A Handbook on Exodus (UBS Handbooks)
Overview
The book of Exodus has been called ‘‘the Gospel of the Old Testament,’’ for it records God’s grace as well as God’s law. It tells the good news of how God miraculously delivered the descendants of Jacob from slavery in Egypt and set them on a journey to the Promised Land. It also reports how the people responded to this divine act as they received the Ten Commandments and were drawn into a covenant relationship with the God of their ancestors. Here is the story of the historic event on which the very faith of Israel was based. It is a story of the agony and the ecstasy of a new nation being born, a nation destined to become God’s chosen people. Through them God’s grace and truth would be made known to the world. The entire Old Testament was eventually written and preserved in the light of this unique experience of God’s saving grace.
This Handbook is a verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Exodus and has been prepared primarily to assist translators of the Bible throughout the world. It is hoped, however, that all who are interested in understanding and interpreting Exodus will find it useful. A knowledge of the original Hebrew is not required, but this commentary does provide a detailed analysis of the Hebrew text in light of the overall message of the book. It also offers numerous suggestions of how the meaning of each verse may be expressed in contemporary languages. The text of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) is followed throughout because it is a reliable literal translation, but an even more literal rendering of the Hebrew is frequently provided where it may help to clarify the meaning for translators. The text of Today’s English Version (TEV), popularly known as the Good News Bible, is frequently cited to bring out the basic meaning in more natural English idiom. Other translations such as the Contemporary English Version (CEV) are often quoted to show various ways in which the meaning may be expressed. Every effort has been made to let the Hebrew text speak for itself without discussing various doctrinal interpretations that have been drawn from it.
Key Features
- Exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text
- Verse-by-verse guides
- An essential tool for Bible translators
Top Highlights
“sentence is a grammatical construction composed of one or more clauses and capable of standing alone.” (Page 932)
“complex sentence contains at least one modifying clause in addition to the main clause.” (Page 921)
“It should be noted that Moses’ upraised arms do not indicate an attitude of prayer, as suggested by later Jewish and Christian interpreters. Rather, the upraised hand indicated power, so this posture was a sign of Yahweh’s power being channeled through Moses to the Israelites as they fought. The translation should therefore not suggest that Moses was praying.” (Page 420)
“The account of the ninth plague is given in just nine verses and completes the third cycle of three plagues each.” (Page 250)
“These three verses are among the most difficult to translate in the entire book of Exodus.” (Page 97)
What if you were responsible for translating God's Word into a language that never had a Bible before? Can you imagine the burden you would feel to do a good job?
God takes His Word pretty seriously, and you would certainly do everything in your power to make sure that you were not putting words into God's mouth, but that you were providing a text that clearly communicated God's Word as closely to the original as possible.
This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.
Product Details
- Title: A Handbook on Exodus
- Authors: Noel D. Osborn and Howard A. Hatton
- Series: The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series (UBSHS)
- Publisher: United Bible Societies
- Pages: 934