Torah and Canon.

Torah and Canon. By James A. Sanders. Second Edition. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2005. Pp. xxxii + 156. Paper, $17.60.

The new edition of Torah and Canon continues the same accessible style for the general reader as the first (1972), which was conceived as "a popular-style introduction, with no footnotes, to ... the Old Testament" (xvi). More advanced students of the Bible, however, will find little new in this revised volume.

A new introduction surveys more recent developments in the discipline of canonical criticism, a discipline whose task, according to Sanders, is to focus "on the function of biblical texts in the ever changing historical and political/cultural contexts during the early generations of their formation and transmission--the process of its becoming 'canon' for generations to come, even down to our own time" (xxxi-xxxii).

Sanders argues for a two-fold purpose of the biblical canon: to address issues both of vocation and of identity, in other words "who are we?" and "how are we to live?" Chapter 1 summarizes the content of several early forms of Torah, beginning with the earliest J and E traditions, the addition of D, and then finally the P revision during the exile, which produced essentially the Pentateuch we know today. Although the book is marketed as "thoroughly revised," its content is solidly located in the middle of the 20th century. The Documentary Hypothesis appears in its traditional form, with classical dating of sources. (Blenkinsopp's proposal of a late, exilic Yahwist, for example, is not represented in the Bibliography.) The concept of canon begins in the period of the exile, in Israel's experience of "destitution," first with Torah, which provides the fundamental resource for how Judaism in the post-exilic period (Ezra) answers those existential questions. Important for Sanders is canonical Torah's omission of the settlement in the land so that this Torah forms community wherever the people find themselves; it is what "galvanized these survivors of ancient Israel and Judah into a viable community" (50). Concluding Torah with the Mosaic period of instruction outside the land meant that Torah ended with expectation, promise, and hope.

Especially in Chapter 2, covering both the "historical books" and the classical/ writing prophets, Sanders opposes the (ab)use of the prophetic literature in certain Christian churches today. In particular (and unequivocally!), he takes to task the "Bible prophecy" movement and 19th century dispensationalist views prevalent in some popular fundamentalist churches (87, 98-102). He makes only minor references to the anthropological study of intermediaries and unfortunately tends to limit the ecstatic experiences of prophetic figures to the pre-classical prophets, downplaying the ecstatic experiences of classical prophets. Sanders maintains a rather traditional, even conservative, perspective on the prophets as mediators of the covenant between God and Israel, which is probably too narrow a category for understanding the various roles of Israel's prophets. Sanders' seven "Principal Categories of Prophetic Literature in the Covenant Lawsuit Tradition" remain, as he notes, "a way to move into the prophetic literature" (emphasis added). According to Sanders, the prophets' sermons became "canonical" for Israel in the 6th century when the exiles recognized the truth of the prophets' words of warning and judgment which had recently been realized. Finally, Sanders notes the different ways in which Jewish and Christian/ Qumran communities affirm either the end of prophecy, on the one hand, or the continuing revelation of God (prophecy), on the other hand, and what this means for the shape of their respective canons (for example, the location of Daniel in the Christian Old Testament).

The most significant feature of the chapter on the Writings is Sanders' insistence that texts such as Job and Ecclesiastes must be read in the (canonical) context of the Law and the Prophets. While the speeches of Job's friends exemplify Mosaic theology as propounded by the Deuteronomists, the book of Job overturns this old theology of retribution for a later generation in light of the experience of exile. Thus, the book of Job illustrates the canonical process in its re-reading of older traditions and conceptions of the relationship between God and Israel in a new situation.

Torah and Canon serves well as a mainstream introduction, not only to the contents of the First Testament but to the formation of the Bible as canon. It shows that later forms of, or additions to, biblical texts are not simply "spurious" or secondary embellishments, but rather that "all such seams and fractures in the biblical text are precious witnesses to a process of adaptation and application to later situations, which bear witness to the development of the earlier literature into canonical literature" (xxii).

Mark W. Bartusch

Valparaiso University 

Valparaiso, Indiana, 46383