This work is a reprint of the 1986 edition, not a new edition. As a result, there is no discussion of the many changes in scholarship which have taken place in the years since its first appearance, especially issues such as the origins and early history of Israel and that nation’s religion in the period before the exile. Crenshaw’s expertise in literary studies means that the work can still function in the way in which its title suggests. As a description of the story of the OT, it remains useful. Further, its emphasis upon the wisdom literature and the apocrypha (together occupying half the book) allows an emphasis which is not found in other introductions.

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