General preface
General preface
The aim of this series of Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, as it was in the companion volumes on the New Testament, is to provide the student of the Bible with a handy, up-to-date commentary on each book, with the primary emphasis on exegesis. Major critical questions are discussed in the introductions and additional notes, while undue technicalities have been avoided.
While all are united in their belief in the divine inspiration, essential trustworthiness and practical relevance of the sacred writings, individual authors have freely made their own contributions within the limits of the space available. These restrictions on length—essential if the books are to be produced at reasonable prices—bear more hardly on authors handling larger books. This is one reason why commentaries in the series will differ from each other in treatment, a fact exemplified by the two contributions brought together in this volume. Another is the impossibility, and indeed undesirability, of imposing detailed uniformity of method in the handling of such varied subject matter, form and style as the books of the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament in particular no single English translation is adequate to reflect the original text. The authors of these commentaries freely quote various versions, therefore, or give their own translation, in the endeavour to make the more difficult passages or words meaningful today. Where necessary, words from the Hebrew (and Aramaic) Text underlying their studies are transliterated. This will help the reader who may be unfamiliar with the Semitic languages to identify the word under discussion and thus to follow the argument. It assumed throughout that the reader will have ready access to one, or more, reliable rendering of the Bible in English.
There are signs of a renewed interest in the meaning and message of the Old Testament and it is hoped that this series will thus further the systematic study of the revelation of God and his will and ways as seen in these records. It is the prayer of the editor and publisher, as of the authors, that these books will help many to understand, and to respond to, the Word of God today.
D. J. Wiseman