Minor Prophets, part 2.

• Author: Nogalski, James D.
• Position: Brief Reviews of Books

Minor Prophets, part 2. By MICHAEL H. FLOYD. The Forms of the Old Testament Literature, vol. 22. Grand Rapids, Mich.: WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING Co., 2000. Pp. xviii + 651. $49 (paper).

This volume covers the latter half of the Minor Prophets (Nahum through Malachi) for the well-known commentary series, The Forms of the Old Testament Literature. Its format follows that of the series in considering the elements of structure, genre, setting, intention, and bibliography for each passage and for each book as a whole. Like other works in this series, this volume contains a utilitarian glossary of genre terms used by the author. This commentary presents a careful assessment of significant form-critical issues that reflect the current state of flux in this method. Floyd concedes that the genres of Old Testament literature "are indeed more closely related to oral tradition than the genres of modern European literature" (p. xvi). Floyd, however, is not interested in evaluating Old Testament texts for evidence of their original oral setting, as one would traditionally expect from a form-critical investigation. Rather, he contends that the similarities to oral genres can more likely be explained by ass uming that "biblical writers tended to pattern what they wrote on what they heard" (p. xvii). For this reason, Floyd takes a decidedly literary approach to the form-critical task, but he rejects any attempt to divorce literature from history. He argues that the interpretation of literature, like language, requires some understanding of historical context, even though any historical investigation must necessarily be "the means to a literary end" (p. xvii).

Floyd knows that the task of this commentary lies in helping others consider the issues involved in the form-critical task. The strength of this work lies in Floyd's careful study of the structure and genres of individual passages. He shows a strong appreciation for traditional form-critical categories, but he does not hesitate to offer new suggestions for understanding these texts and their relationship to the book as a whole. For example, he treats Zeph. 1:2-6 as a prophecy of punishment (p. 191), but he distinguishes the genre of the subsequent verses as a "prophetic exhortation" that extends 1:2-6 in...