Genesis
in Baker Commentary on the Old Testament
Pages
768
Publisher
Baker Academic
Published
11/3/2020
ISBN-13
9780801035722
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.
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.
Collections
This book appears in the following featured collections.
- Top Old Testament Commentaries by Crux Sola (Nijay Gupta's Blog)
Reviews
BLin
August 9, 2023
August 9, 2023
I have reservations about the high praises for this commentary after reading it myself. This review from Dustin Burlet https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/review/genesis-5 aptly summaries the reasons.
ThomasCreedy
February 13, 2023
February 13, 2023
Overall, then, this is a helpful commentary from a broadly evangelical but also sensitively Christian and appropriately critical perspective. Goldingay’s imagery of this book as a multi part tv series makes sense, not least with emphasis throughout Genesis on interpersonal relationships. I think this BECOT volume would be straight off the shelf if I were to be preaching through or on a section of Genesis, and I’ve got a few references from it for other projects. The volume, in hardback, is nicely produced, although the BECOT visual cover style is not that exciting. If I were to sum up this commentary in a few words: readable, interesting, idiosyncratic, creative.
[Full Review]
Michael Bird's Blog (Rev Dr Andy Judd)
February 11, 2023
February 11, 2023
Only after doing his translation and initial comments will he consult a judiciously pruned list of ancient and modern commentators to see what perspectives they can add. What we get is a sensitive reading of the book of Genesis by a top scholar, rather than a harried essayist constantly looking over its shoulder. There are footnotes to other commentators, but they’re more likely to be a single well chosen nugget from Barth or Augustine than a sewer of citations covering some debate going on somewhere in an SBL seminar room. That makes for, in my experience reading it, a high ratio of gold-to-dross.
[Full Review]
Goldingay provides a careful, thoughtful investigation of the text, attending to translation details, literary style, theological implications, and (selectively) the history of interpretation.
[Full Review]
G Ware
March 2, 2021
March 2, 2021
Precisely what you'd expect from John Goldingay, given his contribution in the Baker series on the Psalms. Goldingay provides a pericope overview, followed by his own, dynamic, fresh translation, with extensive footnotes, followed by a verse by verse interpretation, and finally an "implications" section which unpacks the passages place in biblical theology and theology more broadly. The introduction is surprisingly compact, and doesn't get into all the weeds of source criticism, etc. Overall, and outstanding commentary.