Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 68:1 (Mar 2025)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JETS 68.1 (March 2025) p. 151

Book Reviews

An Introduction to the Making and Meaning of the Bible. By Michael B. Shepherd. Eerdmans, 2024, 209 pp., $26.99 paper.

Dispelling the facile but perhaps often popular surmisal that the Bible simply dropped out of heaven, leather-bound and with maps, Michael Shepherd has written an accessible and informative book on the origin of Scripture and the process by which it reached its canonical shape. This work builds on Shepherd’s growing corpus of writings on canonical intertextuality and the prophets (especially his commentaries on Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve). Shepherd is professor of biblical studies at Cedarville University.

Following an introduction, the book divides into five parts. The introduction sets the trajectory for the book as springing from an inerrantist view of Scripture: its words are God-breathed and its writers were carried along by the Holy Spirit (pp. 1–2). Shepherd seeks to reflect on the Hebrew Bible not merely as the “old covenant” or on the New Testament as only “gospel” but to understand how Scripture fits together in its various compositional pieces. Canon, then, becomes more than just an authoritative list of accepted books; rather, it attests to an organic corpus of divinely shaped writings with a divine message and agenda, best seen by grappling with how the books were composed and assembled in their final form. Canonical seams offer clues to the Bible’s conceptual framework.

The first chapter, “The Making of the Bible,” focuses on the manner in which Scripture attends to its own interpretation from micro level to macro level, in its clauses, sections, books, and canonical groupings. At the first level of the text emerge authorial comments, which guide the reader of Scripture concerning its proper interpretation. At the higher level are compositional comments concerning the shaping process of books, such as the diachronic headings in Proverbs, the epilogue of Ecclesiastes, and the multistage writing process in Jeremiah (e.g., Jer 36:1–32). Shepherd turns, then, to literary form and genre. He examines the dynamics of narrative, poetry, genealogy, law, and letter. Proper interpretation must follow a clear understanding of the nature of each literary form.

The second chapter, “Text, Transmission, and Translation,” turns to textual criticism and the analysis of ancient versions. He examines various textual sources for the Old Testament using Emanuel Tov’s taxonomy of MT-like texts, pre-Samaritan texts, LXX Vorlage texts, and non-aligned texts (p. 46). Special attention is given to the Dead Sea Scrolls and their witness. Shepherd assesses early Old Testament translations, including the Septuagint, Syriac Peshitta, Targums,...