| ToC | Reading the Old Testament | . . . Introduction | ToC |
1. Writing and Reading RTOTReading the Old Testament (RTOT) is intended for students who wish to learn the Bible by reading the Bible. This may sound facetious, but it is not intended to be. Afterall, sometimes we find it easier to study a difficult text by reading about it rather than by reading the work itself. This is surely the case with Bible study, and multitudes of books are readily available that summarize and distill the biblical text down to easy morsels.
RTOT takes a different approach. It incorporates sizable chunks of the biblical text right within the textbook. Admittedly, portions of the biblical text are summarized because we cannot include them all, but significant passages are presented along with close readings; that is, interpretations that closely analyze the text.
RTOT takes the reader through the entire Hebrew Bible book by book, explaining the meaning of the text and making connections between yesterday and today. Along the way it draws from some of the best thinking of modern biblical scholarship in order to explain the literary shape of the text and the history in and behind it. After all, the Hebrew Bible is an ancient book, some portions are at least 3,000 years old, and we need help recovering the original meaning. Rest assured that historical and literary commentary will be specifically targeted to the text at hand. Always our goal is to increase comprehension and appreciation of the Bible, not to make a scholarly impression.
|  |  |
| ToC | Reading the Old Testament | . . . Introduction | ToC |
|