Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 108:431 (Jul 1951)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 108:431 (Jul 51) p. 377

Book Reviews

The Book of Leviticus. By Charles R. Erdman. Fleming H. Revell, New York. 144 pp. $2.00.

Like the author’s other volumes, especially the Book of Genesis and the Book of Exodus, the lover of clear Bible exposition will find the Book of Leviticus highly useful. While not superseding C. H. M.’s Notes on the Book of Leviticus, a classic in the field, Dr. Erdman’s work is more condensed and in some degree more direct, resembling in general treatment C. A. Coates’ Outline of the Book of Leviticus. The student who wishes his commentary vivid and to the point, without too much detail, will find Dr. Erdman’s treatment stimulating and suggestive. In the author’s hands Leviticus as an ancient manual of worship becomes alive with meaning for present-day preaching and teaching. The various aspects of Israel’s ancient ritual are invested with challenging significance to the Christian life as they are connected with the person and work of Christ and the position and possessions of the believer. The volume is to be recommended as a help to all who would understand the ramifications of the finished work of Christ and comprehend the heart of the gospel of God’s grace as set forth in Old Testament types and figures.

Professor Merrill F. Unger

The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. By Edwin R. Thiele. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 298 pages. $6.00.

The vexing problems connected with the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah have occupied the energy of scholars for many years. More recent studies by such scholars as F. X. Kugler in 1922, Julius Lewy in 1927, Sigmund Mowinckel in 1932 and Max Vogelstein in 1944 have shed much light on the difficulties involved, but it remained for Edwin R. Thiele to offer perhaps the soundest solution to many of the complexities, especially in the difficult period between Jehu and Menahem. The basic work of Thiele was first published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies III

BSac 108:431 (Jul 51) p. 378

(1944), pp. 137-186, in a study entitled, “The Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel.”

Thiele’s larger work is invaluable in that it makes a careful analysis of Old Testament chronological data, defending their essential reliability, and sets forth the complex chronological principles employed by the Hebrew scribes. Scholars have customarily treated the chronology of the Hebrew monarchies in Kings and Chronicles as largely erroneous, in their attempts to harmonize it with the fixed dates of Babylonian and Assyrian history. Thiele, however, constructively arrives at a chronological scheme containing internal harmony and squaring with es...

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