In the crowded field of textbooks that introduce students to the Old Testamentprophets, Aaron Chalmers has written one of the most useful yet, especially forthose whose studies have a ministerial dimension. Eschewing systematic coverageof content, he offers a remarkable breadth and depth of material at quite somespeed, with many supporting pictures and illustrations. The key focus is on the taskof facilitating interpretation.The first chapter is a lucid review of ‘what is a prophet and what is a propheticbook?’ The latter section emphasizes, rightly, that it is the text that is the primaryfocus of interpretation, which allows us to sit light to the limits of our historicalknowledge regarding how such books were formed. The next three chapters roundup three angles of approach: the historical, the theological and the rhetorical. Thisworks extremely well. The first is a masterly overview of Israel’s history in dialoguewith both the canon and external historical reference points. The second majors onSinai and Zion traditions as a theological matrix within which to read the prophetictexts. The third is a mini-introduction to prophecy-related hermeneutics, workingwith the rhetorical grain of the text(s), and covering aspects of form-critical classificationas well as literary characteristics. In all three chapters Chalmers offers clearexamples, and pointers for further reflection by way of text boxes on specific themes.Chapter 5 explores apocalyptic, with a little more confidence that this is a separablegenre than might be warranted, though Chalmers finds helpful ways to characterizeapocalyptic texts. Chapter 6 then turns to ‘preaching the prophets’, withhomiletical wisdom alongside caution about ‘prophecy and fulfilment’ schemas.Both these final chapters engage with refuting popular and/or conservativeapproaches that locate prophetic fulfilment today. In the UK I think a morecommon problem is simply a biblical illiteracy (even in churches) that simplydoes not know what to do with these texts.For revised editions I would encourage a more spacious page layout, and lesstext set against dark text-box backgrounds, especially when that text is often small.Pictures could be more clearly printed. Chalmers could also cite fewer specificsfrom other introductory books, and handle more of the issues in his own, generallyelegant, prose. But I am confident that there will be revised editions, since overallthis is an unusually successful textbook.The whole is a student-friendly guide that I will gladly adopt forthwith as recommendedreading to accompany a course on the prophets. It is the combination of compressed introduction and the emphasis on developing tools for further interpretationthat makes it work. Whereas many guides seem to imagine leisurelyclasses that wend their canonical way through text after text, the reality of theologicaleducation today is that Chalmers’s six chapters will probably match up tothe full extent of most such courses. The book would also be an admirable refresherfor those whose studies were longer ago.
