A Boundless God: The Spirit according to the Old Testament
Overview
The word rûaḥ (commonly translated as breath,
wind, spirit, or Spirit) occurs in the Old
Testament 389 times—more frequently than torah,
shalom, or Sabbath. In this volume, a popular Old
Testament scholar, whose previous books have received wide acclaim,
cracks open the challenging and provocative world of the Spirit in
the Old Testament, offering readers cogent yet comprehensive
insights.
Grounded in scholarship yet accessible and inviting, this book
unlocks the world of the Spirit, plunging readers into an
imaginative realm of fresh senses, sounds, and skills. The book
gives readers the opportunity to recapture Israel's tenacious sense
of the Spirit's energy as it was expressed by a series of vibrant
verbs: blowing, breathing, coming,
resting, passing, pouring, filling,
cleansing, standing, and guiding. Readers will
encounter in these pages all of the Old Testament expressions of
the Spirit—passages that will challenge the conventional, confront
the commonplace, and transport them to a world of wisdom, work, and
wonder.
- Examines the nature and activity of the Spirit in the Old Testament
- Explores the use of the verbs blowing, breathing, coming, resting, passing, pouring, filling, cleansing, standing, and guiding
- Provides a nuanced and exapnsive vision of the Spirit
- Introduction
- Spirit Blowing and Breathing
- Spirit Coming Uponv
- Spirit Resting Upon
- Spirit Passed On
- Spirit Poured Out
- Spirit Filling
- Spirit Cleansing
- Spirit Standing and Guiding
- Conclusion
In this fluent and elegant book, Jack Levison makes two points of fundamental importance for Christian theology: (1) the Christian understanding of the spirit must be grounded in the multifaceted rûaḥ (breath, wind, spirit) of the Hebrew Bible and (2) the saving spirit of God cannot be divorced from the spirit/breath that gives life. A remarkable and subtle contribution to biblical theology.
—John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament, Yale Divinity School
It’s well known that the Hebrew word for spirit is also the word for wind and for breath, but I don't think anyone has done as much with that fact as Jack Levison in this book. He shows how the word rûaḥ speaks of the spiritual and the material not as two separate things but as related facets of the way that God in his liveliness involves himself in the world. It is appropriate that this book on the spirit should be inspiring. A beautiful combination of the academic and the nurturing, it works by careful, thoughtful, life-giving study of whole passages where rûaḥ appears, and it invites measured and reflective assimilation.
—John Goldingay, professor of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary
A Boundless God offers us a careful study of rûaḥ from the Jewish Scriptures that takes the reader on a journey into an expansive vision for what is meant by talk of the breath, wind, spirit, or Spirit of God. Jack Levison demonstrates the depth and breadth of the rich and full experience of God as Spirit and of God and spirit in bringing humanity to the fullness of life. Readers will be challenged to lay down old paradigms and dichotomies and to embrace an understanding of the spirit that is far more nuanced than before, all while being confronted with a vibrant, fresh, and life-filled vision of how God moves among his creation in and by the spirit.
—Lucy Peppiatt, principal, Westminster Theological Centre, United Kingdom
- Title: A Boundless God: The Spirit according to the Old Testament
- Author: Jack Levison
- Publisher: Baker
- Publication Date: 2020
- Pages: 208
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Doctrine of the Hooy Spirit