The biblical theme of spiritual adultery stands in all its bluntness for a deeply offensive sin—the unfaithfulness of God's covenant people in departing from Yahweh, their husband, and going after false gods.
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. begins by showing how the Genesis vision of human marriage provides the logic and coherent network of meanings for the story of Israel's relationship with Yahweh. He traces the specific theme of marital unfaithfulness, first through the historical books of the Old Testament and then through the prophets, particularly Hosea, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Turning to the New Testament he also shows how the sad story of Israel's adultery is transcended by the vision of ultimate reality in Christ and his church—the Bridegroom and the Bride.
This beautifully written book, a New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, is marked by careful exegesis and deep sensitivity. It is that rare thing—a work of scholarship that calls readers to love God with an ardor that suffuses all of life.
Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.
Raymond C. Ortlund (Ph.D., Unversity of Aberdeen) is senior minister at Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has pastored churches in California, Oregon, and Georgia and was formerly professor of Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is also the author of A Passion for God (Eerdmans).
