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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 221.61
EAN num: 9780809126316
ISBN number: 0809126311
Label: Paulist Press
Manufacturer: Paulist Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 576
Printing Date: January 01, 1984
Publishing house: Paulist Press
Sale Popularity Level: 24200
Studio: Paulist Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Reading the Old Testament is a clear and carefully organized introduction for contemporary readers. It is designed to guide the student of the Bible through the text and its problems, enrich their understanding of the individual biblical books, and explore the way the Bible came to be written.
Reading the Old Testament combines the latest scholarship with sensitivity to religious issues and Israel's ever deepening understanding of God's ways. The author gives special attention to recent archeological discoveries in the Middle East and how these affect our understanding of the Old Testament. The book contains numerous maps, charts, and drawings.
Reading the Old Testament is particularly illuminating about the way Israel's religious experience was translated into written records. No other introduction offers the same thorough treatment of the Exile and the post-exilic periods as crucial times in the formation of the Old Testament.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I facilitate a graduate program in pastoral studies, this text goes hand in hand with the Catholic Study Bible. Great study guide, easy to follow and very helpful. I highly recommend it for those interested in beginning serious scholarly study in the Old Testatment
Rated by buyers 
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I had to get this book for an Old Testament class. The class is a waste of time, the book is a waste of money, and there seems to be a lot of extra stuff in it that I couldn't care less about. If you're getting this book for a class, it's easy to read, but it takes forever. If you're getting it just for fun, I recommend finding another book.
Rated by buyers -
I believe this book is probably the best overall introduction to the Old Testament. It provides historical context of the Near East. It covers all the bases and goes into scholarly detail. It goes through the Yawehist (Y)/Elohim (E)/Priestly sources and their different contributions to the composite text. It is an easy and enjoyable read as opposed to standard Old Testment "Texbooks". I was also delighted to find that a Professor at Yale uses in her Old Testament class. It is an open source class that you can watch over the Internet.
Overall, this book should be required reading for any introduction to the Old Testament. I highly recommend it.
Rated by buyers 
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My reading of the Bible has had three levels of accompaniment. The very first consists of the annotations of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, which tend to be brief explications of bits of the text that might otherwise be difficult to comprehend within the context of the writer. The second is Asimov's Guide to the Bible, which goes into somewhat greater detail and, in particular, is quite good at providing the necessary historical and geographic background.
The third is this book, which goes into considerable depth with not only the basic factual background, but also the cultural and literary background. Though written by a devout believer (a Catholic), he is not someone who believes in the literal truth of the Bible, but follows modern scholarship in teasing out the various strands of text: the J, E, and P source texts, in particular.
The book is divided into two sections and numerous chapters. The very first section provides a general overview in four chapters. The very first discusses the text itself, why we should read it, and its meaning for us today, and lesser issues such as the merits of various translations. Chapter 2 provides a general geographic and historical overview, discussing the peoples of that time and where and when they lived and prospered. The third chapter discusses Biblical archeology, how it works, and what sort of background it can provide. And Chapter 4 goes into the literary aspects of the writings, from the difficulties translators encounter to how the texts were considered at the time they were written down.
The bulk of the book, however, focuses on key portions of the text in turn, explaining their context and significance, and clarifying aspects that we moderns might find perplexing.
The author considers the book a textbook, and it would certainly be useful as the basis for a one- or two-semester course in the Old Testament. However, I found it very useful to read it on my own, providing a much deeper perspective than I could get just from reading the text, which, if nothing else, makes many assumptions about what I should already know.
Rated by buyers -
I am in an Old Testament class, and our professor recommended this book as a useful tag-along to his teaching. It truly is a great text, and I highly recommend it.
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