What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us
October 10, 2011
This is a smart book by two seasoned professors of Jewish studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Knight, also a professor of Hebrew Bible, is the author of many books and articles, and Levine (The Misunderstood Jew), also a professor of New Testament, do not follow the tired model of trying to retell the Bible for modern application. Instead, they organize the book to cover background information (history, literary styles and development); themes such as “law and justice”; society, including politics and sexuality; and the roles and writings of biblical prophets and sages. Readers looking for a single interpretation or explanation of individual books may be confused by the authors’ integration of biblical characters, texts, and ancient history into a single section—Ruth’s story, a quote from Micah, and discussion of biblical laws, for example—but this structure addresses such broader questions as the administration of justice in the Bible. Without telling believers how to use their sacred texts, subtitle notwithstanding, the authors help readers think about the Bible in new ways.
November 1, 2011
Knight (Jewish studies, Vanderbilt Divinity; Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel) and Levine (New Testament & Jewish studies, Vanderbilt Divinity; The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus) here present a topical survey of the Old Testament. In fact, one of the approximately 90 topics the authors cover concerns just what to call this collection of scripture. Other topics include the Exodus, the topography of Southwest Asia (the authors' preferred term for the Middle East), the names of God, the Creation story, and the Diaspora. VERDICT Although often engaging, this relatively short book may have difficulty finding an audience, given its breadth. It spends too little time on any one topic for it to work in an undergraduate introductory course or to appeal to interested lay readers. It provides a taste of various forms of biblical criticism and related disciplines without giving the reader a chance to evaluate these tools. But it presents an entree into approaching the Old Testament from a critical point of view without necessarily diminishing its text. A highly accessible if overly ambitious survey that is in tune with current scholarship.--James M. Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Lib., NC
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