Timothy D. Finlay integrates the disciplines of form criticism and narrative criticism in an analysis of the birth report genre in the Hebrew Bible. He first establishes the standard structure as containing an introductory setting, a conception element, a birth element, a naming element, and an etiological element. He then analyzes how the genre of the surrounding material - genealogical list, annunciation type-scene, account of prophetic symbolic actions - modifies the standard form. Finally, he re-examines each individual narrative containing a birth report, paying particular attention to...

The genre of biblical commentary is as old as the Bible itself, and remains very much alive as a point of illuminating contact between the ancient text and its modern readers. In this volume, fourteen international Old Testament experts reflect upon multiple challenges of contemporary biblical commentary as a scholarly endeavor. How does a commentator strike a balance between engagement with the biblical text and the commentary tradition that the text has generated over the centuries? How does academically rigorous commentary-writing remain relevant for pastoral and lay readers of the Bible?...