The Politics of Yahweh: John Howard Yoder, the Old Testament, and the People of God

By John C. Nugent and Stanley Hauerwas

John Howard Yoder is most famous for arguing in The Politics of Jesus that a sound reading of the New Testament demonstrates the abiding relevance of Jesus to social ethics. However, it is seldom acknowledged that Yoder makes essentially the same argument with regard to the Old Testament. Throughout his extensive writings, Yoder offers a provocative interpretation of the Old Testament that culminates in the way of Jesus and establishes the ethical, ecclesiological, and historiographical continuity of the entire biblical canon. In The Politics of Yahweh, presented as a prequel to The Politics of Jesus, John C. Nugent makes Yoder's complete Old Testament interpretation accessible in one place for the first time.

Nugent does not view Yoder's interpretation as flawless. Rather, Nugent moves beyond summary to offer honest critique and substantial revision. His constructive proposal, which stands in fundamental continuity with the work of Yoder, is likely to provoke thought from theologians, biblical scholars, and ethicists. Even at points where readers disagree with some of his and Yoder's interpretations, they will be challenged to explore new perspectives and rethink common assumptions concerning the diverse and often confusing issues that arise from sustained reflection on the Old Testament.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Nov 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781621894360

John C. Nugent

John C. Nugent serves as VPAA and professor of Bible and theology at Great Lakes Christian College. He has cohosted the Bible-focused After Class Podcast every week since 2018. He is the author of Politics of Yahweh (2011), Endangered Gospel (2016), Genesis 1–11 (2019), and Priestly Presence (2024). Listen to my interview with Faith Radio Network!

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The Politics of Yahweh

John Howard Yoder, the Old Testament, and the People of God

John C. Nugent

Foreword by Stanley Hauerwas

2008.Cascade_logo.jpg

THE POLITICS OF YAHWEH

John Howard Yoder, the Old Testament, and the People of God

Theopolitical Visions 12

Copyright © 2011 John C. Nugent. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite

3

, Eugene, OR 97401.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

isbn 13: 978-1-60899-914-9

eisbn 13: 978-1-62189-436-0

Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Nugent, John C., 1973–

The politics of Yahweh : John Howard Yoder, the Old Testament, and the People of God / John C. Nugent ; foreword by Stanley Hauerwas.

xiv + 252 p. ; 23 cm. — Includes bibliographical references and index(es).

Theopolitical Visions 12

isbn 13: 978-1-60899-914-9

1. Yoder, John Howard.

I. Hauerwas, Stanley, 1940– II. Title. III. Series.

bx8143.y59 n83

2011

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Introduction

Part One: Yoder’s Old Testament Narration

Chapter 2: Pre-Formation of a People: From Creation to Babel

Chapter 3: Formation of a People: From Abraham to Judges

Chapter 4: Deformation of a People: From Monarchy to its Collapse

Chapter 5: Re-Formation of a People: From Jeremiah to the Early Church

Part Two: Yoder’s Old Testament Narration Revisited

Chapter 6: Pre-Formation of a People Revisited

Chapter 7: Formation of a People Revisited

Chapter 8: Deformation of a People Revisited

Chapter 9: Re-Formation of a People Revisited

Chapter 10: Conclusion: Implications of the Politics of Yahweh

Epilogue: Practicing the Politics of Yahweh

Appendix A: Two Essays Exhibiting Yoder’s Canonical-Directional Approach

Appendix B: Summary of a Revised Yoderian Narration of the Old Testament

Appendix C: Distinguishing Marks of a Kingdom-Reflecting Church

Bibliography

Theopolitical Visions

series editors:

Thomas Heilke

D. Stephen Long

and C. C. Pecknold

Theopolitical Visions seeks to open up new vistas on public life, hosting fresh conversations between theology and political theory. This series assembles writers who wish to revive theopolitical imagination for the sake of our common good.

Theopolitical Visions hopes to re-source modern imaginations with those ancient traditions in which political theorists were often also theologians. Whether it was Jeremiah’s prophetic vision of exiles seeking the peace of the city, Plato’s illuminations on piety and the civic virtues in the Republic, St. Paul’s call to a common life worthy of the Gospel, St. Augustine’s beatific vision of the City of God, or the gothic heights of medieval political theology, much of Western thought has found it necessary to think theologically about politics, and to think politically about theology. This series is founded in the hope that the renewal of such mutual illumination might make a genuine contribution to the peace of our cities.

forthcoming volumes:

Braden P. Anderson

Chosen Nation: Theopolitics, Scripture, and the Project of National Identity

Peter J. Leithart

Empire

Artur Mrówczynski-Van Allen

Between the Icon and the Idol: Man and State in Russian Thought and Literature: Chaadayev, Soloviev, Grossman

Dedicated To

Stanley Hauerwas who taught me to appreciate John Howard Yoder

Paul J. Kissling who taught me to appreciate the Old Testament

John and Linda Nugent who taught me to appreciate the God revealed in Jesus

Foreword

It is remarkable how seldom one hears sermons that derive their intelligibility from exegesis of the Old Testament. In truth, most Christians simply do not know what to do with the Old Testament. I am afraid that many Christians assume that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God that is to be found in the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is assumed to be a God of wrath and judgment who even commands Israel to kill her enemies. By contrast, the God of the New Testament, some Christians think, is a God of love.

Of course most Christians are pleased that the Old Testament has been the subject of wonderful scholarship over the last two centuries, but that scholarship seems to have made it even more difficult to reclaim the Old Testament for theological reflection or church practice. For example, many Christians now call the Old Testament the Hebrew Bible, but that we do so is an indication that Christians no longer want to claim the Old Testament as crucial for our faith and life.

I begin with these observations to indicate that John Nugent’s extraordinary study of John Howard Yoder’s work on the Old Testament is important not only because he has made a significant contribution to helping us understand Yoder, but just as important, he has advanced how the Old Testament must be read by Christians. He is able to do so because he has attended to the work of John Howard Yoder with exceptional care. Nugent makes clear that Yoder was not about the abandonment of the Old Testament in favor of the New Testament. He refused to abandon the Old Testament because his Christological and ecclesial commitments shaped his reading of the Old Testament as God’s word for the church in our day.

However, Nugent makes clear that Yoder never pretended to be a scholar of the Old Testament. Yoder often described himself as an amateur when working in fields like Old and New Testament, but one should never underestimate John Howard Yoder’s ability to read texts. Yoder was able to read texts with fresh insight because his ecclesial commitments forced him to see what is often hard to see. He was able to give an account, for example, of how the Old Testament is required reading if Christians are to survive as a nonviolent people in a world of violence. Yoder saw as a paradigm for the church Israel’s struggle to understand how to be a people whose life and survival depended on faithful worship.

I have emphasized the wider significance of Nugent’s work for the recovery of the Old Testament in Christian preaching and theology, but it is equally the case that Nugent’s book is a crucial contribution to the recovery of the work of John Howard Yoder. Yoder wrote plainly and straightforwardly, but that style articulated a position that is not easily received. A difficult discipline is required to receive John Yoder with understanding because he challenges so decisively many of the presumptions that shape contemporary Christian thought and practice. Nugent has submitted to such discipline with admirable honesty and has, as a result, written one of the best books we have not only on Yoder’s reading of the Old Testament but on all of Yoder’s work.

—Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School

Acknowledgments

The Politics of Yahweh began as a Calvin Theological Seminary dissertation on John Howard Yoder, the Old Testament, and ecclesiology. Were it not for the influence of Stanley Hauerwas and James K. A. Smith, this project would never have seen the light of day. Yet Stanley encouraged me to publish it as quickly as possible and Jamie helped me map out the final form that it has taken. I thank them both for their timely encouragement.

I am also grateful for the careful reading that was given to the original manuscript by the dissertation committee, which included Ronald Feenstra, John Bolt, James K. A. Smith, and Walter Brueggemann. Dr. Feenstra is a gracious guide and supervisor whose prompt feedback made my work not only possible but enjoyable.

I have been blessed with good friends who have given freely of their time to read drafts, spot errors, and highlight poorly written sentences. Those who went above and beyond in their generosity include Delta Community Christian Church, Mike Nugent, George Brown, Joel Ickes, Brenda Mailand, and Brian Gumm.

Branson Parler and Ted Troxell have also contributed to this book in exceptional ways. Through stimulating conversation and critical feedback, Branson has taught me more about Yoder than anyone else. Through witty commentary and sentence level instruction, Ted has shown me how to write more clearly and even poetically. Their friendship has been a wonderful gift from God.

Final thanks are due to my patient and loving wife, Beth, and our three girls: Alexia, Sierra, and Alissa. The joy they bring to my life has been essential to this book’s completion. I thank God for them and for all the friends, family members, and colleagues who have supported my work.

Abbreviations

Works by John Howard Yoder

PWK A Pacifist Way of Knowing: John Howard Yoder’s Nonviolent Epistemology. Edited by Christian E. Early and Ted Grimsrud. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2010.

CAW Christian Attitudes to War, Peace, and Revolution. Edited by Theodore J. Koontz and Andy Alexis-Baker. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2009.

CWS Christian Witness to the State. Newton, KS: Faith and Life, 1964.

DPR Discipleship as Political Responsibility. Translated by Timothy J. Geddert. Scottdale, PA: Herald, 2003.

ES The End of Sacrifice: The Capital Punishment Writings of John Howard Yoder. Edited by John C. Nugent. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald, 2011.

FTN For the Nations: Essays Public and Evangelical. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.

HCPP He Came Preaching Peace. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1985.

JCSR Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited. Edited by Michael G. Cartwright and Peter Ochs. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

KBPW Karl Barth and the Problem of War and Other Essays on Barth. Edited by Mark Thiessen Nation. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2003.

OR Original Revolution. Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1971 [note: the 2003 Herald Press edition has different pagination].

PJ The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.

PT Preface to Theology: Christology and Theological Method. Edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Alex Sider. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2002.

PK The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.

RP The Royal Priesthood: Essays Ecclesiological and Ecumenical. Edited by Michael G. Cartwright. Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1998.

THW To Hear the Word. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2010.

WTL The War of the Lamb: The Ethics of Nonviolence and Peacemaking. Edited by Glen Stassen, Mark Thiessen Nation, and Matt Hamsher. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2009.

WWU When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just War Thinking. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2001.

chapter 1

Introduction

Why The Politics of Jesus Needs a Prequel

The Value of a Prequel

Luke Skywalker was my childhood hero. He worked diligently to become a Jedi Knight. He saved the rebel alliance from ultimate destruction. He conquered the forces of evil. He was the star of the blockbuster trilogy Star Wars—or so I thought. Long after the series seemed to have ended, there were rumors of a prequel (or, more accurately, a prequel trilogy). I was skeptical at first, but my cynicism abated shortly after I purchased a copy of the original trilogy containing interviews with producer George Lucas. Those interviews dramatically changed my understanding of the storyline of Star Wars.

Toward the end of the Empire Strikes Back (Episode V), arch villain Darth Vader, whom Luke had defeated in the first movie, made the paradoxical claim that he was Luke’s father. We were stunned. How could this be? Befuddled fans debated this claim until it was confirmed in the final episode, Return of the Jedi. Still, many of us wondered what the point was. What purpose could this agitating revelation possibly serve? At the series’ end it began to make sense: Darth Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker, would be redeemed. He would atone for his sins by offering his life in order to vanquish the wicked Emperor. As a result, he was united with his forefathers who dedicated their lives to advancing the good side of the Force.

I have to admit that when all of this transpired I was oblivious to its full significance. I considered it a mere add-on, the product of an eleventh hour brainstorm designed to spruce up a perfectly fine story of how my hero, Luke, climbed the ranks of Jedi knighthood to single-handedly bring down the evil empire. I assumed this, of course, because I had not seen the entire series and because modern culture had trained me well how to identify heroes. Luke embodied the stuff of which all good heroes are made: good looks, interesting friends, humble origins, and a free spirit. When I watched the George Lucas interviews, however, I discovered how badly these assumptions failed me. In them Lucas discloses that his epic’s plot actually hinges on the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. It was no mere subplot, and after the prequels are released the waiting world will finally grasp the centrality of Lord Vader. Until then, Lucas explains, The real story hasn’t even been told yet. Without the prequel, it was too easy to misread the entire plot; the real story is not Luke’s hero journey, but Anakin’s redemption.

For the Sake of Yoder Scholarship

Nearly 40 years have gone by and scholars are still misreading The Politics of Jesus.

¹

Or at least they’re still misreading John Howard Yoder. There’s Yoder the Marcionite, Yoder the supersessionist, Yoder the fundamentalist, Yoder the secularist, and—often implied but seldom stated forthrightly—Yoder the naïve Anabaptist. That such labels are misplaced is partly why The Politics of Jesus needs a prequel. It’s hard to blame Yoder’s critics, however. He wrote widely on ethical and theological issues but never brought his ideas together into a single volume that reveals the grand architecture of his thought. He simply wrote one essay at a time as he was commissioned and as the situation seemed to require. After writing over 600 essays, Yoder was forced to retire his pen having breathed his last on his seventieth birthday, December 30, 1997.

²

Three years later, Christianity Today hailed The Politics of Jesus as one of the twentieth century’s ten most important religious books.

³

Though this acclaim justifies identifying it as Yoder’s magnum opus (if we admit a loose enough definition), The Politics of Jesus should not be mistaken for a complete expression of Yoder’s thought. It, too, was a commissioned piece—the weaving together of previously independent threads that fulfilled previously independent purposes.

⁴

That Yoder continued writing throughout the twenty-five years following its publication has not prevented scholars from presuming to know his thought after reading only that one work. Ironically, The Politics of Jesus is not Yoder’s distinct contribution to theology and ethics. In it Yoder merely serves as an interdisciplinary courier, bringing the insights of New Testament studies to bear on the field of Christian ethics. His thesis was simple: contrary to the prevailing winds of mid-twentieth-century ethical thought, the Jesus of Scripture was a political figure who was interpreted by the apostolic generation as teaching and exemplifying truths that were relevant to the public life of first-century churches. Without help from Yoder, or from the Anabaptist tradition, New Testament scholars had already discovered that Jesus was a politically significant figure. The ethics guild had simply not caught on yet.

More central to Yoder’s project is the provocative way he interpreted the biblical narrative and brought it to bear on ecclesiological, ethical, and historical questions. In focusing on the New Testament, The Politics of Jesus gives us only the latter portion of that narrative.

⁵

Yet Yoder’s understanding of the Old Testament is just as important for understanding his work as his reading of Jesus. Unfortunately, Yoder’s Old Testament reflections are scattered widely throughout his massive literary corpus, including over twenty lesser-known essays in which Yoder focuses primarily on Old Testament concerns.

⁶

It is little wonder then that most scholars have missed Yoder’s Old Testament narration and the important role it occupies in his thought. Had Yoder made it more easily accessible, he might have avoided John Miller’s baseless charge that his ethical project is essentially Marcionite and J. Daryl Charles’s equally unsubstantiated claim that Yoder assumes a radical ethical discontinuity between the Testaments.

⁷

If for no other reason than to set this record straight, The Politics of Jesus needs a prequel that sets forth Yoder’s Old Testament narration.

For the Sake of Ethics, Ecclesiology, and Historiography

There are at least two more reasons to showcase Yoder’s Old Testament narration—reasons that concern a broader audience than those seeking to interpret Yoder’s theological legacy. One is that a prequel to The Politics of Jesus encourages Christian ethicists, historians, and ecclesiologists to do what Yoder did, which was to take the entire biblical narrative seriously in their respective fields. Though Old and New Testament scholars have been eager to apply the tools of their craft to ecclesiology and ethics,

⁸

few have been willing to bridge the seemingly unbridgeable chasm separating the Testaments and engage the full sweep of the biblical witness.

⁹

This is understandable. To do so well requires acquaintance with ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman history and culture; familiarity with source criticism, redaction criticism, literary criticism, textual criticism, and canonical criticism, to name just a few; and fluency in at least two biblical languages. This is compounded by the fact that interpreters of Scripture do not always know who the author is, how exactly the events it portrays relate to history, and whether specific accounts were intended to be descriptive or prescriptive.

Of course, those who are comfortable in all of these areas still need to answer the thorny question of how the Old and New Testament relate to one another given the apparent tension between them. Classical dispensationalism offers one thoughtful answer: God is sovereign over world history and has chosen to relate to different people in different ways during different times. Humans are in no position to understand or judge why he chose to do so, but they must humbly accept that reality. Not only was God free to work through violent means in one Testament and not in the other, but each Testament is itself divided into multiple dispensations during which God reserves the right to alter his means and measures.

¹⁰

John Howard Yoder was not satisfied with that answer, nor was he content with approaches that deal with intratestamental tension by narrating differences in terms of progressive revelation, attributing discrepancies to pedagogical concessions, or positing a split between various realms or vocations and assigning the teachings of the Old Testament to some and the New Testament to others.

¹¹

He rejected all of these approaches because he denied their shared premise that there is, in fact, sharp discontinuity between the Old Testament and New Testament, whether one is applying them to ethics, ecclesiology, or historiography.

¹²

Not all scholars will agree with how Yoder resolves intratestamental tensions, but his work challenges them not only to critically engage his interpretation but to demonstrate that their projects are more firmly rooted in a sophisticated and nuanced reading of the entirety of Scripture.

For the Sake of Biblical Interpretation

A final reason to showcase Yoder’s Old Testament narration is that, where Yoder departs from standard interpretations of challenging biblical passages, he is sure to provoke much thought. Even at points where readers will disagree with his interpretation or the various alternatives that I suggest, they will be challenged to explore new perspectives and rethink common assumptions. Readers will wrestle, for example, with

• what it meant for prelapsarian society to reflect the way of Christ its creator,

• whether Edenic life was originally matriarchal,

• how God’s love is manifest in the flood of Noah’s time or the slaughter of the Canaanites,

• where the concept of the state first enters the biblical narrative,

• why God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his son,

• how the scatterings of Babel and the Babylonian exile might be considered divine blessings,

• what Christians should make of the atrocities in Judges and the mixed legacy of Israel’s kings,

• whether Ezra and Nehemiah should be regarded as divine servants or politicking elders,

• how the servant songs of Isaiah prepare God’s people for the mission of Jesus and the church, and

• what role the land of Palestine and city of Jerusalem should play in Christian thought today.

Yoder stimulates much thought in these areas because he resists academic compartmentalization, takes the continuity of the full biblical canon seriously, and unapologetically reads the beginning and middle of the canonical story in light of the end, who is Christ. In so doing, he exemplifies a theological, even Christological interpretation of Scripture that refuses to ignore the biblical studies guild, as is the habit of many.

¹³

This reading of the Bible with an eye toward continuity will prove illuminating for all Christian traditions—especially Catholic and Reformed circles—for whom it is of utmost importance to discern how the entire Bible story fits together. Though Yoder is known widely for arguing that a sound reading of the New Testament demonstrates the abiding relevance of Jesus to social ethics, it is time for readers to acknowledge that he has essentially done the same with the Old Testament.

Aim and Overview

The primary aim of this book is to make Yoder’s Old Testament narration visible in its entirety for the first time.

¹⁴

In doing so I am not seeking to replace the more systematic and biographical introductions to his work.

¹⁵

I am hoping to complement them by providing a guided tour of the biblical narrative within which Yoder operated. This narrative is not, itself, Yoder’s life work—but it is, I believe, the biblical vantage point from which he viewed all the topics that he approached. Of course this is not the whole picture. A more complete account of Yoder’s perspective would also have to account for his ecclesial formation, philosophical framework, and other elements. My hope is that greater familiarity with Yoder’s biblical narration will foster more accurate readings of his work and raise fresh questions that ethicists, ecclesiologists, and historians need to answer concerning the Old Testament’s relevance to their fields.

I have tried to minimize the extent to which I have read my own perspectives into Yoder’s narration by dividing this book into two parts. In part one, I present the basic contours of his Old Testament narration as faithfully as possible (chs. 2–5).

¹⁶

I do so in terms of four stages, each of which corresponds to a critical moment in God’s formation of his chosen people. In part two, I engage Yoder’s narration one stage at a time (chs. 6–9). I conclude in the final chapter (ch. 10) by discussing its implications for ethics, ecclesiology, and historiography. The Epilogue, Practicing the Politics of Yahweh, rounds off the volume by moving from theory to practice and showcasing how Yoder’s fundamental insights enhance an oft-cited yet underdeveloped image of the church: a kingdom of priests. Though my unique voice sounds forth more clearly in part 2, the Epilogue exhibits my constructive work most clearly and should not be overlooked by virtue of its position in this volume.

A brief introduction to the four stages by which I have organized Yoder’s Old Testament narration will help orient the reader toward the basic flow of chapters 2–9. Stage one, The Pre-Formation of God’s People, concerns the primeval history recounted in Genesis 1–11. This foundational stage in Yoder’s narration discusses the relationship between Christ and creation, the nature of human dysfunction, and the resilience of God’s grace, which is unwilling to leave humans alone in their dysfunction. These chapters are crucial for understanding why God chose to form his chosen people.

Stage two, The Formation of God’s People, begins with God’s calling of Abraham from Ur, continues with God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and ends with the nascent nation’s struggle to live the life to which God called them during the time of Israel’s judges. The faith of Abraham and the kingship of Yahweh,

¹⁷

as set forth in Torah, constitute the canonical benchmarks by which Yoder evaluates the remainder of the Old Testament story.

Stage three, The Deformation of God’s People, is the low point, according to Yoder, in the Old Testament story. In rejecting God’s kingship and choosing a king like the nations, the Israelites spurned God’s laws and severely compromised their identity and mission. Though God allowed them to take this detour, he nonetheless warned of its consequences and remained by his people’s side as their structural unfaithfulness collapsed under the weight of its own inadequacies.

Stage four, The Reformation of God’s People, concludes Yoder’s Old Testament narration and introduces his interpretation of the New Testament. After dismantling the kingship, God began reconfiguring his people as a transterritorial nation. This new strategic posture enabled them to bless and bear witness to all nations, as the Messiah would soon commission them.

Yoder offers a coherent and provocative Old Testament narration that begins with, moves toward, and culminates in the way of Christ. In so doing, he affirms the basic continuity of the entire biblical canon.

¹⁸

If Yoder is right, the Old Testament should occupy a prominent place in ecclesial, ethical, and historical reflection. Yet Yoder’s interpretation is not right in all respects. Though few scholars have read enough of his work to grasp the full scope of his Old Testament narration, several have criticized specific parts of it. Some fault Yoder for reading Scripture selectively, realistically, backwardly, or modernistically. Others claim that his interpretation is compromised by his Marcionism, pacifism, divine militarism, or supersessionism. Still others highlight exegetical flaws that need to be addressed and conspicuous gaps that need to be filled. This is why it is necessary, in part two, that I draw upon wider scholarship to engage Yoder’s interpretive tradition and to suggest how it may be improved. Sometimes this means filling a void, like Yoder’s lack of a robust account of the flood. Other times it means significantly altering his narration, like proposing an alternative interpretation of the refortification projects of Ezra and Nehemiah. The end result is a significantly expanded, thought-provoking Old Testament interpretive tradition, the implications of which are explored in the conclusion and the practical import of which is showcased in the epilogue. In order to fully appreciate Yoder’s interpretation of the Old Testament, however, one must understand the approach to Scripture he used to develop it. The remainder of this introduction is dedicated to spelling it out.

Yoder’s Canonical-Directional Approach to Scripture

It may seem odd to focus on an ethicist’s Old Testament narration, especially one whose doctorate was in historical theology and whose primary contribution to scholarship was his relentless advocacy for Christian nonviolence. Yet Yoder was highly conversant with biblical studies, particularly the Old Testament. He took more classes in Old Testament than in any other subject at the University of Basel where he earned his doctorate.

¹⁹

This partially accounts for why Yoder was able to publish as many as twenty essays on Old Testament themes.

These statistics, however, can be misleading. Yoder never claimed to be an Old Testament scholar, never sought to advance the field of Old Testament studies, and never wrote about the Hebrew Bible for its own sake. He seldom evaluated, critiqued, or corrected specific Old Testament scholars, and he refrained from entering into their debates as if one of them. Nevertheless, in his amateur (yet informed) essays, Yoder draws valuable insights from Bible scholars and canon critics in order to demonstrate how passages in one book inform passages in another book, and still another, until a discernable trajectory emerges from Genesis to Revelation. Yoder describes this trajectory, saying, From Moses . . . to the non-violence of the Jewish communities of the second century, whether the messianic ones (whom we now call ‘Christians’) or the rabbinic ones (whom we now call ‘Jews’), is a crooked developmental line, but it is an organic line . . . . The canonical collection demands that it be read as directional—moving from patriarchs to pharaoh, from exodus to Sinai, from judges into kingship and back out.

²⁰

This particular way of splicing passages and themes together into a coherent overarching narrative and applying that narrative to questions of ecclesiology, ethics, and church history sets Yoder’s work apart and makes him an interesting and important conversation partner.

Yoder’s reading of Scripture