Book Summary of John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament:
John H. Walton’s Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible is broken up into fourteen chapters. Those fourteen chapters are each part of one of five sections. This book also contains over twenty historical images. Before the introduction, the author gives readers a full appendix of all images used in this published work. The author then gives his acknowledgements followed by a list of abbreviations.
Part 1- Comparative studies The first section of the book is titled comparative studies. This section is comprised of the first two chapters. Chapter one is aptly named history and methods. Chapter two has been dubbed comparative studies, scholarship, and theology. This section covers the growing division between scholars of a secular nature and scholars of a religious nature. The purpose of this part of the book is to defend the Bible from the damage done by comparative studies which twisted evidence to work against the historicity, canonicity, and divine revelation of Gods’ Word, the Bible.
Chapter 1- History and methods
Walton starts off this chapter by going back to the late 1800s and mid 1900s, with the rediscovery of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Archeologists were quickly discovering that every bit of history in the Bible was accurate. This was at the height of the theory of evolution and at the prime of the scientific movement. After Darwin, science was just starting to pick up speed. Then, these shocking discoveries put up a heavy barricade between science and theology.
This evidence, that should have been made to support the truth of the Bible, was quickly twisted and turned against it. Archeologists were uncovering data that showed themes of parallel theologies to the Old Testament. This could have gone one of two ways. Either the popular opinion would be that the Old Testament influenced the theology of these societies, or that these societies inspired the Old Testament. Unfortunately, scholars
Part 1- Comparative studies The first section of the book is titled comparative studies. This section is comprised of the first two chapters. Chapter one is aptly named history and methods. Chapter two has been dubbed comparative studies, scholarship, and theology. This section covers the growing division between scholars of a secular nature and scholars of a religious nature. The purpose of this part of the book is to defend the Bible from the damage done by comparative studies which twisted evidence to work against the historicity, canonicity, and divine revelation of Gods’ Word, the Bible.
Chapter 1- History and methods
Walton starts off this chapter by going back to the late 1800s and mid 1900s, with the rediscovery of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Archeologists were quickly discovering that every bit of history in the Bible was accurate. This was at the height of the theory of evolution and at the prime of the scientific movement. After Darwin, science was just starting to pick up speed. Then, these shocking discoveries put up a heavy barricade between science and theology.
This evidence, that should have been made to support the truth of the Bible, was quickly twisted and turned against it. Archeologists were uncovering data that showed themes of parallel theologies to the Old Testament. This could have gone one of two ways. Either the popular opinion would be that the Old Testament influenced the theology of these societies, or that these societies inspired the Old Testament. Unfortunately, scholars