The Christ of the Prophets: Abridged Edition

by O. Palmer Robertson

In this abridged version of The Christ of the Prophets, O. Palmer Robertson captures the passion and purpose of their extraordinary writings. After examining the origins of prophetism, the prophets' call, and their proclamation and application of law and covenant, Robertson devotes special attention to the biblical-theological significance of the exile. Viewing that phenomenon through the lens of several prophets, he draws our focus to the glorious restoration of God's people in Christ.

Genres: Theology

503 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 27, 2017

About the author

Owen Palmer Robertson (born August 31, 1937) is an American Christian theologian and biblical scholar. He taught at Reformed Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary, Covenant Theological Seminary, Knox Theological Seminary as well as at the African Bible Colleges of Malawi and Uganda. He also served as principal of the latter institution.

Robertson is perhaps best known for his book The Christ of the Covenants. His definition of a biblical covenant being "a bond in blood, sovereignly administered" has been widely discussed.

In 2008, a Festschrift was published in his honor. The Hope Fulfilled: Essays in Honor of O. Palmer Robertson included contributions by Bruce Waltke, Richard Gaffin, Robert L. Reymond and George W. Knight III.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. So helpful with reading, understanding, and applying the Prophets.

[Ethan Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid theological introduction to the biblical prophets. I enjoyed this one a bit more than Robertson's book on the covenants. One struggle I had with both books is that they are a bit repetitive. The strengths of this book are its insights into the major themes of the prophets and its sensitivity to literary and historical contexts. Yet, I find Robertson's style a bit frustrating. He only addresses historical questions part of the time, which is confusing. I wish he either would have addressed historical issues in all the prophets or none of them. When he does engage critical scholars, the engagement feels insincere and simplistic. While I agree with Robertson's theological convictions, I do not think a critical reader would be impressed with many of his refutations of critical scholarship. In fact, whenever I disagree with Robertson, I find his refutation of opposing views particularly weak. All that to say, there is some good biblical-theological meat in here, but I do not think Robertson is particularly good at critically engaging other views.

[Ethan McCarter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personally, I thought that this book was better than his "Christ of the Covenants" work. This work is a thick read, even in the abridged version, and will take some time to work through it. Robertson does an excellent job in showing theological aims of each individual book, the eschatological aim of the prophets, and the nature of biblical prophetism. Rather than being only about forthtelling, Robertson shows that the prophets were marked by both preaching repentance to the people and foretelling the future.
Some of the individual books he writes on are better done than others. For instance, his section on such books as Jeremiah and Isaiah were well done in addition to several of the minor prophets such as Joel, Zechariah, and Amos. Some I thought were lacking a bit of depth, such as Daniel, but there's only so much space one can dedicate due to space constraints. The biblical theology of Robertson is excellent, he is a master in that field, and helps the reader to see Christological and Eschatological aims throughout each book and the mission of the prophets. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in biblical studies and biblical theology (whether student, pastor, theologian, or laity) due to the well-written and easily understood nature of the book. An excellent read!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to read the prophets like a confessional Reformed Christian, this is the book you need.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. While I’ve read a few other books by Robertson, as I read this one, I kept thinking, should I read everything he’s written? It also caused me to think about immediately re-reading all the prophetic books. It’s hard to imagine a higher compliment for a book about the Bible.

The book accomplishes several things. It addresses the office of prophet in Old Testament Israel, how they interacted with the people, how they were called, and what they were called to do. It introduces major themes of the prophetic books and discusses generally how those themes are seen throughout the books. It has chapters dedicated to each prophetic book. Such chapters could operate as an extended introduction to the book in question, albeit with a focus centered around the themes Robertson has been exploring. But these chapters also have little off-shoots that are very interesting. (As an example, Robertson discusses the debate about whether Isaiah was written by just Isaiah or by multiple authors.) Finally (well, at least for my list), the book discusses the concepts and historical realities of exile and restoration. Robertson’s thesis is that exile and restoration is the theme of the prophetic books. In fact, as important as I thought exile and restoration were, I don’t think I quite grasped just how important they were until reading. For, to overly simplify Robertson’s thesis, he demonstrates that Israel’s and Judah’s experience of exile and restoration foreshadows Christ’s experience of death, resurrection, and exaltation (hence, the title), and it necessarily follows that it also foreshadows our experience of death, resurrection, and exaltation. Cf., e.g., Romans 6.

So, thank you to Rev. Robertson for this book. I highly recommend it!

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robertson is the gold standard in Old Testament scholarship. He does a great job showing the purpose of the prophets and how the point to Christ. I recommend this book as a must read for anyone wanting to know more about the prophets.

[Unchong Berkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big help in reading and understanding the OT prophets.

[David Shelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book for understanding the Old Testament prophets!

[Alexander Proudfoot · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent volume. I imagine that this volume would be quite helpful in preparing for a sermon series on any of the prophetic books, but especially for the exilic and post-exilic books.

[gabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at page 205.

[Faith Key · Rating 4 out of 5]

second half > first half