The Old Testament

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The very first puzzle in the book is a puzzle. This could be done to make the reader think that the words, “Scripture” could be redundant to use where the words,” Old Testament” are present. The book has been divided into many parts. The first part contains a very long and a very useful discussion about the history of the Old Testament. There is an introduction and the presentation about the views of the canonization process. In this the reader does not come to know what exactly is coming towards him. The author has tried something completely different in between the parts two to five. There is a sharp break from the earlier ways of writing the instructions. This book is one of the most important books ever written on theology. The scholarship is very much dazzling and gives a very balanced presentation of all the major issues that are there in biblical studies. There is also a certain breadth of vision that has taken the American scholarship far too seriously. The introduction is quite classical in its core theme, something that was presented with a lot of erudition and passion. The introduction describes the function and the form of the Hebrew Bible as holding an important role in the sacred scriptures of Israel. The important issue as for Childs is how one gets to understand what the nature of the Old Testament is. This is in comparison to the community’s authority and also the community that had helped shape it and also preserve it. The relationship that existed between the increasing biblical writings and parts of Israel were completely dialectical, it was the word that had given the community content and form. It is for Childs that the canonical issue is much more important than the last dogmatic decisions which help to dec... ... middle of paper ... ...a representation of the four of the hypothetical sources: • Jawist that describes the God as Yahweh. This includes most of the parts of Genesis, some parts of Exodus and Numbers. • Elohist: this describes the God as Elohim. • Deuteronomy: this is a very different source that is associated with Deuteronomy all alone. • Priestly: this has within its fold those writings that are scattered from the Gen 1 all through the notice of the death of Moses’. Moses is viewed as the author of the Pentateuch. This has caused the proponents of the JEDP theory to the question: what role did Moses play? There are some who suggest that his role was quite less, as the majority of the Pentateuch have been written after his death. On the other hand, has been put forth that Moses developed the core of the Pentateuch, or in other words, the basis for which all other material would follow.

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