Philip E. Satterthwaite - Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Historical Books

Exploring the
Old Testament

A Guide to the Historical Books

Philip E. Satterthwaite
& J. Gordon McConville

Exploring the Old Testament is designed to help the beginning student understand the writings of the Old Testament. It serves the purpose of an introduction, but its unique format is devised to make the volumes accessible to the modern reader. EOT engages with the reader, by interspersing interactive panels with the main text. These panels ask for responses, suggest lines of thought, give further information, or indicate ways in which particular topics might be followed up in more depth. This design aims to make the volumes useful either for independent study or as a class text.

EOT aims to show the relevance of Old Testament study both to theology and to modern life. Its four authors, each writing in areas in which they have previously published extensively, believe that the Old Testament has foundational significance for theology and Christian belief and practice.

For that reason EOT expressly aims to incorporate modern approaches to interpreting the text. While the traditional historical questions are given their due place, newer approaches such as canonical and rhetorical criticism are represented. It is hoped that this will enable the student to see the potential applications of the books of the Old Testament to modern life.

EOT is a companion series to Exploring the New Testament.

Gordon McConville
Series editor

Thanks are due first to Ruth McCurry of SPCK for her help and encouragement at every stage in the writing, editing and production of this book, and particularly for her patience as the completion date kept receding.

Various scholars have kindly read and commented on draft chapters: Professor Rick Hess of Denver Seminary; Professors Iain Provan and Phil Long of Regent College, Vancouver; Dr Walter McConnell of Singapore Bible College. Their help is gratefully acknowledged.

Three classes of students at the Biblical Graduate School of Theology, Singapore, have read and commented on draft chapters of this book. Many thanks to them as well.

All biblical quotations in this book, as noted above, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition) (Oxford University Press, 1995) unless otherwise stated. Permission to quote from this version is gratefully acknowledged.

Inter-Varsity Press allowed us to reproduce the maps in Chapters 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9.

These maps are taken from pp. 35, 42, 45, 90, 91 and 94 of J.J. Bimson and J.P. Kane (eds), New Bible Atlas (Leicester: IVP, 1985). Professor Kenneth Kitchen kindly consented to our reproducing the table representing the chronology of the judges period in Chapter 4. This table is taken from his On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), p. 210. We are grateful to Inter-Varsity Press and to Professor Kitchen.

Philip Satterthwaite began work on this book towards the end of his period as Research Fellow in Hebrew and Aramaic at Tyndale House, Cambridge, and the Oriental Studies Faculty, Cambridge, a post which he held from 1993 to 1998. He would like to thank Sir Kirby Laing and his foundation, who provided the funding for the fellowship.

He also records his thanks to the Council and Faculty of the Biblical Graduate School of Theology, Singapore, for granting him two periods of sabbatical leave in 2002 and 2006, without which the book could not have been completed.

The Historical Books of the Old Testament (the Histories) are: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Ruth, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. This book is an introduction to the Histories intended for first- or second-year students at theological college or university. Chapter 1 introduces students to the Histories and to recent and contemporary scholarship on them. Chapter 2 briefly surveys the history of the ancient Near East in the period 155063 BC. Chapters 311 work through the Histories in detail, dealing with critical and interpretative issues.