Encountering the Old Testament. A Christian Survey

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2002 by Carr, G Lloyd

Encountering the Old Testament. A Christian Survey. By Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999, 512 pp. Interactive CD-ROM, $49.99.

Finding a suitable textbook for undergraduate college surveys is an arduous task, but this has become somewhat easier with Arnold and Beyer's Encountering the Old Testament. This is the second in Baker's ongoing Encountering Biblical Studies series of texts, surveys, and collections of primary-source documents directed specifically at undergraduate college freshmen, and it should serve its intended audience well. (See the review of the NT Encountering volume in JETS 43/3 [Sept. 2000] 540-43.)

The book's 34 chapters of about 14 pages each (with the exception of chap. 2, which is 28 pages) would fit well into a standard semester and still leave room for test days, review sessions, and the occasional canceled class.

The first chapter deals with questions of canon, how the Bible was written, transmission of the text, and basic issues of hermeneutics. Chapter 2 focuses on the geographic and historical context of Israel and the ancient Near East and includes a halfdozen maps, a summary chart of relevant archaeological periods, and a 12-page summary of the OT under the heading "What Events does the Old Testament Describe?" Four chapters are devoted to introductions to the Pentateuch ("The Birth of God's People," chap. 3), the Historical Books ("The History of Israel's Nationhood," chap. 10), the Poetic Books ("The Literature of God's People," chap. 19) and the Prophets ("Voices of God's Servants," chap. 24). These chapters contain brief summaries of the individual books and basic treatments of such items as critical questions of authorship and date, theological themes or issues, the nature of Hebrew poetry and prophecy, and the literary and historical contexts in which the biblical material emerged. Each of these chapters has numerous charts, illustrations, and excerpts from the relevant biblical and extrabiblical literature.

The remaining 28 chapters cover specific textual units of the OT, either individual books (e.g. chap. 14, "2 Samuel: David's Reign"), parts of books (e.g. chap. 25, "Isaiah 40-66: Great Days Are Coming!"), or combinations of books (e.g. chap. 23, "Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs: Israelite Faith in Everyday Life"). Each has a section on the outline of the biblical content, specific issues the text raises (e.g. "The Servant Passages in Isaiah 40-66"; "Problems of Interpretation in Daniel: Bilingualism, The Four Kingdoms, The Vision of the Seventy Weeks, and Historical Questions"; "Classification of the Psalms"; and "Parallels from the Ancient World: Hittite Parallels, Treaty Structure of Deuteronomy"). Each chapter also contains sidebars that highlight a summary of the content, lists of key terms, people, and places mentioned in the chapter, brief excerpts from some related extrabiblical text, study questions that relate to specific issues in the chapter, and suggestions for further reading. These bibliographies usually contain six to eight books, many from an evangelical perspective, but always including the standard texts from a broad spectrum of authors. For example, the suggestions for Daniel range from Joyce Baldwin's Tyndale Commentary and D. J. Wiseman's Notes on Some Problems (IVP) through E. J. Young's 1949 commentary (Eerdmans) and Gordon Wenham's Themelios article "Daniel: the Basic Issues" (1977), to the commentaries by D. S. Russell (Westminster, 1998), John Collins's volume in the Hermeneia series (Fortress, 1993) and John Goldingay's Daniel (Word, 1989).

Two examples illustrate the nature and scope of these chapters. Chapter 5, "Genesis 12-50 The Patriarchs: Ancestors of Israel's Faith," begins with a definition of "Patriarch," a page on the background of the patriarchal narratives and their chronological setting, an outline of the Genesis chapters, about three pages of text on the Abraham and Isaac stories, not quite a page on Jacob and his twelve sons, about a half page on Joseph, a bit more than a page on the "Theology of the Patriarchal Narratives" that gives brief treatments of the themes of election, promise, and covenant, and finally a half-page sidebar that summarizes the unit in nine statements. Two other sidebars give material on "The Use of Slain Animals in Ancient Treaty Ceremonies" (a letter from Mari, ANET, p. 482c, and an excerpt from an 8th-century Assyrian treaty between Ashurnirari V and Marti'ilu of Arpad, ANET, p. 532) and "The Gift of a Wife's Slave Girl" (Laws #144 and 146 from Hammurapi [sic], ANET, p. 172, and an excerpt from one of the Nuzi letters on adoption, ANET, p. 220). The "Key Terms" include patriarch, patriarchal narrative, Middle Bronze Age, promise, covenant, Messiah, and election, and the "Key People/Places" are Hammurapi (sic), Ur, Haran, Moreh, Bethel, Negeb, Damascus, Mari, Nuzi, and Moriah. The last two sidebars contain a series of study questions based on the text and the key terms, and a brief, six-title, annotated bibliography. The chapter also includes a good clear map of Abraham's journeys and photographs of the marshland near Ur, the tomb at Machpelah in Hebron, and the traditional site of Mature.