The Literary Structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis–Malachi question

It is a nice structure. It also helpful for readers.

Mike Tourangeau said:

Is there more commentary on the section aside from the recap?

There are some other mentions of it, showing different structural breakdowns, etc. For example:

But nothing more in the way of commentary. The book exists to show the structure of the OT, identifying where the symmetries and parallelisms are, so the author's comments are limited to introducing each chunk of structural layout. Not much in the way of interpretation of that structure. He does explain in some introductory chapters the value of structural analysis, and how you can derive meaning from understanding a passage's structure (e.g., a chiasm draws your attention to the central pivot verse or chunk, so it is often the most important). But he does not do that interpretive task for you. He just shows you the structure and then you make the inferences from it once you see it plain and clear. It's very helpful, all the the work he has done in laying out the chiastic and parallel passages. But in some cases there are multiple ways of potentially breaking a pericope down into some kind of structure, and in some cases one might sense that seeing any intentional structure in it is forced.

Amnon Shapira, of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, has written a substantial review of this book and pointed out some weaknesses. It's available in its entirety here: http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/4449_4487.pdf

Sarel Slabbert said:

It looks very interesting. To which collection does this book belong?

Baker Academic Old Testament Studies

You can always do a search for a title on the Logos website, and it will show you what collection(s) it's part of along with any other search hits (e.g., if the title happens to be mentioned in an author's bio on another product description page).

Lynden Williams said:

The collection looks interesting. The chiastic sturcture immediately catches my eye.

The chiastic structure of the collection? [:)]

• a. Interpreting the Old Testament: A Guide for Exegesis, by Craig C. Broyles
•   b. The Old Testament: Text and Context, 3rd. ed., by Victor H. Matthews and James C. Moyer
•     c. Old Testament Turning Points: The Narratives That Shaped a Nation, by Victor H. Matthews
•   d. Making Sense of the Old Testament: Three Crucial Questions, by Tremper Longman, III
• e. The Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets: The Achievement of Association in Canon Formation, by Christopher R. Seitz

• e'. Creation Untamed: The Bible, God, and Natural Disasters, by Terence E. Fretheim
•   d'. At Home in a Strange Land: Using the Old Testament in Christian Ethics, by Andrew Sloane
•     c'. Getting the Old Testament: What It Meant to Them, What It Means for Us, by Steven L. Bridge
•   b'. The Literary Structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis–Malachi, by David A. Dorsey
• a'. The Old Testament Roots of Our Faith, rev. ed., by Paul J. Achtemeier and Elizabeth Achtemeier

Notice that a and a' both mention the phrase "Old Testament"; b and b' both mention the phrase "Old Testament"; c and c' both mention the phrase "Old Testament"; d and d' both mention the phrase "Old Testament"; and the middle two books do not! This draws our eye to the middle two books, making the association of "Canon Formation" with "Natural Disasters" easier to see. You see, it was earth-shattering, what the early church leaders who put together our Scriptures did!

Then there's a further revelation: each tablet of the decalogue of books can be arranged in a chiastic structure. The number 3 features in each of the matched pair of the second and second-to-last lines in the first grouping. "Old Testament Turning Points" is the turning point or pivot of the first grouping. And the pivot of the second grouping includes "What It Meant to Them, What It Means for Us" as a kind of janus subtitle (looking backward to the past and forward to the present), which is appropriate for a pivot.

And all of this is complete blather, written by someone who is sleep deprived and should go to bed.

The chiasm of books has been broken up.

Dorsey's book, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis–Malachi is now available individually.

Abram K-J said:

Rosie--that was a brilliant post.

[Y]

Does anybody know of a similar resource analyzing the New Testament?

Since Greek and Hebrew are very different languages, the logic is also very different. Runge's Lexham Discourse Greek New Testatment (for those who know Greek) and High Definition New Testament (for those who don't know Greek) are good resources for finding what the original human author was trying to communicate.

David Thomas said:

Since Greek and Hebrew are very different languages, the logic is also very different.

My guess is, that for the NT it would be more on the line of rhetoric. If we could list a few resources or series that examine rhetoric structures and rhetoric devices in individual books, that would be helpful.

What about these? Does anybody know them?

• Paideia
• Socio-Rhetoric commentary by Ben Witherington III

Mark said:

I also have been looking for a book like this for the NT.  Logos seems to have some individual NT books.  See https://www.logos.com/products/search?q=literary+structure+of

D.W.Gooding has done extensive work on the Structures of books in the Bible.  Some of his works are in Pre-pub at the moment: https://www.logos.com/product/42500/myrtlefield-expositions

Thanks Mark! I wasn't aware that Gooding's books are on Pre-pup. Good to know!