Abstract
2021 has been something of a ‘bumper year’ for the ‘Study Guides to the OT’ series, with the publication of no fewer than three new volumes – that by Jill Middlemas on Lamentations earlier in the year, and now the two volumes under review here, on Leviticus and Chronicles (for a consideration of the earlier volumes in the series, see ExpTim 132.11 (August 2021): 490-493). As well as paperback editions, the two latest volumes are also available in hardback, and in ePDF and eBook versions.
Neither Leviticus nor Chronicles are likely to be a particularly popular book for study, but Jenson and Allen both do a good job introducing and analyzing the OT book in question. Both authors have had a long scholarly engagement with the book on which they write, and in many ways each offers a re-representation of views they have advanced elsewhere, often in more technical monographs.
Jenson, who has taught OT at Ridley Hall Theological College in Cambridge (UK) for many years, accepts the existence of the P-source of the Pentateuch, which includes Lev. 1-15, and of the Holiness Code in Lev. 16-27, and holds to the conventional (but by no means universally-held) dating of P to the Exile. He sees ‘Holiness’ as the key organising principle of Leviticus, and has chapters on Sacrifice, Priesthood, Purity and Impurity, Holy Living and Holy Time. As well as a final chapter on ‘The Continuing Relevance of Leviticus,’ most of the other chapters conclude with ‘Reflections’ on the chapter’s subject, which also seek to suggest some ways in which the Biblical text can be applied today. Eight tables or figures enhance the book’s user-friendliness.
Allen is Senior Professor of OT at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and so becomes the first US-based scholar to contribute to the series. He takes the line that Chronicles is post-exilic and written after Ezra-Nehemiah, using Samuel-Kings as its main source. He argues that Chronicles was written to exhort the community of Yehud to seek the LORD, particularly through the Temple cult. He makes much use of Ezekiel 18 and 2 Chronicles 7.14 as providing the rationale for the Chronicler’s assessments of the Judean Kings. He also provides a chapter exploring ‘Chronicles as Communication,’ which applies insights from both Rhetoric and Speech-Act Theory to the Biblical text, while the following chapters work through Chronicles section by section. While there is much of value here, the book is generally quite dense and refers to a wide range of other works on Chronicles, in a way that seems more suitable for advanced students, rather than for beginners.
Surprisingly – and, for me, disappointingly – neither book includes an (annotated) list of commentaries in English on the Biblical book in question, nor are there ‘Suggestions for Further Reading’ at the end of each chapter. Many of the earlier volumes in this series (and, indeed, those in its predecessor series, ‘OT Guides) have these features, which I think are hugely helpful to students engaging in serious work on these Biblical books for the first time.
But it is good to see the ‘Study Guides to the OT’ series starting to make some faster progress in publishing its volumes, and these two are both welcome additions to the series. The whole series will be an important update to the ‘OT Guides’ series. However, it is something of a further sadness to me, as a Bible teacher, that as yet – with the exception of Amos – there is no sign of the appearance of the Guides to the OT books most likely to be studied by the majority of students (Genesis, Exodus, Psalms and Isaiah, as well as Amos). As the next volume due to appear is that on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, that trend looks likely to continue for the moment.