Review: How To Read Genesis

How To Read Genesis by Tremper Longman III
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book's brevity makes it exciting and accessible to lay Christians, and yet the well founded theology would bring a smile ever so often to the bible scholars. Longman III writes with sagely scholarship and wisdom that brought so much clarity and reflection as I read it.

I'm perplexed as to how he managed to pack in so much content with so little words; I felt it was a perfect marriage of popular and scholarly theology. Its as though his lifetime spent in scholarship of Genesis have been summarised into this nifty little book. In 175 pages, Longman III brings us on a journey in hermeneutics, apologetics, authorship, outline, extrabiblical literature, finally an overview of 3 main sections of Genesis, relationship with the NT and finally very useful reviews on Genesis commentaries.

It could be argued that the chief aim of a teacher is not to impart content and knowledge, but to create a love for learning in the student. Longman III kept my attention from start to finish, and I think that he did more than that - I now have a renewed interest in learning and teaching (though specifically OT material)! Perhaps it would take the form of a small group bible study on the book of Genesis? I am interested to read (and review) Longman III's other titles in this series, and hopefully they would be as good or even better than this one!

I received this book from InterVarsity Press for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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