A very different kind of commentary is Genesis, The Movie (Eerdmans) by Robert Farrar Capon. The author believes we misread the creation story as a manual of religious instructions; instead, Capon here watches the first three chapters of Genesis as a movie — "as a tissue of images woven together by the Holy Spirit." No one will accuse Capon of being a conservative interpreter — in true postmodern style, he prefers to lift the text out of any relationship to actual history and let it stand on its own as story — but it is an engaging approach to the first chapters of Genesis, and will provide a fresh look at a text that may seem all too familiar to many of us.
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Other Biblical Reference Material
Each year brings a variety of interesting and helpful Bible study resources apart from commentaries. For example, the Kregel Bible Atlas (Kregel) by Tim Dowley is an attractive (though brief) collection of maps, photographs, and illustrations to help in the study of the lands of the Bible. Another offering from Kregel is a revised and updated edition of A.T. Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament. The updates from the original (published more than 70 years ago) include a change to the New American Standard Bible and use of the Greek alphabet rather than transliteration. For those who don't already have a copy of Robertson on their shelf, this will be a worthwhile investment.
On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans) by K.A. Kitchen draws on a wide range of historical data to argue for the historicity of the biblical texts and to effectively rebut the arguments of critics. Originally inspired by F.F. Bruce's masterful Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?, Kitchen's work is a solid contribution to contemporary Old Testament study and will be a useful tool for pastors and teachers who deal with the inevitable questions about the truthfulness of scripture.
Another helpful resource for students of the Old Testament will be the John Goldingay's three-volume Old Testament Theology (InterVarsity). The first volume has been released under the subtitle Israel's Gospel. Goldingay's narrative theology traces God's work among His people from creation to the coming of Jesus. He observes, "The First Testament story is Israel's gospel story. It brings good news about the way Yhwh has been active in Israel's story, keeping it going, severely chastising Israel, but never finally abandoning them."
Finally, InterVarsity has produced a valuable tool for preachers and teachers in The IVP Dictionary of the New Testament. This one-volume work is a compilation of the most important articles from four previously-published New Testament dictionaries released by IVP. If your budget (or bookshelf) can't carry the weight of all of these excellent volumes, this one-volume compendium will be worth your investment.
And now we get ready for another year and another outpouring of new resources for studying God's Word.