[from back page]

The book is dedicated to the study of a problem which traditional Biblical research has always regarded as a central aspect of the Old Testament understanding of God, namely the thesis that the Deity was held to be the immediate author of all evils affecting both the individual and the nation of Israel as a whole. The author critically examines the exegetical basis for this theological concept by means of a close analysis of the classical passages relevant to the thesis, such as Jacob’s struggle at the Jabbok, the evil spirit from God which plagues king Saul, the Song of Hannah, and Isaiah 45,7. In the course of his study the author pays due attention to the respective general message of such Biblical books as Job and Lamentations.

In this dissertation Fredrik Lindström offers new interpretations in several instances of the pericopes which the exegetical literature has regarded as expressive of the concept of God as author of all evil. The primary result of this study is that this important axiom of traditional exegesis is to be rejected as without foundation. The present work may be seen as an important contribution to the systematic theological study of the problem of God and the origin of evil.