Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 768 pages
- Published by: Zondervan October 1, 2001
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0310206170
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0310206170
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Book Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.2 x 2 inches
- Weighs: 2.6 pounds
Product Description
Noted scholar John Walton follows the three-tiered NIV Application Commentary format (Original Meaning, Bridging Contexts, and Contemporary Significance) to reveal how this first book of the Bible applies to us today.
Back Cover Copy
The Bible begins and ends with a revelation of God that gives redemption its basis. From the first verse of Genesis, the book of origins, we encounter a God of personality, character, purpose, and activity. Only in the light of what he shows us of himself as the Creator of our world and the Interactor with human history does the salvation story assume its proper context. Genesis sets things in order: God first, then us.
In the words of the general editor’s preface, “Especially after the Tower of Babel it became evident that people had forgotten who God was. They needed reminding. The moves God made were essentially concerned with putting himself in front of the world’s peoples.” Today, perhaps more than ever, we need God to put himself in front of us—to remind us who he is, and that he is.
With characteristic creativity and uncommon depth, John H. Walton demonstrates the timeless relevance of Genesis. Revealing the links between Genesis and our own times, Dr. Walton shows how this mysterious, often baffling book filled with unusual peoples and practices reveals truth to guide our twenty-first-century lives.
Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from our world to the world of the Bible. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. They focus on the original meaning of the passage but don’t discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable—but the job is only half done!
The NIV Application Commentary Series helps bring both halves of the interpretive task together. This unique, award-winning series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into our postmodern context. It explains not only what the Bible meant but also how it speaks powerfully today.
This series promises to become an indispensable tool for every pastor and teacher who seeks to make the Bible's timeless message speak to this generation.
Billy Graham
The NIV Application Commentary is an outstanding resource for pastors and anyone else who is serious about developing “doers of the Word.”
Rick Warren, Saddleback Valley Community Church
Reader ReviewsThere are other commentaries I would choose first for verse-by-verse help, but Walton's is the best introduction to the methods of responsible interpretation of Genesis. Walton is an expert in cultural backgrounds and literary genres of the Ancient Near East and also offers some informative word studies. A strength and a weakness of this book is that Walton strongly resists reading later theology or our own culture's questions and answers into the original message of the text; he challenges us to interpret Genesis in the context of the cultural setting for which it was first written. That is a virtue that can occasionally be overplayed. If I would pick one point on which to disagree with Walton, I would hold onto the possibility that God might inspire the words of scripture in such a way that they can have one meaning to their original audience and a deeper or additional meaning to later audiences. But, by and large, Walton's thrust in this area is helpful. While Walton's writing is understandable, and his faith is thoroughly conservative evangelical, he forces readers to think deeply about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of many traditional interpretations, and that can be upsetting to many readers, especially when he is challenging a cherished, traditional interpretation. Let me assure you that he does not depart from faith in God's word and in God's total sovereignty. I think that those who say otherwise have not read him closely and carefully enough. I do not agree with every step in his reasoning, but I am challenged to clarify my own thinking as by no other commentary.
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