Engaging the Old Testament

What this episode covers

Dr. M. Daniel Carrol Rodas speaks to Dr. Dominick D. Hernández, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages in the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, about his most recent book Engaging the Old Testament: How to Read Biblical Narrative, Poetry, and Prophecy Well (Baker Academic, 2023) and his quest to help “people be good readers of the Old Testament.” The book aims to help people who are interested in the Old Testament consider how they are interpreting the material. “There is a hermeneutical component to this and not just an informational component,” says Dr. Hernández about his book’s appeal to a wide range of ages. “The major thing I was trying to do was to help readers of the Bible recognize that the writers of the Bible were also writers,” he explains. “Writers write to be read. We recognize that intuitively when we read To Kill a Mockingbird. We recognize that intuitively when we read Don Quixote de la Mancha. Sometimes, we don’t recognize that intuitively when we approach the Bible.” This error in reading, Dr. Hernández observes, is what leads to such fractured interpretations of the Bible.

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