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In the Beginning: Creation and the Priestly History
Robert B. Coote and David Robert Ord
(Fortress, 1991)
The third in a series of books that Coote and Ord are devoting to the major sources of the Pentateuch (the earlier books were on the J and E strands). They admit that they break no new ground in the study of P but claim they bring together topics not usually collected in one place. They accept a traditional date for P (late sixth century B.C.E.); against the backdrop of events and problems of that time, they attempt to explain the various emphases of the Priestly source (many scholars today, however, place P in the pre-Exilic period, i.e., before 587 B.C.E.). Much attention is given to the creation story in Genesis 1, both as a topic of study in itself and in comparison with other creation texts.
2 Kings
Burke O. Long
(Eerdmans, 1991)
Like the other volumes in the Forms of the Old Testament Literature series (eight of a projected 22 are now in print), 2 Kings is a commentary on the text of a biblical book, but it has a different focus than the others. Burke, who also wrote the volume on 1 Kings, provides a form-critical commentary in the sense that he deals more with the received text and less with a hypothetical reconstruction of what its literary history may have been. He treats the units in the book under four categories: structure, genre, setting and intention. The book includes a short bibliography and a glossary of genres and formulas, or standard expressions (for example, the commissioning formula). Its special value lies in its constant attention to formal matters rather than textual or historical problems.
In the Beginning: Creation and the Priestly History
Robert B. Coote and David Robert Ord
(Fortress, 1991)