Book Review: How to Read Proverbs

How to Read ProverbsHow to Read Proverbs by Tremper Longman III
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is well done and helpful in what it sets out to do. The title is truth in advertising as this book helps orient the reader of the book of Proverbs. It is not a deep dive study of wisdom literature, but that wasn’t the intention of the author. Issues like the overall organization and structural and thematic unity of the book are only touched on enough to whet your appetite. Longman doesn’t deal with intertextuality per se, but he does have a chapter for interaction between Proverbs and Job and Ecclesiastes, and a later mention of the New Testament book of James. The book particularly shines in giving attention to the fact that you must take any individual sayings in light of the whole book.

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