Vital Old Testament Issues: Examining Textual and Topical Questions

by Roy B. Zuck (editor)

Vital Old Testament Issues is a compilation of 16 articles that were originally published in the journal Bibliotheca Sacra.

The articles include:

• Genesis 1:1–3: Creation or Re-Creation?
• The Meaning of the Divine Name YHWH
• Jacob and the Jabbok, Israel at Peniel
• The Date of the Exodus Reexamined
• Literary Structure in the Book of Ruth
• The Purpose of 1 and 2 Chronicles
• The Wife of Noble Character in Proverbs 31:10–31
• The Prophets and Social Concern
• Wordplay in the Eighth-Century Prophets
• Structure, Style, and the Prophetic Message: An Analysis of Isaiah 5:8–30
• Literary Genres in Isaiah 40–55
• Structure and Meaning in Lamentations
• The Archaeological Background of Daniel
• Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and New Testament Chronology
• "For Three Sins… Even for Four": The Numerical Sayings in Amos
• The Day of the Lord in Zephaniah

As you might expect, the articles vary in their quality (as they are written by different scholars) and how interesting they are (as each individual’s interest varies). Some of them also pose interpretations with which I disagree—although I don’t have the space to go into detail on that here. I might also question how some of these particular issues are Vital, though debating the merits (or lack thereof) of a book’s title is a little more than I typically want to weigh in on.

As you can see from the list above, the articles run the gamut of the Old Testament, touching on themes in the Pentateuch, the historical books, the poetry and the prophets. But because the articles are highly specific within each of those genres, you can hardly expect to gain a broad knowledge of the entire Old Testament by reading through this volume. But if you’re looking for specific detail on one or two of these subjects, it will probably be worth picking up the entire volume with the expectation of finding the other chapters useful at a later time.