Approaching the Old Testament: A Guide for Students

by Chris H. Hulshof, Gary Yates (editor)

The thorough but accessible Approaching the Old Testament offers an informative, interactive, and practical introduction to the Hebrew Bible. After an introduction to the culture and context of the Old Testament, chapters introduce each Old Testament book, covering authorship, audience, and date of writing, an outline of the book’s structure, key themes, and several points of current-day application. Intended for undergraduate and beginning seminary students, Approaching the Old Testament will give readers a better understanding of the world and writing of the Old Testament Scriptures as well as of their content and ongoing relevance today.

384 pages, Hardcover

Published June 15, 2025

Reviews

[Steven Conger · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should have known better when I selected this ARC to read and review. Dr. Hulshof is an associate professor at Liberty University's Divinity School and follows that understanding of Biblical Study. What do I mean by that: In the beginning of the book he writes "The foundational belief of this book is that the Old Testament is the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God and God's own revelation of himself through the words of its human authors." To be honest, I could have closed the book at that point. We can argue about inerrancy all day long, but it is a fairly new concept that was not known or embraced by the ancient authors of the Hebrew Bible.

That understand taints the entire work. Later Hulshof writes, "The entirety of the Old Testament provides a diverse but unified portrayal of the person and character of God." I would strongly disagree. I don't find a unified portrayal of God, but rather a multiplicities of ways of seeing and understand God throughout the Hebrew's experience. For a simple and accessible way of seeing this developed I highly recommend Zach Lambert's new book Better Ways to Read the Bible.

I cannot recommend this book to anyway who wants to be challenged by the Hebrew text and wrestle with their understanding of it. This is a great book for anyone who wants to be told what to thing about the scripture.

Thanks to NetGalley and B&H Academic Press for an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.