The Law and the Prophets: A Study in Old Testament Canon Formation
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
This watershed book by a leading Old Testament scholar presents an alternative perspective in the ongoing debate about the formation of the Hebrew Bible. It marshals all of the important counterarguments to the standard theory of Old Testament canon formation, showing how the Pentateuch and the Prophets developed more or less simultaneously and mutually influenced each other over time. The widely praised European edition is now available in North America with an updated bibliography and a new postscript reflecting on how the study of the Old Testament canon has developed over the last twenty years.
- Presents an alternative perspective in the ongoing debate about the formation of the Hebrew Bible
- Provides all of the important counterarguments to the standard theory of Old Testament canon formation
- Examines how the study of the Old Testament canon has developed over the last twenty years
- The Question of the Law and the Prophets
- "Density within History": Canon as Theological Grammar
- No Prophet Like Moses?: Canonical Conclusions as Hermeneutical Guides
- The Law and . . .
- The Law and the Words
- The Pre-eminence of Torah?
The canon of the Old Testament has become a central issue in contemporary Old Testament scholarship. . . . [This book] deserves to be a major landmark within the debate. . . . Chapman illuminatingly analyzes both scholarly debate and key biblical texts and persuasively contests received wisdom. . . . [The book] shows maturity of thought and expression throughout.
—Walter Moberly, Expository Times
An important and learned book. . . . [Chapman] succeeds in raising large questions about many traditional assumptions, and his book deserves to be widely and carefully read, since it contains many important insights.
—J. Barton, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
This is an important and readable book. It shows that both the Law and the Prophets are authoritative Scripture that are aware of and play off each other. It is not a case of Torah priority or of the Prophets being before and the source of the Law, as some critics hold. This book should be in all academic theological libraries.
—David W. Baker, Ashland Theological Journal
- Title: The Law and the Prophets: A Study in Old Testament Canon Formation
- Author: Stephen B. Chapman
- Publisher: Baker
- Publication Date: 2020
- Pages: 368
- Resource Type: Introduction
- Topic: Old Testament
Stephen B. Chapman (PhD, Yale University) is associate professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, where he also serves as an affiliate faculty member with the Center for Jewish Studies and as director of graduate studies for the PhD program in religion. He is the author of 1 Samuel as Christian Scripture: A Theological Commentary, coeditor of The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and serves on the editorial board of Siphrut: Literature and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures (Eisenbrauns).