Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Commentaries: Home

"The Africa Bible Commentary is a unique publishing event—the first one-volume Bible commentary produced in Africa by African theologians to meet the needs of African pastors, students, and lay leaders. Interpreting and applying the Bible in the light of African culture and realities, it furnishes powerful and relevant insights into the biblical text that transcend Africa in their significance. The Africa Bible Commentary gives a section-by-section interpretation that provides a contextual, readable, affordable, and immensely useful guide to the entire Bible. Readers around the world will benefit from and appreciate the commentary's fresh insights and direct style that engage both heart and mind." - Zondervan

"The history of Israel is a much-debated topic in Old Testament studies. On one side are minimalists who find little of historical value in the Hebrew Bible. On the other side are those who assume the biblical text is a precise historical record. Many serious students of the Bible find themselves between these two positions and would benefit from a careful exploration of issues in Israelite history. This substantive history of Israel textbook values the Bible's historical contribution without overlooking critical issues and challenges. Featuring the latest scholarship, the book introduces students to the current state of research on issues relevant to the study of ancient Israel. The editors and contributors, all top biblical scholars and historians, discuss historical evidence in a readable manner, using both canonical and chronological lenses to explore Israelite history." - Baker Academic

"Leading evangelical scholar John Walton surveys the cultural context of the ancient Near East, bringing insight to the interpretation of specific Old Testament passages. This new edition of a top-selling textbook has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout to reflect the refined thinking of a mature scholar. It includes over 30 illustrations. Students and pastors who want to deepen their understanding of the Old Testament will find this a helpful and instructive study." - Baker Academic

"This Companion offers a concise and engaging introduction to the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Providing an up-to-date 'snapshot' of scholarship, it includes essays, specially commissioned for this volume, by twenty-three leading scholars. The volume examines a range of topics, including the historical and religious contexts for the contents of the biblical canon, and critical approaches and methods, as well as newer topics such as the Hebrew Bible in Islam, Western art and literature, and contemporary politics. This Companion is an excellent resource for students at university and graduate level, as well as for laypeople and scholars in other fields who would like to gain an understanding of the current state of the academic discussion. The book does not presume prior knowledge, nor does it engage in highly technical discussions, but it does go into greater detail than a typical introductory textbook." - OUP

"Chalice Introduction to the Old Testament brings together leading scholars to offer a diverse and balanced voice in Old Testament study. The text is organized canonically, for easy use, and gives honest attention to historical and literary matters and theological dimensions of the biblical text" - Bookmasters Inc.

"This new edition of a bestselling evangelical survey of the Old Testament (over 180,000 copies sold) has been thoroughly updated and features a beautiful new interior design. It is lavishly illustrated with four-color images, maps, and charts and retains the pedagogical features that have made the book so popular: · chapter outlines, objectives, and summaries · study questions · sidebars featuring primary source material, ethical and theological issues, and contemporary applications · lists of key terms, people, and places · further reading recommendations · endnotes and indexes The book is supplemented by web-based resources through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources, offering course help for professors and study aids for students." - Baker Academic

"This book rethinks both the methods and historical orientation points for research into the growth of the Hebrew Bible. Building on his prior work, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart (Oxford, 2005), the author explores the possibilities and limits of reconstruction of pre-stages of the Bible. The method advocated is a “methodologically modest” investigation of those pre-stages, utilizing criteria and models derived from the author’s survey of documented examples of textual revision in the Ancient Near East. The result is a new picture of the Bible’s formation, with insights on the emergence of Hebrew literary textuality, the development of the first Hexateuch, and the final formation of the Hebrew Bible. Where some have advocated dating the bulk of the Hebrew Bible in a single period, whether relatively early (Neo-Assyrian) or late (Persian or Hellenistic), the author uncovers evidence that the Hebrew Bible contains texts dating across Israelite history, even the early pre-exilic period (10th-9th centuries) where many recent studies have been hesitant to date substantial portions of the Bible. He traces the impact of Neo-Assyrian imperialism on eighth and seventh century Israelite textuality, uses studies of collective trauma to identify marks of the reshaping and collection of traditions in response to the destruction of Jerusalem and Babylonian exile, develops a picture of varied Priestly reshaping of narrative and prophetic traditions in the Second Temple period, and uses manuscript evidence from Qumran and the Septuagint to reveal the final literary reshaping that produced the proto-Masoretic text." - Oxford University Press

"The Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha and the Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The New Testament present a balanced synthesis of current scholarship on the Bible, enabling readers to interpret scripture for a complex and pluralistic world. Commentary articles set each book in its historical and cultural context, discuss the themes in each book that have proven most important for the Christian interpretive tradition, and introduce the most pressing questions facing the responsible use of the Bible today." - Fortress Press

"This book brings together some of the world's most exciting scholars from across a variety of disciplines to provide a concise and accessible guide to the Hebrew Bible. It covers every major genre of book in the Old Testament together with in-depth discussions of major themes such as human nature, covenant, creation, ethics, ritual and purity, sacred space, and monotheism." - Princeton University Press

"This volume provides an introduction and essays on the four key sections of the Hebrew Scriptures from the perspective of top female biblical scholars. This includes historical critical and literary textual analysis and exegesis, particularly as viewed through feminist and intersectional interpretive lenses. Intersectional lenses include the racial/ethnic, class, Global South, postcolonial, and so forth, and their interconnections with gender." - Augsburg Fortress Press

Volume 2 can be found HERE

This book, the first of two volumes, offers a comprehensive history of Israelite religion. It is a part of the Old Testament Library series. The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

"For the past two hundred years biblical scholars have increasingly assumed that the Hebrew Bible was largely written and edited in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. As a result, the written Bible has dwelled in an historical vacuum. Recent archaeological evidence and insights from linguistic anthropology, however, point to the earlier era of the late-Iron Age as the formative period for the writing of biblical literature. How the Bible Became a Book combines these recent archaeological discoveries in the Middle East with insights culled from the history of writing to address how the Bible first came to be written down and then became sacred Scripture. This book provides rich insight into why these texts came to have authority as Scripture and explores why Ancient Israel, an oral culture, began to write literature, challenging the assertion that widespread literacy first arose in Greece during the fifth century BCE." - CUP

"Master Bible scholar and teacher Marc Brettler argues that today's contemporary readers can only understand the ancient Hebrew Scripture by knowing more about the culture that produced it. And so Brettler unpacks the literary conventions, ideological assumptions, and historical conditions that inform the biblical text and demonstrates how modern critical scholarship and archaeological discoveries shed light on this fascinating and complex literature. Brettler surveys representative biblical texts from different genres to illustrate how modern scholars have taught us to "read" these texts. Using the "historical-critical method" long popular in academia, he guides us in reading the Bible as it was read in the biblical period, independent of later religious norms and interpretive traditions. Understanding the Bible this way lets us appreciate it as an interesting text that speaks in multiple voices on profound issues. This book is the first "Jewishly sensitive" introduction to the historical-critical method. Unlike other introductory texts, the Bible that this book speaks about is the Jewish one -- with the three-part TaNaKH arrangement, the sequence of books found in modern printed Hebrew editions, and the chapter and verse enumerations used in most modern Jewish versions of the Bible. In an afterword, the author discusses how the historical-critical method can help contemporary Jews relate to the Bible as a religious text in a more meaningful way." - JPS

"Desde su lanzamiento en 1987, la Introducción al Antiguo Testamento de John Drane ha sido ampliamente aclamado en el mundo anglosajón como la obra más accesible y mejor documentada, no tan sólo como texto didáctico en las aulas de los Seminarios sino también como herramienta ideal para estudio personal bíblico serio y profundo. Tras varias revisiones por el autor, la presente versión española incorpora los más recientes descubrimientos y opiniones de los eruditos en cada materia, de manera especial en lo que respecta a cuestiones históricas, como por ejemplo en lo referente a los orígenes de Israel como nación. Incluye un tratamiento específico de los valores espirituales y religiosos del Antiguo Testamento, incluye en el análisis la mayor parte de libros deuterocanónicos, y enfrenta con valentía las críticas y cuestionamientos más actuales al A.T. en cuestiones éticas escabrosas, como es el caso de las supuestas limpiezas étnicas. Aunque es probable que parte de los planteamientos y conclusiones de Drane puedan ser vistos por algunos como excesivamente avanzados, su prestigio académico como profesor de la Universidad de Aberdeen y del Fuller Theological Seminary, en California, hace de esta obra, profusamente ilustrada, un auxiliar de referencia indispensable en la biblioteca de todo pastor que quiera estar al día en lo que respecta a los últimos descubrimientos y las teorías más recientes en la investigación del contexto del Antiguo Testamento." - Editorial CLIE

"Study of the Old Testament has long been dominated by what is sometimes called the ‘historical-critical method’: careful analysis of individual books in order to discover their component sources, with great emphasis on historical context and concern, especially in the prophetic books, to isolate what was original and (it was therefore assumed) most important. In recent years people have asked whether this approach is the only proper one and whether there may not be alternative understandings, which are equally valid. This book attempts to outline some of those alternatives while retaining the values of the traditional methods. Nine separate chapters set out the importance of sociology and anthropology, of liberation and feminist perspectives, and of literary criticism, as well as the more traditional approaches." - OUP

"In the second edition of this popular text Susanne Scholz offers new insights into the diverse field of feminist studies on the Hebrew Bible. Scholz provides a new introductory survey of the history of feminism more broadly, giving context to its rise in biblical studies, before looking at the history and issues as they relate specifically to feminist readings and readers of the Hebrew Bible. Scholz then presents the life and work of several influential feminist scholars of the Bible, outlining their career paths and the characteristics of their work. The volume also outlines how to relate the Bible to sexual violence and feminist postcolonial demands. Two new chapters further delineate recent developments in feminist biblical studies. One chapter addresses the relationship between feminist exegesis and queer theory as well as masculinity studies. Another chapter problematizes the gender discourse as it has emerged in the Christian Right’s approaches to the Old Testament." - T&T Clark

"John J. Collins'Introduction to the Hebrew Bible is one of the most reliable and widely adopted critical textbooks at undergraduate and graduate levels alike, and for good reason. Enriched by decades of classroom teaching, it is aimed explicitly at motivated students regardless of their previous exposure to the Bible or faith commitments. Collins proceeds through the canon of the Old Testament and the apocrypha, judiciously presenting the current state of historical, archaeological, and literary understanding of the biblical text, and engaging the student in questions of significance and interpretation for the contemporary world. The second edition has been revised where more recent scholarship indicates it, and is now presented in a refreshing new format." - Fortress Press

"In this updated edition of the popular textbook, Walter Brueggemann and Tod Linafelt introduce the reader to the broad theological scope of the Old Testament, treating some of the most important issues and methods in contemporary biblical interpretation. This clearly written textbook focuses on the literature of the Old Testament as it grew out of religious, political, and ideological contexts over many centuries in Israel's history. Covering every book in the Old Testament (arranged in canonical order), the authors demonstrate the development of theological concepts in biblical writings from the Torah through post-exilic Judaism. This introduction invites readers to engage in the construction of meaning as they venture into these timeless texts." - WJK Press

"This second edition of An Introduction to the Old Testament integrates and interacts with recent developments in Old Testament scholarship. Several distinctive set it apart from other introductions to the Old Testament: • It is thoroughly evangelical in its perspective • It emphasizes “special introduction”—the study of individual books • It interacts in an irenic spirit with the historical-critical method • It features points of research history and representative scholars rather than an exhaustive treatment of past scholarship • It deals with the meaning of each book, not in isolation but in a canonical context • It probes the meaning of each book in the setting of its culture Including callouts, charts, and graphs, this text is written with an eye on understanding the nature of Old Testament historiography. This upper-level introduction to the Old Testament offers students a solid understanding of three key issues: historical background, literary analysis, and theological message." - Zondervan

“This comprehensive, introductory textbook is unique in exploring the emergence of the Hebrew Bible in the broader context of world history. It particularly focuses on the influence of pre-Roman empires, empowering students with a richer understanding of Old Testament historiography. It provides a historical context for students learning about the development and changing interpretations of biblical texts. It examines how these early stories were variously shaped by interaction with the Mesopotamian and Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenistic empires. It incorporates recent research on the formation of the Pentateuch. It reveals how key biblical texts came to be interpreted by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. It includes numerous student-friendly features, such as study questions, review sections, bibliographies, timelines, and illustrations and photos.” – Wiley-Blackwell

"Built on decades of studying and teaching the Old Testament, this introduction is unusual in setting out background information, noting interpretative possibilities, raising questions and suggesting approaches. It operates more like a workbook, with the aim of encouraging students to investigate the Old Testament, both critically and prayerfully, for themselves." -SPCK

"From the origins and exodus to the restoration and new hope, Kingdom of Priests offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of Old Testament Israel. Merrill explores the history of ancient Israel not only from Old Testament texts but also from the literary and archeological sources of the ancient Near East. After selling more than 30,000 copies, the book has now been updated and revised. The second edition addresses and interacts with current debates in the history of ancient Israel, offering an up-to-date articulation of a conservative evangelical position on historical matters. The text is accented with nearly twenty maps and charts." - Baker Academic

"The New Interpreter's® Dictionary of the Bible (in five volumes) provides the best quality in contemporary biblical scholarship on a comprehensive range of topics from the Old and New Testaments, the Deuterocanonical books, and from contextual studies of the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman worlds and their literatures. The dictionary contains maps, charts, and illustrations to further clarify the written material. The biblical text used is the NRSV translation. " - Abingdon Press

"A Respected Scholar Introduces Students to the Discipline of Old Testament Studies Richard Hess, a trusted scholar of the Old Testament and the ancient Near East, offers a substantial introduction to the Old Testament that is accessibly written and informed by the latest biblical scholarship. Hess summarizes the contents of the Old Testament, introduces the academic study of the discipline, and helps readers understand the complex world of critical and interpretive issues, addressing major concerns in the critical interpretation of each Old Testament book and key texts. This volume provides a fulsome treatment for students preparing for ministry and assumes no prior knowledge of the Old Testament. Readers will learn how each book of the Old Testament was understood by its first readers, how it advances the larger message of the whole Bible, and what its message contributes to Christian belief and the Christian community." - Baker Academic

"This substantially updated edition of a classroom standard provides students with an accessible introduction to the literature, history, and social context of the Old Testament. Written by two seasoned Old Testament professors, the book pays attention to methodology, archaeology, history, and literary genre and includes illustrations, sidebars, maps, and study questions." - Baker Academic

“This book may disturb some readers because of Soggin's emphasis on the many uncertainties in the interpretation of the evidence for Israelite and Jewish history in the period covered, especially in the earlier centuries. That, however, is part of the justification for the book. There are many uncertainties, and there are difficult questions about the interpretation of the evidence. Whatever the answers to such questions may be, they need to be faced, and this new edition of Soggin's book is to be welcomed.” - J. A. Emerton

"It is claimed that Zionism as a meta-narrative has been formed through contradiction to two alternative models, the Canaanite and crusader narratives. These narratives are the most daring and heretical assaults on Israeli-Jewish identity. The Israelis, according to the Canaanite narrative, are from this place and belong only here; according to the crusader narrative, they are from another place and belong there. The mythological construction of Zionism as a modern crusade describes Israel as a Western colonial enterprise planted in the heart of the East and alien to the area, its logic and its peoples. The nativist construction of Israel as neo-Canaanism demands breaking away from the chain of historical continuity. These are the greatest anxieties that Zionism and Israel needed to encounter and answer forcefully. The Origins of Israeli Mythology seeks to examine the intellectual archaeology of Israeli mythology, as it reveals itself through the Canaanite and crusader narratives." - CUP

"This volume is designed to demonstrate how historical criticism, postmodernism, and the important concerns of postcolonial readings may be integrated to obtain an informed explanation of the Hebrew Bible and the writings of early Judaism. The chapters are written by scholars who represent a spectrum of national, indigenous, and diasporic contexts. Taken together these perspectives and the interpretations they yield represent a continued expansion of the manner in which Old Testament texts are read and interpreted through postcolonial lenses, reminding readers that the interpretive trajectories of these texts are almost inexhaustible. As such the volume serves as not only an addition to ongoing scholarship on postcolonialism but also as an expansion of the horizon for dialogue." - T&T Clark

"This innovative textbook at long last provides an Old Testament survey for undergraduate students that goes beyond basic content. The book attempts to balance the literary, historical, and theological issues pertaining to each individual book and to the Old Testament as a whole. The main portion of the survey treats each book of the Old Testament in the order of the English canon. This information does not simply rehash the biblical material, but assumes that the Scriptures are being read alongside the survey. The book focuses its primary attention on the purpose and message of each book and attempts to show how the literary structure of each one has been used to accomplish the author's purpose. The survey also introduces readers to the issues of hermeneutics (general and special), history (Israelite and Near Eastern), archaeology, canon, geography, Old Testament theology (biblical and systematic), and critical methodologies. All these issues are dealt with in separate chapters at a basic introductory level that never allows the reader to lose sight, as it were, of the forest while wandering through the trees. In addressing critical issues of date and authorship, the survey avoids a polemical stance." - HarperCollins

Volume 2 can be found HERE
The T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism provides a comprehensive reference resource of over 600 scholarly articles aimed at scholars and students interested in Judaism of the Second Temple Period. The two-volume work is split into four parts. Part One offers a prolegomenon for the contemporary study and appreciation of Second Temple Judaism, locating the discipline in relation to other relevant fields (such as Hebrew Bible, Rabbinics, Christian Origins). Beginning with a discussion of terminology, the discussion suggests ways the Second Temple period may be described, and concludes by noting areas of study that challenge our perception of ancient Judaism. Part Two presents an overview of respective contexts of the discipline set within the broad framework of historical chronology corresponding to a set of full-colour, custom-designed maps. With distinct attention to primary sources, the author traces the development of historical, social, political, and religious developments from the time period following the exile in the late 6th century B.C.E. through to the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt (135 C.E.). Part Three focuses specifically on a wide selection of primary-source literature of Second Temple Judaism, summarizing the content of key texts, and examining their similarities and differences with other texts of the period. Essays here include a brief introduction to the work and a summary of its contents, as well as examination of critical issues such as date, provenance, location, language(s), and interpretative matters. The early reception history of texts is also considered, and followed by a bibliography specific to that essay. Numerous high-resolution manuscript images are utilized to illustrate distinct features of the texts. Part Four addresses topics relevant to the Second Temple Period such as places, practices, historical figures, concepts, and subjects of scholarly discussion.

"Though "biblical theology" has long been considered a strictly Christian enterprise, Marvin A. Sweeney here proposes a Jewish theology of the Hebrew Bible, based on the importance of Tanak as the foundation of Judaism and organized around the major components: Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets), and Kethuvim (Writings). Sweeney finds the structuring themes of Jewish life: the constitution of the nation Israel in relation to God; the disruption of that ideal, documented by the Prophets; and the reconstitution of the nation around the Second Temple in the Writings. Throughout he is attentive to tensions within and among the texts and the dialogical character of Israel's sacred heritage." - Fortress Press

"Who's Who in the Old Testament brings vividly to life the thousands of characters in the Old Testament, and provides: nearly 3000 extensive entries covering every character; detailed biographical information on each character, including exactly where to find them in the Bible; the complete historical, geographical and archaeological context of each entry; comprehensive chronology of the times; a section on the Apocrypha - the collection of works that bridges the gap between the Old and New Testaments." - Routledge

"In the critically acclaimed best-seller, Women's Bible Commentary, an outstanding group of women scholars introduced and summarized each book of the Bible and commented on those sections of each book that have particular relevence to women, focusing on female charecters, symbols, life situations such as marriage and family, the legal status of women, and religious principles that affect relationships of women and men. Now, this expanded edition provides similar insights on the Apocrypha, presenting a significant view of the lives and religious experiences of women as well as attitudes toward women in the Second Temple period. This expanded edition sets a new standard for women's and biblical studies." - WJK Press