McKinion, Randall L

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Cedarville UniversityDigitalCommons@CedarvilleBiblical and Theological Studies FacultyPublications School of Biblical and Theological Studies6-2007Book Review: HoseaRandall L. McKinionCedarville University, rmckinion@cedarville.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/biblical_and_ministry_studies_publicationsPart of the Biblical Studies CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access byDigitalCommons@Cedarville, a service of the Centennial Library. It hasbeen accepted for inclusion in Biblical and Theological Studies FacultyPublications by an authorized administrator ofDigitalCommons@Cedarville. For more information, please contactdigitalcommons@cedarville.edu.Recommended CitationMcKinion, Randall L., "Book Review: Hosea" (2007). Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Publications. 264.http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/biblical_and_ministry_studies_publications/264journal of the evangelical theological society388 50/2glasses of  modern scholarship. God’s love for and redemption of  his creation are exem-plified in the intense attraction between male and female while the need for such loveand redemption is exemplified in the frustration and disaster experienced in love con-trary to God’s design.Does not appreciating the text include recognizing the use of  imperative forms andthe threefold repetition of  a stanza (2:7; 3:4; 8:4) that provides the most obvious inter-pretive key (see my “Song of  Songs: Increasing Appreciation of  and Restraint in Mattersof Love, AUSS 42 [2004] 305–24)? If  Exum would have us appreciate the text, where isthe careful analysis, for example, of  the use of  imperatives in connection with verbs ofpursuit and consummation? Similarly, why not consider how the Greek text so clearlyagrees with OT usage in explaining the significance of  terms like “gazelles” and “does?”J. Cheryl Exum has given us an important interpretive work in this commentary.However, readers must understand that the commentary has more to do with modernattitudes toward sexuality than it does with the Song of  Songs.Michael A. EschelbachConcordia University, Chicago, ILHosea. By Ehud Ben Zvi. FOTL 21A/1. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005, xiii + 321 pp.,$55.00 paper.Just as the rest of  the volumes in the FOTL series, the latest commentary by EhudBen Zvi on Hosea seeks to contribute to the ongoing application of  form criticism byan evaluation of  the genre and setting of  this prophetic book. However, with the evo-lution of  the form-critical method, there has come a renewed focus on the conceptuallystructured units of  the actual text. Therefore, this commentary proceeds successivelyfrom the structure of  the book as a whole to each smaller unit. Moreover, to emphasizethe tendency toward a more textual understanding, each unit begins with a sectionevaluating its structure before proceeding to separate sections explaining its genre,setting, and intention. The author’s comments regarding the structure of  each unit willbe especially helpful for the one reading the commentary alongside the actual text ofHosea.Ben Zvi is not concerned to read Hosea as part of  the larger context of  the Twelve.This is not because he has overlooked this aspect but because he believes Hosea makes“a strong textually inscribed request to its primary readership to understand it asdistinct from the others [i.e. the other books in the Twelve], and as a unit in itself ”(p. 7). Thus Hosea should not be read merely as a subunit of  the larger book of  theTwelve, but as an independent unit.As an autonomous entity, the structure of  the book as a whole is indicative of  allother prophetic books, which include an introduction, a body of  prophetic readings, anda conclusion. It is the conclusion of  Hosea (14:10; Eng. 14:9) that rightfully holds par-ticular importance throughout the commentary in that it provides the “interpretativekey for the entire book, and it characterizes the book as a didactic book, to be read, reread,and interpreted by those who are wise, discerning, and righteous” (p. 317). For Ben Zvi,then, each individual unit of  the book is evaluated as to its meaning for the intendedreadership of  the book, namely, the “small group of  literati” who not only possessed theintellectual acumen to read the text but also “saw themselves as the guardian, broker,and interpreter of  the knowledge communicated by the divine to Israel in the form ofthe written texts that they composed, edited, redacted, copied, read, and read to others”(p. 317). This group of  literati among whom and for whom the present text was com-book reviews 389june 2007posed lived many years after the time of  the world that is presented within the book.Thus, the basis on which this commentary was written is the social setting of the literati,which was post-monarchic and post-exilic. As such, the book functioned to justifyYHWH’s actions in the past and to educate the community through its reading andrereading of  the book.The primary strength of  the commentary is the skill of  the author. Ben Zvi revealsa clear, expert ability to interact with other scholarship within form criticism as wellas OT interpretation in general. The breadth of  material presented in the bibliog-raphy speaks both to the author’s competence and to the relevance of  this volume toOT scholarship. Moreover, given that the author has contributed a number of  articleson Hosea along with the commentary on Micah in the FOTL, the reader can be confidentin the comprehensiveness of  research in OT prophetic literature. In light of  the author’slevel of  expertise, however, one who is completely unfamiliar with the goals and method-ology of  form criticism may find this volume somewhat confusing and not as useful.At the same time, a further strength is that Ben Zvi has provided a glossary ofgenres discussed within the commentary. Thus, one unfamiliar with terms such as“Ancient Israelite Book” or “Didactic Prophetic Reading,” which are used consistentlythroughout the commentary and by form critics in general, can read a succinct para-graph describing that genre.The reader who will find this commentary most useful is one who has wrestledthrough the issues of  sources, authorship, intended readership, redactors, and the like,and has come to a conclusion similar to Ben Zvi’s that the ultimate goal of  reading thebook of  Hosea is not so much an engagement with a hypothetically reconstructed sourcedocument as with a proper understanding of  the concrete readers of  the text. Thus, onewould have to be convinced that a correct comprehension of “the social identity, the worldof  knowledge, the theology and ideology of  these readers” (p. 5) is the proper startingpoint and interpretive grid for a faithful reading of  Hosea. Ultimately, then, the one whoespouses form criticism will receive the most benefit from the book. However, otherOT students, professors, and teachers will find the volume informative, useful, andan excellent example of  the results of  contemporary movements within a form-criticalapproach to reading OT prophetic literature.Randall L. McKinionShepherds Theological Seminary, Cary, NCThe Dead Sea Scrolls: What Have We Learned? By Eileen M. Schuller. Louisville, KY:Westminster John Knox, 2006, xvii + 126 pp., $17.95 paper.This book is a slightly expanded version of  the John Albert Hall Lectures thatEileen Schuller delivered at the University of  Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, inOctober of  2002. The four oral presentations are augmented by a five-page introduc-tion (pp. xiii–xvii), a five-page look to the future (pp. 105–9), a six-page bibliography(pp. 110–15), and an index of  names and subjects (pp. 119–26). Schuller makes no pre-tensions to present new discoveries or to be comprehensive or complete. Her goal is muchmore restricted: to chart the accomplishments in the first 50 years of  Qumran studies(chap. 1) and to offer discussions that concentrate on three specific areas (chaps. 2–4)where the scrolls have made an important contribution to how we now think about earlyChristianity and Judaism.Chapter 1 begins well, documenting the accomplishments of  Dead Sea Scrollscholarship in decade increments starting with the discovery of  the manuscripts in

Book Review: Hosea

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Book Review: Hosea

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