Old Testament Books - Page 2

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon

Francis Brown, S. Driver, C. Briggs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Has been supplanted 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This review is for 4 Hebrew lexicons in common use: Brown-Driver-Briggs, Koehler-Baumgartner, Holladay, and Langenscheidt.

The sizeable Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon is a development of Gesenius' historic work, and a long-time standard in English speaking countries. However, it has become dated, and now is used mostly because Hendrickson put out a cheaply constructed version keyed to Strong's concordance. Oxford's Clarendon Press edition is superior if you are required to get BDB. In addition, organizing entries by verbal root rather than alphabetically makes it difficult to use "BDB" for those without intimate knowledge of Hebrew. Fortunately, there is an alternative.

The Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon is superb and thorough, and based on the latest Hebrew and Aramaic scholarship. The authors also took into account cognates from Ugaritic and Akkadian, so users of this massive work have a goldmine of information to draw from. By massive, I mean it is over 2000 pages in 2 large volumes. This plus its $190 asking price means it might be better to let the university or seminary library bear the brunt of purchasing and housing it unless you are an Old Testament specialist.

Most readers will be best served by the work of William Holladay, a reasonably sized 426 pp lexicon based on the latest scholarship. Holladay abridged K-B by removing bibliographic references and other information most needed by specialists. It is well organized (alphabetically), and the font is clear. Entries also have references (not exhaustive) to use within the Old Testament, meaning it can be used as a poor man's OT concordance. While Holladay is manageably sized enough (9.75" x 6.875" x 1.25") to be pleasant to read and easily portable in a bookbag, it is not the smallest resource available.

Some may be tempted to go a step further for the ultimate in compactness with the Langenscheidt pocket dictionary. This item is 6" x 4" x 1" and quite lightweight - in its 1959 iteration anyway. Its definitions are limited in scope and scholarly foundation, but still, what else fits in your coat pocket?

My overall recommendation: Holladay for everyone, supplemented by Koehler-Baumgartner for those who need and can afford it.

BDB: 3 stars
K-B: 5 stars
Holladay: 5 stars
Langenscheidt: 4 stars

Editorial Review:

A trio of eminent Old Testament scholars—Francis Brown, R. Driver, and Charles Briggs—spent over twenty years researching, writing, and preparing The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Since it first appeared in the early part of the twentieth century, BDB has been considered the finest and most comprehensive Hebrew lexicon available to the English-speaking student. Based upon the classic work of Wilhelm Gesenius, the "father of modern Hebrew lexicography," BDB gives not only dictionary definitions for each word, but relates each word to its Old Testament usage and categorizes its nuances of meaning. BDB's exhaustive coverage of Old Testament Hebrew words, as well as its unparalleled usage of cognate languages and the wealth of background sources consulted and quoted, render BDB and invaluable resource for all students of the Bible.
—From the publisher's preface

On the Old Testament (A Book You'll Actually Read)

Mark Driscoll

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Packed with big truth, this little book on the Old Testament can be read in roughly one hour, making it a book you’ll actually read. Mark Driscoll, one of America’s most influential pastors, answers the nine most common questions about the Old Testament—questions about authorship, what Jesus says about the Old Testament, how the Old Testament books were chosen as Scripture, and more—and gives an overview of the various kinds of Old Testament literature. Two appendices include a comprehensive list of further resources and a checklist for reading through the entire Old Testament.

On the Old Testament is part of a series of inexpensive and accessible books that give clear, biblical answers to difficult theological questions and controversies. Through this series readers will get a solid and simple introduction to the Bible by investing just a little time.

Praise for the A Book You’ll Actually Read series:

“Mark has a gift of taking weighty ideas and expressing them in clear and lively language.”
Bruce A. Ware, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Serious, informed, reverent, but not technical discussions of great themes.”
D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“Simply and superbly written! Mark Driscoll has given us tools that can be placed in the hands of a skeptic or seeker, a new believer or mature saint.”
Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“These accessible books will encourage believers to see that theology is not an afterthought in the mission of God and the life of his church.”
Ed Stetzer, Director of LifeWay Research

“These books are well worth an hour of your time.”
Craig Groeschel, Founding Pastor of LifeChurch.tv and author of Confessions of a Pastor

The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules

Carolyn Custis James

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent, Insightful Look Into Well-Known Story 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is a serious, scholarly dig into the Bible's book of Ruth, but reads so easily it was almost novel-like. I've read Ruth, studied Ruth, and even read other books on the topic, but this book brought my understanding of it to a new level altogether. Carolyn Custis James does an amazing job of setting the cultural backdrop, which really puts the story into a different light than I've ever heard before. She challenges "traditional" views regarding submission, the role of women in God's story, and even what the book of Ruth has to offer.

This book tells the tale of Ruth - her pain, her courage, and her dedication to her mother-in-law Naomi - while still demonstrating that God is at the center of the story. Instead of focusing on the love story between Ruth and Boaz, James shows the relationships between them, as well as Naomi, in a completely different light. She reveals how their actions were risky, courageous, and deeply self-sacrificing, done out of love for and trust in God.

James, through examining the well-known story, seeks to answer the question, "Is God good for women?" Even poor, barren, widowed women in a patriarchical society? Can God still have a purpose, and see it through, for women in painful circumstances? Instead of trivializing pain and giving trite answers, the author delves into the sorrows of infertility and losing a husband, and even shares about her own pain. In a very seamless and authentic way, she then leads the reader to examine Ruth's story, where God's purposes prevail against all odds.

Editorial Review:

Traditionally, the Book of Ruth is viewed as a beautiful love story between Ruth and Boaz. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find startling revelations—that God makes much of broken lives, he calls men and women to serve him together, and he’s counting on his daughters to build his kingdom.

The Prophetic Imagination

Walter Brueggemann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Author Books Unusual Use of Words 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This book is about putting "prophetic imagination" inspirations into social actions. Actual example was putting an organisation together in a community to help the needy and underprivileaged. Not very spiritual, but very commendable.

Editorial Review:

In this challenging and enlightening treatment, Brueggemann traces the lines from the radical vision of Moses to the solidification of royal power in Solomon to the prophetic critique of that power with a new vision of freedom in the prophets. Here he traces the broad sweep from Exodus to Kings to Jeremiah to Jesus. He highlights that the prophetic vision not only embraces the pain of the people but creates an energy and amazement based on the new thing that God is doing. In this new edition, Brueggemann has completely revised the text, updated the notes, and added a new preface.

Contents
--Preface
--The Alternative Community of Moses
--The Royal Consciousness: Countering the Counter-Culture
--Prophetic Criticizing and the Embrace of Pain
--Prophetic Energizing and the Emergence of Amazement
--Criticism and Pathos in Jesus of Nazareth
--Energizing and Amazement in Jesus of Nazareth
--A Note on the Practice of Ministry

The Prophets (Perennial Classics)

Abraham J. Heschel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Standard Reference in the Field 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

A wonderful, two-volume set that has become a standard reference in the field of the "classical," literary, Hebrew prophets, their prophecies, and their personalities. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah (Isa. 1-39), Micah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Second Isaiah (Isa. 40-66) are analyzed with particular care given to their humanity as they encounter God and men in assuming their respective missions.

Heschel describes his focus in writing: "What I have aimed at is an understanding of what it means to think, feel, respond, and act as a prophet (Introduction). For this Jewish rabbi and seminary professor, "the prophet is a person, not a mircrophone. He is endowed with a mission, with the power of a word not his own that accounts for his greatness--but also with temperament, concern, character, and individuality. As there was no resisting the impact of divine inspiration, so at times there was no resisting the vortex of his own temperament. The word of God reverberated in the voice of man" (Introduction). This examination of the prophets' humanity is most compelling throughout the work with the first chapter, "What Manner of Man is the Prophet?," being worth the price of the set to me.

The second volume addresses at least sixteen different aspects of the prophetic experience, among them: "theology and philosophy of pathos," "meaning and mystery of wrath," "sympathy," "ecstasy," "poetry," and "inspiration." An examination of prophets from other cultural contexts is also included.

Highly recommended to all theologically- and philosophically-minded readers who are interested in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the Hebrew prophets from a Jewish perspective.

Editorial Review:

Abraham Heschel is a seminal name in religious studies and the author of Man Is Not Alone and God in Search of Man. When The Prophets was first published in 1962, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of biblical scholarship.

The Prophets provides a unique opportunity for readers of the Old Testament, both Christian and Jewish, to gain fresh and deep knowledge of Israel's prophetic movement. The author's profound understanding of the prophets also opens the door to new insight into the philosophy of religion.

The Five Books of Moses : Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy : A New Translation With Introductions, Commentary, and Notes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"No serious Bible reader--whether Jewish, Christian, or secular--can afford to ignore this volume."
--Jon D. Levenson, Harvard Divinity School

This translation is a stunning achievement--to read it is to hear the Bible as if for the first time.  While other English translations of the Bible render its language as if it had been written in English, this new translation re-creates the full force of the Bible's original rhetoric and poetry--its rhythms, nuances, and stylistic devices--allowing the English reader to experience the spiritual and aesthetic power of the Bible's own voice while recovering layers of meaning that are missed entirely in conventional translations.

Everett Fox has devoted twenty-five years to this unique approach to Bible translation.  Based on principles developed by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, this new English translation restores the poetics of the Hebrew original--the echoes, allusions, alliterations, and word-plays that rhetorically underscore its meaning and are intrinsic to a text meant to be read aloud and heard.

Widely praised by Bible scholars and theologians of every denomination, the publication of the first volume of The Schocken Bible is a major religious, scholarly, and literary event.   Together with its extensive commentary and illuminating notes, this unique translation draws the reader closer to the authentic living voice of the Bible.  

The Art of Biblical Narrative

Robert Alter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Fascinating Way to Read the Bible 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Modern Biblical scholarship has tended toward a process of atomization: how many editors were involved in the creation of the Bible? How many different strands of tradition can we find in a given story? Robert Alter's "The Art of Biblical Narrative" at once provides a corrective to this tendency, and a striking alternative way of understanding the Good Book.

Although recent scholarship has emphasized historical- and textual-critical methodologies, Alter chooses a literary-critical approach; that is, he asks how we should read the Bible first and foremost as literature. Ancient Hebrew storytelling conventions were often radically different from those we use today, so we must learn to be attuned to things like a character's silence, or minor, telling variations in a scene that is repeated several times. In this way, Alter takes much of what may make the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) seem "boring" today--its Spartan narrative style, the apparent redundancy of many of its stories--and shows how these elements are actually integral to how the Bible tells its story.

Alter's prose style is scholarly without being suffocating. It is, however, dense with ideas. I often found myself reading as little as five pages at a sitting, as each sentence seemed so full that it was all I could take in before I had to stop for a mental breather. (I recommend reading the Conclusion first, which ten pages provide an excellent summary of the book's main ideas and may make it easier to digest them as the author investigates each one in detail in the rest of the book.) His examples are profuse, and well-chosen to illustrate his points.

Alter mostly steers clear of ideological disputes about what the Bible is or isn't, sticking to his purely literary analysis of the text. He occasionally makes comments to the effect that he sees the stories of the Bible as "historicized fiction," but his approach can still fit into any faith framework; it is just as possible for a devout Christian and an atheist to read the Bible as literature. What's more, Christians will not only find an enriching way of appreciating their sacred text here, but may even gain comfort in the face of some scholars who seem to think that a Bible with editors is inherently an unreliable Bible. Alter, to the contrary, shows that the Biblical author-editors must have been very sophisticated storytellers, and that what are often taken for mere inconsistencies today may well represent a deeply thoughtful approach to depicting the moral and social ambiguities the authors saw in their world.

"The Art of Biblical Narrative" takes effort to read, but those willing to take the time to absorb it may find their understanding of the Bible enhanced, deepened, even changed.

~

Editorial Review:

In what is both a radical approach to the Bible, and a fundamental return to its narrative prose, Robert Alter reads the Old Testament with new eyes—the eyes of a literary critic. Alter takes the old yet simple step of reading the Bible as a literary creation.

Leap over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everday Christians

Eugene H. Peterson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Treasure in the attic... 4 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

I found a copy of this book in my in-law's attic. I looked through the contents and decided to read the chapter on Friendship - David and Jonathan. Peterson is profound in this chapter. His comments on friendship as an expression of spirituality were so insightful that I am viewing my relationships with others in a new way already. I was even convicted that my friendship with my wife was not sufficient by God's standard. Wow, what a difference one chapter can make. I can hardly wait to buy this book and read the all of Peterson's reflections on the life of David. I like this "earthy spirituality." Give it a try, you might like it too.

Thank You, Lord, For This Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

If you have ever felt discouraged by your own imperfections in your Christian walk, read this book! David is about as earthy and real as a person gets. As another reviewer wrote, the chapter on the friendship between David and Jonathan is also insightful and valuable. Eugene Petersen explores the reality of David's life situations and choices, and how his relationship with God was affected by them. In so doing, he highlights how God grows us and walks beside us throughout all of the trials of life, even those we bring upon ourselves. Ultimately, despite everything, David remained "A man after God's own heart" proving the existence and endurance of God's grace and acceptance, and that there's hope for us all!

Editorial Review:

Using the stories written in the Bible about the life of David, tales that explore such key themes as friendship, grief, love, sin, and suffering, the author of The Message sheds light on how every person can have a vital spirituality.

Torah: A Modern Commentary : Exodus (Torah / W. Gunther Plaut)

W. Gunther Plaut

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Missed opportunity 3 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

The original 1981 edition of the Plaut commentary on the Torah marked a dramatic improvement over the fundamentalist Hertz Torah commentary (The Pentateuch and Haftorahs: Hebrew Text English Translation and Commentary by Joseph H. Hertz) which it replaced in Reform Jewish congregations. It attempted to give both a traditional Jewish and a modern historical view of the text. In this connection, the frequent references to the widely recognized sources (J, E, D, P) is particularly welcomed in a Jewish study Pentateuch. However, it did have a number of weaknesses only some of which have been addressed in this new edition. These weaknesses included:

1. It was informed throughout by the Albright-Wright/Biblical Archaeology view that the "essential historicity" of the Patriarchal stories in Genesis and the conquest narratives have been verified by archaeology. This view, which held sway in the USA and Israel roughly 1930-1965 started to be undermined by scholarship in the 1960s and had been totally demolished by 1975. (See, for example, Shifting Sands : The Rise and Fall of Biblical Archaeology by Thomas W. Davis). Since that time, few serious scholars would suggest that there is any retrievable historic information relating to the period before 1000 BCE, or even later, recoverable from the Pentateuch. Thus, much of the historical interpretive information in the commentary was known to be wrong or misleading well before the publication of the commentary.

2. Its occasional egregious errors such as transliteration of the divine name "YHVH" (see new edition p. 36) when the virtual universal scholarly opinion is, and has been for at least a century, that the third letter of the name was pronounced similarly to the English letter "w".

3. No attempt was made to make use of gender-neutral language where possible.

4. Its layout was suitable for study but not for synagogue liturgical use (subdivision of parashot into short chapters, placement of supplementary essays, placement of haftarot together at the end of each book of the Torah);

5. Its lack of commentaries on the haftarot.

6. The complete lack of drawings from Karaite (Jewish but not rabbinic) and Samaritan (Israelite but not Jewish) texts in the otherwise excellent "gleanings" sections which included abundant Christian and occasional Muslim, Babylonian etc. texts.

7. Positioning of the English translation below the Hebrew which made parallel reading of the Hebrew and English difficult.

8. Its very thin paper, small Hebrew type, lack of accent signs (te'amim) in the Hebrew text.

This new edition should have been an opportunity to correct these problems which, to a certain extent, has been done. Taking the above points item by item -

1. The reliance on the invalid Albright-Wright/Biblical Archaeology historic reconstruction is unchanged. In the original edition this reliance showed a lack of awareness of current research. Now, twenty four years later it is hard to understand why a serious revision has not been undertaken. One glance at the bibliography (pp. 1568-1569) pointedly shows the datedness of the materials. Of great importance is the lack of any reference of the great strides over the last decades in understanding the historic nature of early Israelite history and religion (e.g. the work of Smith, Zevit and Dever).

2. Its occasional egregious errors - uncorrected.

3. Gender-neutral language - this is one area where the new edition strikingly excels. The use of the term "Eternal" for the divine name is to be especially commended.

4. Layout - layout by parashah followed by haftarah improve its usability in synagogue while making it less easy to use as a tool for private study.

5. Haftaraot now include very basic commentary although I consider them inferior to that included in Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary.

6. Lack of drawings from Karaite and Samaritan traditions - unchanged.

7. Positioning of the English translation below the Hebrew - now changed to the traditional, and useful, parallel layout

8. Its very thin paper, small Hebrew type, lack of accent signs (te'amim) in the Hebrew text - these problems have all been addressed.

I did notice one additional problem with this new edition. In the first edition the titles of the topical essays were included in the table of contents thus increasing their findability. The new edition does not do this thus effectively burying them in 1,600 pages of text.

Editorial Review:

One of the outstanding works of Reform Judaism.

Genesis Revisited: Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge?

Zecharia Sitchin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fun to think about, but... 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I saw this book as a way of speeding up the process of getting through Sitchin's ideas as the prospect of reading the full series was a bit daunting - and I love to read! My previous experience with his books were of very dense prose not exactly easy to read. Lots of material. This book is a bit quicker and less intense. Not that Sitchin doesn't present his usual evidence and theories. I enjoy allowing my mind to take up his ideas but there always seem to be a point where he makes a jump of reasoning. Not that he's necessarily wrong. It's just that the presentation of evidence doesn't necessarily continue up to the point of making a conclusion. Too bad the book is even now significantly dated in terms of interstellar developments.

Editorial Review:

Modern Technology . . . or Knowledge of the Ancients?

Space travel . . . Genetic engineering . . . Computer science . . . Astounding achievements as new as tomorrow. But stunning recent evidence proves that as these ultramodern advances were known to our forfathers millions of yrsterdays ago . . . as early as 3,000 years before the birth of Christ!

In this remarkable companion volume to his landmark EARTH CHRONICLES series, author Zecharia Sitchin reexamines the teachings of the ancients in the light of mankind's latest scientific discoveries -- and uncovers breathtaking, never-before-revealed facts that challenge long-held, conventional beliefs about our planet and our species.