The Old Testament: Text And Context

Eight years after their first edition appeared, Victor H. Matthews and James C. Moyer, both religious studies professors at Southwest Missouri State University, have produced a second edition of their The Old Testament: Text and Context. This work is an introductory textbook to the content and background to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (or, to use the authors abbreviation, OT /HB), including overviews of the apocryphal/ deuterocanonical books. Matthews is well-known for his work in biblical backgrounds, including his Manners and Customs in the Bible, The Social World of Ancient Israel, and A Brief History of Ancient Israel. Such expertise in backgrounds moves this book beyond a simple introduction of the content and themes of each OT/HB book to illuminating the worlds both within and behind the OT/HB books. In revising this work, the authors had three goals: (1) to make changes in response to comments on and critiques of the first edition; (2) to update the discussions of the archaeological data; (3) to make improvements to the books structure in light of students comments. To these ends, the auth ors have given signi ficant revision to certain portions of the text, restructured the chapters, and reworked the study questions to facilitate class discussion and critical thi nking. The changes ha ve resulted in an expansion of the main text by thirty-six pages. With respect to the ancient Near Eastern context, they have added new sidebars, which include new translations of relevant ancient Near Eastern texts, and updated the archaeological information. [Full Review]