Numbers to Samuel

Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998. Pp. xviii + 1388, Cloth, $70.00, ISBN 0687278155. Volume: 2 Won Lee Calvin College Grand Rapids, MI 49546 This second volume of The New Interpreter's Bible (NIB) contains condensed interpretations of six Old Testament books and a general article on narrative literature. Each interpretation provides concise introductory notes covering the major topics and critical problems of the book as a whole. In its main section, the contributors begin with a portion of the biblical text ("coherent and manageable primary units") based on the NIV and NRSV translations, discuss both critical and interpretive issues of individual units, and end with a homiletic or theological "reflection" illustrating the unit's significance for the contemporary community of faith. This format of introduction-commentary-reflection provides cohesiveness to each interpretation as well as the whole volume on the surface level, which in turn makes the volume readable and easy-to-use. The substantive discussions of the volume in its entirety can also be seen as coherent. It is true that the volume as a whole seems to be a collection of six independent studies, which are unaware of each other's contributions, and has no clear flow among them. Nevertheless, the contributors share the common exegetical decision of focusing primarily on the final form of the text. Neither ignoring the results of historical-critical approaches nor insisting only on literary characters of the text, they provide diverse theological perspectives and innovative ways of reading the text. Departing from the documentary hypothesis, Dozeman understands the "pre-priestly" tradition (traditionally called as JE) as containing material that is not limited to Genesis-Numbers but extends from Genesis through Kings. This material was composed not in the seventh century BCE., but in the late monarchical or the exilic period; hence it has literary interdependence with materials contained in Deuteronomistic History. [Full Review]