Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 66:2 (Jun 2023)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JETS 66:2 (June 2023) p. 343

Book Reviews

Savoring Scripture: A Six-Step Guide to Studying the Bible. By Andrew Abernethy. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2022, 200 pp., $22.00 paper.

Andrew Abernethy is Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and is a prolific author, writing principally on the book of Isaiah and on biblical interpretation. In this book, Abernethy articulates a vision for reading Scripture that, while academically informed, is driven by a hope for readers to encounter the living God and respond faithfully to that encounter. The book is organized around a six-step “guide,” including a helpful appendix on word studies. The author takes anywhere from fifteen to thirty pages to explain each step, concluding each with a series of discussion questions. This division of the book sets it up perfectly for use in a small group or Bible study setting, and even lays out a good topical format for use in a university classroom.

The first step, “Posture” (pp. 1–17), describes preparatory attitudes needed to properly engage with the Bible as the living Word. The second step, “Flow” (pp. 18–43), teaches readers how to trace the flow of thought across a passage. After a brief discussion on focus, the author looks at how to divide a text into subunits, using repetition across a passage and subunit summaries as key tools for analysis. He then moves on to the topic of genre, covering four common genres in the Bible: narrative, poetry, law, and letters. The third step, “Context,” is split into two chapters (3A and 3B). The first focuses on historical context (pp. 44–76), where Abernethy uses questions to guide his discussion of the various contexts of the Old and New Testaments: When and where is this taking place? And how does the passage fit within the culture of the time? (p. 47). The second context section focuses on the literary or book context (pp. 77–86), where the primary question is “Why has this passage been included here in the book?” (p. 78). The fourth step, “Whole Bible” (pp. 87–118), focuses on the larger Christian shape of Scripture, asking how a given text might relate to Christ and connect to the story of redemption. Here, Abernethy offers several helpful approaches to consider, including figural reading (parallels) and the covenantal framework of the redemptive story. This is the chapter I was particularly interested in as a reviewer because I often find scholars unable to distinguish between historical context and redemptive history. Abernethy hits a home run. He gives helpful illustrations and warnings for proper figural reading and explains how several covenantal moments in Scripture connect to a larger redemptive story. There is something “theological” in this story that was missing from the earlier historical context review, a point not often appreciat...