Daniel C. Timmer - A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, Salvation and Spirituality in the Book of Jonah

New Studies in Biblical Theology is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology. Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: (1) the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other disciplines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, historical criticism, narrative theology); (2) the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and (3) the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the biblical corpora.

Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help thinking Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simultaneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead. In Gods universe, mind and heart should not be divorced: in this series we will try not to separate what God has joined together. While the notes interact with the best of scholarly literature, the text is uncluttered with untransliterated Greek and Hebrew, and tries to avoid too much technical jargon. The volumes are written within the framework of confessional evangelicalism, but there is always an attempt at thoughtful engagement with the sweep of the relevant literature.

I have scanned quite a few popular books on Jonah. Doubtless they have their place, but most of them are pretty unsatisfying. They do not probe the text very deeply, and very few believably tie Jonah to biblical theology. I have also read occasional technical monographs on Jonah. They are invariably stimulating but almost never think through what Jonah contributes to, or how it is aligned with, the canon. Daniel Timmers volume is exceptional: it engages in a close reading of much of Jonah, but keeps one eye pealed for legitimate canonical ties with what we would today call the mission of God. Dr Timmer thinks and writes clearly and succinctly, and biblical and theological issues come alive. This is a book to cherish.

D. A. Carson
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

The present volume is the outgrowth of ongoing reflection on the biblical theme of mission, particularly on how the role of Israel in the OT relates to the roles of the church and of individual believers in the New Testament. Although my use of biblical theology has repeatedly confirmed the importance of the progressive revelation and accomplishment of redemption, and thus of salvation-historical epochs (as Geerhardus Vos might say), the complexity of the biblical data on mission resisted my efforts to categorize it neatly in chronological categories as one might other themes like divine presence or atonement. This study is thus an effort to appreciate the various kinds of unity that exist in Scripture. The New Testament focus of much prior study of mission (note especially the volume by Kstenberger and OBrien in this series) also prompted me to focus my attention on the Old Testament.

I am grateful to a number of people who have contributed to this study, especially to those whose writing and teaching have faithfully probed Gods Word with a view toward better understanding and practising the gospel. In that vein I remain thankful to my family, to Dr Jerry Bilkes of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids) and to a number of professors at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield), including Drs Richard Averbeck, D.

A. Carson, Willem VanGemeren, Lawson Younger Jr. and Kevin Vanhoozer (now at Wheaton College). I am also thankful for the many excellent commentaries (plus a few monographs) on Jonah, particularly those by Sasson, Stuart, Magonet, Trible, Wolff and Lux. The rest of my debt to those who have worked on Jonah before me will readily appear from the footnotes.

I also express my appreciation for the participation and feedback I enjoyed as a panelist (with S. V. Davidson, G. Eidevall and U. Kim, the designated respondent; chaired by Dr Mignon Jacobs) in the Society of Biblical Literatures Israelite Prophetic Literature 2008 programme unit; to my students in OT 501 and OT 506 at Reformed Theological Seminary-Jackson, with whom I explored the book of Jonah; to Robert Mossotti and Tony Piles for pointing me to articles that had escaped my notice; to Dr Sam Larsen of Reformed Theological Seminary (Atlanta) for sharing some of his research on Jonah and mission; to Dr Jerry Bilkes for sharing some unpublished material on conversion with me; to Dr Mark Boda of McMaster Divinity College (Hamilton) for sharing with me his study of mission in the psalter prior to its publication; to Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson) for creating an environment that is conducive to research and writing in the context of academic teaching; to my colleagues there for their friendship and encouragement; and to Justin Richardson for completing the indices.