Dianne Bergant, The Song of Songs

Bibliographical details:
Bergant, D. (2001). The Song of Songs. Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.
Publisher’s information:
This commentary views the Song of Songs as a collection of love poems that pays tribute to mutual love, and it carefully examines features of Hebrew poetry in order to uncover the delicacy of [...]

Read Full Post »

Richard S. Hess, Song of Songs

Bibliographical details:
Hess, R. S. (2005). Song of Songs. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
Publisher’s information:
Song of Songs is the first volume in the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms series. The series is tailored to the distinctives of poetry and wisdom literature, featuring [...]

Read Full Post »

James C. VanderKam, An Introduction to Early Judaism

Bibliographical details:
VanderKam, J. C. (2001). An Introduction to Early Judaism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Publisher’s information:
‘James VanderKam has written a superb introduction to early Judaism, including its history, literature, and religious institutions – a handbook that will be useful to every student or scholar who is interested in this period. VanderKam’s sketch of the history [...]

Read Full Post »

Christopher Rowland, Christian Origins: An Account of the Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism

Bibliographical details:
Rowland, C. (2002). Christian Origins: An Account of the Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism. 2nd ed. London: SPCK.
Publisher’s information:
This new edition of Professor Rowland’s authoritative classic has been thoroughly revised and updated. In the light of recent work, the author has rewritten the chapter entitled ‘Jewish Sectarianism’ [...]

Read Full Post »

John Eaton, The Psalms: A Historical and Spiritual Commentary with an Introduction and New Translation

Bibliographical details:
Eaton, J. H. (2003). The Psalms: A Historical and Spiritual Commentary with an Introduction and New Translation. London: T & T Clark International.
Publisher’s information:
Remarkably enough, there is a scarcity of modern commentaries on the Psalms for the more general reader, despite the fact that, after the Gospels, they are probably the most widely-read [...]

Read Full Post »

Daniel J. Simundson, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah

Bibliographical details:
Simundson, D. J. (2005). Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
Publisher’s information:
The prophetic books gathered together in the book of the Twelve are sometimes called the ‘minor’ prophets because of their relatively small size when compared with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They are often neglected, at least [...]

Read Full Post »

Yvonne Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives: The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture

Bibliographical details:
Sherwood, Y. (2000). A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives: The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Publisher’s information:
This book charts the mutations of a particularly buoyant sliver of biblical text – the book of Jonah – as it latches onto Christian and Jewish motifs and anxieties, passes through highbrow and lowbrow [...]

Read Full Post »

John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible

Bibliographical details:
Walton, J. H. (2007). Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. Nottingham: Apollos.
Publisher’s information:
Much of the Old Testament can seem strange to contemporary readers. However, as we begin to understand how ancient people viewed the world, the Old Testament becomes more clearly a book that [...]

Read Full Post »

John Rogerson and Philip Davies, The Old Testament World

Bibliographical details:
Rogerson, J. W., and P. R. Davies. (2005). The Old Testament World. Rev. and expanded ed. London: T & T Clark.
Publisher’s information:
‘… this is a useful introduction both to modern study of the Old Testament and to the history and religion of Israel, critical in stance and aware of the limitations of modern knowledge [...]

Read Full Post »

Review of Adam, Fowl, Vanhoozer and Watson, Reading Scripture with the Church: Toward a Hermeneutic for Theological Interpretation

Bibliographical details:
Adam, A. K. M., S. E. Fowl, K. J. Vanhoozer, and F. Watson. (2006). Reading Scripture with the Church: Toward a Hermeneutic for Theological Interpretation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
Publisher’s information:
Reading Scripture with the Church is the result of years of debate and discussion among four leading scholars of biblical interpretation – A. K. [...]

Read Full Post »