Product Description

In this accessible study, Peter Enns offers an evangelical affirmation of biblical authority that considers questions raised by the nature of the Old Testament text. Enns looks at three questions raised by biblical scholars that seem to threaten traditional views of Scripture. First, he considers ancient Near Eastern literature that is similar to the Bible. Second, he looks at the theological diversity of the Old Testament. Finally, he considers how New Testament writers used the Old Testament. Based on his reflections on these contemporary issues, Enns proposes an incarnational model of biblical authority that takes seriously both the divine and human aspects of Scripture. The book includes a useful glossary, which defines technical terms and an annotated bibliography for further reading.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17032 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Peter Enns (Ph.D., Harvard University) is professor of Old Testament and biblical hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. He is the author of Poetry and Wisdom, Exodus Retold, and Exodus (in the NIV Application Commentary series).

Customer Reviews

The Real God Honoring Approach to the Bible
A great book which should be read by all teachable, honest and openminded consevative Christians. Makes the top 25 book list for me. (I am working on a Doctorate and have read many hundreds of books)This book is NOT for the faint of heart, nor for those who have an unwillingness to actually critic our inherited theological approach. IF honesty and a scholary approach are liberal then this book is liberal. BUT, if honesty and a scholary approach are God Honoring then this book is just that 'God Honoring'.Consider the following. God used the customs, the worldview, the culture, and the literature of the day to communicate his Word to a specific people. He used common literary forms or genres, like proverbs, poetry, narratives, hymns,etc to speak through. IF God has taken the many different kinds of literary genre and spoken through them, why could he NOT take the commonly used 'myth' and infuse it with new revelatory meaning. Should he be afraid to use this type of literature? If you read the book "Beyond the Firmament: Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation" first, then you will be better prepared to embrace Enns book.I am a lover of a great God, who offers a great salvation through his son, communicating this through an inspired book. Enns book will help you to sort out just what inspiration REALLY MEANS. God BLESS those with the courage to be teachable.

Throws out the baby with the bath water.
I purchased and read Peter Enns' book in the buildup to the well- publicised controversy at WTS. Peter Enns intends his book to be a corrective for the intellectual bankruptcy in hermeneutics that is weakening evangelicalism like a cancer. There is some good in this book, and it seeks to tackle pressing issues in Old Testament hermeneutics in a rigorous and intellectually honest manner. My problem with this book is that in so doing, Enns crosses a line.

Enns' view of the inerrancy of scripture, based on my reading of this book, is far too amorphous for my comfort. This is illustrated most vividly when he discusses the creation account in Genesis. He compares the Genesis account to Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, and the Enuma Elish, and essentially says that in order to counter these creation myths, God composed a creation myth of his own, that contained counterpoints and correctives to those other myths, but was still itself a myth, and in more than merely its literary genre. Duane Garrett's Rethinking Genesis is a rigorous, challenging look at Genesis that does not cross this line, and D.A. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies addresses many of the same hermeneutical fallacies that are rampant across evangelicalism today, but without undermining the doctrine of inspiration.

Neo-Orthodox heresy that goes by the name of Evangelical and Reformed
Peter Enns book Inspiration & Incarnation is as heretical as it is superficial. The view of inspiration espoused by Enns in this book is not much different from the old neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth. Both of them speak much about Christ's human nature, myth, legend, midrash, contextualization, etc...but at the same time deny the sinless perfection of Christ's human nature, the factual events of redemptive history and also the perfection of Holy Scripture. Jesus said "Scripture cannot be broken." "Thy Word is truth." All Scripture is, like Christ, perfectly holy, spotless, undefiled, without sin and error, and separate from sinners. All Scripture is in Christ, for Christ, and to the glory of Christ. Christ is the Credenda and Agenda of Old Testament Scripture as well as New Testament Scripture. But for this very reason it cannot be broken. It is without error being God breathed. Peter Enn's views of the Bible are Liberal and heretical and destructive to the Christian church. I could think of at least ten instances (just by a casual overview without buying the accursed thing) in which he directly contradicts the explicit teaching of Scripture, as well as Jesus own words in the Gospels. He plainly does not believe in the Westminster Confession of Faith, nor for that matter in any of the Protestant Creeds and Confessions. He should have been fired long ago along with the feminists and Liberals of the Seminary. But then again, what can you expect from modern denominations these days - that are so full of spiritual ignorance, idolatry, sexual immorality and religious hypocrisy. They ought to read John Owen's book on Apostacy. Sadly denominations do not believe in Scripture or in their Confessions anymore. They have almost completely rejected the infallible word of God for the pagan idolatry of modern scholarship.
Pastor Brett Woody