Introducing the Old Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey

by Rolf A. Jacobson, Michael J. Chan

This lively, engaging introduction to the Old Testament is critical and theological, lavishly illustrated, and accompanied by a variety of pedagogical aids. It serves as the Old Testament counterpart to Mark Allan Powell's successful Introducing the New Testament (over 105,000 copies sold).

Introducing the Old Testament presents disputed and controversial issues fairly, neither dictating conclusions nor privileging skepticism over faith-based perspectives. The full-color interior is illustrated with photographs and fine art and includes sidebars, maps, a glossary, and further reading suggestions.

A companion website through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources features a wealth of additional resources for students and instructors. Resources for students include chapter objectives, study questions, flash cards, and self-quizzes. Resources for professors include chapter objectives, discussion prompts, pedagogical suggestions, PowerPoint slides, and a test/quiz bank.

672 pages, Hardcover

Published March 14, 2023

About the author

Rolf A. Jacobson is associate professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is an ordained pastor. His teaching interests include the Psalms, the Old Testament prophets, biblical poetry, biblical theology, and biblical narrative. He collaborated with Karl Jacobson on Crazy Book: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great overview of each part of the Old Testament! This was assigned for a seminary class I took, and I will be keeping this in my library for reference. It's well laid out with lots of helpful sidebars and illustrations, in addition to being very sound, informational, and thought-provoking. I rarely recommend textbooks, but this is a great one!

[Squire Whitney: Hufflepuff Book Reviwer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introducing the Old Testament provides a thorough and balanced overview of the Hebrew Scriptures, often grappling honestly with divisive matters and offering a wide array of perspectives. Admittedly, I was not expecting much from the textbook for my OT Introduction course, but I feel that it delivered just about as much as it possibly could (which, for a textbook, may or may not amount to much of a recommendation).

[Bogdan Podgaisky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of OT, incorporating historical and cultural context.

[LauraBee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as part of my EfM curriculum for the first year. EfM is Education for Ministry, a four-year deep dive into scripture, history and theology of the Episcopal Church. I completed the four years several years ago and decided to re-take it this year as they had gone through and replaced many of the texts for the various years, as well as re-written and reworked other aspects of the program. So years earlier they did not have this book, but the companion Introduction to the New Testament was kept. It was a pleasure to both read the text as well as feast on the full color artwork on display. There is a beautiful symmetry reading this alongside the bible. It is faithful and pretty well-balanced throughout to the bible text but adds context to our modern age and sensibilities, too. For example, texts from the Old Testament can seem horribly misogynistic and terrifying (no wonder they’ve been called “Texts of Terror”), but reading them in context helps out a lot. We don’t want to throw out ancient texts based on our current sensibilities, yet we don’t want to give them a pass, either. It is possible to do that, and this book helps quite a bit. It is not a “feminist critique” yet some of the more feminist bible scholars have been cited as further reading for those who want to do that. I found my knowledge of the Old Testament greatly enhanced by this text and would recommend it to anyone who wants to deepen their knowledge and wisdom about a text that is part of our Christian story, yet a text that stands alone for the Jewish people, too.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great academic text to accompany reading and studying the Old Testament. Visually appealing in layout and design with artwork and call out boxes of stories, lists, and explanations.

[Jenna Watson]

For an intro course, I can’t think of many ways to improve this textbook! Clear, well organized, names tensions, represents various viewpoints, includes lots of art, great bibliographies.