Journal: Masters Seminary Journal
Volume: TMSJ 08:2 (Fall 1997)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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MSJ 8:2 (Fall 97) p. 227

Book Reviews

Donald K. Berry. An Introduction to Wisdom and Poetry of the Old Testament. Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 1995. xvi + 463 pp. $24.99 (cloth). Reviewed by William D. Barrick, Associate Professor of Old Testament.

Author Donald K. Berry is Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Mobile, Alabama. He received his Ph.D. at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has done additional studies in comparative literature at Indiana University. He also wrote The Psalms and Their Readers: Interpretative Strategies for Psalm 18 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993). Dr. Berry has also pastored churches in Kentucky and Alabama.

This volume has the format of a textbook for colleges and seminaries, with chapters carefully organized. Questions for discussion come at the conclusion of each chapter. In addition, it includes 27 tables of detailed studies spread throughout the text. These studies cover the types of poetic units in the Hebrew Bible (210–14), poetic units in Sirach (348), speakers in the Song of Songs (385), garden images in the Song of Songs (406), and many more. The tables convey a wealth of material in short compass, enabling the author to point the reader to more detailed studies without departing from the introductory nature of the volume. In addition to recognizing the sources for citations, the footnotes provide definitions, additional comments regarding more detailed studies, and bibliographic references to additional resources.

End materials include a glossary of selected terms (423–29). Some terms defined within the text are not in the glossary, but can be located through the subject index (e.g., acrostic, envelope structure, meter, parallelism, and wasf). However, some terms escape definition anywhere (e.g., chiasmus, ellipsis, apocryphon, proem, and taunt song). The work gives four separate, select bibliographies for Wisdom, Poetry, History of Interpretation, and Ancient Near Eastern Literature (431–40). It has indexes for names, subjects, and Scripture. The subject index is impressive because of its amount of detail.

Subject matter is broader than just Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Lamentations, and the Song of Songs. It also discusses Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) literature, the deuterocanonical books, the pseudepigrapha, early Jewish literature, and materials in the nonpoetic and non-wisdom biblical corpus. It traces the history of interpretation from the ANE setting to modern times, including the patristic period, the medieval period, and the Reformation. Section titles in the text highlight contributions to the study of biblical wisdom literature and biblical poetry

MSJ 8:2 (Fall 97) p. 228

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