Proverbs

I always enjoy starting to read a commentary by John Goldingay - he is a prolific author, with a sense of humour, and a way of saying things well. That said, I'm starting to wonder if I need to put a cap on the number of Goldingay commentaries I read a year. But I digress. I was interested to pick up this - the first Old Testament volume in Eerdmans' new Commentaries for Christian Formation series (I reviewed the inaugural volume, by N.T. Wright on Galatians, here). I was also interested to read it as I think Proverbs is one of those books of the Bible that many of us Christians know snippets of (or at least think we do), but it is not one that is regularly preached, and certainly not preached or worked straight through. I have been spoilt recently by working on Paul Overland's superb AOTC Volume on Proverbs - on reflection that AOTC is probably closer to one of Eerdmans' NICOT volumes, than this CCF. But I digress. At xvii+478 pages, this is a substantial book - reflecting the length and complexity of Proverbs as a book of the canon. A relatively short introduction (less than 15 pages, all in) leads in to just under 400 pages of commentary proper, a short conclusion ('Actions and Consequences', 'Proverbs in the Context of the Scriptures' and 'Virtue') of less than 10 pages, and then around 40 pages of end matter (Selected Bibliography, indices of Subjects/Authors/Scripture and Other Ancient Sources). [Full Review]