Confronting Old Testament Controversies: Pressing Questions about Evolution, Sexuality, History, and Violence

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Tremper Longman, a highly accomplished OT scholar, has written this book as a popular apologetic work, addressing questions that trouble Christians about the OT. The book has a conversational tone and is written at about the level of a college freshman. It is thus readable and engaging, although some may find its occasionally breezy style frustrating. As the subtitle implies, it deals with four broad issues, in this order: Gen 1–3 and the problems posed by evolution (pp. 1–78), the historicity of the exodus and conquest narratives (pp. 79–121), the problem of violence carried out or sanctioned by God (pp. 123–206), and the sexual morality of the Bible, particularly the prohibition of homosexual activity (pp. 207–65). I will focus especially on the first issue.Longman argues that Gen 1–3 itself indicates that it is not meant to be read as literal, straightforward history (pp. 25-48). The first three days of Gen 1 have evenings and mornings before there is a sun or moon, and the sequence of creation events found there (where man and woman are created last) is not the same as that found in 2:4ff., where the man is created before the plants, animals, and the woman. Furthermore, the biblical text uses concepts familiar from the broader culture of its time. For example, the creation arises out of water (as in Enuma Elish, Atraḥasis, and the Ugaritic conflict between Baal and Yam).As it is not literal history, the Bible has no conflict with science. Longman calls himself an “evolutionary creationist” (p. 58), believing in both the theory of evolution and the doctrine of creation. With respect to the random nature of the evolutionary process, he appeals to the book of Esther, which contains several coincidences that turn out for the good of the Jews. Esther does not mention God, but the believer can see the hand of God behind the events. Mutatis mutandis, the same is true of the random events of evolution (pp. 56–57).Longman asserts that early humanoid primates became truly human when they became bearers of the image of God. This happened about the time they began to show awareness of God in various ways, as in their burial practices (pp. 63–64). He affirms that the first humans were morally innocent. However, soon after they were endowed with the image of God there was a “rebellion” (p. 65). The rebellion may have been carried out by a “representative couple” (p. 66). He is thus close to coming back to a historical Adam and Eve, albeit with a different story. He rejects the Augustinian idea of original sin but asserts that the rebellion “so disrupted the cosmic and social order” that all who come after them necessarily sin, and he insists that any one of us, were we in the place of the first humans, would also have sinned (p. 72).There is much one could interact with here, but Longman’s fundamental claim, that one can with intellectual honesty hold to both evolution and creation, is especially open to challenge. The theory of evolution asserts that both the origin of life and the rise of species can be accounted for by a random process, one that has no purpose, goal, or agent. Unplanned and unguided modifications occur in living things through chance mutations, and advantageous changes allow some to thrive and evolve while the others disappear (natural selection). The theory purports to be a sufficient, materialist explanation for life in all its varieties. Ex hypothesi, it has no place for a creator. To propose that there was also a creator is to add a superfluous cause, one that actually contradicts the theory. From an authentically evolutionary perspective, evolutionary creationism is akin to saying, “Photosynthesis allows plants to convert sunlight into usable energy; also, fairies give them life-energy.”The analogy to Esther falls short of answering this objection. In Esther, the book’s author for his own reasons chose not to mention God. But Esther is not purporting to explain how Judaism can exist without God. The reader can believe God was behind its events without contradicting it in any way. With evolution, one is dealing not with a literary text but with a scientific theory, one that claims to have sufficiently accounted for all observable biological phenomena. The moment one asserts the necessity of a creator, one has abandoned evolution and adopted intelligent design, even if affirming that the earth is over four billion years old. Declaring that some scientists are evolutionary creationists (pp. 58, 75), although true, does not change this. It only points to widespread cognitive dissonance (and, I believe, most evolutionary biologists are not theists at all).As for the rest of the book: arguing against a number of scholars who are, broadly speaking, within the evangelical camp, Longman affirms the historicity of the exodus and conquest. He surveys the relevant historical evidence to make his case, and he also asserts that it is inconsistent to believe in the resurrection of Jesus but deny the exodus. Regarding divine violence, Longman refutes scholars who argue that the OT is morally inferior to Jesus’s teachings (Eric Siebert, Peter Enns, and Gregory Boyd). He develops an apologetic based in salvation history, asserting that the OT’s divine violence is a precursor to the final, eschatological judgment. On sexuality: although he respectfully deals with other positions, Longman concludes that the Bible consistently prohibits homosexual behavior. Considering his target audience, this is a courageous stand.Although I disagree with some of his positions, I applaud Longman in his endeavor to assist readers in their struggles to hold on to the faith in the face of OT difficulties. To that end, I hope his book is successful.