Introducing the Old Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey by Rolf A. Jacobson and Michael J. Chan (review)

Reviewed by: Introducing the Old Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey by Rolf A. Jacobson and Michael J. Chan Megan D. Alsene-Parker rolf a. jacobson and michael j. chan, Introducing the Old Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023). Pp. xviii + 653. $54.99. Introducing the Old Testament is a winsome and accessible survey textbook that well balances both depth and simplicity. This textbook, by Rolf Jacobson and Michael Chan, follows in the footsteps of Mark Alan Powell's Introducing the New Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018) with the same four distinctive features that make them together stand out from the crowd of introductory textbooks on the Old and New Testaments. First, the individual chapters have been written in such a way that they are able to be read in almost any order, allowing the instructor the flexibility to choose how to structure the course (e.g., following the Jewish Hebrew Bible canonical order instead of the provided Protestant order). While this involves some amount of repetition between chapters, this does not distract from but rather clarifies the survey of the biblical books. Second, the textbook introduces students to the scholarly issues and debates about a given text without necessarily providing resolution. The authors intentionally allow for this open-endedness so that students are given the space to engage with different ideas—whether on their own or in the classroom—as they read the biblical text alongside the textbook. Third, the textbook draws on the rich resources of Christian and Jewish artwork from across the globe. Artwork is used to provide aesthetic beauty to the textbook as well as to further foster student reflection. Often, these works draw parallels between biblical texts and other historical scenes/periods, including more contemporary issues that might resonate with students' imaginations (e.g., Charles Wilbert White's portrayal of Harriet Tubman as "Black Moses" in the exodus scene, included on p. 100). The final distinction is that the textbook has a companion website with extra materials for teaching, that is, chapter objectives, discussion prompts, quizzes, PowerPoint slides, and so on. These helps can be utilized by both instructors and students as aids in teaching or learning the textbook's material. The textbook proceeds in five parts; after the introductory part 1, the remaining four parts each cover a division of the OT in the Protestant canon—so part 2 is the Pentateuch; part 3 is the Historical Books plus Ruth and Esther; part 4 is the Poetic Books; and part 5 is the Prophetic Books. [End Page 377] In part 1, the authors introduce the world and the writings of the OT. Students are walked through the timeline from the ancestral period (prior to 1500 b.c.e.) to the end of the Hellenistic period (63 b.c.e.), as well as the major empires, geography, and the social world (including religious landscape, kinship system, food and drink, and work and professions) of the ancient Near East. Next, students are introduced to the OT writings themselves and the varying canonical orders and divisions in different religious/denominational traditions, the history of the OT's development (including an overview of the Dead Sea Scrolls finds), the notion of chapters and verses as late additions to the text, and finally a brief discussion of the varying ways "history" plays into the biblical texts (i.e., distinguishing between the historical world "behind" and "in" the text). The next four parts follow a consistent order: in each part, there is an opening chapter that introduces the general division (whether the Pentateuch, Historical Books, Poetic Books, or Prophetic Books) and then a chapter for each book of the Bible within that division. Most chapters are around fifteen pages long, and the textbook contains a total of forty-one chapters. In the chapters devoted to individual books of the Bible, the chapters unfold with four sections: background (composition and development, genre), literary interpretation, theological interpretation, historical interpretation (often, though not always, commenting on both the historical world "behind" and "in" the text), and a bibliography for further reading. Part of the brilliance of the...