Customer Reviews

Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Howard has compiled a great review of the Old Testament Historical books, probably the best work ever on this subject! Howard is lucid, scholarly, and exegetical; this book is a necessity for any student of the Old Testament! He does a great job on outlining, interpreting, and applying these books; he also has a great introductory chapter about the nature of narrative material. No one is left in the dark about the various aspects of the Historical books after reading this! He also includes plenty of detail and indices for the reader. This book is truly great!

This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in research and teaching on the Old Testament (OT). It starts off with an introduction to OT literature then in each chapter gives historical information and theological analysis of all of the OT historical books. If you have ever found it useful to go to a commentary to get an overview of an OT book you will find this book doubly useful. Howard is a good writer to boot. Highly recommended for bible students, pastors, teachers, and anyone else interested in studying the bible in depth.

I used this in bible study. It is comprehensive, scholarly and covers the entire historical books (versus the Pentateuch) I found it more helpful than the book on just Genesis, exodus, etc. It is not for beginning study, a good teacher helps. It is a little heavy and cumberson to hold in your lap.

I read David Howard's "An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books" for a seminary course, taught by Dr. Howard himself. Having used several OT introductions, this is one of my favorites. It is comprehensive and rigorous, while also being readable and accessible to those outside of academia. Howard is an evangelical, which is reflected in his utmost reflect for the biblical text and his commitment to the doctrine of inspiration. However, he is thoroughly aware of the breadth of scholarship outside the evangelical world and makes frequent reference to ideas and approaches from outside the evangelical mainstream, while remaining sympathetic to his own tradition. My primary critique of the book centers around the occasions when Howard defaulted to an evangelical position on a particular topic, seemingly for no other reason than that it was the evangelical position. The argument seemed to be that if evangelical scholars largely agreed on a particular point, then their opinion was conclusive. I would have preferred in those moments if he had taken a bit of time to flesh out the reasons for the evangelical consensus.

Of course, a book with the goal of analyzing all of the books from Joshua through Esther will necessarily have to skim over some key points, so if Howard missed some opportunities for potentially helpful explanations, this is an understandable shortcoming of the nature of an introductory text. Nonetheless, his approach remained quite thorough throughout, and I anticipate that I will refer back to this book whenever I am studying one of the OT historical books, to help me understand basic things like authorship, date, and setting, as well as more complex things like themes and theology. I would recommend this textbook to anyone willing to learn from a thoughtful evangelical scholar about the OT historical books.

This was another "required Seminary" book, which simply means it falls into the category of, "I might not have read it unless it was required of me." In many cases, I find some gems, or at least a chapter or so that's a gem, in a book that I am thankful seminary required me to read. There's nothing like some reading direction to force you into new areas, and finding out you enjoy those areas. (I think about reading Kierkegard, and specifically Climacus, earlier than I would have had it not been for seminary; and I loved that experience.)

This book, though, didn't make me appreciate the assignment. First, the book is largely a survey. That's not overly surprising; it's listed as an introduction. However, it feels like a collection of statements that are intended -- if you're interested -- to follow the footnotes to the source of those statements. In most cases, because of this approach, I felt little passion from Howard about what he thought. In almost every situation, Howard seemed to take a slightly conservative middle-ground view. But his arguments were never made with much strength; as if he felt arguing too strenuously might make him seem biased.

In my reading, I want to interact with a text. That often means the author needs to make an argument; I can then assent, disagree, take part and leave the rest, etc. I want to push against the author, or push with the author. That was not possible often in Howard's work.

All that said, there is a lot of good information in this book, and it provides a jumping-off point for the new Old Testament reader who wants an introduction to the issues related to Old Testament scholarship.

I purchased this book for my son who is in seminary. He was very pleased. I have enjoyed ordering through Amazon. I have purchased all of his book of this semester through Amazon. Everyone who I have ordered through have been outstanding. I will continue to order his books and mine through this company. Thanks.