Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (with CD-ROM: Introduction to the Hebrew Bible)

This text is designed to teach students how to read the Hebrew Bible and how to go about mining the Biblical text for literary, historical, and thematic meaning. This book is accompanied by a CD-ROM that includes the entire text of the Bible, the entire text of the book, and an interactive Study Guide. The author demonstrates how a knowledge of ancient culture, religion, and history is essential for correctly interpreting Biblical texts. While history, archaeology, and extra-biblical documents are heavily utilized, they are presented only as they apply directly to specific Biblical texts. The book actively applies recent literary, rhetorical, and structural studies that shed light on art, design, coherence, characterization, theme, and other literary features of the Hebrew Bible.

A respected scholar and teacher in the field of religious and Biblical studies, Barry L. Bandstra received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literature from Yale University. He also holds degrees from Calvin Theological Seminary and the University of Illinois at Urbana. He is the chairman of the Religion Department at Hope College, where his primary teaching fields are Biblical studies and Biblical theology. He also serves as director of instructional technology. In addition to this Old Testament text and the accompanying interactive study guide, Barry Bandstra has published articles and reviews on many aspects of religion and scripture. He is married and has three sons.