Prepare the Way of the Lord: An Introduction to the Old Testament

Overview
“Twenty-first century scholarship offers a myriad of ways to read [these texts]. This book helps beginning students make sense of it all.” — from the Preface

This new isagogics textbook examines and explores each book of the Old Testament, preparing students of the Bible to read Israel’s texts with understanding and insight. It helps answer questions such as “What is helpful and what is detrimental to evangelical faith?” and “How do conservative scholars respond to critical views of the Old Testament?” The book interacts with scholars in a respectful way while providing evangelical assessments that foster historical and theological confidence in the Old Testament.

Book features:

• Maps, diagrams, and tables
• Covers every book of the Old Testament
• Sections on authorship; literary features; historical, archaeological, and textual issues; theological emphases; and key biblical themes of sin and grace for each Book of the Old Testament

About the Authors
Dr. R. Reed Lessing is Professor of Theology and Ministry at Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota, and previously was on the faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, for fourteen years.

Dr. Andrew E. Steinmann is Distinguished Professor of Theology and Hebrew at Concordia University Chicago.


Endorsements
“To read the Bible is to risk a thrilling adventure through wild jungles with thunderous cataracts and soaring timbers teeming with life. Some turn its pages like those who would make rain forests into concrete wastelands for billboards and bobos. Others, and we thank God for the likes of Drs. Steinmann and Lessing, come to the forest with a gleaming eye and forward lean, eager to plunge in, to explore the glories and relish the sights and smells and sounds, for there is always more to see. This book will take you on a life-changing expedition through the Book of books. Your guides are as faithful as they are courageous, and you will not regret your time on this excursion with these authors.”

— James M. Hamilton, PhD, Associate Professor of Biblical Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary


“This book is a rich seminary-level introduction to the Old Testament rooted in the Reformation exegetical principles of humanistic arts, sola Scriptura, solus Christus, and sola gratia. It judiciously engages scholarship to inform a deeper understanding of God’s Word. Its focus, though, is the canonical text and its theological messages. Each chapter highlights theological themes that percolate within a biblical book and spins two golden threads that run throughout this testament: Christ and sin and grace. Drs. Lessing and Steinmann have written an Old Testament introduction that seminarians can fruitfully use to prepare them to proclaim God’s Law and Gospel.”

— Scott A. Ashmon, PhD, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, Concordia University Irvine


“Lessing and Steinmann offer us a readable, but scholarly, up-to-date introductory textbook for Old Testament study, connecting the plan of salvation in Jesus Christ with Old Testament history from Genesis to Malachi. With numerous maps, tables, and helpful exegetical insights, this book will serve seminary students well for years to come, and, because of the book’s frequent insights from the New Testament, pastors will benefit from reading the appropriate chapter before preaching on an Old Testament text.”

— Joel D. Heck, ThD, Professor of Theology, Concordia University Texas