Excellent Intro to OT book
The Original Story: God, Israel, and the World
by Barton, John and Julia Bowden
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005
pp. xii + 318
Paperback
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For those of you who are interested in understanding the OT/Hebrew Scripture, this is the book to start (among many available). I flipped through it once when I was at Mitchell’s a while ago and I am still very impressed by its layout and content. It is targeted for beginning students and yet the materials are well-organized with up-to-date scholarship. The only reason why I did not buy it at the end is just because I have too many "Intro OT" sitting on my shelf already.
But for those of you who want to truly understand the OT text seriously, this is certainly my recommendation.
You can also read Hallvard Hagelia’s review on the book from RBL site.