Customer Reviews

Survey of the Old Testament

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Paul Benware has written an excellent review of each book of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). He discusses the authorship, date, purpose, outline, themes and summary of each book. This survey is written from a Fundamentalist Christian point of view. For example, the author belives that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by authors with those names. A liberal Christian would not find this book to be particularly helpful.

If you are a conservative Christian with strong fundamentalist leanings you will find this an excellent survey of the Old Testament books. If you are not then you will probably find difficulty with many portions of it. However, you may still find value in the large number of photographs, charts, tables, and graphs.

The author does an excellent of distilling chapters of information into tables that clearly show the relationships. For example, he has illustrations of the chronological relationship between the Old Testament books (no the Bible does not have them in chronological order), God's covenants with Israel, and a chronology of Israel's judges. Hardly a page goes by without a picture, illustration, chart, or other visual aid to help the reader understand the author's comments. However, some of the pictures belong more in a tourist pamphlet than a serious Bible survey book. (For example, there are pictures of places "tradition" assigns as significant, like the "burial place" of Samuel. There is no evidence of this being factual but even in the Middle Ages traders recognized the value of having a religiously significant location within your city. So, many "traditional" sites suddenly sprang up.) Fortunately these sorts of pictures are few in number when compared with the large number that enhances the text.

While the mainstream or more liberal Christian may find something of value in the charts and tables, "Survey of the Old Testament" is really recommended mainly for conservative Christian readers who will find it a valuable resource strongly slanted toward that belief system.

Most Christians enjoy reading the Bible. However, just about everyone who reads the Bible has trouble understanding how all the different names, concepts, dates, numbers, etcetra fit into the overall picture. For people who don't own a study Bible that explains many of these textual references, Paul N. Benware's SURVEY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT is a great book to have. The book is very compact and rather small, making it easy to carry around. It's written in modern English and is easy to read. It's full of pictures, charts, and diagrams as well as a brief overview of each book of the Old Testament. Even for those who have a study Bible and are familiar with the Old Testament, SURVEY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT is a nice companion piece to have as a reference. After all, you can't always chug Strong's Concordance, a book of Ancient Atlases, and other materials with you everywhere you go. But you can bring along this small companion piece.

Excellent book. Very concise. Perfect for the student and nice to have in your library. Fast Shipping and in perfect condition.

The book is well written and easy to read. It is an excellent companion to the New Testament in a New Testament studies class.

Benware's survey of the OT is a little book, with a lot of info.
The great thing is that you don't have to wade through paragraphs of information to get useful material.
It is colorful; full of charts and summaries; and hits the main points.
This is great for someone who wants the main points of each book and a true overview of the OT.
If you want lots of deep theological discussion on the OT, this is not the book for you.
If you are looking to understand the framework and key points of the OT, it is one of the best on the market.

If you are a conservative Christian you will find this an excellent survey of the New Testament books. If you are not then you will probably find difficulty with many portions of the book.

One of the things that I really liked the way the author brings the reader up to speed about the history of the area between the Old and New Testament time periods. He does an excellent job covering the rise of the Greek Period, through the Hasmonean Period, and up to the Roman Period, including the rule of the Ptolemies and Seleucids.

Throughout the book the author includes many photographs and illustrations to help the reader understand the text. He also does a good job of recounting the various theories as to why the synoptic gospels often share not only common themes but also at some points nearly the same wording. On the other hand he does not even mention the fact that there are other places where they disagree with each other. This one-sided treatment is consistent throughout the book.

In addition, some of the pictures belong more in a tourist pamphlet than a serious Bible survey book. (For example, there are pictures of places where the caption reads "traditionally", "probably", "supposed", or "believed" to be a particular site. For most of them there is no evidence of this being the actual location but even in the Middle Ages traders recognized the value of having a religiously significant location within your city. So, many "traditional" sites suddenly sprang up.) Fortunately these sorts of pictures are few in number when compared with the large number that enhances the text.

While mainstream or liberal readers will find little of any value in "Survey of the New Testament", it is recommended for conservative Christian readers who will find it a valuable resource that enhances that belief system.

I was introduced to this book in the 1980's. Paul N. Benware does an excellent job presented the Old Testament. This book allows the reader to obtain a foundational, historical, and biblical view of the bible. This edition of the book is full of color and imagiry (a set of mental pictures produced by the memory or imagination or conjured up by a stimulus) to the works and stories of the Old Testament. The book is an excellent resource for Christian Educators introducing the Bible to new converts, teachers and/or youth.
The Chronological Relationships of the Old Testament (18-19) can assist any teacher in sharing with students the relationship of the writing. Each Chapter provides the reader with "Important Data" at a glance at the beginning of each Chapter.
The new graphics and photography are added values to this publication. I would recommend this book to Institutions of Higher Learning as well as Sunday School and Bible Study instructors.

This book is GREAT in paper form as it has all sorts of pictures and maps. don't be tricked the kindle version has NONE of the maps or pictures, I use this as a textbook at a Bible college and was told after the fact that we will be tested on all that is in the text including charts, maps, pictures and sidebars! So I basically wasted my money and Benware's publishers (Moody Publishers) are screwing you because you are not getting all the content that is in the printed book yet they are charging nearly the same. Don't waste your money, spend the extra buck and get the printed hardback copy along with the FULL content that Benware meant to be in his book!!! And, No page numbers in this kindle book make reading my assignments painfully hard to get done accurately. I wish I could return this and get the hardbound copy!!!!

This is an excellent, concise review of the books of the Old Testament. Benware includes many helpful and informative charts, pictures and additional interesting information to help better understand the events of the Old Testament. Very worthwhile book for any Bible student's library.