Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone

Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone

As a fan for a number of years of the For Everyone New Testament series of Bible commentaries written by Tom Wright, I was very much intrigued and looking forward to reading this commentary. I have found Wright’s series easy to read and a useful contemporary resource for private and group study as well as for sermon preparation. The question that concerned me was would Goldingay’s Old Testament series live up to that of the Wright series? I am glad to say that I needn’t have been worried.
The format of this book is almost identical to that of the New Testament series. Goldingay sets out from the very beginning with an introduction that places what follows, and indeed, the whole of the Old Testament into context. Using diagrams, a time line, and an outline of what follows, the reader will be drawn into the individual sections of Scripture.
These two books of the Old Testament, Numbers and Deuteronomy, are divided into tried and tested sections, and following each section, a translation by Goldingay in which he says he has ‘stuck closer to the Hebrew than modern translations’, so one ‘can see more precisely what the text says.’ After this comes Goldingay’s exegesis of the text. The combining of the text and exegesis is, to me, a good idea. Not only does it mean that the text is at hand, but it also provides a different style and makes it more accessible to the casual reader. Although, as with any Bible commentary, some of the conclusions drawn and statements made are for one’s own interpretation.
All in all, I can say that this book is worthy of the continuing title and a very good resource for the worship leader and one who wishes to study Scripture, making connections with their own experiences and context.

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