The Transforming Word Series, Volume 3: The Prophets: From Isaiah to Malachi by Mark W. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book 3 of a five (5) volume set that tries to provide some context and commentary to the Bible (OT) with this book focused on the Prophets; a collection of writings with a penchant for highly symbolic language that can be tricky for the modern audience to interpret. The series is well organized, with each book starting with an overview of the topic and what to expect. I highly recommend the entire series, although the work has a bias toward the Christian Restoration tradition (where I am very comfortable).
This book includes an introduction of who and what were the Prophets along with a brief summary of how they were redacted and used. Each chapter is written by a different author and point of view that covers a specific prophet and includes Contexts, Commentary, Superscription, Theological Reflections, For Further Study and Works Cited. In the middle each author breaks down the writing into topical blocks for exegesis with a generous number of call outs for better understanding of concepts that might not be familiar today. Isaiah and Jeremiah are by far the bulk of the book, taking up almost half. Once you get into the minor prophets, the context and commentary (or generally summary) is probably as important as the detailed interpretation of the actual text, which is very short.
1. Reading the Prophets
2. Old Testament Prophecy
3. The Bible & Literature
4. Isaiah
5. Jeremiah
6. Lamentations
7. Ezekiel
8. Daniel
9. Hosea
10. Joel
11. Amos
12. Obadiah
13. Jonah
14. Micah
15. Nahum
16. Habakkuk
17. Zephaniah
18. Haggai
19. Zechariah
20. Malachi
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#TheProphets #TheTransformingWordSeries #NetGalley.
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My Ratings Explained ...
- [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
- [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
- [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
- [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
- [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.
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