Introduction to Prophetic Literature, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel - Briefly Noted - Book Review

Currents in Theology and Mission, Feb, 2003 by Ralph W. Klein

Introduction to Prophetic Literature, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. By David L. Petersen, Gene M. Tucker, Christopher R. Seitz, Patrick D. Miller, Anthony J. Saldarini, Kathleen M. O'Connor, and Katheryn Pfisterer Darr (Abingdon, $75). This hefty book (1,612 pages) is Volume 6 in the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary Series and brings the Old Testament section of that series to completion.

As with all previous volumes, the NIV and NRSV are printed at the head of each pericope, and then the commentators provide both exegesis and hermeneutical/homiletical helps. While the commentators on the major prophets and the other works do not provide extensive philological or text-critical remarks, the editors did provide them much more space than one would expect in such a commentary series, and the scholars who wrote on these prophets are well-known figures who have published extensively on these books before: Tucker (First Isaiah), Seitz (Second and Third Isaiah), Miller (Jeremi ah), and Dan (Ezekiel). The old literary-critical questions about authentic words, secondary passages, etc., have retreated into the background, almost to the point of disappearing, and pastors and other church leaders will welcome the exposition of the present state of the text and the hermeneutical bridges between then and now offered by these commentators. (Those who hunger for more detailed work are referred to the commentary recommendations on individual books on my website at http://www.geocities.com/ralphklein2001.) Petersen's introduction provides an authoritative inventory on where prophetic research is going today, and the commentaries on Jeremiah-related works (Lamentations by O'Connor and the two apocryphal books by Saldarini) are also well done. Church libraries and pastors should plan on including all twelve volumes of NIB in their holdings.