Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone

by John E. Goldingay

The second release in a major new series of guides to the books of the Old Testament written in an accessible and anecdotal style. The series is suitable for personal or group use and the format is also appropriate for daily study.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Old Testament, Theology, Christian, Devotional, Reference

210 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

John Goldingay is David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. An internationally respected Old Testament scholar, Goldingay is the author of many commentaries and books.

Reviews

[Tim Chesterton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third in a series of small paperback commentaries which John Goldingay has written on every book of the Hebrew Scriptures. They are designed to be read as daily reading guides. Goldingay doesn’t offer a verse by verse exposition; he simply divides the material into bite-sized portions, gives his own translation of the Hebrew original, and then explores it, explaining details and ideas that may be obscure, and taking special care to fit it into the culture and background of ancient Israel. He doesn’t comment on every single verse, especially in Leviticus where there is a lot of repetition, and he doesn’t offer a translation of every single verse either. Fortunately, after finishing this commentary series, he completed his rather literal translation of the Hebrew Bible; it’s called ‘The First Testament’, and it is also published as part of ‘The Bible for Everyone’ by John Goldingay and Tom Wright.

I found Goldingay’s comments to be very helpful. He doesn’t try to make the ancient text fit into our modern sensibilities, but is content to let it say what it says and take it seriously as a product of its time. However, he is not a biblical literalist. For example, he thinks it likely that the numbers of Israelite men given in Exodus are highly exaggerated, and that many of the instances where the death penalty is prescribed were likely intended to be warnings of the serousness of the offence rather than literal threats of capital punishment (he points out that there is very little evidence that such punishments were meted out on a wide scale).

I have read a lot of John Goldingay’s work and continue to regard him as my favourite Old Testament scholar. Again, I give this book five stars out of five.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this excellent as a companion to work through Exodus and Leviticus in my daily reading. Goldiingay’s translation shed fresh light on the text, and his comments and insights were really helpful. He managed communicate scholarly insights in a very accessible way. My only slight negative would be that, once or twice the comments were slightly contrived as though he had tweeted a certain amount every day to meet a deadline and had to come up with something to say. Having said that, some of his insights in Leviticus were profound and helped me significantly during a really dark time.

[Teresa Cauley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to help me understand

My church asks that everyone read the bible cover to cover in a year. I am finally going to do this! As I was reading Exodus, I realized that I wanted to go more in depth with the text for better understanding. This book definitely helped me by including the scripture and then relating it either to the author's journey or a modern day issue. "Flash forwards" of relating this to New Testament also put it into perspective.

[Anoopa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only read the "exodus" portion, as we did parish-wide study of the book of Exodus; however I never quite got through the Leviticus portion, so I'm shelving it for now.
This author does a great job of bringing understanding to some difficult text; well-written oeverall.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The For everyone series has become one of my favorites! John Goldingay has a voice that makes the Old Testament books relatable and easy to understand. I would highly recommend these books to anyone interested in Biblical history and principles.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lot of very interesting insights as usual. a useful, modern way of engaging with the text.

[Jade Cahoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
Extremely well written and engaging, i enjoyed the stories. Half star off for some of the personal anecdotes that seemed kind of irrelevant.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goldingay on Exodus and Leviticus was excellent. He does not translate and comment on every passage, especially when there is repetition, but you get the general gist of the books, especially Exodus. I still appreciate the format here and his style is familiar and authoritative and does a good job of relating foreign (to the modern American) practices and of making connections to the New Testament.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As in the previous volumes, here Goldingay provides a readable guide to these important books. A lot of little gems and helpful information that got me thinking about things in new ways, especially in the section on Leviticus. Unfortunately there wasn't the space for him to include every verse of every chapter which was disappointing but understandable. Good series, moving on to the next volume.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Leviticus portion. Well done.