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Loading... The Book of Genesis : Chapters 1-17 (edition 1990)by Victor P. Hamilton
Work InformationThe Book of Genesis : Chapters 1-17 by Victor P. Hamilton
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"In the Old Testament we read God’s word as it was spoken to his people Israel. Today, thousands of years later, we hear in these thirty-nine books his inspired and authoritative message for us.” These twin convictions, shared by all of the contributors to The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, define the goal of this ambitious series of commentaries. For those many modern readers who find the Old Testament to be strange and foreign soil, the NICOT series serves as an authoritative guide bridging the cultural gap between today’s world and the world of ancient Israel. Each NICOT volume aims to help us hear God’s word as clearly as possible. Scholars, pastors, and serious Bible students will welcome the fresh light that this commentary series casts on ancient yet familiar biblical texts. The contributors apply their proven scholarly expertise and wide experience as teachers to illumine our understanding of the Old Testament. As gifted writers, they present the results of the best recent research in an interesting manner. Each commentary opens with an introduction to the biblical book, looking especially at questions concerning its background, authorship, date, purpose, structure, and theology. A select bibliography also points readers to resources for their own study. The author’s own translation from the original Hebrew forms the basis of the commentary proper. Verse-by-verse comments nicely balance in-depth discussions of technical matters -- textual criticism, critical problems, and so on -- with exposition of the biblical writer’s theology and its implications for the life of faith today. No library descriptions found. |
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Wikipedia in English (9)
1
Hamilton's kink is that the text of Genesis (and extension other parts of the Torah and, to some degree, the other books of the Bible) is more of a unified whole than Source Criticism asserts. That should come as no surprise; NICOT is an Evangelical series, and evangelicism's treatment of the Bible as a complete (or nearly complete unit) is clear and well known. Too, while he doesn't assert himself to be a Bible literalist, there are some unnerving bits where his hand is apparently tipped, e.g., noting that the description of Noah's ark is nothing short of believably sea-worthy, or regarding the Biblical text at hand to be historical enough to certify that certain persons, like Abraham, Joseph, Isaac, and others were in fact real people. In light of that, you may be wondering why is regard the book as highly as I do.
The value of Hamilton's work is that in order to build an argument for a more unified book of Genesis he first provides an incredible and extremely respectable close reading of the Masoretic text, which is issue by issue argued with fair and just readings of Source Critical scholarship, followed by his response. Too, he doesn't pull this out of the air; he meticulously supports his argument (and also provides sources for Source Critical elements as well) with sources provided by footnotes (!). Too, he writes well; his book is a joy to read.
Even though many of his conclusions fall flat or are at best questionable, because of the treatment of the opposing camp, the sources provided, and the quality of the writing, I can't recommend this enough to people doing serious research in Hebrew language, the Book of Genesis, Source Criticism (because you should listen to what the other guy is saying before denouncing him as the Devil or as a fundy crack pot, right?), or for quick reference. (