Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Dana M. Pike, and David Rolph Seely

To say this is comprehensive reference guide to the Old Testament is putting it mildly. This is an almost overwhelmingly comprehensive reference guide to the Old Testamant! From Adam to Malachi, the authors dissect the culture, history, laws, geography, climate, economies and religions from the world of the Old Testament.

The graphics, which include images of ancient artifacts, photos, maps, and original artwork, are beautiful. And while packed with text boxes, notes, graphics and captions, the layout of the book is easy to follow.

The book is broken down into several sections based (mostly) on chronology : Adam and Eve to Abraham, the patriarchs and matriarchs, Israel in the wilderness, Joshua, the Judges, Saul through Solomon, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the Exile, and the Jewish return. Each era is examined in light of what is known about the period from a scholarly point of view. In the section titled "The World of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs" for example, an overview of Genesis 12-50 is given and then the stories are summarized. Images of ancient artifacts from the period, maps of trade routes, photos of the region today and photos of archeological excavations and artifacts which are relevant to the Biblical text are shown. There are also text boxes which elaborate on "details" from the Biblical narrative, covering topics such as slavery, wedding customs and household gods, and give "portraits" of the people mentioned in the narrative, such as Melchizedek. Finally, there are chapters within the section that discuss important elements of the story--the Abrahamic Covenant and the Egyptians.

I was impressed with the way the authors balance academic research and LDS beliefs. The authors aren't afraid to bring up inconsistencies in the Biblical narrative or point out places where it doesn't correspond with scholarly research, and they are always careful to explain the LDS viewpoint when it differs with other beliefs about the ancient world. The authors also reference the Book of Mormon as a document with which to examine the historicity of the Old Testament. So while the book identifies parts of the Old Testament about which LDS and scholarly opinions differ, it never becomes an apologetic, and the authors are never on the defensive.

As you can probably tell from my description so far, the text is scholarly and is meant as a reference and study companion to the Old Testament. It is not as a light Sunday read. I actually think the authors could have been a little more layman-friendly; for example, while discussing the Egyptians the text reads, "During this period, Akhenaten moved his capital to Amarna and attempted to revolutionize Egypt's religion to his unique form of monotheism (more properly, henotheism)." Growing up, I had a little obsession with Egyptology, so I'm familiar with the basic history of Akhenaten; however, I'd never heard of "henotheism" before, and I'm still confused about it, even after reading its entry in Wikipedia. I understand that with a project this extensive, it's impossible to fully explain everything, but the text could definitely benefit from footnotes, a glossary, or just a simple boil-it-down-to-one-sentence explanation for some of these terms. I think the typical Deseret Book patron, who probably doesn't have PhD in theology, would appreciate it.

While we're being nit-picky, there are places where the book is repetitive. For example, the story of Esther is summarized in nearly the exact same way three times within the space of four pages.

However, despite those two teeny tiny criticisms, this book is amazing. The amount of material covered is just mind-blowing. No wonder three authors were required! I learned so much from reading this volume. There were many times as I was reading when I thought, "okay, wow! So that's why [fill in the blank with some confusing verse or obscure OT practice]!" It really makes the Old Testament accessible, because the strange things that happen in it make sense when you understand the laws and culture of the time a little bit (or a lot bit) better. And it helps when you're reading a long string of unpronounceable names to know a little bit about the people you're reading about.

I loved this book and have a renewed desire to read and study the Old Testament. I'm also looking forward to reading the authors' first guide, Jesus Christ and the World of the New Testament, which was published a few years ago. ★★★★★★★★★☆ (9/10)