Bonanza in Old Testament Studies

The past year was a publishing record-breaker, especially for significant works in English on the Old Testament. The 118 titles to be mentioned here far outshine the sixty-one selected as worthy of note during 1967. Those that are marked with an * reflect a high view of the Scriptures. Here they all are, then (including a few of last year’s that came in too late for mention then), arranged in five categories. The twenty chosen as the year’s best are numbered.

Reference Tools

1. For sheer usefulness, especially for Americans who find it difficult to keep abreast of British publications, the nod for a reference work must go to G. W. Anderson’s editing of the 1957–66 annual book lists of the Society for Old Testament Study, in A Decade of Bible Bibliography (Blackwell, 1967). Each year’s books are divided into twelve categories, and there is an index of authors. Harvard Library’s six-volume Catalog of Hebrew Books shows the catalog cards for its 40,000 books in Hebrew (especially rabbinics). Three specialized Bible dictionaries appears in 1968: W. Duckat’s Beggar to King: All the Occupations of Biblical Times (Doubleday), and H. H. Rowley’s handy Dictionary of Bible Personal Names and Dictionary of Bible Themes (Basic Books). Harper & Row’s Illustrated Family Encyclopedia of the Living Bible has fourteen volumes.

Biblical Setting

2. The year’s best work on HISTORICAL BACKGROUND was K. Katz, et al., From the Beginning: Archaeology and Art in the Israel Museum (Morrow). With attractive design and sixty-four full-color plates, it depicts this institution’s progress since its founding in 1963 and includes a survey of artifacts from the early Stone Age to the Crusades. Also on historical background were: L. Keylock’s translation of Egypt and the Bible (Fortress), by P. Montet; and Letters from Mesopotamia (University of Chicago, 1967), by L. Oppenheim, mirroring official and private life from Sargon in 2300 to Persian times. Old Babylonian Letters and Economic History, by W. F. Leemans (Brill), presents other such documents, plus additions to the author’s 1960 volume on foreign trade in Babylon. Oriental and Biblical Studies: Collected Writings of E. A. Speiser (University of Pennsylvania, 1967), edited by J. J. Finkelstein and M. Greenberg, offers thirty-six of Speiser’s articles plus a complete biography of 152 articles he wrote. Pertaining to a later period are J. B. Peckham’s The Development of the Late Phoenician Scripts (Harvard), covering the eighth to first centuries B.C.; and S. K. Eddy’s The King Is Dead (University of Nebraska), on the resistance to Hellenism that appeared in the former Persian Empire from 334 to 31 B.C., much being due to native theologies of kingship.

3. A third book of the top twenty represents more distinctively BIBLICAL BACKGROUND: Y. Aharoni and M. AviYona, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, 176 pages, but, would you believe, 262 maps—especially of battles and also of commerce and economic resources—plus pictures, translations of ancient sources, and chronology! The narrative attempts to be objective but generally neglects conservative views. From a more Bible-trusting approach are M. T. Gilbertson, *Uncovering Bible Times: A Study in Biblical Archeology (Augsburg), and. J. L. Kelso, *Archeology and the Ancient Testament (Zondervan), twenty-seven chapters covering Adam to Malachi. As an illustrated archaeological history comes A. Jirku’s The World of the Bible (World).

4. Selected as best for specific BIBLICAL HISTORY is P. R. Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration (Westminster), with thorough documentation of sixth-century B.C. Hebrew thought. Though under literary sources for the exile he includes much that evangelical scholars would place elsewhere (e.g., P, the Deuteronomic history, and Second—but not Third—Isaiah), Ackroyd’s opening up of one of the less appreciated Old Testament periods is welcome. A paperback by B. Rendtorff, Men of the Old Testament (Fortress), traces out history through the lives of such figures as Abram, Moses, and Joshua, at least as far as the oral sources about them were understood in later times. Other publications, in historical order, include: a translation of A. Parrot, Abraham and His Times (Fortress), holding to JEDP but also asserting that Genesis is “anchored in history”; the first three volumes in J. Rhymer’s series, “The Bible in History”—(1) Abraham, Loved by God, (2) Isaac and Jacob, God’s Chosen Ones, and (3) Moses and Joshua (Hastings), all by Henri Gaubert and all readable and well illustrated; H. Rolston, Personalities Around David (John Knox), twenty-four of them, plus David himself; E. W. Heaton, The Hebrew Kingdoms (Oxford, Volume III of the “New Clarendon Bible”); and Jacob Myers, The World of the Restoration (Prentice-Hall, “Backgrounds to the Bible” series), down to Alexander, with commendable archaeological notes.

Introductory

5. On GENERAL INTRODUCTION, a landmark volume, since it includes a full discussion of inspiration, canon, and also text, is N. L. Geisler and W. E. Nix, *A General Introduction to the Bible (Moody). Significantly, it distinguishes between the twofold canonization of the Old Testament law and prophets and its threefold categorization into Law, Prophets and Writing. It is comprehensive on the modern versions, both foreign and English. Among new English versions, one must note R. S. Hanson, The Psalms in Modern Speech (Fortress), negative in its critical introductions but interesting in its attempt to preserve Hebrew meter and to encourage readings by cantors and choirs; and K. Taylor, *Living Lessons of Life and Love (Tyndale), a paraphrase of Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Another title related to general introduction is the reissue, now in paperback and with a slightly changed title, of H. F. Vos, editor, *Can I Trust the Bible? (Moody), nine chapters by eight evangelical scholars on such topics as science, text, canon, and historicity.

6. The year’s top selection on TEXT alone is S. Jellicoe, The Septuagint and Modern Study (Oxford), supplementary to, but by no means a replacement of, H. B. Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (reprinted by Ktav in 1968). Jellicoe’s is the first major post-Qumran study of the ancient versions and is perhaps the most important Old Testament book of the year. After surveying modern editions and the scholarly situation, it presents a much needed book-by-book analysis of the entire Greek Old Testament. More specialized are the works of J. D. Shenkel, Chronology and Recensional Development in the Greek Text of Kings (Harvard); and J. D. Purvis, The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Origin of the Samaritan Sect (Harvard), in which he proposes a late second-century B.C. origin for the Samaritans as a distinct sect, as shown by comparing their Pentateuchal text with those at Qumran. Not to be slighted are Ktav’s reprints of J. W. Etheridge, The Targum of Onkelos (1862); S. Frensdorff, Massora Magna (1876); and E. Levita, Massoreth Ha-Mas-soreth, with the Introduction of Jacob Ben Chayyim to the Rabbinic Bible of 1525.

7. In the area of comprehensive SURVEY AND SPECIAL INTRODUCTION, 1968’s outstanding volume is unquestionably G. Fohrer’s Introduction to the Old Testament (Abingdon), which includes a significant discussion of literary form (Formgeschichte) before each major part: history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy. The criticism is radical (e.g., Chronicles “completely distorts the history of the monarchy”), but the bibliographies are superb. Less ambitious critical surveys, all Roman Catholic, include: J. Jensen’s paperback, God’s Word to Israel (Allyn and Bacon); G. A. Larue, Old Testament Life and Literature (Allyn and Bacon), a textbook in beautiful format and “without strong theological bias”; N. Lohfink, Christian Meaning of the Old Testament (Bruce), stressing its enduring “inerrant” aspects as opposed to its more “marginal” matters; How Does the Christian Confront the Old Testament?, by P. Benoit et al. (Paulist; Volume 30 of “Concilium: Theology in the Age of Renewal”), with nine articles by Catholic scholars, mostly European, and seven more on the sacred writings of other religions; and Wellsprings of Scripture (Sheed and Ward), by J. M. Ford, a survey that brings out the types of biblical literature.

8. The year’s leading SPECIAL AREA INTRODUCTION is unquestionably H. E. Freeman, *An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets (Moody), with 133 pages on prophetism, followed by book introductions that react well with critical problems and take up such issues as Hosea’s marriage (literal), Isaiah 7:14 and Daniel 9:25 (specifically Messianic), Joel-Obadiah (ninth century), and Daniel’s seventieth week (futurist). Other particularized studies are: M. H. Segal, The Pentateuch: Its Composition and Its Authorship and Other Biblical Studies (Oxford), anti-Wellhausen but still with post-Mosaica; E. W. Nicholson, Deuteronomy and Tradition (Fortress, 1967), on trends since 1900, with the conclusion that it must be a seventh-century product based on earlier traditions; and W. H. Whybray, The Succession Narrative: A Study of Second Samuel 9–20, First Kings 1–2 (Allenson), in which the public events are held to be historical, but the private, imaginative—a historical novel, for political purposes, based on the wisdom movement, with Egyptian influence.

9. Whybray thus serves to introduce FORM CRITICISM: that never-never land of Old Testament study: not that the study of literary forms as related to the Bible may not be helpful—witness Kitchen’s and Kline’s defense of Deuteronomy, because of its second-millennium covenant form—but that most of today’s proliferating Formgeschichte seems aimed at creating new alternatives to the Bible’s own teachings about its composition and validity. If then a ninth in the year’s top twenty books be assigned to this area, it would be Koch’s general study, The Growth of the Biblical Tradition: The Form-Critical Method (Scribner), with definitions and examples, embracing oral traditions and the characteristics of Hebrew poetry. Specific studies include: R. Clements, Abraham and David, Genesis 15 and Its Meaning for Israelite Tradition (Allenson, 1967), which explains Genesis 15 as the result of successive warpings by cultic transmission, political propaganda, and priestly reconstruction; E. Nielsen, The Ten Commandmentsin New Perspective (also Allenson), with a similar traditio-historical approach; G. W. Coats, Rebellion in the Wilderness (Abingdon), which explains how the “murmuring motif” must have arisen out of conflicts between the divided kingdoms of Israel; L. Bronner, The Stories of Elijah and Elisha (Brill), which sees these as wonder tales designed to expose the inadequacy of Baal worship; and, really the granddaddy of Formgeschichte, H. Gunkel’s The Psalms, A Form Critical Introduction (Fortress, 1967), old (1930), but the first time in English for this basic study of the Gattung, or form.

10. A particularly fruitful area in 1968 has been SURVEY OF THE PROPHETS, with top billing going to S. J. Schultz, *The Prophets Speak (Harper & Row). Based on the “unreconstructed (by negative criticism) text” of the Old Testament, it first defines the prophetic movement and its themes and then takes up the individual prophets. See also: J. C. Reid, *We Spoke for God (Eerdmans, 1967), vivid first-person retellings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and six of the Minor Prophets (but not Ezekiel, Daniel, or Zechariah?), a companion volume to his We Knew Jesus; H. Staach, Prophetic Voices of the Bible (World), the personalities and messages of the Minor Prophets; S. Winward, A Guide to the Prophets (Hodder and Stoughton; due for release in the United States by John Knox in 1969), their historical settings and their teachings applied to today; G. von Rad, The Message of the Prophets (SCM, from the German of 1967), a simplified version of part of Volume II of his 1966 Old Testament Theology; and the new edition of R. B. Y. Scott, The Relevance of the Prophets (Macmillan), completely updated after twenty years.

Commentaries

11–12. Two of 1968’s top Old Testament books belong with WHOLE BIBLE commentaries. As anticipated last year, the Old Testament portion of *The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, edited by C. W. Carter (Eerdmans), is now out, at least Volumes I (Parts 1, Pentateuch, and 2, Historical) and II (Poetry). With ASV text and double-column notes for each paragraph, it is a tool for the minister or teacher. Also, with the appearance of Volume II (Historical Books), the *Beacon Bible Commentary (Beacon Hill) is now almost complete, lacking only the first volume. Evangelical Calvinists will find little to consider theologically distasteful in either of these major commentary sets. The same cannot be said, however, for I. Asimov (a science and science-fiction writer), Asimov’s Guide to the Bible, Volume I, Old Testament (Doubleday), with its outmoded chronology, dependence on JEDP and the Anchor Bible, and discoveries of residual polytheism (e.g., in Gen. 3:22 and 11:7). Nor can it be said of R. E. Brown, J. Fitzmyer, and R. E. Murphy, editors, The Jerome Bible Commentary (Prentice-Hall), by fifty Roman Catholic professors of the United States and Canada, with their “assured results of literary and historical criticism” (e.g., JEDP).

13. Among commentaries on the PENTATEUCH, attention focuses on F. D. Kidner’s *Genesis in the new “Tyndale Old Testament Commentary” (Inter-Varsity). The warden of Tyndale House here maintains the unity of Genesis as opposed to “rival traditions competing for credence”; and, while some may question his suggestion of the book’s final editing under Samuel (rather than Moses) or his noncommittal attitude toward evolution, all will here recognize 224 pages of solid evangelical interpretation. Leviticus and Numbers, by N. H. Snaith, first volume in the new edition of the “Century Bible” (Nelson of London, 1967), on the other hand, is just as obviously JEDP, à la Noth or Von Rad, but with helpful rabbinic references. R. Clements, God’s Chosen People: Deuteronomy, A Commentary (SCM) has a topical arrangement, with stress upon theology, history, and the canon.

14. Top rank among the HISTORICAL BOOKS likewise goes to Tyndale, *Judges-Ruth (Inter-Varsity), by A. E. Cundall and L. Morris, respectively. Emphasis falls on exegesis, with critical questions generally limited to the introductions and footnotes. Judges is seen as complementary, not contradictory, to Joshua and as dependent upon a Mosaic Pentateuch. Ruth has a verse-by-verse treatment, with its Davidic date and place in the canon well presented. Three paperback series are these: (a) from England, the “Scripture Union Bible Study Books” (Eerdmans), popular paraphrases for daily reading; in Joshua-Second Samuel, H. L. Ellison assumes considerable freedom on the order of events and in First KingsSecond Chronicles, I. H. Marshall designates the latter’s figures as “incredible”; but J. S. Wright, *Ezra-Job, maintains Scripture’s full validity; (b) the “Bible SelfStudy Series” (Moody) presents practical lessons with maps and charts, with I. L. Jensen serving as reviser for *Joshua, *Judges and Ruth, *First and Second Samuel, *First Kings with Chronicles, and *Second Kings with Chronicles; and (c), in the “Shield Bible Study Series” (Baker), R. G. Turnbull, *The Book of Nehemiah, is primarily homiletical and topical. A more ambitious series, designed as a family resource, is the new “Concordia Commentary,” a seven-year, twenty-seven-volume project, with RSV text and an easy-reading narrative commentary, on paragraphs. R. Gehrke, First and Second Samuel (Concordia), which is one of the three initial volumes in the series, speaks on the one hand of verbal inspiration but on the other of “stories” and “varying traditions … shaped by a later temple liturgy.”

15. In 1966, M. Dahood’s first volume of the Anchor Bible Psalms won a top listing on the POETIC BOOKS, and again in 1968 his contribution, Psalms, II:50–100 (Doubleday), ranks as one of the leading twenty, again for its effective use of parallel Ugaritic data. Other commentaries and interpretations of the poetic books include: H. Kent’s paperback, *Job Our Contemporary (Eerdmans), with existential relevance, but a little harsh on Elihu; P. S. Sanders, editor, Twentieth Century Interpretations of the Book of Job: A Collection of Critical Essays, ten essays dating from Peake in 1905 through Toynbee’s myths and philosophy in 1934 to recent studies; R. Guardini, *The Wisdom of the Psalms (Regnery), with comments on thirteen selected psalms, exhibiting a German Catholic’s concern for liturgy; and I. L. Jensen, *Psalms (Moody, “Bible Self-Study”) and H. L. Ellison, The Psalms (Eerdmans, “Scripture Union Bible Study”).

16–17. It’s rare to get two solid, evangelical commentaries on the same Old Testament book in one year, but 1968 did, in the category of PROPHETS: H. C. Leupold’s * Exposition of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39 (Baker) follows the format of his previous “Expositions”—detailed notes on each paragraph—and the late E. J. Young’s *The Book of Isaiah, Volume II (Eerdmans), covering chapters 18–39, continues this pilot publication in the “New International Commentary on the Old Testament,” with a similar approach. In fact, this was something of an Isaiah year, among the also-rans being: J. L. McKenzie, Second Isaiah (Doubleday, “Anchor Bible”), on chapters 34; 35; 40–66, and with a liberal perspective (he states, for example, that the idea of the Suffering Servant as a historical figure in the future “is defended by no one today except in a few fundamentalist circles”); F. W. Bennett, * Christian Living from Isaiah (Baker), practical, with 7:14 and 9:6 firmly Messianic; C. T. Francisco, Isaiah (Baker, “Shield Series”); J. L. Green, God Reigns: Expository Studies in the Prophecy of Isaiah (Broadman); I. L. Jensen, *Isaiah-Jeremiah (Moody, “Bible Self-Study”), and P. H. Kelley, Judgment and Redemption in Isaiah (Broadman). Other commentaries on the prophets were: N. Habel, Jeremiah and Lamentations (“Concordia Commentary”); W. Brueggemann, Tradition for Crisis: A Study in Hosea (John Knox), in which Hosea is seen as an interpreter of the Mosaic covenant (with post-Mosaic modifications) rather than as an innovator; J. K. Howard, * Among the Prophets: Amos (Pickering and Inglis, 1967; Baker, 1968), background and a commentary with practical relevance; and T. M. Bennett, The Book of Micah (Baker).

Teachings

18. In the area of WORDS, a first-of-its-kind volume is J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament (Oxford). Employing Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, and Ugaritic, Barr traces out lexigraphical history and degrees of agreement. In the same category are P. Ackroyd and B. Lindars, editors, Words and Meanings: Essays Presented to David Winton Thomas (Cambridge), fifteen of them, including B. Albrektson on the syntax of Exodus 3:14 and O. Eissfeldt on Old Testament renamings; and B. Hartman, et al., Hebraische Wortforschung [word investigation] in Honor of Walter Baumgartner (Brill, 1967, Vetus Testamentum Supplement XVI), including G. R. Driver on Hebrew homonyms and two studies on “believe” in Genesis 15:6.

19. On matters of more extensive INTERPRETATION, the recommendation goes to J. J. Davis, *Biblical Numerology (Baker), who recognizes the abuse of this subject by cranks and proceeds to classify and define principles for interpreting numbers: only the 7 shows any degree of symbolic use, in Scripture, he says. Also appearing in 1968 were: J. P. Lewis, *A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood in Jewish and Christian Literature (Brill), more of an anthology than an evaluation; M. G. Kline, *By Oath Consigned (Eerdmans), on circumcision as an ordeal sign; evangelist C. E. Autrey’s paperback, * Renewals Before Pentecost (Broadman); H. M. Orlinsky, The So-Called ‘Servant of the Lord’ and ‘Suffering Servant’ in Second Isaiah (the title speaks for itself) and, with N. H. Snaith, Isaiah 40–60: A Study of the Teachings of the Second Isaiah and its Consequences (Brill, 1967, together forming Vetus Testamentum Supplement XIV), the “Servant” being originally only Jehoiachin’s exiles; H. J. Van Dijk, Ezekiel’s Prophecy on Tyre (Pontifical Biblical Institute), on its unfulfilled predictions; and O. Plöger, Theocracy and Eschatology (John Knox), explaining by radical criticism how the prophetic spirit came to be lost in Maccabean (Daniel) apocalyptic.

20. Finally, in the broader field of THEOLOGY, the year’s twentieth choice book is C. J. Vos, *Women in Old Testament Worship (Judels and Brinkman, Holland), which proposes that, except for the priesthood, women participated equally with men and suggests (?) that they may serve as teaching ministers today. Other important studies include: J. S. Chesnut, The Old Testament Understanding of God (Westminster), a nontechnical work that defines the covenant as “man’s making an agreement with his God” (!) and finds Christology in the Old Testament “only by a strained exegesis”; R. C. Dentan, The Knowledge of God in Ancient Israel (Seabury), an unoriginal survey of the Old Testament’s central idea that God acts in history; W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (Doubleday), a historical analysis of these two contrasting faiths; E. M. Baxter, The Beginnings of Our Religion (Judson), unreconstructed liberalism that fails to find much difference between the two; R. Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (Ktav, 1967), similar, hypothesizing considerable polytheism in the Old Testament; R. S. Kluger, Satan in the Old Testament (Northwestern University, 1967), with a stress on Jungian psychology, and presupposing that the spiritual equals the mythological; J. Plastaras, Creation and Covenant (Bruce), on creation and other doctrinal themes in Genesis-Exodus (the Bible is considered primarily Israel’s religious literature, though with something important to say today); J. Jocz, The Covenant (Eerdmans), in which a systematic theologian finds the critically reconstructed covenant doctrine as the key to revelation and to the unity of Scripture; H. H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel (Fortress, 1967), which includes the temple, sacrifice, prophets, and psalmody, all with excellent documentation; and N. W. Porteous, Living the Mystery (Blackwell, 1967), a reprint of twelve articles (1948–67) on God’s maintaining the Jewish community by his presence, as men obey him.

In the field of Old Testament, at least, 1968 was a “year for the books”!

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