Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction

The author, a Catholic professor of "Sacred Scripture" specialised in the Old Testament (OT), reveals at the beginning his guiding principle, the instruction given by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, i.e. accepting the OT as divine revelation yet taking into account these truths that can be deduced scholarly about the authors, the modes of writing...In the first chapters Boat introduces background generalities (history, archaeology, literary analysis) and then goes on to deal with different parts of the OT, putting the main emphasis on the Pentateuch. More background data, e.g. similar Egyptian or Semitic texts or historical context, is inserted (in chapters or frames) when needed. Boat ends with the Talmud; he rightfully admits that the Talmud stems from the Pharisees, yet he very often confuses Hebrews with Jews, which is a pity (Rabi Telushkin makes it clear in his book "Jewish Literacy": "the Pharisees are the ancestors of all contemporary Jews").The material is very well organised and introduced. It is written with all the seriousness of Boat's scholarship, yet is accessible to any layman. The book has no footnotes, and no transliterated words (I hate transliterations, prefering original language words or plain modern translations) and an English bibliography at the end (with books up to 1998, so it is strangely more recent than the copyright's date, 1984).The book contains much summarily retelling of the OT books. This is certainly excellent for an introduction, but may sometimes be boring for those who know the OT well. Boat presents the established views of scholarship on the books (who wrote them, when, in what context and for what purpose), but too often, in my opinion, in a "paternalistic" manner - you just have to believe Grand Dad because he says so - not the style I like. Sometimes Boat gives an argument, but not systematically (e.g. he explains that the book of Daniel must have been written before the death of Antiochus since the prophecy is wrong concerning the manner Antiochus died; however couldn't he have explained that the book of Daniel contains major historical mistakes concerning the times when Daniel was supposed to live, yet none concerning the "prophetic" time of Antiochus, so that the book was not written before the time of Antiochus?). Or Boat does not push it to the end (e.g. when showing the three stories of a patriarch claiming that his wife is his sister and having his wife taken by a king and then given back, Boat explains that these are three versions of the same legend; however, couldn't he, with a few more lines, have explained that the two versions involving Abimelech, a Philistine, cannot be considered historical since the Philistines were to arrive at least four centuries later). I would prefer that either Boat be 100 % paternalistic and give no arguments, or be shorter on side things and book summaries and try to systematically tell why scholars come to their conclusions. I find Boat's style inconsistent and therefore frustrating.This book is a good introduction, especially for the reader who has not read the OT yet, and is definitely worth its price. There are however much better introductions at a academic level, the best and most up-to-date one among those in English, French or German being clearly Thomas Römer (ed.) Introduction à l'Ancien Testament. (Labor et Fides, Geneva, 2004). By the way I can recommend several popular books on OT issues that I enjoyed reading, two by Jewish author Gary Greenberg: The Sins of King David and The Bible Myth (on the Egyptian origins of Moses and much of the Pentateuch), and Richard Friedman's famous work Who wrote the Bible? (rev. ed. HarperSanFrancisco, 1997).

After reading Raymond Brown's Introduction to the New Testament last year, I wanted to read a similar book on the Old Testament, I ended up selecting this one. This book doesn't get into near the depth of Brown's book but at the same time it covers three times the amount of biblical texts but is only half as long. I found this book to be very well written and fascinating, but its quite different from the evangelical introduction that I've previously read. Overall though it was exactly what I was looking for. Based on this book and Brown's book, I'm surprised at how different these two Catholic scholars approach scripture from what I'm used to, they both seem very high up on critical scholarship and aren't afraid to doubt the validly of certain scriptures, but at the same time appear to keep their faith in Christ.Even though this book is large it covers a lot of material, so for many subjects expect a great overview but not much depth. Also for the most part expect to only be presented certain scholarly views as fact and not have any dialog with other views. I think both of these things are fine, otherwise the book would have had to be much larger and it might have broken up the pace. This leads me to my biggest complaints, the bibliography is pretty weak and references to sources is non existent. My other complaint is that this book is over 25 years old and I'm sure scholarship has changed over that time. I'll have to look for a more up to date book later.Those complaints aside, this book is exactly what I think a Old Testament Introduction should be (as long as you remember its more critical scholarship than evangelical). It covers the Ancient Near East, the geography of the land, daily life, cult and worship in Israel, textual criticism, archeology and tell digs. It introduces the different books of the bible, talks about the different type of Psalms and literature and places the books in their proper context, this is especially useful and informative when you get to the prophetic books which can be confusing if you don't know the background. I found extremely interesting the discussions of the Assyrian, Babylon and Greek empires and the pressure they put on the Jews.Now when I say this book uses critical scholarship what I mean is expect lots of references to the JEPD editors of the Pentateuch (where Moses didn't write the Torah, but it was a series of 4 different editors who compiled stories). He points out obvious story reuses, and contradictions. He has comparisons from the creation account to the other creation stories in the ANE and doesn't accept a young earth. I don't think he believes the exodus account (at least not to the extent of 600,000 men, plus women and children in the desert for 40 years). He also believes Isaiah was written by 3 different sources. There are other examples I could give, but this should give an idea of some of the non evangelical views he holds. Of course at the same time he appears to have reverence for Jesus and does believe that Jesus is the son of God. Overall this book was highly informative and if you don't mind having your belief in the inerrancy of the Old Testament challenged (although maybe its still inspired), then this book is highly recommended.

Errors abound in this First Edition of Fr. Boadt's book. When I began teaching a class nearly 20 years ago, I embraced it because Fr. Boadt's Introduction 1) began with the necessary background for Old Testament/Hebrew Scripture study; 2) used current, broadly accepted scholarship; 3) yet made it clear that his stance was as a faithful Christian, not a skeptic; and 4) perhaps most important, wrote with great clarity for non-scholars, not his professional peers. Even on first reading, however, I found nearly 300 copyediting errors, so many that I had to provide students with a lengthy errata sheet (and have added more corrections/additions through the years since). While the book was a gem, it was a deeply flawed one, and should not be used when a revised and updated Second Edition is available. The latest printing of that edition includes (almost) all edits I have shared with Paulist Press. Buy the Second Edition. The gem is flawed no more! - Rev. Fred Reklau, Lutheran pastor (retired)

An incredibly useful starter text for anyone studying the Old Testament.

The content of the book is great, just what I was led to believe but I can't understand why there was no mention of the copious underlining throughout the text. And I hate the large stickers on the covers

Lovely book

Excellent product. Excellent service.

The book so named above, was in excellent condition when it arrived promptly by post.