Overview
Highly regarded Old Testament scholar John Goldingay offers a substantive and useful commentary on the book of Genesis that is both critically engaged and sensitive to the theological contributions of the text.
This volume, the first in a new series on the Pentateuch, complements the successful Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Wisdom and Psalms series (series volumes have sold over 55,000 copies). Each series volume will cover one book of the Pentateuch, addressing important issues and problems that flow from the text and exploring the contemporary relevance of the Pentateuch. The series editor is Bill T. Arnold, the Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary.
This volume, the first in a new series on the Pentateuch, complements the successful Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Wisdom and Psalms series (series volumes have sold over 55,000 copies). Each series volume will cover one book of the Pentateuch, addressing important issues and problems that flow from the text and exploring the contemporary relevance of the Pentateuch. The series editor is Bill T. Arnold, the Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Endorsements
"John Goldingay's immense contribution to our understanding of the Old Testament over the past few decades cannot be overestimated. Now we have his detailed study of Genesis to guide us in our reading of this foundational book. Clergy and scholars particularly will benefit from his careful translation and interpretation as he brings out the book's essential theological message."
Tremper Longman III, Distinguished Scholar and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies, Westmont College
"Goldingay's critically informed, resourceful, comprehensive, and relevance-driven volume stands out remarkably among others in the field. First, it exhibits the power of imagination in reading Hebrew narratives. Second, it expounds the text both intertextually within the First (Old) Testament and intertestamentally with rich and often innovative theological insights and directives. Third, it demonstrates vigorous and engaging efforts to bridge the gap between an ancient text and contemporary faith with fresh angles of perception. This is a commendable commentary for the church and academy today, for whoever wishes to hear the retelling of the Genesis narrative afresh."
Barbara M. Leung Lai, research professor of Old Testament, Tyndale University and Seminary
"The book of Genesis holds a fascination for many contemporary readers but also tends to strike them as something of an 'alien' text, multiple aspects of which are difficult to understand. Goldingay has written a wonderfully lucid guide to the story for brave readers who would like to feel at home in this foreign terrain, who aspire to hear in this literature the very Word of God to us. It is precisely in the deeply human and highly literary strangeness of the text that this Word must be found."
Iain Provan, Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies, Regent College, Vancouver
"However well-trodden a part of Scripture might be, Goldingay has a rare capacity for freshness and illumination. Time and again he succeeds in going to the heart of a thing and enabling readers to reframe their questions. In the author's characteristically fresh and direct style, the commentary unobtrusively interweaves the various aspects of Genesis interpretation--linguistic, literary, religious, historical, and theological--and wears deep learning lightly. Rising above problem-oriented exposition, Goldingay always succeeds in bringing a note of pastoral urgency out of his handling of complex things. This landmark commentary is a rich gift to biblical scholarship and to the church."
Gordon McConville, emeritus professor of Old Testament, University of Gloucestershire