A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Peter Gentry has been studying—and teaching—the Old Testament Prophets for a long time, and in his new little book he shares some of his learning in simple terms. The function of the prophets, their major themes, the leading traits of their prophecies, their points of reference, and their interpretation all are presented clearly, easily accessible to the lay reader. A valuable introduction to this prominent yet often-neglected portion of Scripture.
This from Gentry’s Introduction:
Are there any principles that do apply to all the literature of the prophets?
Yes, there are! In this short work I lay out seven characteristics or features of prophetic literature in the Bible. Understanding and using these characteristics of the biblical prophets as reading strategies will help Christians comprehend these texts for themselves, perhaps for the first time with real understanding. You will have the cues the first readers had for reading these texts. Here are the topics taken up in these pages:Exposing Covenant Disloyalty Chapter 1
The Purpose of Announcing Future Events Chapter 2
The Function of Repetition in Hebrew Literature Chapter 3
Why So Many Speeches about Foreign Nations? Chapter 4
Where the Past Becomes a Model for the Future Chapter 5
Apocalyptic: The Use of Wild Metaphors and Symbols Chapter 6
Chronology and Literature That Paint Panoramas Chapter 7It is not my purpose in these pages to push a particular brand of eschatology, i.e., what the Bible teaches about events in the future or at the end times. What I hope and pray is that this book will help all believers learn how to read and understand the texts of the biblical prophets on their own. They are a different kind of literature from Romans, as much so as comics differ from the front page of a newspaper. We need to spell out in detail the rules for reading this kind of literature if the church is going to understand these texts as the authors intended us to understand them.
Highly recommended.