Art of Biblical History, The - Softcover

Long, V. Philips

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0310431808 ISBN 13: 9780310431800

Publisher: Zondervan Academic, 1994

Synopsis

This fifth volume in the Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation series is an exploration of both the historical nature of the Bible and the character of biblical history writing. In view of recent trends in biblical studies, the age-old question of the relationship between history and faith must again take center stage in hermeneutical discussion. The Art of Biblical History seeks to address basic questions that all Bible readers might ask: Is the Bible a history book? What do we mean by "history" anyway? In what sense is biblical historicity important for faith? Are there guidelines for discovering what historical truth claims a particular passage may be making? The discussions take account of both current thinking among biblical scholars and the best insights of secular historians. The result is an attempt to describe biblical history writing as a kind of representational art and to commend a hermeneutical approach that does justice not merely to the historical or literary or theological character of the Bible, but to all three at once.

About this title

About the Author:

V. Phillips Long (Ph.D., Cambridge) is professor of Old Testament, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Review:

...delightfully written and eminently readable..."; "Addressing a crucial topic not often well handled by modern scholars of any theological stripe, Long charts a judicious course...abundantly punctuated with actual illustrations from Scripture, .... And most of these come from the OT, where in general we have fewer resources for valid interpretive procedures than in the NT! -- Professor Craig L. Blomberg (Denver Seminary),Themelios

...this is a very able and irenic piece of conservative Christian apologetic for the essential historicity of the biblical record. The six main chapters offer a wealth of well-informed introduction to a series of recent and current literary, hermeneutical and archaeological debates within biblical and theological studies. -- Professor Graeme Auld, University of Edinburgh, Theology Journal

I read it from beginning to end, word-for-word, and delighted in its thoroughness and clarity.... I know integrity of mind and good scholarship when I see it. -- Professor J. Maxwell Miller, Emory University

Of all such efforts [i.e. 'to find a via media that retains the Bible as a vehicle of both history and theology'], none has succeeded as admirably as this work by Long, an erudite and sophisticated analysis of the OT as history writing that will for years provide the point of departure for similar efforts. ...[Long] writes in a lively and engaging style, peppering much of the profundity of his analyses and arguments with imagery and illustrations that immediately clarify the points in question. The book is a model of the art of making the complex easy.... -- Professor Eugene H. Merrill, Dallas Theological Seminary, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

This is the best work about history writing that I have read by a biblical scholar. -- Professor David M. Howard, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Trinity Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0310431808
• ISBN 13: 9780310431800
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160