KNOWING JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?
A Fresh Look at Christophanies
By Andrew Malone
IVP. 204 pages. £10.99
ISBN 978 1 783 592 043
‘Some say po-tah-to, but I say po-tay-to’, and so the song continues referencing among other things, tomatoes, before the whole thing is called off!
Don’t do that with this book. Persevere with its technical and academic treatment of the biblical material which distinguishes between Christophanies and theophanies.
The Angel of the Lord
For this is about something much more important than how to pronounce theological accents. This is about the invisibility of God, the revelation of the pre-incarnate Son of God, the angel of the Lord, the functional nature of the Trinity and how we understand New Testament references to Old Testament incidents.
Andrew Malone has helped focus a debate which has been rumbling on since the second century and among evangelicals in more recent years. He has given that debate a new lease of life and has effectively, in this reader’s opinion, challenged the currently fashionable view that the OT appearances of God are unequivocally those of Jesus. With a gentle and measured finger, the author plays the part of the little boy in the fable of the Emperor’s new clothes, as he points out the threadbare nature of some of the arguments for Christophanies
Written in a style which demands the kind of concentration required for a complex detective novel, this is not a book for the beach. Believe me, I tried that approach. Not even the helpful film references to Star Wars and Darth Vader make it an easy read.
Target audience
This is a book for the study and for those unphased by big words and ideas. It’s likely intended audience is theologians and preachers still curious about episodes in the Bible which recount God’s mysteriously tantalising self-revelation.
