Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous
Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 18:1 (Winter 1975)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous
Book Reviews
The Law and the Prophets: Old Testament Studies in honor of Oswald T. Allis. Edited by John H. Skilton. Nutley, N.J.: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1974. 499 pp. $12.50.
No fewer than forty writers have contributed to this excellent Festschrift which honors the late Oswald T. Allis, a man of great academic distinction and blessed memory. Edited by John H. Skilton, the work is organized in terms of the two areas of Old Testament study which were of prime importance to Dr. Allis. Interspersed with more technical writings are essays which bear tribute in various ways to his life and witness, and these provide a fascinating and informative background for persons such as the present reviewer who had never met Dr. Allis personally.
As is usual with works of this kind, the technical articles cover a wide assortment of subjects. However, the book has been planned in such a way that there is something for everybody, whether he be linguist, historian, exegete, or theologian. The standard of scholarship is uniformly high, and it would be invidious to single out any contribution for special praise. Many of the authors address themselves to weaknesses in the liberal position in a way which would have delighted the one in whose honor the volume was written. The array of talent which has been marshalled for this occasion shows, firstly, the extent to which others have entered into Dr. Allis’ labors, and secondly, that conservative Evangelical scholarship in the field of Old Testament studies has now come of age.
This volume is a worthy testimonial to an outstanding scholar whose writings did much to afford academic respectability to the conservative approach to Scripture, and to Old Testament studies in particular. It is unfortunate that Dr. Allis did not live to see the book in its completed form, and yet there is cause for joy in that he is now in the nearer presence of the Lord whom he served so faithfully for a lifetime.
R. K. Harrison
Wycliffe College, Toronto
The Pentateuch in its Cultural Environment. By G. Herbert Livingston. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1974. xvi + 296 pp. Cloth $8.95. $8.95.
A volume of merit, Livingston’s Pentateuch reflects his twenty years of experience in teaching Old Testament introduction at Asbury Theological Seminary. Doubtless many others who teach the same subject will wish to use this work in their own teaching either as a basic text or as collateral reading. It is neither as fully documented nor as technical as
Winter 1975) 48
Kenneth Kitchen’s Ancient Orient and Old Testament (Chicago: Inter-Varsity, 1966), but it is more comprehensive in its treatment of Pentateuchal backgrounds and more readable fo...
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