The Book of Exodus: A Critical Theological Commentary (Old Testament Library)

Rating:
Summary: Quick Review
Review: Advanced level of study. Takes a critical textual stance (hence the title "Critical"). Interesting commentary.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent if used with care
Review: Childs honestly admits that "the purpose of this book is unabashedly theological". As is expected from this author, his aim "is to seek to interpret the book of Exodus as canonical scripture within the theological discipline of the Christian church" (which means, of course, his version of theology). This may disconcert those who do not agree with his precise shade of liberal evangelism, especially in the sections headed "New Testament Context". However, once this hurdle is overcome, this book is packed with useful information. There are few if any thorough textual and philological studies of Exodus, and the notes here are probably the best available on these topics. The sections headed "Literary and Traditio-Historical Analysis" discuss (among other things) the Documentary Hypothesis, but Childs is not overly concerned with this aspect since he is more interested in the canonical form of Exodus. The most valuable parts are the "Old Testament Context", which discuss the meaning of the text and its relationship to the rest of the Old Testament. These sections, plus the extensive textual and philological notes, constitute an excellent commentary on Exodus and fully justify buying this book. The other parts can easily be ignored if you disagree with them.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent if used with care
Review: Childs honestly admits that "the purpose of this book is unabashedly theological". As is expected from this author, his aim "is to seek to interpret the book of Exodus as canonical scripture within the theological discipline of the Christian church" (which means, of course, his version of theology). This may disconcert those who do not agree with his precise shade of liberal evangelism, especially in the sections headed "New Testament Context". However, once this hurdle is overcome, this book is packed with useful information. There are few if any thorough textual and philological studies of Exodus, and the notes here are probably the best available on these topics. The sections headed "Literary and Traditio-Historical Analysis" discuss (among other things) the Documentary Hypothesis, but Childs is not overly concerned with this aspect since he is more interested in the canonical form of Exodus. The most valuable parts are the "Old Testament Context", which discuss the meaning of the text and its relationship to the rest of the Old Testament. These sections, plus the extensive textual and philological notes, constitute an excellent commentary on Exodus and fully justify buying this book. The other parts can easily be ignored if you disagree with them.

Rating:
Summary: This left me looking
Review: I purchased this work looking for a preaching aid to help me preach through Exodus. This one left me looking for others. The strength of this work lies in its textual criticism and ancient text use. The weakness of this volume was in helping to pull the major themes from the text and to help build the bridge to today. I had a wonderful time preaching through Exodus, but I found a little volume in the Tyndale OT series by R. Alan Cole to be more helpful than this one. If you are a preacher, keep looking.

Rating:
Summary: This left me looking
Review: I purchased this work looking for a preaching aid to help me preach through Exodus. This one left me looking for others. The strength of this work lies in its textual criticism and ancient text use. The weakness of this volume was in helping to pull the major themes from the text and to help build the bridge to today. I had a wonderful time preaching through Exodus, but I found a little volume in the Tyndale OT series by R. Alan Cole to be more helpful than this one. If you are a preacher, keep looking.

Rating:
Summary: A little confusion
Review: I should say from the start that this is a very good commentary that most readers will find very helpful. It does suffer from the general lack of focus in Childs's canonical method. Because his method includes a review of the history of interpretation of each passage, a canonical commentary on Exodus necessarily includes a discussion of source-criticism, which dominated Exodus scholarship for a century. But this is exactly the kind of atomizing approach which Childs has repudiated. This commentary proves, however, that a critical approach to the book of Exodus simply cannot ignore the features of the text which motivated the source-critics in the first place. A thorough history of interpretation does serve to raise most of the central interpretive issues in each text. Childs is a gifted exegete, however, and even with a fuzzy method the results of his reading of Exodus are impressive. Furthermore, he does place the expected emphasis on theological implications. There is a shortage of critical commentaries on Exodus. Until Propp finishes his second volume, Childs's is probably the second best complete commentary after Durham's.

Rating:
Summary: A little confusion
Review: I should say from the start that this is a very good commentary that most readers will find very helpful. It does suffer from the general lack of focus in Childs's canonical method. Because his method includes a review of the history of interpretation of each passage, a canonical commentary on Exodus necessarily includes a discussion of source-criticism, which dominated Exodus scholarship for a century. But this is exactly the kind of atomizing approach which Childs has repudiated. This commentary proves, however, that a critical approach to the book of Exodus simply cannot ignore the features of the text which motivated the source-critics in the first place. A thorough history of interpretation does serve to raise most of the central interpretive issues in each text. Childs is a gifted exegete, however, and even with a fuzzy method the results of his reading of Exodus are impressive. Furthermore, he does place the expected emphasis on theological implications. There is a shortage of critical commentaries on Exodus. Until Propp finishes his second volume, Childs's is probably the second best complete commentary after Durham's.