Tag: Book Overviews

The books Ezra and Nehemiah are closely related and often lumped together, “Ezra-Nehemiah.” Author and Date Dating Nehemiah is generally done along with Ezra, which references “the seventh year of King Artaxerxes” in Ezra 7:7 as the time when Ezra and others came home to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. They were latecomers, most others READ MORE

Genre The book is classified among the prophetic literature and is included among the twelve minor prophets Date Micah prophesied in the last half of the 700s BC into the early 600s BC. The early 700s were a time of war and also internal corruption. Worship of God had intermingled with worship of other gods READ MORE

Genre The book is classified among the prophetic literature, and is included among the twelve minor prophets Date Zephaniah prophesied in the region of Josiah 640-609BC. This was a time of an attempt at reform. The temple was cleaned out and restored, and in that project, long lost writings were discovered, typically believed to be READ MORE

Author and Date The book of Baruch is a mish-mash of things that were grouped together because no one piece was long or important enough to stand on its own. All the pieces of the book are set in the fall of Jerusalem in 587BC and the subsequent exile. Some pieces were likely spoken by READ MORE

This is a book that I generally try to avoid. No fault of the book, but rather, coming from a fundamentalist background that viewed this book as a play-by-play description of the end times, it forever soured me on this book. That said, when understood as it is meant to be understood, it is a READ MORE

In the Septuagint and, hence, the Christian Old Testament, Daniel is placed with the prophetic literature. In the Jewish tradition, Daniel is placed in “the writings.” Jewish rabbis apparently did not like the seemingly positive relationship between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar as portrayed in the book. Chps 1-6 are haggadic genre: stories with a moral purpose READ MORE

This book is part of the Torah – the first 5 books of the Bible. Sometimes folks will get ambitious and decide to read the Bible through, beginning with Genesis. If they make it through Leviticus, this book is where they often falter. The book begins with a census of the Israelites in the desert READ MORE

History This letter does not appear in the Muratorian fragment (2nd century), but it does show up in the Vulgate in late 4th century. It is the Vulgate which became the official canon of the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent. From the start, it was a contentious book. During the Protestant Reformation, Luther READ MORE

Genre This book is wisdom literature, which gives rules of proper conduct, usually in the form of maxims, pithy insights, and “words to live by.” Wisdom literature attempts to show the way things are and the way things should be. Also of this genre are Job, Ecclesiastes, and the book of Wisdom. The goal of READ MORE

Genre The book is classified among the prophetic literature, and is included among the twelve minor prophets Date Amos prophesied in the last half of the 700sBC – a time of unimaginable material prosperity for Israel. But also a time of social and political corruption. Themes