A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis (ICC)

by John Skinner

Publisher:

T&T Clark

, 1910

Overview

For over one hundred years, the International Critical Commentary series has held a special place among works on the Bible. It has sought to bring together all the relevant aids to exegesis—linguistic and textual no less than archaeological, historical, literary and theological—with a level of comprehension and quality of scholarship unmatched by any other series.

No attempt has been made to secure a uniform theological or critical approach to the biblical text: contributors have been invited for their scholarly distinction, not for their adherence to any one school of thought.

Skinner's 1910 Commentary on Genesis was for many years the standard English-language text. Incorporating Hebrew text throughout and packed with references, his commentary, like his lectures, is clear, illuminating, and impressive.

The depth of analysis found in the International Critical Commentary (ICC) Series has yet to be surpassed in any commentary collection. One of the best features of this series is the extensive amount of background information given in each volume's introduction, where all of the analysis is provided before the actual commentary begins. Each volume packs more information into the introduction than you will often find in the body of most commentaries! Also consider that with the electronic versions of each volume, you will never need to leaf through the hundreds of pages in each volume searching for the passage you are studying.

Add the entire International Critical Commentary Series (59 Volumes)to your digital library.

Contents

Top Highlights

“History in the technical sense is the written record of actual events, based as far as possible on documents contemporary, or nearly contemporary, with the facts narrated.” (Page iv)

“A more difficult problem is the confusion regarding the two trees on which the fate of man depends, a point to which attention was first directed by Bu. According to 2:9b the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grew together in the midst of the garden, and in 2:17 the second alone is made the test of the man’s obedience.” (Page 52)

“ ‘The process in the man’s case was no doubt the same as that just described, the woman taking the place of the serpent’” (Page 75)

“It is clear from what has been said that the unity of the book of Genesis must be the unity of a composite work” (Page lxv)

“The anthropopathy which attributes to Yahwe regret (וַיִּנָּחֶם) and vexation (וַיִּתְעַצֵּב) because He had created man is unusually strong. Although in the sense of mere change of purpose, the former is often ascribed to God (Ex 32:14; Jer. 18:7, 8; 26:3, 13; Jl. 2:13; Jon. 3:10 etc.), the cases are few where divine regret for accomplished action is expressed (1 Sa. 15:11). The whole representation was felt to be inadequate (Nu. 23:19; 1 Sa. 15:11); yet it continued to be used as inseparable from the religious view of history as the personal agency of Yahwe.” (Page 151)

Product Details

• Title: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis
• Author: John J. Skinner
• Editors: Samuel Rolles Driver, Alfred Plummer, Charles Augustus Briggs
• Publisher: T&T Clark International
• Publication Date: 1910
• Pages: 552

About John Skinner

John J. Skinner John Skinner studied in Scotland and Germany at the end of the 19th century. He held pulpits in the Free Church of Scotland from 1880 until 1890, when he was elected to the faculty of what is now Westminster College, Cambridge. There he became one of the earliest English-language scholars to incorporate the documentary hypothesis in his teaching and writing. His lectures were described as clear, illuminating, and impressive. Skinner was elected Principal (i.e., Dean) in 1908, and given Principal Emeritus status in 1922. His 1910 Genesis was for many years the standard English-language text. He died in 1925 while revising it.