I have been given the opportunity to review one volume out of a set of five Old Testament commentaries that have recently been published: Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. As I will be teaching Isaiah next year, I jumped at the chance to review Volume 4, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.
First impression: the “illustrated” aspect of this commentary is done well as the photographs displaying the landscape, cultural artifacts, murals and museum pieces give additional perspective to ancient scripture. The photographs are complemented with drawings and graphs to help with the history and setting of the particular passage.
This set of commentaries would make a great set to place next to your primary commentaries as they add some visual life and background insight that can make your study or teaching crisp with detail. For example, when Jeremiah prophesies about the new covenant God will make with his people, he writes in 31:33, “I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.” The ancient inhabitants of Judah would have had understood this, perhaps, a bit differently than us, for the pagan cultures that surrounded them practiced Extispicy. Extispicy is the practice of slaughtering a young ram to dissect it and “read” the message from the god(s) written on the liver, lungs, colon or heart. Jeremiah proclaims the Israelite’s hearts had been inscribed with sin, but the new covenant will be written by God and has to do with our insides. God will forgive and “remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34).
This little section enriched my understanding, for when I teach on this passage, I will ask the application question: “When you die, and your heart is read by your Creator, what will it have written on it?
First impression: the “illustrated” aspect of this commentary is done well as the photographs displaying the landscape, cultural artifacts, murals and museum pieces give additional perspective to ancient scripture. The photographs are complemented with drawings and graphs to help with the history and setting of the particular passage.
This set of commentaries would make a great set to place next to your primary commentaries as they add some visual life and background insight that can make your study or teaching crisp with detail. For example, when Jeremiah prophesies about the new covenant God will make with his people, he writes in 31:33, “I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.” The ancient inhabitants of Judah would have had understood this, perhaps, a bit differently than us, for the pagan cultures that surrounded them practiced Extispicy. Extispicy is the practice of slaughtering a young ram to dissect it and “read” the message from the god(s) written on the liver, lungs, colon or heart. Jeremiah proclaims the Israelite’s hearts had been inscribed with sin, but the new covenant will be written by God and has to do with our insides. God will forgive and “remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34).
This little section enriched my understanding, for when I teach on this passage, I will ask the application question: “When you die, and your heart is read by your Creator, what will it have written on it?
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