Just below the surface of any Christian view of the Bible is the knotty issue of the biblical canon. How and when was it decided which books would make up the Bible? What makes a book canonical? In this volume, respected Old Testament scholar Christopher Seitz helps readers understand how the Old Testament fits into the canon's development. Brief and readable yet substantive, this volume challenges current understandings of the formation of the Christian canon, utilizing the latest researc...

This book describes a life of love in France, with voyages and stories across the country. It describes a life together undaunted by a fatal pulmonary disease and a lung transplant in Paris that would, in time, bring new life and hope. It faces the hard reality of a death caused by a fresh, unknown assault, which is now called COVID. And finally, it speaks of the love that transcends all of those trials and takes rich new form because of the defeat of death by Christ, what the final sectio...

Explores the Nicene Creed both in light of what the Creed was about in its original setting and what it can contribute today.

The Elder Testament serves as a theological introduction to the canonical unity of the Scriptures of Israel. Christopher Seitz demonstrates that, while an emphasis on theology and canonical form often sidesteps critical methodology, the canon itself provides essential theological commentary on textual and historical reconstruction.Part One reflects on the Old Testament as literature inquiring about its implied reader. Seitz introduces the phrase "Elder Testament" to establ...

This unique commentary allows the interpretation of Isaiah 1-39 to be guided by the final form of the book. It focuses on the theological aspect of the book of Isaiah, giving special attention to the role of literary context. Christopher Seitz explores structural and organizational concerns as clues to the editorial intention of the final form of the material, which he argues is both intelligible and an intended result of the efforts of those who gave shape to the present form of the book....

The book of Joel is held to be one of the latest prophetic witnesses; it cites other books of the book of the Twelve prophets with a density that distinguishes it from its neighbours. The concept of the "Day of the LORD" which runs throughout the Minor Prophets as a whole reaches its zenith in Joel and its co-mingling of ecological and military metaphors advances Hosea on the former and anticipates later texts on the latter.In this volume within T&T Clark's International Theologica...

An old prophet of Bethel lies to the man of God from Judah, only to lead him to disobey God's command and to die as a result. The man of God is killed for disobedience, while the old prophet lives on and eventually even benefits from the death (2 Kgs 23:18). Why did God punish his prophet who was deceived, not the one who deceived? The text keeps silent about this as well as about the motive of the old prophet's lying. This strange story takes up a big portion of the Jeroboam narrative (1 ...

Are humans composed of a material body and an immaterial soul? This view is commonly held by Christians, yet it has been undermined by recent developments in neuroscience. Exploring what Scripture and theology teach about issues such as being in the divine image, the importance of community, sin, free will, salvation, and the afterlife, Joel Green argues that a dualistic view of the human person is inconsistent with both science and Scripture. This wide-ranging discussion is sure ...

A fresh wave of studies on the prophets has appeared in recent years. Old Testament scholar Christopher R. Seitz has written Prophecy and Hermeneutics as a way of revisiting, from the ground floor up, what gave rise to studies of the prophets in our modern period. In addition, Seitz clearly shows that a new conceptuality of prophecy, hermeneutics, history, and time is needed--one that is appropriate to current views on Isaiah and the Twelve. Scholars, students, professors, and the...

The early church received the Scriptures of Israel as Christian Scriptures and did not change them. The older testament was received as a witness to God, and when a newer testament emerged, the older was not dismissed, harmonized, or edited. Rather, the church moved forward with a two-testament witness.Christopher Seitz, an internationally renowned expert in canonical interpretation, illuminates the two-testament character of Scripture and its significance for the contemporary chur...

The Psalms are the most-read part of the Old Testament, but their importance for ethics has often been overlooked. However, the Psalms offer some of the most potent ethical instruction in the Bible. In this book internationally renowned Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham examines the source of the Psalms' power, reflects on their main ethical themes, and shows how they function as prayers that change us. Wenham makes an important contribution to biblical scholarship and breaks new ground ...

Biblical interpretation expert Richard S. Briggs presents a rich and thought-provoking portrait, or series of portraits, of the kind of character most needed to be a good reader of the Old Testament. He highlights the moral character or virtues most appropriate to the varied tasks of reading the Old Testament, provides insight on theological interpretation, and examines five ways the Old Testament improves our ability to read Scripture well. Briggs also offers a defense of "interpretive vi...