Reading Old Testament Narrative As Christian Scripture

Since it was first published nearly three decades ago, The Art of Biblical Narrative has radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. Renowned critic and translator Robert Alter presents the Hebrew Bible as a cohesive literary work, one whose many authors used innovative devices such as parallelism, contrastive dialogue, and narrative tempo to tell one of the most revolutionary stories of human history: the revelation of a single god.

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It can sometimes be difficult for the modern reader to know whether the author of an Old Testament book is commending or condemning certain acts. Professor Wenham turns to modern literary theory and ethical analysis to show how two quite different books of the Old Testament, Genesis and Judges, offer ethical models of behaviour. He focuses on the attitudes of the authors rather than the morals of the characters in the stories, and argues that these models are actually closer to New Testament ideals than has previously been recogised.

“Hilarious. . . . It’s Cliff Notes for Scripture—screenplay by Plotz, story by God. . . . In the end, though, the book is made by the spirit of the writer.” — The New York Times Book Review “Like the Bible itself, Good Book contains multitudes—it is by turns thought-provoking, funny, enlightening and moving.” — A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically “Plotz is a genius writer.” — Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World A whip-smart, laugh-out-loud tour through the most important book in the world, a book most people have never read: the Bible.

The book of Joshua has been received and used as Christian Scripture throughout Christian history. The challenge today, however, is how Christians should appropriately continue to read Joshua as Scripture, not least in the light of well-known historical and ethical difficulties with the narrative. In Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture, Douglas Earl draws on conceptual resources offered by recent anthropological approaches to myth and combines this with a close literary reading of the text, in order to argue that Joshua is misconstrued when it is treated as a historical account of conquest. Instead, in its ancient Israelite context Joshua functioned to reshape accepted norms of community identity, as reflected in the book of Deuteronomy, by forming a new “cultural memory.” Furthermore, Earl reconsiders the traditional notion of the “spiritual sense” of Scripture in terms of a rich account of symbol and also makes use of the narrative hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. The result is a fresh and unexpected reading of Joshua as Christian Scripture that develops the original function of the narrative in a way that resonates with classic premodern readings and is also challenging to contemporary Christian understandings of identity and faithfulness.

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.

Edited by Bruce Manning Metzger and Roland E. Murphy Detailed, updated annotations Extensive essays and book introductions Textual notes Larger pages with wide margins 36 pages of full-color maps with index Essay by Metzger on how to use "Annotated" Bible Smyth-sewn 7 X 9 1/4 % Font size: 9