Digital Logos Edition
In this final volume of the series, Goldingay covers Daniel and the Minor Prophets, the final twelve prophetic books of the Old Testament. Daniel is an apocalyptic book, full of ideas about God’s plan for the end of the earth and humanity. The twelve Prophets—Hosea through Malachi—were shorter prophetic works that could be kept on a single scroll and address the period of massive change in the eastern Mediterranean in the 8th century BCE.
“It’s a story of a deadly serious recurring experience of Jewish people living in a foreign context, where their differentness has often offended the people among whom they lived. Their unwillingness to live by other people’s conventions and expectations raised questions about those conventions and expectations. It’s one of the ways in which Jewish people have fulfilled their vocation to draw the rest of the world away from its usual assumptions about religion and life.” (Page 20)
“Seeking Yahweh has to be expressed in seeking good.” (Page 132)
“Obadiah witnesses to God’s toughness, Jonah to God’s desire to show mercy. Jonah wishes he were Obadiah; his story warns Israel not to get too attached to Obadiah’s theme. In the story he continues to show his lack of insight into the truth about God. The pagan sailors understand more than he does, even if they too have some pretty primitive ideas.” (Pages 153–154)
“The background to the delay offers an insight into one reason why prayers don’t get answered immediately; it reminds us that it’s wiser to persist in fasting and praying than to give up straightaway.” (Page 54)
“The time of those kings’ will turn out to cover more than the Babylonians; it covers the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, and the Turks and the British and the Americans. God did assert his kingship through Cyrus, the agent through whom the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt and Judah gained a measure of independent life. God did later assert his kingship in Jesus. Other empires have continued, but they all have feet of clay.” (Page 17)