An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books

by C. Hassell Bullock

A revision of the book that is already a standard in Old Testament studies. An inspiring look into the breadth and power of Israel's wisdom and poetry.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Old Testament, Christianity, Academic, Reference, Nonfiction

271 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1979

Reviews

[Joshua Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous Book. As with most things books, there were one or two areas where I'm not totally in agreement with the author. But on the whole I found it helpful and instructive. Particularly found the sections on Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs helpful. Good stuff.

[Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

His take on Song of Solomon (Shepherd Hypothesis) will forever change the way I look at the book.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good things on hermeneutics as well as wisdom in this book, but Bullock doesn’t show very well how those wisdom themes come up in his expositions of the poetic books. Also, many explanations could have been much clearer. I wanted to enjoy this book, but it was hard to.

[Trace]

Changed my life.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An evangelical introduction to the poetic books of the Bible. Bullock is thoroughly cognizant of critical scholarship, but committed to an evangelical view of the character of the Old testament as a whole. His treatment of Job is quite thorough, as is his treatment of the Psalms. The latter needs to b e updated with some of the more recent studies on the composition and structure of the Book of Psalms as a whole. His treatment of Proverbs is also excellent. I had more problems with his treatment of Ecclesiastes, but it certainly represents a consensus of evangelical scholarship on the book. His discussion of the Song of Songs is even-handed, including brief mentions of the older allegorical approach to the book. I find his three-person view of the book unconvincing. All in all, it is a very fine introduction to this material for college and seminary classes.

[Richard Olds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class. The author was regularly so concerned to maintain the oldest possible dates for text that he was unwilling to really engage with scholarship. Half of his arguments were tenuous by his own admission, and could be summed up as “you can’t PROVE that this text is younger than I want it to be.” I expected him to end the book by arguing Mosaic authorship... of the Psalms!

He overviews the texts well, but it often feels like I’m reading an undergrad who is trying to make word count. He also used the word pericope way too much.

[David Leto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative butt.....

While I found this book to be informative and helpful with the subject matter, for me it lacked the ability to keep me engaged. It probably has more to do with my capacity to absorb the amount of scholarly details, I just didn’t like the read. Sorry

[Mathew Ritskes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great resource for getting lots of information on the Old Testament poetic books. If information is your aim, great book. If application is your aim, not so much. Written with detail, though some pages beat the dead horse

[Travis Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent intro

[Derek Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to poetry in the Bible

[Ray Hollenbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. It’s an academic text book, but I still expect some flair in the writing.

[R. Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to all aspects of OT Poetry and Wisdom. It's all great, but the highlight of the book for me is the author's reverent treatment of Song of Songs, including his highly influential presentation of the book from a literal perspective where the lovers are a poor shepherd and a poor shepherdess/vine dresser, while Solomon is a dark force in the book. Agree or not, this is one of the definitive presentations of this perspective.

[Danny Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat helpful.

[Bledar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, but a little scholastic. There were a lot of fine points to provoke thinking.

[Chris Comis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information, but a bit on the "academic respectability" end of the spectrum.

[Katie]

Leaving this not-rated, since it was a grad school read.