Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books

This book is certainly an excellent resource for understanding the Old Testament prophetic books that have puzzled generations of people who don't know why those books are so important to our daily lives. These are books of great wisdom given to men directly from God and contain lessons of life that are just as important today as they were back when first written. I strongly recommend this book for all Christians, especially Bible students and Sunday School teachers. It is a must-have for every Christian library!

This is definitely a textbook, and one I would highly recommend to anyone doing any level of preaching or research on the prophetic books. It is not organized cannonically (in the order the books appear in the Bible), but rather chronologically (when it is most likely they were written). Rather than give you a straight-forward "here's how it is" factual approach Bullock outlines the various controversies and stances regarding each book. That latter fact itself makes the book very valuable, for where commentaries or other books take one perspective and tend to present that as fact, this one presents varying perspectives. It definitely points towards one perspective in each case, supplying reasons for that support. I'm not so sure I would recommend this for more passive Bible study, of the "I just want to learn a little more about the Bible" variety. Rather, this book is for anyone who really wants to dive in and study about the prophetic books and start to try understand them from a more academic perspective. So, in the end, this is a solid book to supplement any Bible study being done on the prophetic books.

Bullock gives a quick grasp of major history, theological, biographical, stylistic themes and issues you'll encounter in the research. He's a guide with sound reasoning and perspective. Direct and complete enough to start in-depth research on a sound path. His judicious accounts of the pertinent history save me hours. My copy is 20 years old, and I still use it every time I prepare any OT prophet sermon. Emphasis on crisis preaching never goes out of date.

Dr. Bullock has written a comprehensive look at the latter prophets, from Jonah to Malachi. This book is a must have for all those interested in the history of the Old Testament. The bibliography alone is worth the price of the book.