A
Commentary on Exodus (Kregel Exegetical Library) by
Duane A. Garrett
With an onslaught of movies coming out covering
the first few books of the Bible, our culture is immersed in the stories of the
early people of God. Yet, there is much
that is not good and/or misleading about Hollywood’s portrayal of the Pentateuch. What we need is able scholars to make sense
of the Pentateuch. In steps Duane A.
Garrett, Professor of OT Interpretation at SBTS, to provide readers with a
clear and commendable commentary on the book of Exodus. With careful handling of the Hebrew text and
an eye toward the theological trajectory of Exodus, Garrett’s commentary is
top-notch and not to be missed.
With a 130 page Introduction, Duane leads us
through such issues as the date of the Exodus, the structure of the entire book
and the history of Ancient Egyptian kings to give us a snapshot of the background
of Exodus. Yet, Duane guides us through
the historicity of the exodus as it depends upon the dating of this momentous
event (97). At the end of his comments
of dating, Duane writes, “In short, we have ample reason to believe that the
biblical account is true, but we do not have sufficient information to specify
the details of when it all happened and of what pharaohs were present”
(103). Therefore, trying to tie a
specific Pharaoh with the Exodus event is a futile activity
Duane carries out his comments on the life of
Moses with patience and great wisdom.
Concerning Moses’ idealism and activity in Exodus 2, he writes, “Second,
Moses was an excitable, young idealist…On the other hand, his ideals were not
tempered with moderation. He could only strike
out against the Egyptian taskmaster, and end up himself being a murderer,
rather than wait to find a better way to remedy the situation. That is, as a typical young idealist, he was
impatient to set things right” (180). Yet,
the idealism of Moses was tempered with bad memories of Egypt, for that is
where he committed murder, staining not only his conscience but his life. Duane writes, “He had committed murder there,
and no doubt, as he grew older and more reflective, he bitterly regretted it…The
last place he would want to go was back to the scene of the worst moment of his
life” (182). The timidity, the running
away from what God was calling him to do was based upon the tragic event in
Moses’ early life, killing the cruel Egyptian taskmaster.
Lastly, Duane does an excellent job at bringing
together the main theological center points of the book of Exodus. Looking at ch.3-4 on pg. 232, Duane brings
together 5 consecutive points about the previous passage that reflect Moses’
obedience to his father, God’s care for his firstborn son (Israel), and finally
Christ’s example as the supreme example of the obedient son. This kind of careful analysis does not try to
find Christ under every rock in the OT but sees patterns in the OT that provide
us a way to see Christ and his fulfillment of these patterns and types.
Overall, this commentary was very good in its
grasp of grammatical, theological, and narrative issues in Exodus. I recommend this commentary to anyone wanting
to get a firm handle on the second book of the Bible.
Thanks to Kregel Academic for a copy of this
book in exchange for an honest review.
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