This unique commentary allows the interpretation of Isaiah 1-39 to be guided by the final form of the book. It focuses on the theological aspect of the book of Isaiah, giving special attention to the role of literary context. Christopher Seitz explores structural and organizational concerns as clues to the editorial intention of the final form of the material, which he argues is both intelligible and an intended result of the efforts of those who gave shape to the present form of the book.

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

The early church received the Scriptures of Israel as Christian Scriptures and did not change them. The older testament was received as a witness to God, and when a newer testament emerged, the older was not dismissed, harmonized, or edited. Rather, the church moved forward with a two-testament witness.
Christopher Seitz, an internationally renowned expert in canonical interpretation, illuminates the two-testament character of Scripture and its significance for the contemporary church. He interacts critically with current interest in the New Testament's use of the Old Testament and addresses an issue of perennial concern: how to hear both testaments as Christian witness.

The present volume consists of twenty essays on the Prophetic Books, with a major focus on Isaiah as well as the Minor Prophets and Jeremiah. They span a period of roughly thirty-five years and trace a methodological shift away from the excavation of the individual prophet and setting toward an appreciation of a book or a collection in its final form, as an intentionally shaped accomplishment. An introductory chapter places the individual contributions in their original settings-in-composition and in relationship to one another. A description in this chapter of the period in which the author was trained in Germany and at Yale University enables the reader to comprehend the "rise of a new model of interpretation," now referred to as canonical reading or canonical interpretation. The essays come alongside published commentary treatments of Isaiah and Joel, as well as public lectures delivered in the 1980s through the present decade.

The Elder Testament serves as a theological introduction to the canonical unity of the Scriptures of Israel. Christopher Seitz demonstrates that, while an emphasis on theology and canonical form often sidesteps critical methodology, the canon itself provides essential theological commentary on textual and historical reconstruction.Part One reflects on the Old Testament as literature inquiring about its implied reader. Seitz introduces the phrase "Elder Testament" to establish a wider conceptual lens for what is commonly called the "Old Testament" or the "Hebrew Bible," so that the canon might be read to its fullest capacity. Part Two provides an overview of the canon proper, from Torah to Prophets to Writings. Seitz here employs modern criticism to highlight the theological character of the Bible in its peculiar canonical shape. But he argues that the canon cannot be reduced to simply vicissitudes of history, politics, or economics. Instead, the integrated form of this Elder Testament speaks of metahistorical disclosures of the divine, correlating the theological identity of God across time and beyond. Part Three examines Proverbs 8, Genesis 1, and Psalms 2 and 110-texts that are notable for their prominence in early Christian exegesis. The Elder Testament measures the ontological pressure exerted by these texts, which led directly to the earliest expressions of Trinitarian reading in the Christian church, long before the appearance of a formally analogous Scripture, bearing the now-familiar name "New Testament." Canon to Theology to Trinity. This trilogy, as Seitz concludes, is not strictly a historical sequence. Rather, this trilogy is ontologically calibrated through time by the One God who is the selfsame subject matter of both the Elder and New Testaments. The canon makes the traditional theological work of the church possible without forcing a choice between a minimalist criticism or a detached, often moribund systematic theology. The canon achieves "the concord and harmony of the law and the prophets in the covenant delivered at the coming of the Lord" of which Clement of Alexandria so eloquently spoke.

???It is rare when reviewing a book to recognize that a profound paradigm shift is being proposed that deeply affects how the Old Testament prophets are to be understood. Building on over two decades of probing, critical exegesis, Christopher Seitz now offers a magisterial overview of the entire field and outlines a new and brilliant hermeneutical synthesis of biblical prophecy that restores the centrality of the canonical Scriptures to the church.??????Brevard S. Childs, Yale University Divinity School

???Building on the long history of prophetic introduction and interpretation, Seitz offers a new way of viewing the prophets. He takes the realities of time and history with utmost seriousness but also attends to the hermeneutical implications of the present form of the prophetic books. The future of theological interpretation of Scripture depends on such breakthroughs as Seitz offers in these pages. We will have to read the prophets differently henceforth.??????Patrick D. Miller, Princeton Theological Seminary

???Chris Seitz is one of the most insightful and creative biblical theologians working in the field today. In this book he shows us how traditional historical-critical readings have brought us to an impasse and then marks out a bold new path with his own proposal to take the canonical form of prophetic literature seriously. No one will look at the prophetic corpus in the same way after being tutored by Seitz.??????Gary Anderson, University of Notre Dame

???Seitz has offered a fresh and bold proposal for understanding the formation and theological significance of prophetic literature. In rich dialogue with Gerhard von Rad and building on recent scholarly research devoted tothe Book of the Twelve, Seitz discerns a process of ???figural integration??? in prophetic literature. Prophetic words were, in his judgment, fulfilled, not in some simplistic fashion, but over the course of time and, ultimately, in the New Testament. All those interested in prophetic literature and the character of Scripture will find this volume both challenging and useful.??????David L. Petersen, Emory University

???This is a highly interesting book. Christopher Seitz shows in detail how historical questions about the different books within the Twelve are useful and even necessary but that they must finally move into an understanding of the text in its final form. It can be expected that this book will cause a vivid methodological discussion.??????Rolf Rendtorff, Heidelberg University

Word Without End advocates a canonical approach to biblical interpretation, one that does not allow the New Testament to eclipse the interpretation of the Old Testament. In so doing, Seitz directly challenges the way in which the Old Testament is currently being read and taught in theological seminaries. By attending to ""theology,"" ""exegesis,"" and ""practice"" - the three divisions of the book - Seitz models a reading of the Old Testament as Scripture that lays out a theological foundation for the life of the church.

The way we read Scripture and what in turn we discover are connected. All of our attempts to find the historical backgrounds to texts have led us to believe that we have figured out the Bible. Steering a course between modernity's obsession with historical readings and fundamentalism's compulsion for a-historical readings, this text recovers a figural/typological approach to both Testaments that shapes a theological understanding of Scripture. Individual chapters cover various aspects of the Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit), the nature and practices of the Church, and facets of the spiritual life.

This series of vignettes based on the seven last sayings of Jesus makes for a beautiful gift or inspiring reading during the Lenten season. Each of the seven sayings is beautifully illustrated with woodcuts.

This unique commentary allows the interpretation of Isaiah 1-39 to be guided by the final form of the book. It focuses on the theological aspect of the book of Isaiah, giving special attention to the role of literary context. Christopher Seitz explores structural and organizational concerns as clues to the editorial intention of the final form of the material, which he argues is both intelligible and an intended result of the efforts of those who gave shape to the present form of the book. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

The book of Joel is held to be one of the latest prophetic witnesses; it cites other books of the book of the Twelve prophets with a density that distinguishes it from its neighbours. The concept of the "Day of the LORD" which runs throughout the Minor Prophets as a whole reaches its zenith in Joel and its co-mingling of ecological and military metaphors advances Hosea on the former and anticipates later texts on the latter. In this volume within T&T Clark's International Theological Commentary Series Christopher Seitz starts from a foundation of historical-critical methodology to provide an account of Joel's place and purpose within the book of the Twelve prophets as a whole. Seitz examines the theology and background of Joel, and shows how Joel's theological function can provide a major hermeneutical key to the interpretation of the wider collection, and teases out the precise character of that role.