Opening Israel's Scriptures. By Ellen F. Davis

Abstract

In Opening Israel’s Scriptures, Ellen F. Davis offers a refreshing yet detailed and academically sturdy account of the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible. From the dedication of the book, which is for her ‘students’ who are also her ‘teachers and companions on the way’ (p. v), it is obvious that this book has been written with the questions and scruples in mind that serious students of the Hebrew Bible often bring to the text. In fact, Davis notes that at the forefront of her mind have been the issues that have been brought to her attention during her 35 years of teaching mostly Christian students undertaking their first degree in theology (p. 5). As such, Davis’s volume reads like no other introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Rather than privileging the historical-critical method so often encountered in other introductions, Davis ‘seeks to model the sustained practice of contemporary theological exegesis’ (p. 1) where issues of theological significance, practical theology, and exegetical analysis are allowed a more prominent voice. For a reader who has been wondering about the ‘so what?’ questions of biblical analysis, Davis offers a volume that delves deeply into the meaning and significance of the books for both ancient and modern readers.