"The Vitality of Old Testament Traditions" offers the best current handling of Pentateuchal traditions as they operated in the past and as they help the church now. Wolff sees Israel's faith tradition as a continuous kerygmatic response to a variety of cultural challenges. Brueggemann introduces this dynamic view of tradition. Both authors approach the Pentateuch as a treasury of new expressions of faith resulting from conflicts between traditional formulas and changing social conditions. Today's church can remain spiritually alive only if its traditions continue to be as resilient as they were in the Old Testament community. Wolff and Brueggemann affirm that modern crises of faith should be met with fresh articulations in the manner of ancient Israel-- innovative and pertinent if they are strengthened by the relevance of the past.

These important papers by a distinguished British Old Testament theologian, many of them previously inaccessible, focus on the theme of continuity and, within that, on the development of prophecy in the Old Testament period. They include studies of 'Continuity and Discontinuity', `The Theology of Tradition', 'The Vitality of the Word of God', 'The Open Canon' and 'Original Text and Canonical Text', and on the prophets: 'Historians and Prophets', `Interpreting the Babylonian Exile', 'The Death of Hezekiah', 'A Judgment Narrative between Kings and Chronicles', and two studies of Isaiah.

This book has become a standard text in seminary and university classrooms. The purpose of this second edition is to help readers come to a critically informed understanding of the Old Testament as the church's scripture. This book introduces the Old Testament both as a witness of ancient Israel and as a witness to the church and synagogue through the generations of those who have passed these texts on as scripture. The authors of this volume share a commitment to the interpretation of the Old Testament as a central resource for the life of the church today. At the same time, they introduce the Old Testament witness in a manner that honors the importance of biblical scholarship in helping students engage the variety of theological voices within the Old Testament. This second edition gives special attention to deepening and broadening theological interpretations by including, for example, issues related to gender, race, and class. It also includes more detailed maps and charts for student use.

This concise volume introduces readers to the three main sections of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and to the biblical books found in each. It is organized around two primary "stories": the story that scholars tell about the Old Testament and the story the literature itself tells. Concluding with a reconsideration of the Old Testament as more like poetry than a story, three main chapters cover: The Pentateuch (Torah) The Prophets (Neviʾim) The Writings (Ketuvim) With key summaries of what the parts of the Old Testament "are all about," and including suggestions for further reading, this volume is an ideal introduction for students of and newcomers to the Old Testament.