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Title: Language and Imagery in the Old Testament by John C. L. Gibson, J. C. L. Gibson ISBN: 1-56563-090-4 Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: A fine intellecutal guide to the Old Testament
Comment: Author J.C.L. Gibson is a fine scholar. To that end, this publication successfully nurtures a better understanding and appreciation of the Old Testament. Moreover, Gibson offers an easy writing style that offers many insightful observations that helps unlock the complexity of the language in the Old Testament.

I found Chapter one, "The Energies of the Hebrew Language," and Chapter three, "The Rhetoric of Hebrew Prose Writing," helps foster a greater appreciation of the ancient imagery and language in the Old Testament. I must admit to being only a moderate reader of the Old Testament and to having struggled over and over penetrating the secrets of the language. Hence, I found "Language and Imagery in the Old Testament" to be an excellent companion to the Bible.

Admittedly, the Old Testament is deep and open to many interpretations. Consequently, not everyone will agree with all of Gibson's conclusions. However, I have found Gibson's scholarship to be comprehensive, objective, inspiring and a good faith effort to improve our understanding of the many mysteries in the Bible.

Rating: 5
Summary: God didn't write the Bible
Comment: No serious person actually believes that God literally (with his own hand) "wrote" the Bible. He may have inspired its writing, but the Bible is an anthology of texts, produced over a period of more than a thousand years. Human beings wrote the texts. Human beings used literary techniques to make this book as beautiful as it could be. Some of those techniques include hyperbole, irony, metonymy, etc.

One of my favorite examples of how a study of literary techniques can enhance ones appreciation of the Bible is the merismus: a term used in rhetoric to describe a type of synecdoche in which two parts of a thing, usually the extremes, are made to stand for the whole. So, when, in Genesis, the phrase "knowledge of good and evil" is used, it quite simply means good and evil AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. We can clearly see this if we think of other, similar usages: When Christ says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega" he does NOT mean "I am only the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet!" The words must be interpreted metaphorically to mean: I am the beginning and the end AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. When, in our patriotic song, we sing Guthrie's words, This Land is your land, this land is my land "from California, to the New York Island / From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters," we don't mean only California and New york, only the Northwest and Louisiana belong to "you and me." Guthrie was using merismus to say "California to New York" AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.

So when I read comments like those on this page that this book is "too liberal" because it offers a clearer, better understanding of the sacred text of the Bible, I want to say, "Open your mind; learn something about literary techniques like the merismus and you will be amazed at how profound the Bible really is and at how much you still need to learn about the Bible."

Rating: 4
Summary: excellent and readable overview from a MODERATE prospective
Comment: This book is a brief and readable analysis of the OT writings from a literary and cultural viewpoint. I would respectfully disagree with the prior reviewer that the author is a liberal. Gibson is definitely a moderate; believing in the truth and inspiration of the bible but yet willing to acknowledge that the printed words are limited by the intellectual resources of those who wrote them as well as by the characteristics of the Hebrew language in which they were written. This book is excellent for those Christians who believe that Scripture IS the word of God - but who need a little more than some of the nonsense explanations given to harmonize what the Bible says with what we see. Let's face it, the OT is a difficult body of writings - neither written as nor meant to be read as a simple bedtime story.

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