In this new series called Scripture Connections, author and professor Gary Schnittjer introduces the Old Testament narrative books. These are separated into two groups:
Narratives of the Rise and Fall of the Hebrew Kingdoms
- Joshua
- Judges
- Samuel
- Kings
Narratives of Exile and Restoration
- Ruth
- Daniel
- Esther
- Ezra-Nehemiah
- Chronicles
He draws connections from these books to their ancient connections, to the rest of the Old Testament, to the gospel, and to life.
Schnittjer begins by explaining important reoccurring terms like narrative, covenant, suzerain (sovereign god/king), vassal (slave, subject, client), among others. He provides two lists showing how the OT books were arranged in the Judaic synagogue scrolls from how they are arranged in the LXX (which is the same way evangelicals arrange them in our Bibles today). Ruth and Esther were included with the other short scrolls (the Megillot) that were read during festivals. Ruth was read during Pentecost and Esther at Purim. The last books, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles, “tell stories of exile, restoration, and the temple for post exilic readers” (5). The books of Samuel, Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles made scrolls long and difficult to use, so they were broken up into two books. Schnittjer treats each pair as one book here (so four books total instead of eight).
The Ancient Connections are found in gray sidebars which give information about the ANE world and writings. They bring out the cultural, historical, and social life of these stories. The sections on Biblical Connections highlight where these books allude or use other parts of Scripture (something Schnittjer is a masterclass at seeing). Gospel Connections relay how these narratives point us to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Rather than finding Jesus under every rock and stone, these connections come after one sees the redemptive historical structure of the narrative at play. Life Connections draw out the implications for us on how we should respond to these texts. Schnittjer notes, “Many important life connections begin within the framework of the narratives of Israel’s Scriptures” (7).
After covering how narratives and literary structures work, Schnittjer surveys the ancient context of Old Testament narratives. He presents the rise of empires like Assyria and Babylon and the cruelty they showed their conquered subjects, as well as how life in and after the exile looked like.
Judges
With each book Schnittjer provides the author, date, and message. I’ll give an example with the book of Judges. Schnittjer suggests that the dark satirical humor and biting irony found here suggests prophetic authorship. This matches with prophets like Amos “who weaponized the Torah to taunt the moral failures of religious elites” (66). According to Schnittjer, the possibly prophetic author of Judges heavy-handedly mocks “Israel and its leaders in the days of the judges” (67).
Literarily, everything about the last five chapters of Judges is backwards. While previously the standard of measurement was whether someone did something “in the eyes of Yahweh,” the final two stories have nothing to do with God’s covenant, for “all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (Judge 17:6; 21:25). Throughout the book of Judges, each judge gets worse morally, with Samson being the worst judge. Israel no longer cried out to Yahweh, and the judge did no delivering. However, Judges 17–25 are actually the beginning. Judges 17–18 are set in the youthful days of Moses’ grandson Jonathan (17:7; 18:30). The second closing episode is set in the days of Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson. This is a dischronological trick. It is not that things eventually got worse and worse. Things have been bad since the days of Moses and Aaron’s grandchildren. They were always bad! There were no “good ol’ days” when Israel entered the land. Judges tells us that Israel has been in “full rebellion from the beginning,” sealing the deal on the coming exile (69).
Judges likely offers an overlapping of the judges. We know the book of Judges doesn’t give us a strict chronological sequence from one judge to the next because there isn’t enough time between the exodus and the building of Solomon’s temple (see p. 70 for a figure of this). The many appearances of minor judges among the six major judges leads Schnittjer to believe that these six judges were “merely representative of a larger set of rebellions and judgments” (72). We could compare this to how the four narrated battle episodes in Joshua are representative of the whole conquest. The sightings of minor judges clues us in on the fact that there were many more judges around the nation of Israel.
Schnittjer surveys the story of the book of Judges, adding sidebars along the way. He offers a very good treatment. My only wish was that it would have been more like Hays’ section. Hays followed his outline, which made it easier to follow his whole-book survey. Aside from that, Schnittjer is very good at bringing out literary details to show us how the narrative works.
Recommended?
There is no series preface, so I’m not sure what the editors’ explicit aim is with this series. In my opinion, these volumes would be good survey texts for a Bible college. Schnittjer introduces his readers to the historical books, the connective webbing with the rest of the Bible, and even how to read these books well. He tries to teach us to be good readers of God’s word. His book is full of literary insights—helping you to understand how to read these books—leading to theological conclusions (such as his bit about Ruth and the Law of Assembly , which I wrote about). It was great that Schnittjer wrote the volume on the historical books since he has already written on the Torah elsewhere.
Given that this isn’t a technical book or commentary, and since it is in a series called “Scripture Connections,” a little more could have been said about “Gospel Connections” and “Life Connections” to help students think through these issues and how to connect them to more of Scripture, the gospel, and their lives. I don’t know if these parts are meant to be kept short or not, but what is here is helpful. The interactive questions are very good in getting students and readers to go deeper into the text and to study it for themselves. Each chapter comes with very good recommended resources. As I said before, this series provides helpful introductions for those are aren’t quite ready yet for the likes of Walton and Hill’s A Survey of the Old Testament.
Other reviews in this series:
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The Pentateuch — J. Daniel Hays
Lagniappe
- Series: Scripture Connections
- Author: Gary Schnittjer
- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: B&H Academic (September 15, 2023)
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