Preaching from the Old Testament

by Elizabeth Rice Achtemeier

This book provides theological insights as well as practical sermon suggestions for preachers and seminary students. It treats the reader to a thorough examination of how to approach and interpret any portion of the Old Testament.

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

Reviews

[Joshua Pearsall · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is much in this book that is great, beautiful, and wonderful exposition. But there are some very strong disagreements I have. I think she does a great job pointing out the role of the Law and the Prophet and the necessity of the Old Testament in order to fully understand humanity, God, identity, and much more. I agree with her critiques of modern (especially Western Cultural) preaching around the Prophets and the Old Testament. The twisting, misunderstanding, ignorance of, and poor application of both. Chapter 6 itself could easily be it's own sermon or series of sermons it was so wonderful!

However it is worth noting my strong disagreement with her on the historicity intended in Genesis 1-11, I do think Adam and Eve were literal and that we did partake in their fall with Adam as our federal head which the New Testament is abundantly clear on as well as the Old. I do think the Prophets were lambasting the people for more than simply their lack of faith, trust, and love in God which led to their disobedience, but the disobedience itself as well. Her pitting of God's love against His wrath/judgement (which is an all too common mistake in our time one I myself was once guilt of). Her view that Wisdom 8 isn't talking about the Trinity is another strong area of disagreement.

It is a good book and one worth reading if you don't have another resource that is this in depth on the topic at hand, but I think there are much better works (especially among the Church fathers) on this issue even if they don't speak nearly as well into the modern errors of our time.

TOC:
Chapter 1— A Personal Prologue for Preachers
Chapter 2— Why the Old Testament Is Necessary for the Church
Chapter 3— The Approach to the Bible, the Community-Creating Word
Chapter 4— Basics of Sermon Preparation
Chapter 5— Preaching from the Narratives
Chapter 6— Preaching from the Law
Chapter 7— Preaching from the Prophets
Chapter 8— Preaching from the Psalms
Chapter 9— Preaching from the Wisdom Literature

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I do not agree with some of Achtemeier's theological or critical views, this is overall a useful book. Achtemeier has many useful insights about preaching the Old Testament. The first four chapters are general, concluding with a very useful brief guide to sermon preparation. The remaining five chapters focus one each on different types of Old Testament literature: narrative, law, prophets, Psalms, and wisdom literature. Here we find many useful suggestions on dealing with particular texts. The focus seems to be largely on texts suggested by the three-year lectionary, so the book is less useful for someone looking to develop a sermon series preaching through an entire book. The weakest chapter is the last one, on preaching wisdom literature. For all the author's emphasis on considering the canonical context of a passage, she seemed unable to recognize the way in which wisdom literature fits into the larger biblical context. The first chapter, "A Personal Prologue for Preachers," is worth the price of the entire book, by the way in which it encourages preachers to see biblical texts as part of the entire story of Scripture.

[Rob O'Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid introduction to preaching from the Old Testament. It treats each content area of the Old Testament with both respect and clarity. Additionally, it approaches the task of preaching from a rhetorical perspective, which includes a chapter on preparing sermons from the Old Testament.

[Billie Fisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful perspectives!

[Jenna Waugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

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