Genesis (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch) - Hardcover

John Goldingay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801035724 ISBN 13: 9780801035722

Publisher: Baker Academic, Div of Baker Publishing Group, 2020

Synopsis

Highly regarded Old Testament scholar John Goldingay offers a substantive and useful commentary on the book of Genesis that is both critically engaged and sensitive to the theological contributions of the text. This volume, the first in a new series on the Pentateuch, complements the successful Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Wisdom and Psalms series (series volumes have sold over 55,000 copies). Each series volume will cover one book of the Pentateuch, addressing important issues and problems that flow from the text and exploring the contemporary relevance of the Pentateuch. The series editor is Bill T. Arnold, Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary.

About this title

About the Author

John Goldingay (PhD, University of Nottingham) is David Allan Hubbard Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is an ordained priest in the Church of England and is the author of numerous books, including a three-volume Old Testament Theology as well as major commentaries on Daniel, the Psalms, and Isaiah 40-66. Goldingay lives in Oxford, England.

From the Back Cover

"A rich gift to biblical scholarship and to the church"

"John Goldingay's immense contribution to our understanding of the Old Testament over the past few decades cannot be overestimated. Now we have his detailed study of Genesis to guide us in our reading of this foundational book. Clergy and scholars particularly will benefit from his careful translation and interpretation as he brings out the book's essential theological message."
--Tremper Longman III, Westmont College (emeritus)

"Goldingay's critically informed, resourceful, comprehensive, and relevance-driven volume stands out remarkably among others in the field. First, it exhibits the power of imagination in reading Hebrew narratives. Second, it expounds the text both intertextually within the First (Old) Testament and intertestamentally with rich and often innovative theological insights and directives. Third, it demonstrates vigorous and engaging efforts to bridge the gap between an ancient text and contemporary faith with fresh angles of perception. This is a commendable commentary for the church and academy today, for whoever wishes to hear the retelling of the Genesis narrative afresh."
--Barbara M. Leung Lai, Tyndale University and Seminary

"The book of Genesis holds a fascination for many contemporary readers but also tends to strike them as something of an 'alien' text, multiple aspects of which are difficult to understand. Goldingay has written a wonderfully lucid guide to the story for brave readers who would like to feel at home in this foreign terrain, who aspire to hear in this literature the very Word of God to us. It is precisely in the deeply human and highly literary strangeness of the text that this Word must be found."
--Iain Provan, Regent College, Vancouver

"However well-trodden a part of Scripture might be, Goldingay has a rare capacity for freshness and illumination. Time and again he succeeds in going to the heart of a thing and enabling readers to reframe their questions. In the author's characteristically fresh and direct style, the commentary unobtrusively interweaves the various aspects of Genesis interpretation--linguistic, literary, religious, historical, and theological--and wears deep learning lightly. Rising above problem-oriented exposition, Goldingay always succeeds in bringing a note of pastoral urgency out of his handling of complex things. This landmark commentary is a rich gift to biblical scholarship and to the church."
--Gordon McConville, University of Gloucestershire (emeritus)

From the Inside Flap

John Goldingay offers a substantive and useful commentary on the book of Genesis that is both critically engaged and sensitive to the theological contributions of the text.

This volume is the first in the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament (BCOT): Pentateuch series, which complements the popular BCOT: Wisdom and Psalms series. Each series volume covers one book of the Pentateuch, addressing important issues and problems that flow from the text and exploring the contemporary relevance of the Pentateuch.

From the Series Preface
Each commentary in this series not only highlights the distinctive features unique to each biblical book but also reflects the unique approach of the one commenting on it. Each volume provides a fresh translation of the Hebrew text along with section-by-section comments. Each contributor carefully attends to (1) the meaning and significance of the ancient discourse and, where appropriate, (2) its reception in Jewish and Christian tradition, (3) the text's relation and contribution to the canon of Scripture as a whole, and (4) the text's implications for our contemporary setting. In this way, these commentaries not only lay bare the perspectives of the ancient human authors but also bring their voices into dialogue with other words that God has spoken--and is speaking--through Scripture and tradition, doing so in a way that dignifies the relevance of the Pentateuch as a contemporary word from God rather than merely an ancient, dusty book from antiquity. It is our hope that these BCOT: Pentateuch volumes will enable us all to hear this word from God afresh for the benefit of the church universal.

Edition details

• Publisher: Baker Academic, Div of Baker Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801035724
• ISBN 13: 9780801035722
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 768