The Story of the Old Testament: Men With a Message

by J. Alec Motyer, John R.W. Stott

Clear, well-organized writing sheds light on the writers, context, and themes of the New Testament, accompanied by maps and photos that show the geography and artifacts of Bible lands.

Genres: Old Testament, Theology, Nonfiction, Biblical Studies

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

J. Alec Motyer (M.A., B.D., D.D.) was formerly principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England. He has extensive experience in parish ministry and is well known as a Bible expositor. He is author of The Prophecy of Isaiah, and he is Old Testament editor of IVP's commentary series, The Bible Speaks Today. He has written several volumes in that series.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The conservative British writer once again provides the layman and the scholar a wonderful tool for understanding the Old Testament. The book provides valuable details on the authorship and other technical elements of the books as well as a powerful explanation of the theme and progression of each book. The only minor problem that comes through some of the discussions is the influence of his amillennial theology. Some passages are interpreted in a non-literal manner to accommodate his theology. On the other hand, Motyer gives sound application and defense against liberal approaches to Scripture as well as nice pictures, outlines, and maps to illustrate his points. If you enjoy this book, you may also want to purchase Motyer's extensive personal commentary on Isaiah (The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary) or his commentary on Isaiah in the Tyndale OT set (Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries)).

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a textbook. It does not examine the Old Testament on its own, but as the first part of the Christian Bible. The discussions of Old Testament dating, authorship, and interpretation are heavily influenced by conservative evangelical positions. The content is generally good, leaning toward a literary reading that emphasizes structure. Outlines are everywhere. The book is littered with full-color maps, charts, boxes, etc. to a distracting degree. Some odd choices were made regarding the placement of material. For example, there is a chapter on Jeremiah that covers Lamentations and Obadiah in two full-color boxes inserted into the flow of the chapter. This might make a good choice for a classroom text, since much of the information is reducible to bullet points, but not for much else.

[P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is mis-titled. It is really the story of Motyer's faith as illustrated by very selective consideration of very narrow texts to glorify God. His puny index hampers any attempt at addressing problem areas of the Old Testament. For example, was David, 'the Lord's annointed', selected as Saul's young, juvenile harper, or was he a mighty man of war already? The Bible says both, our author floats over this.

A chapter title says it all for this tract: "History is his story". This book will confirm believers' faith. It is well written and plows the fields that have been plowed since Calvin's day.

[JD Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good, easy-to-read, short introduction to the Old Testament. It develops the themes and structure of the OT in the context of the whole Bible. By connecting summary statements about each book with the overall message of the Old Testament, readers are much less likely to get bogged down as they read the individual books. For this reason, I've found The Story of the Old Testament to be very helpful for new believers who have questions about the Old Testament.

[Andy]

0030

[Ian Rees · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbeatable summaries of OT books!