A majestic view that unfolds in an unfamiliar road

Dr. Seock-Tae Sohn(President Emeritus, Reformed Theological Seminary of Korea)

Rev. Abraham Park?someone who can be called a world renowned expert on biblical genealogy? has put together and published a book on the genealogy of the high priests right on the heels of his five-book treatment of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. As a retired professor, I could not hold back expressions of my utmost respect for this pastor, who is approaching 90, for having produced such writings. I must also pay my respects to him for his tenacity in his persistent research of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the central figure of redemptive history.
Furthermore, his flowing writing style reads much like a novel rather than an academic or theological treatise, thus drawing in the reader by inducing a desire to knock on the door of the literary masterpiece. As a pastor and as an individual human being, the author’s life experiences and wisdom?which he has attained through the many hardships he has persevered through during his lifetime?permeates each and every sentence, beckoning the eyes of the reader to stop and rest.
 


Whenever I come across Rev. Park’s writings, the consistent impression I get is that his theology is thoroughly Bible-centered, conservative and biblical-theological. The presupposition that the Bible is the inspired Word of God stands as the foundation while the Reformed hermeneutical principle that the Bible must be interpreted by the Bible itself dominates the author’s theological ideology.
But more than anything else, his biblical knowledge base is deep and wide. Often times, Rev. Park takes Bible verses that one normally does not think of and connects it to redemptive history or explains the verse’s relationship to other Bible verses. This cannot be done unless the author is well versed in the scriptures. He must have consistently meditated upon the Word and studied it in depth in order to have done this. AsI read this book, I once again realized that in order to become a Bible teacher who researches, teaches and preaches on the Bible, one must be well versed in the Bible. At the same time, I also felt an immense sense of shame at how ignorant I am inregard to the Holy scripture.
In the title of the book which is The Eternal High Priest of the Covenantal Oath: the Genealogy of High Priests in Light of God’s Administration in the History of Redemption, the phrase “eternal high priest of the covenantal oath” is a reference to Jesus Christ our High Priest which appears in Heb7:28.
In redemptive history, the priest is a type of Jesus Christ the eternal high priest who is to come. A type is like a model house where the prospective buyer awaits for the actual unit to be built, and then, once construction is finished, he/she enters the house to live in it. Therefore, the model and the reality are inseparable. Therefore, in order to know Jesus Christ the high priest, then we must know the priests of the Old Testament. Thus, if Jesus’ genealogy is important, then it follows that the priestly genealogy is also important.
Such factors notwithstanding, we may have been interested in the role of the priest but we have not taken much interest in the genealogy of the priests. However, Rev. Abraham Park has published a book on the genealogy of the high priests of Israel.
The chart that organizes the priestly genealogy for the first time in history is well presented enough to enable one to absorb the priestly history in one glance. The author has researched and published on a topic which the disciples of Jesus need to know about but had not thought of yet; therefore, he has bestowed a great teaching upon the future students of the Bible.
The author especially discovered the chiastic structure in 1 Chronicles 1-9, which can be called the summary of redemptive history. Moreover, within this structure, the list about the priests and the Levites were discovered to be at the center of the genealogies. Then, within chapter 6, the record regarding the high priests in 6:48-53 was found to be at the center of all the genealogies. From this perspective, Rev. Park’s book is laid out in a very unique and exceptional way. Through the book of Chronicles, God is teaching us about the priests who were appointed to save the sinners. This book enables us to view history three-dimensionally by developing it diachronically (happening through time) as well as synchronically (focusing on one time period) to help us see what kinds of people the priests are, and what their role entails. Thus, his writing of the narrative about the biblical priests is like the fisherman who has cast the net in the river and is driving the fish downriver; he drives and unfolds the topic of the book in this way.
Moreover, this book is not limited to the contents of the Bible. After the biblical era from the second temple period to the time of Herod’s temple, the history is covered with a focus on the priests. This enables those readers who are not quite so familiar with the intertestamental period to come into contact with this new historical information. It felt as if I were reading Josephus’ history book.
After Judah fell to Babylon, their history, which passes through the period of Greek and Roman domination, is recorded in the biblical books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Esther. However, these records are prophet-centered and very fragmentary. Nowhere is there any expansive and systematic history recorded as in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles so that the time from the exile to the return and even down to the birth of Christ is not clearly understood. However, this particular book serves to fill that hole. Of course, this time period in Israel’s history is full of trials and very important. After Jerusalem was repaired and the temple was rebuilt, the people were groaning in agony due to the inundation of Gentile powers and their political oppression, religious tyranny and exploitations of forced labor. The priests were supposed to comfort and encourage the people, but the priests were involved in political power struggles and worldly corruptions during this time. And this book exposes those things very explicitly.
The author’s exhaustive biblical knowledge and spiritual insight are felt in his interpretations throughout the book. Even at places where it may be easy to fall into over-spiritualization, the author showed self-control and struck a theological balance. Also, I believe it was Rev. Park’s special accommodation for pastors as he organized complicated history into bite size pieces that can be digested in whole portions.
But above all else, his writing is easy to read; anyone can enjoy them. He has a magical power that holds you so that once you pick up the book, you do not want to put it down until you finish. Then, he has you waiting for more. The aspects that needed to be dealt with along with the topic of priests would have been the tabernacle, temple, offerings and sacrifices but were not treated in this volume. However, the author has promised thathe would deal with them in the next treatise; so we await eagerly for the next publication.
I believe every Bible student should definitely read and study this book. At theological seminaries and the arenas of our pastoral ministry, we are only interested in fragmentary knowledge about the role of the high priest as the type of Jesus Christ. But equally as important is a systematic knowledge about the genealogy of the priests and the history of their works within God’s redemptive history. I believe this book will give you the kind of emotion and inspiration that one gets when you turn down a road that you’ve never been down before and are surprised by the majestic view that unfolds before your eyes.