Genesis for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 17-50

by John E. Goldingay

Following on the heels of the successful New Testament for Everyone commentaries by acclaimed scholar and author N. T. Wright, Westminster John Knox is pleased to announce the first volumes in the all new Old Testament for Everyone Bible commentary series.

John Goldingay, an internationally respected Old Testament scholar, authors this ambitious series, treating every passage of Scripture from Genesis to Malachi, addressing the texts in such a way that even the most challenging passages are explained simply and concisely. Perfect for daily devotions, Sunday school prep, or brief visits with the Bible, the Old Testament for Everyone series is an excellent resource for the modern lay reader.

The book of Genesis is a lively read featuring familiar biblical tales such as the creation of the world, Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, the Tower of Babel, and Sodom and Gomorrah. While readers may know the facts of these stories, Goldingay's work will instill in them a deeper understanding of their spiritual and theological significance. True to the For Everyone series' goal, Goldingay writes in a thoroughly accessible and engaging style with chapter titles such as Friday Lunchtime, Bigamy, Music, Technology, Murder, Babylon becomes Babble-on, Stuff Happens, and Two Guys Who Need Their Heads Banged Together.

Genres: Old Testament, Biblical Studies, Theology, Reference

186 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 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

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting commentary :) even though i'm not a christian, goldingay stays focused on the actual context of the text rather than linking everything to jesus which i guess is to be expected from a hebrew bible scholar

[Tim Chesterton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is mainly a repost of my comments about Part 1 of this series, as most of them apply also to this second volume.

This is the second in a series of small paperback commentaries which John Goldingay has written on every book of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. They are designed to be read as daily reading guides, slowly, one passage at a time.
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These books are written to be accessible to the general reader. Goldingay doesn’t offer a verse by verse exposition, nor does he give a lot of source material. 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.

The translation is quite literal, and where the original is obscure, Goldingay doesn’t try to fix that. Personallty i like that; if I want a smoother feel I’ve got the NRSV or the NIV on my shelves, but here I find something more like the Hebrew original, in all its strangeness and difficulty. The name ‘YHWH’ is presented throughout as ‘Yahweh’, not ‘the LORD’ as in most English translations. (This translation is also available as a stand-alone book; it’s called ‘The First Testament’ by John Goldingay, and it is also published as part of ‘The Bible for Everyone’ by John Goldingay and Tom Wright. Note that in the stand-alone edition Goldingay has slightly revised the translation from the commentaries).

Regarding Goldingay’s view of scripture, he was principal of an evangelical theological college in the UK and then taught at another one in California, but he is not a fundamentalist and does not believe that every passage should be interpreted literally. In many cases, passages make more sense if they are read in other ways. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t take the text seriously; in fact, in some places he takes the text so seriously that he lets it lead him away from standard orthodox interpretations. He is aware of Christian interpretations of the texts, but insists that the Hebrew scriptures be allowed to speak with their own voice and be interpreted in their own context. I like this.

I have read a lot of John Goldingay’s work and regard him as my favourite Old Testament scholar, so I may be biased, but I give this book five stars out of five.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much respect Goldingay as an honest and simple commentator who gets to the heart of a passage. In this second volume, however, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the commentary. I thought it was too cursory and worse, that it did not show how the whole book coheres.

[Darwin Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

As was true of Part 1, this is very well written and brought down to the level of the person on the street, but without watering down the content.

[ISH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic but good. Nice to have just a little extra information or insight.

[Heather Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful translation. Personal, engaging, intellectually stimulating commentary. Goldingay is a gift.

[Rachel Adrianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

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This series is always so helpful for contextualizing the Bible!

[Iain Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really think John is a great guy (never met him but from what I’ve seen his character speaks more strongly than his published work) and his Genesis for everyone part 1 was really good.
Part 2 however is difficult for me to land either way. He’s good, he gets briefer towards the end but maybe that’s the text’s fault not him?

One thing I have noticed is he didn’t speak much about the types and shadows of Jesus in this book. Growing up in more reformed, conservative churches we also made every passage relate back to Jesus. I really don’t know whether we did that too much? Maybe it was wrong of us to “force” Jesus into every passage?
John is an OT scholar and I don’t think he did that once. Now, he is clever, he knows his stuff and he would have been aware of these pictures of Christ I’m sure. So maybe he thinks it’s wrong to do that and so I will take his approach to the OT with great respect.

Whether it’s right or wrong I’m a sucker for types and shadows of Christ. If you are too you won’t find that here however if you want to read the OT for how it was read by the audience at the time without the hindsight we have, this is a good book for you to read.

[Preston Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the first part, this little commentary often doesn’t deliver many meaningful thoughts from the text to the reader. It’s non-technical, so, in that sense, it’s an easy read. However, there’s simply not as much meat here as one might’ve hoped for.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is great for devotional reading, while not neglecting key historical, exegetical and theological matters. Goldingay writes from the perspective of a left leaning British evangelical Anglican living in California. His writing is zany and insightful, sometimes surprising, but always leading you into deeper love for God and greater interest in the Bible.

Sometimes his translations are literal to the point of being non-sensical in English. I also would have been interested to see more typology and Christological reflection. However, I'm still happy to be working through this series.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goldingay takes some very large narrative chunks at the end. I might have wished for a little more commentary on them, but what was there was excellent. See my review for the first portion of this.