How The Book of Joel Was Preserved
Joel R. Grassi, Th.M.
A student at Emanuel Baptist Theological Seminary in Newington, Connecticut
The doctrine of preservation falls within the issue of authority. If
God's Word has been imperfectly preserved to any degree, it is lacking
that much in authority. Contrary to certain men's opinions, the Bible does
teach both the fact and means of its own preservation.
The entire ministry of the Old Testament (OT) prophet was based upon
the authority of the Word of God. The Book of the Prophet Joel opens with
an introduction that functions as a summation of how the Hebrew Scriptures
were preserved for subsequent generations. This section includes the fact
of inspiration, and the role and responsibility of the nation Israel in
preservation.
"The Word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel" (Joel
1:1). Joel opens with a phrase that occurs five other times in the OT.1
The phrase contextualizes the author's respective Book within the OT
canon. All of the Tanak is the Word of Jehovah; this Book is the
Word of Jehovah which came to Joel.
The phrase "the Word of the LORD which came" employs two
very common Hebrew Words. The first is rb^d+ (dabar), the
noun which corresponds to the Greek logos (logos) and which
signifies not an abstract idea or concept, but a word, expression, or
matter. It first occurs in Genesis 11:1, where it is translated "speech."
The second word is hy*h* (hayah), which is the Hebrew form of
the "to be" verb. This Book, then, is the Word of Jehovah which
was (given or come) to Joel. That Joel uses such a general word in
referring to the inspiration of his Book shows the miraculous nature of
verbal, plenary inspiration, and how the process cannot be perfectly
understood by the finite mind of man. Despite all of the theories seeking
to dissect how inspiration took place, the Bible believer must ultimately
receive the fact of it by faith.
Joel, like all of the OT prophets, never seeks to prove the inspiration
of his Book to the reader. He simply declares his writing to be "the
Word of the LORD."
"Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the
land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?"
(Joel 1:2). Joel begins his message with the imperative "hear this."
The demonstrative pronoun, "this," ultimately refers to the entire
Book of Joel, which the prophet no doubt delivered as a series of sermons.
The nation of Israel, beginning with the elders, was responsible to hear,
that is, give ear, to the Word of God. This would of course necessitate
the declaring of the Word by the prophet.
The phrase, "in your days, or even in the days of your fathers,"
is a literary device Joel uses to draw his listeners' attention back in
history. Joel is challenging his listeners to recall the darkest day they
have in their memories or have ever heard of, and to realize that it
cannot compare to the day of the LORD which is to come.
"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their
children, and their children another generation." (Joel 1:3) Joel
follows up the first command to hear with a second command to tell. This
is an intensive2 imperative from rp^s* (sahfar), used in
the sense of accurate recounting. From this Hebrew root comes the word "book."3
The prophet told the Jews to "book it." Joel's use of this verb was
no doubt instruction to his listeners to write down his words to insure
their accurate transmission to subsequent generations.
The word order is, "of it to your ch ildren tell, and your children
their children, and their children the generation after." This is
another expansive statement in Joel for literary purposes.
Footnotes For This Section
1 Cf. Jeremiah 14:1, 47:1, 49:34, Hosea 1:1, and
Micah 1:1.
2 This is the Piel stem, which signifies
intensified action
3 The NT Book of Matthew begins with the word
"book."
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