An Introduction to the Old Testament: Second Edition

An Introduction to the Old Testament, Second EditionThe target audience for this book is seminary students. I am not a seminary student or a Bible College graduate, but after reading many reviews I thought this book would be helpful to me, and it is. I use it as a supplement to my study Bible.An Introduction to the Old Testament has an introduction chapter followed by one chapter for each book of the Old Testament. The Introduction chapter lets you know the perspective of the authors (Protestant and evangelical), what they are trying to accomplish, and how the subsequent chapters are organized. Some other authors deny the existence of any supernatural divine activity, but these authors recognize and respect the supernatural and the divine. The introduction presents some information related to hermeneutics, regarding the culture and context of the Old Testament.Each chapter following the introduction reads much like the notes at the beginning of a Study Bible, but with a little more breadth and depth. The major divisions that are included in every chapter are Historical Background, Literary Analysis, Theological Message, and Approaching the New Testament. Some chapters have additional major divisions for Alternative Critical Views (Genesis), Evaluation of the Critical Reviews (Genesis), Ancient Near Eastern Background (Genesis), and Text-Critical Issues (Samuel). The Historical Background section is usually the longest and includes a discussion of various theories about who was the author. Longman and Dillard present the critical scholarship and other views in a distant, third-person tone that is almost void of emotion. They very gently put forward their own view. The discussion of the authorship of Genesis reveals their tone and their view. "It is difficult to say when the new consensus will be or even if a consensus will emerge, but it is certain that the alternative will not be a return to a precritical acceptance of Mosaic authorship with only minute exceptions (the so-called a- and post- Mosaica) or to anything like a classic documentary approach. .... Evangelical scholars recognize that the Pentateuch contains pre-Mosaic sources as well as post-Mosaic glosses. ... In the final analysis, it is possible to affirm the substantial Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch in line with the occasional internal evidence and the strong external testimony, while allowing for earlier sources as well as later glosses and elaboration. ... In any case, our concern is the final form of the text, since that is what God has given the church as canon for its edification." So they are willing to look at various authorship theories, but they believe that God inspired the authoring process and the Bible we now have is from Him and is in the form that He intended.The book has a lengthy bibliography for each division of the introduction chapter, plus another bibliography for each of the subsequent chapters that deal with one book of the Old Testament. These bibliographies are not annotated, so I can only guess, based on the title, what is in each reference and what its perspective is. Some books are listed in many chapter bibliographies. An annotated bibliography for the whole book would be helpful.There is not much discussion of the Old Testament as a whole. It does not have a table to identify the Books of the Law (Pentateuch), Books of History, Books of Wisdom, Books of the Major Prophets, and Books of the Minor Prophets. It is assumed that the reader knows this. It does not give an overview of how the history books and prophecy books line up chronologically. Each chapter discusses the date of authorship and the dates of the events in view, but there is not a global view of the chronology.I read a lot of Amazon reviews of books about the Old Testament before selecting this one. I am satisfied with it, and I don't know of a better book for me. I am considering a future purchase of A Biblical History of Israel by Provan, Long, and Longman, to get a consolidated view of the history of the Old Testament era.

I just received my copy today and plunged into it immediately! I thought I would take a few minutes to break the book in properly by opening a small section of pages at a time, but I did not need to do so as the binding is so superb that i can open it to any section, lay it on my desk, and it will STAY open. There is no dust jacket, but again, it does not need one as the texture of the hard cover appears to be a glossy, tough material that could repel even red grape juice. It is more than five hundred pages with a great introduction covering history, archeology, the supernatural, literary structure, and many other topics. Each book of the Old Testament has a good introduction and analysis. The authors give us the goods in fluid, clear language that is easy to read and yet one can see a great depth of thought without impressing us with seventy-five cent technical words. This introduction is conservative, yet balanced. Liberal perspectives are not mocked or ridiculed, but rather they are examined to probe for reasons why such perspectives exist and to find, if any, common ground. I like that the book has a high view of the toledoth theory of structure, which answers the many questions of unity and authorship of Genesis. However, it is my opinion that the authors could have a loftier view of scripture and its transmission. On the one hand, the authors deem it necessary to approach scripture with the correct presupposition to arrive at the correct conclusion, namely, the presupposition that God exists, he is the creator of the universe, he is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal, and imminently active in human affairs. So that parting the Red Sea is no problem, stopping earth's rotation is no problem, and confounding human language is easy for him. Yet on the other hand, for them, this same God seems to have a lesser role in the recording and transmission of his holy scripture which was written by holy men of God under the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, and that he, the all powerful one, is fully capable of recording his word and transmitting it to us EXACTLY as he intended. An example of this is the authors' reference to the authorship and dating of the book of Job. They rightly point out that the date of writing is unknown, and the authorship is unknown, however, they wrongly suggest that the so-called "Babylonian Job", "I will praise the Lord of wisdom", is older than the biblical book (middle second millennium B.C.) and one is left with a feeling that perhaps the Job author was inspired by that Babylonian work. But not so, for just as the Babylonian creation story is an obvious corruption of the true Genesis record, so it is highly likely that the "Babylonian Job" was inspired by an older story, namely the Book Of Job. Given that Job seemed fairly advanced in age at the time of his trials and that he lived one-hundred and forty years more after his healing, we can place him as early as Eber and Peleg. That aside, I highly recommend this Introduction to the New Testament!

This is a thorough treatment for an overview of the Old Testement. If one hod no other introductory book to the Old Testement, one would nevertheless be well equiped with this one.

Clear, organized, and with lots of references for further reading

Love it

Excellent