An Unconventional God: The Spirit According to Jesus. By Jack Levison. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020. 226 pp. Paper, $21.38.
Levison is the W. J. A. Power Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. This book deals with the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus. As an OT scholar, Levison seeks to show that this role is predicted in the OT and that through the power of the Spirit, Jesus fulfilled these predictions. While Levison does not believe in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, he does want to determine what the original writers say about the subject. The writers believed that God wanted to reveal Himself and does so through the Spirit working through the Son (p. 89). At the same time, Levison admits that the Jesus of history is different from the Jesus interpreted in each Gospel (p. 205).
According to Levison, without the Jewish Scriptures we cannot understand how the writers understood the Holy Spirit (p. 193). An example of this is found in the Lord’s teaching on the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Levison says that the meaning is found in the discussion of the Exodus as described in Isaiah 63. Israel rebelled against the guiding angel, and Jesus warns His listeners not to do the same against the Spirit (p. 195). Levison does not discuss what the results of this blasphemy would be or if believers can commit this sin. He does not see the sin as a danger only in the first century.
Levison makes the observation that in the life of the Lord, the Spirit often brought suffering and difficulties. This work eventually led to His death. The work of the Spirit in the life of believers will often result in persecution and trouble (p. 122).
This reviewer appreciated the author’s discussion of John 3 and the Lord’s interaction with Nicodemus. He correctly points out that Jesus uses a play on words. The Greek word describing the new birth can either be “from above” or “again,” and Nicodemus misunderstands the Lord (pp. 137-38). The word “spirit” can also be understood as wind. Levison correctly points out that Jesus is telling Nicodemus he needs a new birth from above by the Holy Spirit.
Levison also correctly notes that when Jesus says we must be born of water and spirit/wind, He is speaking of two things in close association with each other since only one preposition governs both nouns. This “symbiosis” existed in the religious climate of first-century Judaism. The Qumran community, for example, taught that its members must be cleansed by water and Spirit (p. 140). The recognition that the two words are connected is helpful, but it is better to see both water and wind as referring to the Holy Spirit. Levison does not discuss this possibility from the OT.
Like the vast majority of Evangelical scholars, Levison sees the Gospel of John as a book that emphasizes dualities. These include: birth from above versus birth from below; truth versus falsehood; light versus darkness; and Spirit versus flesh (p. 203). Unfortunately, he sees the Gospel of John as being written by a community of Christians in the second century. The discussion of cleansing by water, in his opinion, reflects the “mystery” of baptism in the early church, where the Spirit is at work in the water. When one emerges from the water of baptism, the Spirit also gives new birth (p. 141).
When the Spirit is mentioned in the Gospels, Levison sees many allusions in the OT. Readers of the JOTGES will probably conclude that some of these allusions have merit, while others do not. He maintains that the birth of Jesus through the Spirit reminds the reader of the creation of the world when the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep (Gen 1:1-2; p. 13). The announcement to Mary that the Spirit will overshadow her finds an OT reference in how the Spirit of God overshadowed the tabernacle in the wilderness (p. 21). Also in the birth narratives, the prophet Simeon is well versed in the teachings of the Spirit from the Book of Isaiah (pp. 7, 130). As many have noted, as does Levison, the prophet Isaiah’s writings about the Spirit are found in the accounts of Jesus’ baptism and in His first sermon in Nazareth (pp. 58-61, 198).
Readers will probably agree with Levison that Jesus’ being driven by the Spirit into the wilderness has parallels in some way with the Exodus generation (pp. 180-81). In addition, the dove sent out by Noah after the Flood may be the OT background to the Spirit as a dove at the baptism of the Lord. In both cases, the dove hovers over water (p. 53). However, Levison’s view that the Lord’s giving of the Spirit, instead of snakes and scorpions, to those who ask Him finds its source in the wilderness of the Exodus will leave many readers scratching their heads (pp. 92, 196).
This book is a mixed bag. It does not exegete Biblical passages. The writer is not what the readers of the JOTGES would define as conservative. He is certainly not Free Grace. But he does desire to determine authorial intent in the teachings concerning the Spirit in the four Gospels. The strength of the book is in its discussions of possible OT backgrounds to the work of the Spirit in these books. Each reader will conclude that some are valid, while others are not. I recommend the book for those discussions that possibly do have validity.
Kenneth W. Yates
Editor
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
