Despite the lack of progress, my thirst for knowledge was rewarded through reading all the introductory materials to each of the first three books on this Bible epic of mine. I also read numerous essays in the back of my Bible. These provided a wealth of information over a broad range of topics. Here are the highlights from each book:
New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV):
The editor’s preface and reader introduction cover all the bases of why this Bible is structured like it is, with footnotes from the NRSV plus expanded footnotes from the Oxford editorial staff. The intro section offers a suitable and condensed history of the process of creating an English-language Bible, but the essays at the back lay out all the gory details.
These essays take you on the journey through the languages of the Bible’s history: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and (much later down the line) English. This timeline touches on the approaches and sources used to create each version, both in language and canon. As if that weren’t enough, readers can dig into more than just the text criticism of translating the ancient words into English. If you like, you can read about the approaches to English translations via formal and dynamic equivalence. This is how we end up with the clunky word-for-word New American Standard Bible, the loosey-goosey paraphrasing of The Message, and everything in between.
Gluttons for punishment can take it even a few steps further and read detailed histories of how the Bible was interpreted in ancient times, premodern times, and in modern times by both Jews and Christians. These present topics like source criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, and numerous cultural hermeneutics through which to interpret scripture. As a chaser, you can read about how archaeology has challenged the historicity of various biblical narratives.
While I appreciate the rich historical information in all these essays, several sections frustrated me. Part of my purpose for reading the Bible is to obtain a better sense of clarity over things like canon and interpretation. At times, I felt even more bewildered than before I started. For instance, the dispute between literal and allegorical interpretations began in the third century CE Christian church. Over a millennium later, Luther and the Protestant Reformation sought to simplify and clarify this dispute (among several others) but the explosion of denominations and local-language Bible translations that followed only made matters worse.
In other words, the supplementary material in my Bible did not instill me with much confidence about much of anything because there appears to have never been much clarity on some of the hot-button issues Christians debate.
Reading the Old Testament:
I intended to start this book third, thinking that a book called Reading the Old Testament would best be started just before I started reading the Old Testament. It didn’t pan out that way. Fortunately, chasing my Bible essays with this book’s opening chapters proved to be an uplifting decision.
The first five chapters of this book include the following:
-a general background on the Bible
-the geography and peoples involved in the Biblical narratives
-commentary on archaeology and how it relates to and intersects with the Bible
-various forms of criticism (analysis) by which the Bible can be examined as a document
-a more detailed look at the Pentateuch’s composition through source criticism
Each chapter is dense but still easy to follow. It’s clear that the author writes from a pro-Christian perspective, but little, if anything, lacked objectivity so far. One thing that the author does very well is impressing upon the reader the amount of time, energy, and care that translating the Hebrew and Christian Bibles consumed over the last several millennia.
While the supplementary essays in my Bible talked about the many translations, it didn’t mention the sheer amount of effort that went into each and every translation throughout history. This may be part of why I felt so frustrated by the lack of reassurance from my Bible! In Reading the Old Testament, the author slows down and highlights the fact that, while many fallible humans contributed to the writing and translating process, God oversaw the work of translators from ancient Israel through the latest edition to come out in print or digital. It’s a simple but beautiful point, and one that makes it easier to understand the Bible to be the inspired word of God.
I remember enjoying this book when I was in college, and I can see myself enjoying it again. Time will tell if I think that the author’s pro-Christian perspective is a helpful or a hindering quality. If nothing else, it should serve as a counterweight to the third book I’m working through on this journey.
The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament:
This book got booted to third in the batting order because its introductory materials were slim. By slim I mean a three-page preface. Even that three-page preface was short and sweet, highlighting the fact that the authors and editors weren’t looking to make many waves with their publication- a surprising admission to be sure.
I recall looking through this book when I first bought it on a whim several years ago. After leafing through it in the bookstore, I thought it contained the clarifying information that I was looking for and purchased it. When I sat down to use it as a clarifying resource, I fretted over what I found inside.
I must not have read the preface section to this book all those years ago, because I grew concerned that the book was dishing out cultural comparisons between the ancient Hebrews and other surrounding cultures in an effort to suggest that ancient Judaism copied a lot of their foundational elements from other cultures and religious traditions. The preface makes it pretty clear that this is not their goal. In fact, the editors admit that they really don’t have much of a goal in mind for their work, except to round out people’s understandings of what cultural and regional norms may have looked like to the ancient Hebrews. In fact, they admit that some of what they dispense is just information for information’s sake. That sort of thing is right up my alley.
I see this book walking a tightrope. Given the assertions of the editors as to the purpose of this commentary, I believe that my critique of this book will be based on how well they live up to those claims. It is easy to find a wealth of contextual information on any page as I leaf through it, but will that leave it feeling true to its purpose, in violation of its stated purpose, or even feeling purposeless? We’ll find out as we go along.
Up Next: Genesis 1-11 and the Book of Job
