NAHUM: NEW TESTAMENT ECHOES

I will have to admit that, aside from the Book of Jonah, I have not really spent a whole lot of time studying the Minor Prophets. One of the most minor, in my mind, is Nahum, and so I thought I would at least approach it from an interesting angle. So below is what little I could dig up in the literature concerning the implications of Nahum's writings for the New Testament.

Nahum 1:1 We know virtually nothing concerning the author. There is another Nahum appearing in Jesus' genealogy (Luke 3:25), but the two should not be confused with one another. We are told that Nahum came from called Elkah. St. Jerome, writing in the 4^th century AD, identified this with a town in Galilee called Elkese. If that is true, then we have a sort of negative reference to Nahum in John 7:52 where Nicodemus states that no prophet ever came from Galilee. Now Nicodemus may have simply been mistaken in his belief or, in view of the fact that there are at least two other proposed candidates for the identity of Elkah, he may have been correct in his assertion. And finally, Mobley simply says that the location of Elkah is unknown.

Nahum 1:2 Weima states, “The theme of God as a judge who exacts vengeance is widely found in the Old Testament.” This verse is one of the references he cites, and the theme also appears in I Thessalonians 4:6b.

Nahum 1:2-3 “The whirlwind or tempest (supa) and storm (sara) appear totally arbitrary in their meanderings, striking first here then then there without rhyme or reason. But God is ordering them. Without confusion they follow the path of divine ordering (cf. Amos 4:7-6; Matthew 10:28-30)...When the NT depicts the Christ ascending in the clouds and promises his return in the same manner (Acts 1:, 11), this picture of the prophet has reached its highest level of fulfillment.” (Robertson)

Nahum 1:3 “Even when reference is made merely to a 'cloud' in conjunction with a heavenly being's advent, that being is always God (Revelation 10:1).” (Beale and McDonough)

The description of God as being “slow to anger” here and in other OT passages serves as a model for believers who are also urged to be “slow to anger.” (James 1:19)

Nahum 1:5 “The terrors of the Lord in judgment cannot be restricted to one single area of the world. According to this verse, the very foundations of the world are disturbed by his wrath...From a new covenant perspective, Peter speaks in climatic, cataclysmic terms of the final destruction of the earth as it is presently constituted (2 Pet. 3:10-13).” (Robertson)

Nahum 1:5-6 “The description from Joel [2:11] is supplemented in [Revelation] 6:17 by a phrase from the oracle of judgment on Nineveh...The judgment in Nahum is linked to that nation's idolatry (Nah. 1:14).” (Beale and McDonough)

Nahum 1:6 G. H. Guthrie on Hebrews 12:26b: “In the OT certain passages point to the use of fire in dealing with the enemies of God, and this thought is echoed in the NT in passages such as 2 Thess. 1:7, which asserts that when Jesus is reveled from heaven he will come with his angels 'in flaming fire' (cf. Rev. 8:5-7).”

Nahum 1:7 “Jesus' answer, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone' (Luke 18:19) echoes that OT theme of the goodness of Yahweh.” (Pao and Schnable)

“So when Nahum says “The LORD is good (7a),” he may well have the perfect goodness of a holy God in mind, in contrast to the sinful nature and evil deeds of humankind.” (Bridger)

Nahum 1:8 D.A. Carson on II Peter 2:9: “Other writers in the OT refer back to the flood to testify to Yahweh's omnipotent rule over creation...in order to provide imagery to depict the judgment of God that will overtake the wicked.”

Beale and McDonough in discussing Revelation 12:15 describe the three types of metaphorical uses of the image of an overflowing flood. One is referring to an army that spreads out to conquer a land.

Nahum 1:10 “God's enemies will be gathered together as thorns and consumed as fire burns the dry straw after harvest (v. 10; cf. Mt. 13:10).” (Fraser)

Pao and Schnabel: “Several OT passages compare faithful Israel with a green and fruitful plant...while unfaithful Israel is described as dry and unfruitful...If God allows Jesus, who is innocent, the 'green wood' to suffer the fate that Jerusalem is preparing for him, what will be the fate of Jerusalem, the 'dry wood? [Luke 23:31]”

Nahum 1:11,15 “Belial” appears in v. 11 as “wickedness” and in 1:15 as “the wicked (one).” “This is cited by Cheyne as an illustration of the transition to the use of the word absolutely as a title for Satan.” (Hughes) The latter usage is seen in II Corinthians 6:15: “And what agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever?”

Robertson confirms the importance of these verses: “Nahum alone of the prophets uses the term beliyaal, and he employs it twice.”

Nahum 1:15a “Specifically by a quotation of these very words, the new covenant believer also is summoned to enter this celebration of salvation (Rom 10:14-15). It is true that Paul uses Isaiah's 'How beautiful are the feet...' rather than Nahum's 'Behold the feet...' But the substance of the quotation is the same, one prophet giving expression to the positive side of deliverance, and one emphasizing the negative side.” (Robertson)

Seifrid: Although Romans 10:15 is a quotation from Isaiah 52:7, that OT passage “itself is an echo of an oracle to Judah promising the defeat of Nineveh and the Assyrians (Nah. 1:19).” “...just as the 'word of faith' brings the confession of the true God to the human mouth...so also it creates the beautiful 'feet' of its messengers, who now 'run' to announce the good news, not to shed blood as Paul once did...”

Marshall similarly notes that “proclaiming peace” in Acts 10:36 is derived from Isaiah 52:7 and Nahum 1:15.

The verb euangelizo (“to announce good news”) appears about twenty times in the Septuagint version of the OT. “All of these references relate similarly to the announcement of good news, often brought at the hands of a messenger.” (Schenck)  Of course, this Greek word takes on special significance in the New Testament writings.

Nahum 1:15b “No message could be more repulsive to the modern mind than the idea of retributive justice...It finds no contradiction in the Scriptures of the new covenant, but only repeated reinforcement (2 Thess. 1:6-10; 2 Cor. 5:10).” (Robertson)

Nahum 1:15 “Nahum's words...point forward to salvation and peace beyond the deliverance from the Assyrians or even the Babylonians, to salvation in Christ and peace with God, and all that follows in the life of the spirit.” (Bridger)

Nahum 1:15-2:13 Robertson: “Nahum has done all mankind a noble service through his vivid description of the outpouring of the wrath of God on the city of Nineveh. By this very concrete, physical portrayal of the event, he has come closest to that consummate description of divine judgment reserved for the lips of Our Lord alone (Matt. 13:40-42, 48-49).”

“Few voices among the pre-exilic prophets have resounded with such immediacy of divine vindication as Nahum.” (Bullock)

Nahum's prophecies act as “a dramatic illustration of the final eschatological triumph of God over all his adversaries.” (Childs)

Nahum 2:11-13 Fraser says that this provides the prototype of Jesus' later saying that “all who take up the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

Nahum 3:4 Robertson: “Although Babylon rather than Nineveh is the subject of the Bible's final expose' of the sensual human heart, the description of its destruction no less fits the point of Nahum's condemnation.” See Revelation 18:11-13.

Keener: “The Old Testament often speaks of spiritual adultery, especially in the contest of Israel's unfaithfulness to God...but occasionally other people's also (Is. 26:16-18; Nahum 3:4).” He states this in the context of discussing Jude 3-4,6 and Revelation 2:14,20-23. He also feels that the whole description of Babylon in Revelation 17:1-6 may have been partially drawn from the prostitute Nineveh in this verse of Nahum.

Beale and McDonough, writing on Revelation 2:20, state, “The spiritual sense of porneia as idol worship is attested in...Nah. 3:4. The spiritual nuance is also borne out in the light of John's figurative use of porneuo (and its word group) elsewhere in the book (thirteen times outside of chap. 2 in contrast to the literal sense only in 9:21; 21:8; 22:15, though even the last two are questionable.”

And then they comment in regard to Revelation 14:8, “Tyre's benefiting from the wealth of the nations is pictured as a 'harlot' receiving 'harlot's wages' (see Isa. 23:1-18; so also Nineveh is regarded in Nah. 3:4).” In both these passages “Nineveh and Tyre are called harlots because they cause ruin and uncleanness among the nations by economically dominating them and influencing them by their idolatry.”

Nahum 3:5-7 “Nineveh is portrayed as a disgraced prostitute, as were other cities in other prophetic indictments such as Revelation 17:1-6; 18:11-24. (Mobley)

Nahum 3:10   Luke 19:44 – “They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you” – echoes this verse in Nahum. (Pao and Schnabel)

Nahum 3:12 “This imagery of falling fruit has such a vividness about it that it was naturally picked up in the book of Revelation to describe the cataclysms associated with the end of the present age.” (Robertson) See Revelation 6:13.

Nahum 3:13 Pao and Schnabel state, “Jesus' sayings about the coming crisis contain several OT allusions. Verse 49 [of Luke 12], 'I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! echoes OT passages that speak of fire as a figure of judgment.” These include Nahum 3:13.

Nahum 3:18 “In [Revelation] 21:21a the call to flee to the mountains is a common OT and apocalyptic image.” (Pao and Schnabel)