Hearing the Message of Scripture – A New OT Commentary Series (Gupta)

This week I received the first volume in the new Zondervan OT commentary series “Hearing the Message of Scripture.” Daniel Block, the general editor, is also the first author. The launch volume is on…Obadiah? One might have liked to see Genesis or Isaiah. At first I was a little disappointed. But! It makes a lot of sense when you learn that the series is designed to make the message of each OT book easy to understand – even a book like Obadiah! Block is one of the best Old Testament scholars out there, so it is nice to have his perspective on this text (you can find a sample here).

The design and layout of this series looks quite a lot like the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament in terms of textbook-y feel, lots of charts, and the inclusion of a “main idea” section at the head of each unit. Also, Block’s commentary concludes with a chapter called “Canonical and Practical Significance.” This portion of Block’s work is insightful.

Obviously the series will stand or fall on its contributors. It is off to a good start with Block’s work. I also look forward to the volume on Judges by my buddy Mark Boda. For more information, see here.