EDITORIAL
Dear readers, we are happy to provide you with our Fall 2021 issue of Andrews
University Seminary Studies (AUSS) which presents articles that explore new,
refreshing, and faithful avenues for interpreting Biblical texts. In addition,
this issue marks a new milestone for our publication strategy. We have been
silently launching a digital version of our journal with our last issue (Spring
2021). After some testing and feedback, we are now ready to officially launch
the digital version of AUSS in tandem with the in-print version.
From now on, you have three subscription options: digital, in-print, or
digital & in-print. When subscribing to our digital version, you will receive
each issue in two formats. With the ePub format, you can read our journal
on modern reading devices like kindle, iPad, or other tablet versions that
support this format. We also offer the popular PDF format which has the
practical advantage that it can be used like digital paper, as the reader can add
handwritten notes with digital pencils (if you have that hardware).
With the digital version of our journal, we also hope to reduce our
shipping costs. Before the pandemic, and certainly with the Covid crisis,
costs have increased dramatically, particularly for international shipping. We,
therefore, must transfer these costs to international subscribers, beginning in
July, 2022. We encourage you to transfer to our digital subscription, as this
is more cost-efficient and allows you to get instant access to our journal once
it is published. At the same time, we will continue to print our journal for
those who prefer that option. Please see our updated pricing and subscription
models on our website: tinyurl.com/AUSS-Store.
In this Fall, 2021 issue of AUSS, our first two articles engage with
surprising statements in Old Testament texts. First, lan Reyes contributes a
study on “Nebuchadnezzar, My Servant’: A Reexamination of the Honorific
Title ‘Servant of the LORD.” While this title is used for Moses, Joshua, and
David, Jeremiah uses it to refer to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar who
caused the fall of Jerusalem and the Davidic Monarchy (Jer 25:9; 27:6; 43:10).
lan discusses the limits and problems of the latest interpretative approaches
to this subject and does a fresh analysis. He proposes that the use of the title
is not a scribal error or a careless expression. Rather, it is an intentional and
theologically significant designation for Nebuchadnezzar.
Second, Jonatas Leal and Oliver Glanz explore the unexpected expres-
sion: “And the Lord obeyed the voice of Elijah.” Their article, ““God’s Obedi-
ence’: A Linguistic and Narrative Exploration of the Hebrew Idiom in 1 Kings
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