Digital Logos Edition
Any sustained reading of the Old Testament will reveal that, as a composite document, it has seams, fractures, and conflicting components. The Internal Conversation of the Old Testament embraces these features as essential to the text. The many voices editors brought into the text were engaged in a conversation about questions vital to human existence. How do we remember our ancestors? How do we portray our heroes? How do we govern ourselves? How do we measure our successes and failures? Careful attention allows us to overhear this ancient conversation and bring what we can learn from it into modern conversations about these and other questions that still center our communal lives.
Smyth & Helwys is proud to announce a new supplement to the renowned Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series. Covering issues that cross books and testaments, this addition to the series will offer pastors, professors, and any student of the Bible guidance into the depths of these rich texts.
Expected volumes of the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary Supplemental series include:
Mark McEntire’s central claim is that “the Old Testament hosts a contested conversation.” His work amply and persuasively illustrates this premise. Along the way, McEntire demonstrates over and over the way understanding the structure, composition and history of the text informs better conversation about its meaning. This book will be useful in making the results of Old Testament scholarship accessible to serious readers.
—Timothy G. Crawford, Dean, College of Christian Studies Director, Bachelor of General Studies University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
McEntire provides a lucid and discerning analysis of the Old Testament’s internal debate, dialogue, and conflict. Who were the participants in this ancient conversation? Whose economic and political interests did they represent? And how are we to understand ourselves and the places we live when we enter this ancient conversation? This book shows us why such questions are important and what we have to gain by embracing them.
—Samuel E. Balentine, Professor of Old Testament, Union Presbyterian Seminary
The Internal Conversation of the Old Testament by Mark McEntire is a cogent and eminently accessible presentation of how to read the Old Testament well while still taking into account the complexity of its origins. The book is understandable and informative for a wide audience and is written in such a way that synthesizes a great deal of information without oversimplifying the very real difficulties the modern reader encounters when reading the Old Testament. By advance praise organizing the discussion around larger questions of origins and self-understanding the book allows the reader to see clearly the discussion the biblical writers were having with each other and with us.
—Kathryn Lopez, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Campbell Universit