Paul Luckraft reviews 'God's Signature' by Steve Maltz (2012)

God's Signature is the first of a trilogy of books by Steve Maltz in which he turns his attention to the Hebrew scriptures. Subtitled 'The Wonders of the Hebrew Scriptures', the author claims that we will gain "a whole new layer of understanding of our wonderful God and His wonderful book though our exploration of His wonderful language, Hebrew" (p11).

His aim is to find God's unique signature within the scriptures. This is not a book about man's ideas and interpretive approaches to God's word, rather it explores how God chose to say things, the method and manner by which he communicated his divine will and purpose. When God decided to speak to mankind through people like Abraham and Moses, he had to give them the best language possible to reveal his thoughts and feelings. And that language was Hebrew.

Dip into the Delights of Hebrew

Maltz assures us that his book is not intended as a Hebrew primer or a series of tutorials. Rather, it is a dip into the delights of the Hebrew language and how it can help us understand God's word. We are treated to a series of word studies, plus several insights into how Hebrew works as a language and why it is so different from English.

However, he does rather dart around and the overall impression is one of 'bits and pieces', rather than an organised journey. Patience is required to cope with his diversions and asides (some of which don't really go anywhere) and comments such as 'more on this later', 'we will ask again later' and 'it is time to have another look at...'. This makes it a complex, rather than straightforward, read (there is no index to help you if you want to go back to something mentioned earlier) and it may leave you wondering what to do with all these titbits.

But Maltz does explain that "Like a meandering stream, we are now going to wander through the Hebrew Scriptures, unearthing little gems on the way" (p155) and once we realise the author's intention, we can sit back and enjoy what he serves up.

This is not a book about man's approaches to interpreting God's word – but about how God chose to say things.

Helpful Sections

Towards the end of Part One, there is a good discussion of the Masoretes who produced the Hebrew (Masoretic) text of our translations, and some excellent sections on ancient manuscripts and modern translations, which he surveys very well. For me, the book is worth it for these chapters alone.

In Part Two we are back to a collection of word studies, roughly grouped into chapters entitled Men, Messiah, Mysteries and Miscellany. Here there are often echoes of things considered earlier in Part One and again there is a rather miscellaneous feel about the whole section. Some of these studies may be a bit too detailed for some readers, but others are very meaningful.

Perhaps the most helpful are those which shed light on 'sin' and 'Messiah'. There is also an interesting introduction to the idea of 'midrash', a particularly Jewish way of connecting up scriptures via key words in order to squeeze more meaning out of individual texts. This method of study is a consequence of the nature of the Hebrew language, and is perfectly valid once we accept there is one overall author, a Divine signature behind all the scriptures.

The discussion of the Masoretes is good and the sections on ancient manuscripts and modern translations are excellent – it's worth it for these chapters alone.

During the book Maltz also introduces us to a new translation, the One New Man Bible, and quotes from it regularly. He explains why this version is worth promoting and includes an excerpt from a review by Peter Sammons which, with his permission, we reproduced in full last week.

God Chose Hebrew for Good Reason

Overall, Maltz makes a convincing case that God's signature "could not have been in any other language" (p117) and that "God chose Hebrew as His language of revelation for a good reason" (p118). We can agree with this even if by the end of the book we are still a little unsure exactly how it all works and where it leaves those of us who are non-Hebrew speakers/readers.

Certainly we will gain the sense that if we look hard enough, we will discern God's personal signature written all over his word and get to know him better.

God's Signature (revised 2014, 190 pages, Saffron Planet) is available from Saffron Planet Publishing for £10. We will be reviewing the other two books in Maltz's trilogy over the coming weeks.