Wilf Hildebrandt carefully explores the meaning of "the Spirit" in the Old Testament. He examines the role of God's Spirit in creation, in the establishment and preservation of God's people, in prophecy, and in Israel's leadership. He unveils the central role that the Spirit plays in creatively bringing about the directives of God. Through the Spirit, God brings order out of chaos, ushers the invisible into reality, makes a separation between the sacred and the profane, enables specific people to meet particular needs, and supersedes natural laws. This work sheds light on the Spirit of God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Modern readers of the Bible often find the Old Testament difficult and even disturbing. What are we to do with obscure prophecies of long expired nations? Why should we read and study ancient laws that even the New Testament says are eclipsed by Christ? How can we reconcile Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with the Old Testament’s graphic narratives of sex and violence? What does the Old Testament offer that is not surpassed and even made irrelevant by the New Testament? John Walton has spent a career engaging deeply with the Old Testament’s text and ancient context. He has studied, taught, and written about the issues. His signature approach can be introduced in one sentence: The Old Testament was written for us but not to us. We must not conform it to our own understanding. We will fully grasp the Old Testament and its theology only when we are immersed in the ancient cultural current of Israel within its broader cultural river of the ancient Near East. In Old Testament Theology for Christians, John Walton invites us to leave our modern—and even inherited Christian—preconceptions at the threshold as we enter the world of the Old Testament. He challenges us to see it anew—as if for the first time—as guests in a strange and fascinating foreign land. Then we will rediscover its testimony to God’s great enterprise. In this capstone to a career of studying and teaching the Old Testament, Walton unfolds a grand panorama of Yahweh and the gods, of cosmos and humanity, of covenant and kingdom, of temple and torah, of sin and evil, and of salvation and afterlife. Viewed within its ancient Near Eastern cognitive environment, the text takes unexpected turns and blossoms into fresh and challenging insights. No matter how you are accustomed to viewing the first testament of the Bible, Old Testament Theology for Christians will challenge and sharpen your perceptions.

The Old Testament is more than a religious history of the nation of Israel. It is more than a portrait gallery of heroes of the faith. It is even more than a theological and prophetic backdrop to the New Testament. Beyond these, the Old Testament is inspired revelation of the very nature, character, and works of God. As renowned Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke writes in the preface of this book, the Old Testament’s every sentence is “fraught with theology, worthy of reflection.” This book is the result of decades of reflection informed by an extensive knowledge of the Hebrew language, the best of critical scholarship, a deep understanding of both the content and spirit of the Old Testament, and a thoroughly evangelical conviction. Taking a narrative, chronological approach to the text, Waltke employs rhetorical criticism to illuminate the theologies of the biblical narrators. Through careful study, he shows that the unifying theme of the Old Testament is the “breaking in of the kingdom of God.” This theme helps the reader better understand not only the Old Testament, but also the New Testament, the continuity of the entire Bible, and ultimately, God himself.

Explores how New Testament conceptions of God contribute to a contemporary constructive theology

--A comprehensive account of the role and work of the Spirit, covering the entire Bible. --Written by a team of leading evangelical scholars, including world authorities such as Craig Bartholomew, David deSilva, James D. G. Dunn, Walter Kaiser and Max Turner. --Informed by the latest scholarship. --Will become the standard introductory survey on the subject. Written by an international team of leading scholars, this is the first comprehensive exploration of the role and work of the Holy Spirit, as witnessed in both the Old and New Testaments. With contributions by Craig Bartholomew, Gary Burge, David deSilva, James D. G. Dunn, David Firth, Walter Kaiser, Wonsuk Ma, John Christopher Thomas, Max Turner, and Matthias Wenk, among others, this authoritative survey will rapidly establish itself as a standard reference point for scholars and students of all theological persuasions. Any attempt at a "biblical theology" must begin with a careful exegesis of the biblical text. To this end, each contributor addresses the text through a rigorous exegesis of pertinent passages, keeping in mind the genre, canonical contexts, and sweep of redemptive history.

We tend to think of the Holy Spirit as the straggler of the Trinity, a latecomer in God's interaction with the world. But our first introduction to the Holy Spirit is not the drama of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts. We first meet the Holy Spirit in the second verse of the Bible, hovering there, speaking the world into existence. Christopher Wright begins here and traces the Holy Spirit through the pages of the Old Testament. We see the Third Person of the Trinity in the decrees of prophets and psalmists, in the actions of judges and craftspeople, in the anointing of kings and the promise of a new creation. Knowable and discernable in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is thus eminently knowable to us. The witness of the whole of Scripture, from its first pages to its last, directs us to a Holy Spirit empowering the people of God, and sustaining and renewing the face of the earth.

The word rûaḥ (commonly translated as breath, wind, spirit, or Spirit) occurs in the Old Testament 378 times--more frequently than torah, shalom, or Sabbath. In this volume, a popular Old Testament scholar, whose previous books have received wide acclaim, cracks open the challenging and provocative world of the Spirit in the Old Testament, offering readers cogent yet comprehensive insights. Grounded in scholarship yet accessible and inviting, this book unlocks the world of the Spirit, plunging readers into an imaginative realm of fresh senses, sounds, and skills. The book gives readers the opportunity to recapture Israel's tenacious sense of the Spirit's energy as it was expressed by a series of vibrant verbs: blowing, breathing, coming, resting, passing, pouring, filling, cleansing, standing, and guiding. Readers will encounter in these pages all of the Old Testament expressions of the Spirit--passages that will challenge the conventional, confront the commonplace, and transport them to a world of wisdom, work, and wonder.