This
work was produced in connection with Ph.D. studies at Dallas Theological
Seminary. Its purpose is to develop the message of each book of
the Bible by examining pertinent background information, placing
it in its historical and theological setting, and analyzing it
with respect to its literary structure and theological contribution
to the canon of Scripture. It is not a commentary and so does
not attempt to deal with the meaning of each verse or even every
paragraph. What it does attempt is a development of the overall
message of the book which in turn will aid in the interpretation
of its smaller units.
The
Message statement is the key to understanding what the
book is all about. The analytical Outline is a full sentence,
structural development of the Message statement in summary form.
The Argument develops the Outline in order to show how
the message unfolds. The Outline is only the skeleton that the
Argument fills out. They should be read together.
While
this is my own work, I acknowledge my debt to many others for
their insights into the text of Scripture. I have endeavored to
give due credit for those ideas to the extent that I am aware
of and remember their origin.
This
is the first version of my attempt to develop the message of the
books of the Bible. It is still being edited and updated. One
of the values of such a work is that it takes a consistent position
with respect to the purpose and message of the Bible as a whole.
It should be noted that the author views the Bible as God's infallible
and inerrant revelation.
Jim
Van Dine
