In its introduction to Isaiah, the NIV Study Bible says, “Many scholars today challenge the claim that Isaiah wrote the entire book that bears his name.” I have found similar comments in the NIV in many places, and have come to the conclusion that these comments reflect the standard fundamentalist views in Biblical Studies. When they refer to “Many scholars” they really should be saying, “everyone except us.” Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction by Lawrence Boadt provided for me a good introduction to the mainstream scholarship, which has proven to be very helpful.  

The book explains how “Many scholars” came to the conclusions that they did, but does not belabor this a lot, rather, taking this consensus as a starting point the book goes through the formation and contents of the OT. I found that it made the Old Testament way more coherent than it has ever been to me.

Deuteronomy, for instance, is regarded as an introduction to the historical books, explaining why Israel finds itself in the condition it does after the exile. Placing the entire book in the mouth of Moses as a farewell speech is a literary device common to the time. This is just one example of how a book can begin to make way more sense than when you attempt to read it as it”s typically described in the fundamentalist world.

The documentary hypothesis or JEDP, also is explained and assumed, along with many other documents that are seen behind the text, and this too illuminates the text. In my years at Dallas Seminary these theories were only explained as something to be rejected, and their explanatory power was not taken advantage of.

Incidently, the same is true of the New Testament; reading scholars like N.T. Wright I found that many of the gyrations taken to reconcile various small conflicts in Gospel accounts, for example, are not on their agenda. Once freed from that necessity I find reading them to be much easier and I am less likely to get bogged down in trivial footnotes. Each gospel, for instance, can just be read in its own right.

In conclusion, this book and many others of this ilk have really opened up the Bible for me.