Wow. Paradigm shifting.

This book is a pretty dry read. It had some interesting points, but I also had a hard time staying engaged.

Just as good as everyone says it is. Very helpful for showing the literary continuity in the literary diversity of the OT.

Good. Dempster suggests the order of the books in the Hebrew Bible as a framework for understanding redemptive history. His thoughts are insightful and his writing is clear.

Will definitely be re-reading this. Given to me by my brother in law and can’t sing this books praises enough. Whenever I’m going to be teaching on the OT, this will probably be the first I’m going to grab for commentary. It’s not a super long read or overly technical but I think it’s one of the most accurate and compelling reads for understanding the OT. Highly highly recommend for anyone.

Lots of great stuff here. I particularly enjoyed the constant linking of chapters to one another. It made the book much more cohesive.

Also, I found the idea of the OT starting with a David figure and anticipating a new David by the end to be really interesting.

I think the glaring weakness of the book was the bit about Proverbs-Song of Solomon. It felt much less developed than the others. Maybe because the author himself doesn't seem to be fully clear on how those books relate to the rest of the Hebrew Bible.

So, 4 stars it is.

This was a great book.

Recommended via a blog post by Jim Hamilton, I picked this book up a couple of weeks ago and really loved his treatment of the Tanakh and specifically the typological themes of "seed" (dynasty) and "rule" (dominion) throughout the OT. These books (biblical theology) are especially fruitful in their weaving together various books, passages, genealogies, etc. in the canon that can be sometimes hard to understand in an isolated reading.

I only docked a star because sometimes, as expected, some parts tended to be a bit dry but for the sake of the argument/scholasticism, it was necessary ground to mine. I would recommend this to any student of the Bible, both lay and scholar, wanting to have a more cohesive understanding of the various nuances found in the OT.

A well to the point and well written overview of the many connecting themes of the OT, as it would have been understood to Jesus. In light of the order of writings of the Tanakh, unifying themes are evident.

Dempster traces the twin themes of geneology and geography (seed and land/dynasty and dominion) throughout the Old Testament Hebrew canon (the order of the books in Hebrew is different from our English canon) and shows them to be the unifying themes of the Old Testament.

Dempster's book did something more for me than even Graeme Goldsworthy's excellent book Gospel and Kingdom (which hitherto has been my favorite book on the Old Testament). Goldsworthy's book gave me an understandable outline of redemptive history in broad brush strokes. And it was invaluable to me, and really the foundation for understanding Dempster's book. But Dempster added to those broad brush strokes color and texture. Whereas Goldsworthy framed the puzzle for me, Dempster started putting significant pieces into place. So, really the two books complimented one another.

Goldsworthy writes for the layman, but Dempster writes on a more academic level. But that doesn't mean his book is boring. Far from it! It really is one of the most compelling books I've read. If you want to read a book that will help you make better sense of the Bible and open your eyes to see just how interwoven the tapesty of the Old Testament actually is, get Dempster.

Not enough stars to give this book. Simply wonderful. So helpful in so many places and ways. In contention for one of my all-time favorite books.

Brilliant analysis beautifully written. The most compelling study of Scripture that I've ever read.

Incredible. If you want a more comprehensive knowledge of the unity of the Story of the Old Testament, read this book.