Joel and Obadiah: a Commentary.

• Author: Nogalski, James D.
• Position: Book Review

By JOHN BARTON. The Old Testament Library. Louisville: WESTMINSTER JOHN KNOX PRESS, 2001. Pp. xxi + 168.

Barton's commentary on two of the shorter books of the Old Testament is a welcome addition to the venerated Old Testament Library series. Barton brings a keen eye to issues related to understanding prophetic literature in its historical context, in its literary forms, and in its theological significance for Christian interpreters. From the outset, Barton makes explicit his view that the purpose of a commentary should be to reconstruct the original setting, as near as possible, for the texts (pp. ix-x). While not unconcerned with newer holistic and canonical readings, Barton expresses his conviction that a commentary is not the place to further such investigations, except as the issues arise from the text itself. For the most part, Barton keeps this goal before him.

Barton treats Joel differently than many commentators in recent years, who have tended to highlight the book's unifying elements. Bartlett, by contrast, treats the unity of Joel as an imposed unity, not an intrinsic one. For Barton, Joel 1:2-2:27 represents an inherent unity, but he sees the material from 2:28 to the end of the book as far less integrated. This first part of the book contains two oracles structured as thematic parallels (1: 2-20; 2:1-17) that lead to a report of repentance and a promise of restoration (2:18-27). He sees the latter half of the book as a series of pericopes that contain speeches and speech fragments (2:28-29; 2:30-32; 3:1-3; 3:4-8; 3:9-13; 3:14-15; 3:16; 3:17; 3:18; and 3:19-21).

Barton dates the material in Joel well into the Persian period. He believes that the bulk of the first two chapters could be earlier than the remaining portions, but still thinks the fifth century B.C. is the earliest possible date for Joel. He believes that the person responsible for 1:2-27 would have been a cult prophet and perhaps a priest. Barton is less sure about the identity of the person responsible for the second half of the book. He argues that these pericopes rely on stock formulas to such an extent that it is "less necessary ... to ascribe them to a prophetic figure," and that they are more likely to be "seen as the work of a learned scribe, imbued with 'scriptural' knowledge" (p. 22).

Barton treats Obadiah, the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible, as a book of two parts...