Proverbs: The Tree of Life

Reading the Bible Today Series

by Graeme Goldsworthy, Paul Barnett (Editor)

Proverbs is a rewarding read. It sharpens our perceptions of what the renewing of our minds involves. It encourages reason, warns against piety and, most importantly, foreshadows the perfect blend of divine and human wisdom revealed in Christ. In this we come face to face with God's grace and our task which are at the heart of understanding how we should seek to live as God's people in this world.

Genres: Christian

170 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1989

About the author

Graeme Goldsworthy is an Australian Anglican and Old Testament scholar. Now retired, Goldsworthy was formerly lecturer in Old Testament, biblical theology and hermeneutics at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of "According to Plan" (IVP, 1991), "Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture" (Eerdmans, 2000) and "Proverbs: The Tree of Life" (CEP, 1993). Goldsworthy has an MA from Cambridge University and a ThM and PhD from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Commentaries are often hard to review because you're looking to them for answers and if you don't get the answers you want you tend not to feel positively towards the book. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the book wasn't a valuable resource that didn't faithfully explain the passages of scripture it looks at.
This book is a valuable resource and it does faithfully explain Proverbs. It has a wonderful format, beginning with a nice large introduction that gives you the tools to start to understand Proverbs for yourself.
The whole of proverbs is covered with verse by verse commentary, but there are chunks dotted throughout where more detail is focused on the function of a whole passage and how it points to Christ. There are also helpful questions at the end of each section.
I found as I progressed through the book I needed the verse by verse instruction less and less as I was more able to understand the verses for myself and recognise the various styles of literature.
There were a lot of literary explanations and details in the book that went over my head. It's a bit academic, but I think it has to be to properly explain proverbs - which is a very literary book.
Worthwhile. Valuable. Not perfect, but nothing is.

[Luke Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overview and outlining of the book are helpful and the introductory commentary to various sections and summaries of function are rich. It is hard to do “exegetical” work on Proverbs in some senses, but it did feel like this title could have benefited from some more content on actual texts and themes, as the verse summaries did not add too much detail.

[Phil Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a number of years since I've read the book of Proverbs. And to be honest I've always struggled to see how it fits in with the rest of the Bible and how it points to Jesus. This book helped me understand both!