Jun 27, 2012

The Philippians of the Old Testament

  
I have a recurring interest in the book of Ecclesiastes. Recently, I was browsing through my seminary's library and William Barrick's 2011 commentary on Ecclesiastes caught my eye. I knew I had to check it out when I read the book's subtitle: "The Philippians of the Old Testament." This title of course tips Barrick's hand on how he understands the book. That is, he sees the book as primarily positive rather than negative. I happen to share that conclusion, but to be honest, I had not really thought about it that way before. The comparison is a bit overstated in my view since joy/rejoicing is more explicit in Philippians than Ecclesiastes and the latter is certainly darker than the former, but the subtitle did what it was probably designed to do, that is, get my attention and make me want to read more.

William D. Barrick, Ecclesiastes: The Philippians of the Old Testament, Focus on the Bible (Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 2011). 
  

1 comment:

Todd Bolen said...

Anything by Dr. Barrick is worth more than it will cost you.