Seeking Help on the Old Testament

Recently a friend of mine, Marsha, from Efland UMC in Efland, North Carolina wrote and asked me the following question:

I have a question for you. Hope you don’t mind. I was just wondering if there was a particular book or something on the internet that might help me understand more of the Old Testament…time lines, etc. I’m particularly interested in learning more about Paul’s and David’s… journeys. Any thoughts or ideas?

Marsha, I’m glad to hear you’re interested in exploring the OT in more depth.  Here’s a couple of resources that might help you get going.

Best book, hands down, on the Old Testament is Ellen Davis’ Getting Involved with God.  Davis was one of my Old Testament professors at Duke and this book is marvelous.  I believe it is also very accessible to the average person.  It is not written for academics.  It is written more devotionally than that.  She walks through several different “genres” of the Old Testament and wrestles with some of the heavy stuff in a way that helps you not only understand it, but find God in it.

Another book that is similar to Davis’ book is Philip Yancey’s The Bible Jesus Read.  Yancey is also known for being very accessible to the average person.  He, like Davis, walks through various genres in the Old Testament and helps the reader to better understand what’s going on.  Yancey’s book is probably more accessible than Davis’ book but not quite as deep.

I would be remiss if I did not add one more suggested book on the Old Testament: Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Narrative.  Actually, everything I’ve read of Alter’s has been good.  The only thing that  makes me hesitant to make this recommendation is that it is not the most accessible reading material for the average person.  It’s not that Alter uses big words, but the audience is primarily academic in nature.  Alter is a Jewish scholar who explores the various devices that Hebrew narrative uses and points out how knowing these devices will help one understand what’s going on.  For example, it was Alter who first pointed out to me the nature of the watering well story.  Any time a watering well comes up, someone is about to find a spouse.  What makes this particular device so intriguing for the Christian is how the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the watering well doesn’t follow this same plot line!  What does that do to our understanding of the story?!

As for maps and some commentary on the Old Testament (and history in general), I highly recommend the Baker Atlas of Christian History.  This helpful resource provides maps not only for Old Testament times and New Testament times but also from New Testament times through today.  If you’re looking for a time line, there’s nothing better than the Timechart History of the World.  This book isn’t really a book.  It is a time chart that unfolds across your room (you can sit with it in your lap and “unfold” it one section at a time) to display fifteen feet of history.  You can easily get lost in this time chart.  It begins at Adam and Eve and goes up to today.  It takes the Bible’s time line literally, with which I don’t always agree, but I’m not sure what you would do otherwise with a project like this.

You asked about David and Paul.  I’m not as familiar with resources about David, but I recently read this short little book by E.P. Sanders, Paul: A Very Short Introduction.  It was also very accessible even though it is written by a world class scholar.  Sanders was a professor at Duke Divinity School but has since retired.  I did not have the chance to take a class with him.  This book is very short, which I think will appeal to the average person.  It reads like a biography of Paul.

I hope this helps point you in some fruitful directions.  If you or others find anything else out there, put it in a comment to share with others.  May you find God in your journeys through the Old Testament.