Book Review: Genesis: A Commentary

Reviewed by Douglas Brown.

Waltke, Bruce with Cathi J. Fredricks. Genesis: A Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001. Jacketed Hardback, 656 pp. $39.99.

(Review copy courtesy of Zondervan.)

Purchase: Zondervan | WTS | CBD | Amazon

Special Features: Footnotes, Bibliography, Subject Index, and Author Index

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ISBNs: 0310224586 / 9780310224587

LCCN: BS1235.3 .W34 DCN: 222.110770

Subjects: Genesis, OT Commentaries

Bruce K. Waltke (Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary; Ph.D., Harvard Divinity School), acknowledged to be one of the outstanding contemporary Old Testament scholars, is professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, FL) and professor emeritus of biblical studies at Regent College (Vancouver). He has authored and coauthored numerous books, commentaries, and articles; and contributed to dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Dr. James Montgomery Boice, the late pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia, PA) was a speaker at the 1999 Desiring God Conference for Pastors. He was given the topic “Preaching Today: The (Almost) Forgotten Task.” Near the beginning of his first message on this theme, Dr. Boice gave the following account:

I remember years ago, when I started in on Genesis, I probably overdid it just a bit. Because I preached four sermons on the first verse and then I thought before I went on to the second verse, I really should take some time to talk about the various theories of Creation. And I spent five more Sundays on that. So, I was into my third month by the time I actually got into verse 2. And there was a man in the church that found that just a bit discouraging. He came up afterwards. He was demanding why I was going to spend so much time studying a book like Genesis. He said “After all, there’s no great theology in Genesis. It’s not like Romans.” I tried to answer that. I think I knew where he was coming from. The difficulty was he had been in Philadelphia when I was preaching from John and I had spent eight years on John. He was a bit of a mathematician and it didn’t take him very long to figure that eight years for 21 chapters of John was the equivalent of “X” years for the 50 chapters of Genesis. And if you work that out mathematically, it comes out to nineteen years. He was already in middle age. And I think what was going through his mind is that he was going to die before Joseph did. So, he did the only sensible thing under the circumstances. He left Philadelphia entirely. He moved to Florida where he got into a very good, evangelical church with a good Bible-teaching pastor for whom I prayed for many years. I prayed that he would begin a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Jeremiah.

As you can probably imagine, there was a lot of laughter from the hundreds of pastors throughout this narrative. But you could hear groans mixed with the laughter when Dr. Boice told these men what the former church member had said—“After all, there’s no great theology in Genesis. It’s not like Romans.” These pastors had a right view of the book of Genesis. Genesis is the foundational book of Scripture and theology. Bruce Waltke, with his book Genesis: A Commentary, proves this point.

As a pastor, I want the best commentaries that I can get my hands on, especially when it comes to the books of the Old Testament. When I’m looking for a commentary, I don’t want one that simply parrots the old “tried and true” theologians of the past. I want something that is orthodox, but not dry. I want scholarship with devotion. I want reverence with application. In other words, I want a commentary that is going to cause me to love my Lord more. Bruce Waltke’s Genesis: A Commentary has this quality in abundance.

Overview

Based on the NIV, Genesis is a conservative, verse-by-verse, phrase-by-phrase study based on the premise “The real hero of Genesis is the Lord, and its stories pertain to the origin and life of the covenant community under the God of Israel” (pp. 28-29). This is not a commentary for the casual student of Scripture. It is packed with scriptural cross-references and abounds with footnotes of citation and scholarly explanation on almost every page. A knowledge of Hebrew would be helpful in using this commentary, but is not necessary.

The Introduction

A lengthy introduction (pp. 17-54) details the structure of Genesis, the ancient and modern debate over the authorship of Genesis, its historicity and literary genre, poetics and narrative theology, and the theme and biblical theology of Genesis. The introduction can be difficult reading at times, but the reward of understanding the material is worth the effort.

The Authorship of Genesis

Waltke argues that while “Moses authored the essential shape of Genesis and the Pentateuch, he clearly did not author the extant text in our hands” (pp. 21-22). He does allow for Genesis to have been “modernized and supplemented as needed” (p. 28) by official scribes. Waltke uses Genesis 14:4 and 36:31 as possibilities for this modernizing and supplementing occurring. He theorizes that “the historical books as a whole, including Genesis, are probably anonymous in part because they were living texts in the hands of the scribes, who kept the text current for the people of God” (p. 28). Therefore, throughout the commentary, Waltke refers to the author as “the narrator” (p. 28).

The Theme of Genesis

In stating the theme of Genesis, Dr. Waltke informs his readers that “Genesis and its subordinate motifs are best understood in light of the whole Bible” (p. 43). He declares that the kingdom of God is the overall theme of the Bible, so logically, the book of Genesis is the introduction to this theme.

The Outline of Genesis

The book is outlined using the style of a play with Prologue, Books, Acts, and Scenes. This was the one feature that I thought could potentially be confusing or difficult for some users due to the newness of this method. But after getting acquainted with the style, I thought it was not hard to follow and would be quite useful in sermon delivery. Each page is set up like a dictionary with the biblical text references in the upper left-hand or right-hand corner, so those struggling with the play format can still easily find the text for which they are searching.

Dr. Waltke divides Genesis into 10 books according to the phrase “This is the account of” found in Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1; and 37:2. Each book begins with information on the theme of the book, an outline, and a literary analysis—all of which are useful for the preacher and any layman wanting to go into further detailed study. Each book ends with very helpful theological reflections. For example, Book 6, Act 1, Scene 3: Separation of Lot from the Land of Promise (13:3-18) has the following reflections: Biblical Economics, Faith versus Sight, Peacemaking, Pentateuchal Foreshadowing, and Regeneration (pp. 223-224). You can see how this feature can quickly become a valuable asset just for thematic material in sermon preparation.

Theological Perspective

Waltke’s Reformed position is clear in many passages, such as his treatment of Genesis 12:3. He comments on the phrase “those who bless you.”

Until Christ comes, Abraham and his descendants play a representative messianic role and prefigure Christ. The promise does not pertain today to unbelieving, ethnic “Israel” (see Rom. 9:6-8; Gal. 6:15) but to Jesus Christ and his church. (p. 206)

Clearly, a dispensational theologian would not make such a statement on this passage. Waltke does reference Calvin in various parts of the commentary, but he is not afraid to disagree with the magisterial Reformer, such as in Waltke’s discussion of Cain’s offering and the phrase “did not look with favor” in Genesis 4:5.

Drawing from Heb. 11:4, Calvin argues that only Abel’s sacrifice is offered by faith. This is only half correct, for it does not directly engage the Genesis text. (p. 97)

Selected Interpretational Stances

~On Creation

He often brings out differing interpretations, then makes his own viewpoint known. He states that Genesis 1:1 “encapsulates the entire narrative” (p. 58) of the creation account. In other words, 1:1 is a “summary of the whole account” (p. 58) of the creation by God, not the beginning point of creation. This summary, as Waltke says, begins in verse 2 with the surd evil earth “already present, although undifferentiated and unformed” (p. 59). In his comments on the word “day” found in Genesis 1:5, Waltke discusses three proposed interpretations: “literal twenty-four-hour periods, extended ages or epochs, and structures of a literary framework designed to illustrate the orderly nature of God’s creation and to enable the covenant people to mime the Creator” (p. 61). Later, he states what he believes.

The third interpretation is consistent with the text’s emphasis on theological, rather than scientific, issues. The presentation of creation through “days” reveals God’s sovereign ordering of creation and God’s care to accommodate himself to humanity in finite and understandable terms. (p. 61)

~On Plurality Within Deity

He has an extensive treatment on the word “us” in Genesis 1:26, discussing the typical interpretation of a “plurality within deity” (p. 64). Waltke doesn’t deny the plurality of God, but he doesn’t believe that this doctrine is supported by this passage. He says, “The explanation that better satisfies all such uses of the pronoun is that God is addressing the angels or heavenly court” (p. 64). He then lists Scripture passages in the Old and New Testaments as case in point. Once this discussion is ended, Waltke brings out the wonderful details of the words “image” and “likeness” found in verse 26.

~On the Flood

His discussion on the Flood and its extent appears to be noncommittal from his full comment on “all life under the heavens” found in Genesis 6:17.

A worldwide flood may be indicated (see 7:19-23; 8:21; 9:11,15; 2 Peter 3:5-7); however, such comprehensive language can be used for limited situations (see Gen. 41:56-57; Deut. 2:25; 1 Kings 4:34; 10:24; 2 Chron. 36:23; Dan. 2:38; 4:22; 5:19; Luke 2:1). (p. 136)

His language elsewhere though seems to indicate that he believes in a global destruction by the Flood, such as “wipes out all life” (p. 122), “resolves never again to destroy the earth and all its people” (p. 123), and “total devastation” (p. 140).

~On Contemporary Issues

Dr. Waltke is not afraid to make statements that are unpopular in today’s society. He argues for the government’s God-ordained responsibility to administer capital punishment (pp. 157-158) for murder because “all human beings bear the image of God” (p. 157). He deals with the root source of the sin of homosexuality as being “people’s failure to gratefully acknowledge God” (p. 281) based on Romans 1 and Jude 4, 7.

Some areas of debate within Christian circles are dealt with as well, such as burial, tithing, and the doctrine of election. Waltke regards the burial of Sarah by Abraham as showing Abraham’s “great respect for life, the body, and death” (p. 323). He then makes the point that “such respect is precisely Christian thinking. The body as a sacred gift of God is to be respected. The followers of Jesus show the same care and respect for his dead body and seek to give it honor by a proper burial” (p. 323). With this statement, one could reason that Waltke disagrees with cremation. He argues that tithing is not an obligation of the New Testament church. He says “Our practice should reflect the abundant generosity called for in the New Testament. But all too often, Christians tithe in order not to give too much and pastors teach tithing to assure that people give enough” (p. 398).

Regarding the doctrine of election, Waltke makes this remark in discussing Joseph’s dreams and his brothers’ hatred of him: “Many today, like the brothers, are offended by the doctrine of God’s election (see Rom. 9:10-24). God deals justly with all, but he has mercy on some (Matt. 20:1-16)” (p. 504).

The commentary is evangelical in its scope. Throughout his work, Waltke frequently refers to God’s grace and mercy. An example is found in his treatment of Genesis 6:3 when God declares when the flood will occur.

a hundred and twenty years. This is probably the span of time between this proclamation and the Flood (see 5:32; 7:6), rather than the years of an individual’s life span. God’s judgment is seasoned by grace (cf. 1 Peter 3:20). The 120-year delay allows time for people to repent and provides testimony of the coming judgment through Noah and his huge ark.” (p. 117)

Reviewer’s Conclusion

Despite some small areas of disagreement that I have with Dr. Waltke’s views, I heartily recommend Genesis: A Commentary as an essential tool for the pastor’s bookshelf and any layman who wants “thick meat” rather than “milk” for Bible study. It will be a tool that you’ll regularly use when studying this foundational book of Scripture.

Douglas Brown has served as pastor of Madawaska Gospel Church (Madawaska, ME) since October 2001. He served in the United States Air Force (1990-1992) in southern California at George AFB as an aircraft armament systems specialist. Doug graduated with a BA in Pastoral Studies from Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC) in May 2000. He is a Boston Red Sox fan, a member of the National Rifle Association, and an avid birdwatcher. Doug and his wife, Sherry, have two daughters, Rebecca (7) and Sarah (5), and a miniature German schnauzer named Buster.

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