The Old Testament's stories are intriguing, mesmerizing, and provocative not only due to their ancient literary craft but also because of their ongoing relevance. In this volume, well suited to college and seminary use, Jerome Walsh explains how to interpret these narrative passages of Scripture based on standard literary elements such as plot, characterization, setting, pace, point of view, and patterns of repetition. What makes this book an exceptional resource is an appendix that offers practical examples of narrative interpretation- something no other book on Old Testament interpretation offers.

This work focuses on the literary conventions of narrative texts in the Hebrew Bible, in particular the mode of representation in the book of Judges. The theory of integrational semantics, developed by Benjamin Hrushovski, is systematized to form a theoretical framework within which representation is conceptualized. The author suggests a novel reading of the Judges-narratives to demonstrate particular conventions of representation. The notions of paradoxality, perspectivity and juxtaposition are used to demonstrate the potential value of types of logic, alternative to modernist logic, in reading ancient Hebrew narratives. A hypothetical representeme is constructed for the book of Judges to make it clear that the mode of representation is neither mimesis nor historiography, but narrative, representing by convention and not by correspondence to history.

Scripture Connections: Old Testament Narrative Books focuses on two larger narratives of the Old Testament: the Narratives of the Rise and Fall of the Hebrew Kingdoms (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) and the Narratives of Exile and Restoration (Ruth, Daniel, Esther, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles). Overall, this work introduces the narratives of Israel’s scriptures with an emphasis on ancient connections, biblical connections, gospel connections, and life connections.

A veteran pastor with thirty years of experience guides readers through a ten-step process to preaching Old Testament narratives from text selection to delivery. The first edition received a Christianity Today award of merit and a Preaching magazine Book of the Year award. This edition, now updated and revised throughout for a new generation, includes a new chapter on how to preach Christ from the Old Testament and an exemplary sample sermon from Mathewson. Foreword by Haddon W. Robinson.

A study of the importance of variant forms of Old Testament narratives in prompting the development of the criticism of the Bible. The recognition of the recurrence of stories in variant forms in the Old Testament has been seminal to the birth and development of biblical criticism. The author assesses the role of the “double narrative phenomenon” in the evolution of Old Testament methodology, from its earliest documentary theories to its most recent literary ones, with the help of current literary, folklore and textual studies.

The Old English poems in this volume are among the first retellings of scriptural texts in a European vernacular. More than simple translations, they recast the familiar plots in daringly imaginative ways, from Satan's seductive pride (anticipating Milton), to a sympathetic yet tragic Eve, to Moses as a headstrong Germanic warrior-king, to the lyrical nature poetry in Azarias. Whether or not the legendary Caedmon authored any of the poems in this volume, they represent traditional verse in all its vigor. Three of them survive as sequential epics in a manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The first, the Old English Genesis, recounts biblical history from creation and the apocryphal fall of the angels to the sacrifice of Isaac; Abraham emerges as the central figure struggling through exile toward a lasting covenant with God. The second, Exodus, follows Moses as he leads the Hebrew people out of Egyptian slavery and across the Red Sea. Both Abraham and Moses are transformed into martial heroes in the Anglo-Saxon mold. The last in the triad, Daniel, tells of the trials of the Jewish people in Babylonian exile up through Belshazzar's feast. Azarias, the final poem in this volume (found in an Exeter Cathedral manuscript), relates the apocryphal episode of the three youths in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace.

Robert Gordon gathers together his most important essays on the Old Testament and on the ancient versions, adding an introduction which gives background comment and reflections on each essay. The Old Testament essays are divided into three groups: The Narrative Tradition, Prophecy from East to West, and Across, Behind and Beyond the Text. The essays on the ancient versions are divided into two sections: The Text and the Versions and The Targums, Chiefly to the Prophets.

A guide to the various kinds of literature in the Old Testament-narrative, history, law, oracles, and more-and how to interpret them. Contributors include Eugene Merrill, Walt Kaiser, and Tremper Longman, III.

Discover the Richness of the Old Testament The Hebrew Scriptures are the beginning of—and foundation for—God’s incredible story of redemption. Studying the Old Testament, and its relationship to God’s new covenant, inspires wonder and awe at God’s grand plan of salvation that spans millennia. Tragically, too many preachers and Bible teachers don’t have the time or inclination to dive into the depths of the Old Testament. T. J. Betts, respected professor of Old Testament interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, provides a convenient solution in this book: By walking you through the steps to effectively preach and teach the Old Testament By describing how to interpret the stories and narratives in the Hebrew Scriptures By outlining how to present, illustrate, and apply the Old Testament to people’s lives You’ll want this book in your library because it is a tool for unpacking Scripture.