Behind, Under, Around The Old Testament

I’m reading John Goldingay’s distinct translation of the — ahem — First Testament, and I can’t begin to count the number of times I have asked myself questions about context and connections.

One can spread the Old Testament out over more than a millennium of dates and contacts and connections and contexts, so there’s lots to consider and know and factor in as one interprets the OT. A new book is here to help, written by a a wide variety of scholars and very well representative of alternative voices and angles. It is edited by Jonathan Greer, John Hilber, and John Walton, Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts.

This is rich textually, not great pictorially — black and white — but sumptuous in suggestions and contextual information. The book is easy to use if one sticks to the Table of Contents. It is designed for advanced Old Testament students and pastors who want contextual location for their preaching of the OT.

What is covered? Let me count the ways!

Historical geography,
archaeology,
scripts/literature,
iconography,
historical contexts of the major acts (ancestors, time in Egypt, exile, etc) and scenes,
God and religion,
family,
sustenance,
and governance.

Great scholars at work in this volume. Every theological library should have it.