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Goldingay, John. Genesis. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020.

I was graciously given a review copy from Baker.

This commentary is the fruit of labor from many years of research. The result of Goldingay’s work is a readable commentary that does not get bogged down with minute details of the text. This commentary reflects both the best Jewish and Christian scholarship as well as the detailed commentary on the book of Genesis.

The introduction to the book is quite short, only twelve pages. This might disappoint some readers since Goldingay almost completely ignores critical questions about the origin of Genesis. He suggests the canonical form of Genesis dates to after the fall of Judah to Babylon in 587 B.C. although it certainly makes use of earlier tradition. “It is implausible to think of Genesis being created from scratch in the Babylonian” (8). The bulk of the introduction deals with defining what he means by the story, and how the story relates to history. Goldingay suggests “the Holy Spirit inspired an author or authors to use their imagination to tell their factually based story” (5).

Each section of the commentary begins with an overview of the new chapter/unit in Genesis. Some units are brief. Goldingay’s chapter on Genesis 21:22-34 is a mere five pages. Others cover entire chapters, such as the section on Genesis 24. Goldingay’s translation follows with footnotes for lexical and textual issues. These notes sometimes deal with technical matters of Hebrew syntax.  In many sections, Goldingay concludes with a brief section entitled “Implications” where he treats historical or theological ramifications of the section, reception history or other canonical connections.  The book concludes with a sound bibliography and a well-defined index.

All in all, this is a great commentary, and it is semi technical. Since this commentary is semi technical it provides the reader with a broad understanding of the book of Genesis in its own right. Goldingay offers a fundamental, investigative and practical commentary on the book of Genesis.


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