Abstract
Many attempts have been made to identify an overarching theological theme that can be found throughout the Bible, be it covenant, law, prophecy and so on. In this book, Timo Eskola has identified a different metanarrative: exile and restoration. It cannot be denied that the exile is a key theme throughout the latter part of the Old Testament, and that aspects of this can be found within the New Testament corpus, although some may dispute its real significance in the New Testament as a whole, given that the return from Babylon had taken place some 500 years previously. Similarly, the restoration of the Israel is also found in the prophetic literature and Israel’s spiritual restoration may be identified in many aspects of Paul’s letters and the book of Revelation. This is examined very thoroughly by Dr Eskola, who is a Privatdozent in New Testament at the University of Helsinki. At the beginning, he quite rightly notes that narrative and theology are narrowly intertwined in the New Testament, seeing the Gospels as ‘a masterpiece of intertextual innovation’ (p. 6), with scriptural quotations, allusions and revisions of Jewish tradition. He proposes the theme of exile and restoration as a metanarrative that runs throughout the Bible that explains the motivation to construct a soteriology in the period of Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity. Thus, he suggests (with N.T. Wright) that Jesus understood his ministry as the beginning of the end of Israel’s exile, and he explores this in the discussion of the New Testament text in order ‘to present an overview of a narrative theology of the New Testament directed by the eschatological metanarrative of exile and restoration’ (p. 15).
His second chapter views the message of Jesus through this lens. He begins with an excellent summary of the events of the Babylonian Exile, universally acknowledged as a key event in Israelite history and notes that the restoration of Israel in 539 BC is not only about the return to the land but also the renewal of people’s hearts and the restoration of the spiritual state of the people, as is clear, he believes, in texts where the Second Temple does not have a unique status. He discusses the universalist approach to the Second Temple and his theory that Jesus himself and the New Testament writers all viewed Israel as being still in a spiritual exile. Eskola’s exploration of the way in which the Triumphal Entry may be seen as a fulfilment of eschatological and restorations passages is masterly and very well written, and he notes that the subsequent cleansing of the Temple is not a polemic against the pigeon sellers and money changers, who were needed for the Temple cult, but rather were the ‘robbers’ all those of Israel who visited the Temple, as well as the priests and officials. Jesus shows himself as ‘the eschatological temple builder’ who replaces the ‘defiled temple … by a spiritual temple’ (p. 60). He also examines a number of other passages, such as the parables of the lost in Luke, and considers that these too are about the exile and restoration. Throughout the course of this long chapter (pp. 16–188), Eskola examines a great number of passages (parables, miracles and events, such as the Last Supper) viewing them through the prism of the Temple, or of exile and restoration. He rightly concludes that a message of suffering without life after death could lead only to despair, but Jesus’ message is full of apocalyptic idealism, as seen in his references to the coming glory of the Son of Man, which indicates that the final restoration will begin with the new creation and the resurrection. Thus, he believes that Jesus did anticipate his death and resurrection as a form of atonement for the sins of Israel.
He then proceeds to look at the teaching of earliest Christianity in his third chapter, seeing Pentecost as the start of restoration. Eskola believes that Pentecost took place in the Temple area and that this is an indication of God’s presence in the new Temple after a long absence. His principle area of discussion here is Exaltation Christology, which has a clear soteriological function and is the climax of the Christian kerygma, which is widely acknowledged. He is clear that ‘Old Testament faith is not rejected but it is reinterpreted via exaltation Christology’ (p. 230). This then explains the significance of Jesus’ title as Son of David, and he also notes the interpretation of the Benedictus and Magnificat canticles as expressions of the Jewish eschatological tradition and the end of the Exile. This naturally leads into his discussion of ‘Paul the Theologian’ (chapter 4). Eskola shows how Paul builds his eschatology on Old Testament texts relating to the return from Exile, but he then briefly enters a contentious area by suggesting that Jesus opposed the Jewish religious worship in which he participated, but it is highly debateable to what extent Jesus can be said to have opposed the Jewish worship (both in the Jerusalem Temple and in the synagogues), in which he participated. Paul attributes the Exile, he says, to failures in the observance of the Law, especially in the time of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. All Israel were held accountable for these failings and therefore all were corrupt, but in this, Paul sees the Law not as a gift from God but rather as a guard of humanity before the final restoration could take place. In Paul’s letters, the new temple is the individual Christian and the Christian community, and this (in Eskola’s view) confirms his controversial statement that God’s Spirit never returned to the Jerusalem Temple and thus the promises in Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Joel are realised only in the new community (ekklesia). It is in this context that there is an unfortunate mistranslation of Romans 13:10, which according to Eskola reads ‘Law does no wrong to a neighbour’, but the Greek text is quite clear that it is love that does no wrong. From that point he proceeds to an excellent presentation of soteriology and the sacrificial system in the Old Testament and its importance for an understanding of the crucifixion.
The rest of the book continues in a similar vein, looking at Jewish Christianity in chapter 5, with particular reference to the Letter to the Hebrews, which shows a clear restoration and an end to the exile by equating the new and old Temple and the use of Temple imagery, even in the midst of tribulation. He then looks at the letter of James, which presents Jesus’ enthronement as the beginning of the final jubilee and an era of forgiveness for believers, followed the theme of the heavenly priesthood in 1 Peter. The exile and restoration are then considered from the perspective of the Fourth Gospel and 1 John and then Revelation. This chapter is perhaps one of the best in the book (with the very lengthy second chapter) and where the themes are clearest. In some ways, it might have been more satisfying if Eskola had focused more on these books, rather than trying to find a theme that encompasses the whole of the New Testament.
In writing this book, Eskola has undertaken a tremendous task, which is interesting and worth reading, although some theologians may dispute some of his findings, for example, the attitude of Jesus to contemporary Jewish worship. Different readers will inevitably wish to focus on different sections, and the book contains good indices which facilitate the search for particular topics, so that a theologian focusing on a particular area of New Testament studies could easily locate the relevant topic.