Old Testament Use of Old Testament: A Book-by-Book Guide
Old Testament Use of Old Testament, by Gary Edward Schnittjer, surveys the hundreds of Old Testament allusions within the Old Testament and provides hermeneutical guidance for interpreting these interrelated scriptures. The handbook takes an easy to navigate book-by-book approach. Schnittjer provides a list of Scripture allusions for each book and follows with an interpretive profile of how that book uses passages from elsewhere in the Old Testament. Specific criteria are applied to each allusion, providing readers with evaluation of the significance of each interpretive allusion. Minor allusions caused by style, figures of speech, and other minor elements are not included. Responsible exegesis requires careful attention to interrelated scriptures, yet there is a host of interpretive difficulties related to Scripture's use of Scripture. Designed for ease-of-use for any serious student of the Bible, Old Testament Use of Old Testament offers a thorough, systematic tool to aid in evaluating scriptural interpretation of Scripture.
This dynamic tool equips students of the Bible to:
• Understand how the Old Testament uses the Old Testament
• Easily find the most important Old Testament allusions
• Grasp the complexity of Scripture's use of Scripture
• Evaluate the significance of interpretive allusions
• Gain exegetical insight into the study of interrelated Scriptures
Publisher: Zondervan
Type: Hardback
ISBN: 9780310571100
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Gary Edward Schnittjer is Distinguished Professor of Old Testament in the School of Divinity at Cairn University. He is author of Torah Story and Old Testament Use of Old Testament.
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‘Gary Schnittjer’s Old Testament Use of the Old Testament is helpfully unique and uniquely helpful! Every pastor, professor, and Bible teacher should own this reference book because there’s no other one like it. Over twenty years in the making, Schnittjer’s groundbreaking magnum opus covers the entire Old Testament. After a length introduction, Schnittjer examines one OT book per chapter, noting at length how it cites (or is cited by) other OT books. Schnittjer helpfully ranks citations—from parallels (“A level”) to probable (“B level”) and possible allusions (“C level”). (“D level” is unlikely.)
For an example of what readers can expect, Schnittjer’s chapter on the book of Hosea (chapter13, pages 358-372) identifies eight verses (Hos 4:13; 5:10; 11:1; 11:8; 12:3, 4, 5; and 13:6) which cite prior OT passages (Dt 12:2; 19:14; Ex 4:23; Dt 29:23; Gen 25; Gen 32; Gen 28; and Dt 8:12-14, respectively). Schnittjer then devotes over seven pages commenting on these eight verses from Hosea and how they use earlier OT writings. He also identifies how other OT books (viz., Isa & Jer) cite Hosea—on at least six occasions (Is 24:2; 54:6; Jer 2:2, 11; 14:10; 30:9). In addition to highlighting these citations, in this chapter Schnittjer also identifies more common stock phrases used by multiple OT authors (4 pages), as well as additional “Parallels within the Book of the Twelve” (3 pages).
After providing similar content for every applicable book of the OT, Schnittjer spends 25 pages showing how his research also connects with the New Testament (chapter 36) and concludes with a chapter entitled “Networks.” In this final chapter, Schnittjer draws together all the strands of his research and points to the macro-patterns he’s identified throughout the OT’s use of the OT. If the bulk of his book (chapters 1-35) analyzes the OT’s use of the OT, this final chapter encapsulates a brilliant synthesis of the same material. This chapter identifies 21 thematic verse clusters, which “seek to get at the natural internal connectivity between sets of exegetically related” passages (p. 873). Each network focuses on a theme, such as “Abrahamic covenant,” “the assembly,” “collective confession,” “new covenant,” “new exodus,” “Sabbath,” etc. These networks also provide a roadmap for biblical interpreters to see how the OT itself advances and develops its various major themes.
Running to over 1,000 pages, this massive reference work will not only provide helpful inter-canonical connections for pastors and Bible teachers, but it will also surely spark theological connections and ideas for future studies.’ George