Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Prophets

As a Reader in the Church of Scotland where my prime task is Worship leading is is a pleasure to have a book such as this that can give an easily accessible overview of the Prophets where their relevance and importance to much of the New Testament writings can be joined up. In itself it is an interesting read and the further reading be they Commentaries or Other Books and Articles is very comprehensive. An excellent purchase for my needs. Thank you.

Gordon McConville's book The Prophets is part of a series entitled "Exploring the Old Testament. This is Volume 4. It is broken into 17 chapters, one for each of the prophetic books. The longer books (such as Isaiah) have much longer chapters written about them then the shorter books (Lamentations or Obadiah). The initial introduction is lengthy and gives a good introduction to the work by answering a lot of general questions about their role within the nation and within the canon. It deals with the prophets as a general source of theology as well as their rhetorical intentions. It also deals with the nature of modern literary, form and redaction criticism from Wellhausen onward and points out some strengths and weaknesses of this school. Overall, he seems to have a higher view of the inspiration of scripture than Carolyn Sharp's OT Prophets for Today. Each chapter deals with the book in five ways. First of all it gives some general modern literary criticism of the book and the redactionist theories of how the book came together. Secondly the chapter contains a sort of commentary where the book is broken down into smaller, logical sections and McConville gives a brief summary and commentary on these sections. Thirdly, the author deals with the theological themes of the book. I found this section the most helpful and enlightening to read. Fourthly, McConville deals with the books' rhetorical intentions. This section deals with the book's intentions and effects upon different group of hearers such as the original hearers of the prophet as well as the significance of the book up the Israelite community after the prophet's death. For those prophets who prophesied judgment it answers the question, what did these prophesies mean pre- and post-judgment? Lastly, the author deals with the book "in the Canon". I also enjoyed this part because it is really Biblical Theology proper. It deals with the book's place in the whole of Hebrew scripture and then in the whole of Christian scripture. Perhaps this section was too short, but it is connected in some ways with the third section. All in all, I liked the book and would recommend it to one studying the prophets.

The Old Testament of the Bible is a major historical document from an era where not much history has been recorded. "Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Prophets" is not a strictly Christian book looking to spread the gospel, but rather a text looking critically at the Bible within a historical context. Examining the roots of the prophets' books and their secular and theological contributions to the old world, "Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Prophets" is highly recommended for community library theology collections.