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Book Review: The Wise King: Studies in Royal Wisdom as Divine Revelation in the Old Testament and its Environment

WRITTEN BY the associate professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School, this is one of the first three volumes in a series dealing with the proper methods of getting at the "original" and contemporary meanings of a biblical text. It is intended for scholars, clergy, and laity. The author discusses the Pentateuch as the "story" that gives identity to a community and challenges or sustains it in crises. He sets forth in detail how the Pentateuch was formed. He shows how the assumptions of an interpreter affect interpretation and, in the most valuable portion of the book, he states his own assumptions about the Bible as Scripture. He points out the levels of meaning that a text may have, and he reviews improper interpretative methods. Finally Bailey demonstrates his method, using Genesis 1:12a; 12; 17: 15-22; 18: 1-16; 21: 1-7; 22; Exodus 20; and Numbers 15:37-41. He believes that "by and large, the biblical writers had but a single purpose in mind when they produced and preserved a unit of material" (p. 107). He therefore tries to relate "one, single, central idea" in each passage to the present. For example, in relation to Genesis 12, Bailey interprets: "There is immediate hope because there are still 'Abrahams' people who are willing to obey God and to pass on the goals of the faith to the next generation. There is ultimate hope, because God kept the promise even when Abraham had betrayed it . . . . Even the instrument of redemption may need to be redeemed" (p. 141). Genesis 22 is applied this way. "What is the Believing Community