Customer Reviews

Hosea: A new translation (Anchor Bible, Vol. 24)

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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These two prominet OT scholars colloborate on this significant prophet. As Jesus and Peter quote from this book prominently in the NT, this book is key. (Hosea 2,6; 1 Pt. 2)

They provide a very accurate and detailed philogical work which will likely be too much for even the most adamant layperson. The work really requires a working knowledge of the Hebrew to appreciate its depth of research and scholarship.

This was used as one of the textbooks for my sem class in Hosea which we translated each word from Hebrew. Although I don't buy every translation of this commentary, this overall is excellent and of great usefulness to the student of the text.

I think this is an OK commentary. Hosea is a very, very difficult book in Hebrew, and these two renowned authors do their best to make sense of the Masoretic (traditional Hebrew) Text. If you are a beginner in biblical studies and just want a little commentary you can use to read along with the Bible and help you understand things, then this is probably not the book you want (and at $50 [at the time of this review], it seems a bit pricey).

Andersen and Freedman get into meter and chiasm a lot at various points, and it should be pointed out that (a) finding meter in Hebrew poetry is not that helpful, or fun--if there even is a meter to find in the first place!?--and (b) chiasms are basically meaningless about 98% of the time. So the commentary spends a lot of time delving into issues that many readers--both scholars and pastors--would care little about. Having said that, if you study Hosea seriously, then you have to have this commentary, and probably also the commentaries of H.W. Wolff (Hermeneia) and J.L. Mays (OTL).

Hosea is a weird and creepy book, and if Hosea was a real person (he probably was), then he was a weird person; and thus you need some kind of guide to what he is saying. If you're a beginner, I would start with something else, maybe; if not, dive into this one and see what happens!

I think that some of the textual work, such as that on Hosea 4:15 and 8:2 is odd. It goes to some lengths to keep the text together. In upholding the integrity of the text, the commentary does some problematic things to it.