Introduction and General

Abstract

Introduction and General Fred W. Guyette, Christopher T. Begg, Richard A. Taylor, David A. Bosworth, and Victor H. Matthews 2521. [Scripture's Grand Story in the OT] Bryan Beyer and Bill Jones, Scripture's Grand Story through the Old Testament (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2022). Pp. xii + 273. $49. ISBN 9781666702460. This book is designed to be an introduction to the OT. The Bible has forty human authors, but one divine author and one central story. B. and J.'s book invites us into that story to embrace the life God designed for us. It is organized in four sections (1) The Torah: Genesis–Deuteronomy; (2) The Historical Books: Joshua–Esther; (3) The Poetical Books: Job to Song of Solomon; and (4) The Prophetic Books: Isaiah to Malachi. Each story in these books plays a part in the Bible's one central story, which is about Jesus. The first part of Genesis describes a wonderful Creation, but then there is a downward movement, morally and spiritually: The Fall, The Flood, and The Tower of Babel. God made a new start by forming a covenant with Abraham, the first of the patriarchs. In Exodus, God delivers his people from slavery in Egypt and through Moses. He gives them the Ten Commandments. Hundreds of years later, Jesus showed us what a life of perfect obedience to the commandments would look like. Joshua led God's people into the promised land, but after struggling against their enemies, they asked God for a king to lead them in battle. Saul was their first king, but his reign ended in spiritual failure. After David became king, he enjoyed political victories, spiritual victories, and military victories. But God rebuked David for his adultery with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah, her husband. Next came King Solomon, who made a good beginning: he asked God for wisdom and built the temple as a house of prayer. But Solomon failed, too, after his foreign wives turned his heart away from the Lord. After Solomon, there was another trend downward, spiritually speaking. The one notable exception was Josiah, who did his best to lead the nation back to God, but he was killed in battle in 609 b.c. When Israel went into exile in Babylon, they cherished hope for a coming Messiah who would save them from their sins. Ezra and Nehemiah were among their leaders when they returned to the land of Israel, where they renewed their covenant with God. Among the prophets, it is Isaiah who has the most glorious vision of the coming Messiah, a suffering servant who would save the people from their sins. Among the minor prophets, Zechariah and Malachi have a profound sense of Messianic expectation, our great need for repentance, and God's mercy toward sinners—F.W.G. 2522. [Edom] Bradley L. Crowell, Edom at the Edge of Empire: A Social and Political History (Archaeology and Biblical Studies 29; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2021). Pp. xix + 488. Paper $75. ISBN 978-1-62837-306-6. The above volume combines biblical, epigraphic, archaeological, and comparative evidence to reconstruct the history of ancient Edom, Judah's neighbor to the southeast. With reference to material and linguistic evidence, extending from early Egyptian sources that recall conflicts with nomadic tribes to later Assyrian texts that reference compliant Edomite kings, C. offers alternative scenarios regarding Edom's transformation from a collection of nomadic tribes and workers in the Wadi Faynan into a later polity centered around the city of Busaya in the mountains of southern Jordan. This is the first book to incorporate the important evidence from the Wadi Faynan copper mines into a thorough account of ancient Edom's history which provides students and scholars of the ANE and the Hebrew Bible with a key resource. [Adapted from published abstract] C.'s volume comprises an introduction, followed by a total of 10 chapters, titled respectively (1) A Tale of Three Edoms; (2) The Material Culture of Iron Age Southwestern [End Page 938] Jordan; (3) Egyptian and Mesopotamian Sources for the History of Edom; (4) Iron Age Epigraphs from Edom; (5) Narrative Biblical Sources for the History of Edom...