus 24:10-16)
Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36)
Parents (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
Stealing (Joshua 7)
Killing (Judges 19-21)
Adultery (2 Samuel 11-12)
False Witness and Coveting (1 Kings 21)

I had never recognized or thought of this before, but it does seem to be a clear unifying theme in the narratives of the Old Testament. Even if one were to argue that this is less than convincing, Kaiser has several more thematic arrows in his quiver to shoot toward unity.

In the New Testament chapter, Kaiser points readers back to his book The Promise-Plan of God, which we'll look at soon enough, so I'll pass over it here. Chapter 6 gives an overview of messianic prophecies as a unifying factor, before Kaiser spends the next two chapters on the unity of the Bible between the two testaments. Chapter 7 looks at how the character of God is consistent testament to testament and chapter 8 the morally offensive character and acts of Old Testament saints. To the latter, Kaiser makes the important distinction between what the Bible reports and what it approves, and in doing so we can see that the ethical demands of both testaments are consistent.

The next three chapters look at the unity of the people of God, the kingdom of God, and the promise-plan of God. These are the most overtly eschatological chapters in the book and will probably be taken differently by readers depending on whether they are of a more covenantal or dispensational persuasion. Since I'm more or less neither of those, I found Kaiser's position to be helpful, and though I didn't agree with him fully, I think he presents a path that seeks to make exegetical sense of the text without committing to either major eschatological system. I'll say a little more about this though when we review The Promise-Plan of God.

The following three chapters are on the law of God, the doctrine of salvation, and missions. Here Kaiser shows that the continuity of the ethical demands of God, the offer of salvation by grace through faith, and the practical outworking of being part of the people. Kaiser shows that the expansion of the people of God through missions runs through both testaments and that the offer of salvation hasn't changed, though the full understanding of the object of faith has.

The final two chapters cover two practical matters: interpreting the Bible, and preaching and teaching the Bible. In the former, Kaiser presents his approach to hermeneutics over and against many modern approaches. He is very suspicious of anything that seems allegorical or open to multiple meanings in the text and instead prefers E. D. Hirsch's distinction between "meaning" and "significance." In the latter chapter, Kaiser argues that though there is coherence and unity to the Scriptures, one does not need to explicitly preach Christ from every Old Testament passage in order to convey that.

Conclusion

Overall, I found Kaiser's book an enjoyable read and it is a very useful summary case for the unity of Scripture. It helps that the chapters were originally presented as lectures. It keeps them short and to the point and the style is clear and crisp. Kaiser has a broad range of sources he pulls on and is clearly looking at the text of Scripture with years of scholarly research under his belt. In all of that though, he presents his position with a jargon-less clarity that most general readers will be able to appreciate and understand. Even when essentially summarizing journal articles, Kaiser demystifies what might have otherwise been a tough read for the average person (especially the ones that are originally in German!)

If you're looking for a good resource that covers multiple themes and opens up new avenues for thinking about the unity of the Bible, then I would definitely consider checking out Kaiser's Recovering the Unity of the Bible.

[A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher and the review was originally published on my blog]
11 people found this helpful
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