That I May Dwell Among Them
Incarnation and Atonement in the Tabernacle Narrative
By Gary A. Anderson
Eerdmans, 270 pages, $35.99
In his most recent book, professor Gary Anderson offers a rich study of key sections of the Old Testament that contemporary lectionaries and Bible studies largely neglect. Lest our liturgical neglect of large swaths of the Pentateuch lead practically minded clergy to avoid the subject altogether, I hasten to add that Anderson’s choice of topic illuminates key theological themes that form the basis of all Christian life and worship: the beatific vision, sacrifice, sin, atonement, and incarnation. The extensive Tabernacle narrative offers crucial clues to help us understand the identity of the Israelites in relation to divine self-disclosure, the nature of Israelite worship, and the context that helped early Christians make sense of the person of Christ and his sacrifice on the cross.
Anderson takes Brevard Childs as his key guide to a robust canonical interpretation of the relevant portions of the Pentateuch. He begins with careful textual analysis of the priestly narrative and its canonical context, and as readers of Anderson’s other works have come to expect, he enriches his analysis with careful insights from the rabbis and diverse strands of patristic thought. Above all, Anderson shows that the details of the Tabernacle narrative offer a rich account of God’s indwelling among the people of Israel, and he offers a helpful and challenging corrective to the tendency of Christian interpreters to overemphasize the connection between sacrifice and atonement in the Old Testament.
Without denying the suffering Christ endured as a consequence for our sins, Anderson emphasizes that the daily Tamid sacrifice offered in the Tabernacle, like the story of the Akedah (the almost-sacrifice of Isaac), and the overall order of the canonical biblical narrative, suggest that Christ’s sacrifice should be understood primarily as a perfect offering of obedience and self-emptying love. This careful reading of the Old Testament, Anderson argues, helpfully corrects exaggerated expressions of the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement.
At several points, Anderson gestures toward the development of Christological themes out of the Tabernacle narratives in early Christian theology. He discusses especially how, in early Byzantine hymnody, the Blessed Mother becomes the new Tabernacle as she shelters the Incarnate Word in her womb; this connection becomes a key feature of early Marian devotion. Anderson’s claims for the lasting influence of these insights and texts in the Christian tradition, however, are overly modest; the Tabernacle and some of the themes Anderson identifies (among others) informed further discussions of Christology, Sacramental Theology, and Ecclesiology well into the Middle Ages.
But this fact only increases the importance of attending to a careful reading of the biblical texts. While careful and scholarly, Anderson’s prose is accessible and clear, and his book will be appreciated by clergy or scholars who wish to return ad fontes to enrich their study and contemplation of some of the core themes of the Christian faith.
