Docherty's The Use of the OT in Hebrews 1

1. I have been in college administration for the last four years. One year teaching and then before that I had been Dean for six other years. In short, my focus for at least 10 of the last 11 years has been administration. That takes its toll on the scholar in me.

I don't know what the future holds: professor, pastor, administrative servant. But I have some scholarly work to do this month. To do it well, I really need to blow through some books. This weekend is the first.

2. Susan Docherty's work The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews is pretty significant. It's also expensive but I bit the bullet. I want to read/skim it this weekend--206 pages. If I sleep 16 of those hours, go to church, eat at least 4, run twice. Well, let's say I potentially have 24 hours of reading (not going to happen, of course).

So let's say the goal is 10 pages an hour. Yeah, right.

3. In chapter 1, Docherty sets out her agenda. She believes NT studies has not kept up with research into Jewish exegetical techniques. She aims to bring Hebrews research up to speed. She also believes that NT study is behind in recent research on the text of the Greek Bible in the first century. Both of these aims make her book a significant read.

She then lays out the book. In chapter 2, she'll look at the last 150 years of Hebrews commentary work as it relates to the use of the OT. In chapter 3, she will introduce us to the Goldberg school of analyzing Jewish exegesis in relation to underlying assumptions about Scripture. Chapter 4 looks at recent studies on the Greek text of the OT in the first century. Chapter 5 applies Goldberg's method to Hebrews.

The game is on.