Engaging the Old Testament

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Written By Open Plaza

Dr. M. Daniel Carroll Rodas and Dr. Dominick S. Hernández discuss his new book on how to read biblical narrative, poetry, and prophecy well

Visitors view an Old Testament exhibit at the Creation Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky, 2011. The museum “promotes the pseudoscientific young Earth creationist (YEC) explanation of the origin of the universe and life on Earth based on a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative of the Bible” (Wikipedia). Photo: Ellen Meiselman

 
 

Dr. M. Daniel Carroll Rodas speaks to Dr. Dominick S. 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.

 
 
 

“This is a creative introduction to how to read the Old Testament well as an ancient text for today. To engage this literature properly, Hernández explains that we need appropriate attitudes and informed literary sensibilities. He then works carefully through multiple texts across the Old Testament canon to demonstrate the payoff of his exhortations. Not overly technical, this helpful tool by an important Latino Old Testament scholar should serve a wide audience.”


M. Daniel Carroll R., Scripture Press Ministries Professor of Biblical Studies and Pedagogy, Wheaton College and Graduate School

 
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Dominick Hernández

Dr. Dominick S. Hernández is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He teaches on an array of topics, including biblical wisdom, ancient Near Eastern literature, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Previously, he taught at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (where he directed the seminary’s Online Hispanic Program), Moody Bible Institute, and Israel College of the Bible. Dr. Hernández holds a BS in Kinesiology from West Chester University of Pennsylvania; an MA in Physical Education from the Teachers College at Columbia University, where he focused on curriculum and teaching in the biobehavioral sciences; an MDiv focused on Old Testament/Hebrew Bible from Princeton Theological Seminary; and a PhD in Hebrew Bible at Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel), where he was trained in Semitic Philology. He also received ministerial training at the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry in Costa Mesa, CA. During this time, he was ordained at Calvary Chapel Voyage in Fountain Valley, CA and served as the congregation’s youth pastor. Dr. Hernández is the author of Proverbs: Pathways to Wisdom (Abingdon, 2020), Illustrated Job in Hebrew (GlossaHouse, 2020), Engaging the Old Testament: How to Read Biblical Narrative, Poetry, and Prophecy Well (Baker, 2023), as well as forthcoming commentaries on Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (Cascade) and Song of Songs (Eerdmans). He is committed to the church, having served in English, Spanish, and Hebrew-language ministries in the United States and abroad. Learn more about Dr. Hernández at: domshernandez.com.

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Daniel Carroll Rodas

Dr. M. Daniel Carroll Rodas is the Blanchard Professor of Old Testament at the Wheaton College Graduate School. He holds a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary and a PhD from the University of Sheffield, both degrees in Old Testament. Dr. Carroll Rodas is half-Guatemalan (his mother was Guatemalan) and was raised bilingual and bicultural. In his youth he spent many summers in Guatemala and later taught many years at El Seminario Teológico Centroamericano in Guatemala City. He has taught Old Testament at Denver Seminary, where he founded a Spanish-language lay training program. At Wheaton, he hopes to model a commitment to connecting careful biblical scholarship with the mission of the church as it engages today’s complex realities. Dr. Carroll Rodas is the author of The Lord Roars: Recovering the Prophetic Voice for Today (Baker Publishing Group, 2022), The Bible and Borders: Hearing God's Word on Immigration (Brazos Press, 2020), and The Book of Amos (New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020).

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