I’ve been tagged by Adam, and so has Mandy–so presumably she will also post on this topic. I find these types of memes somewhat fascinating since its interesting to see how people have been influence and shaped in various ways. The idea is that you have to either share your top five most influential books or the top five scholars that had the most immediate and lasting influence on how you read the Bible.

1. Inspiration and Incarnation by Peter Enns. This book, hands down, has been one of the biggest influences in my study of the Hebrew Bible. Enns put in writing much of what I was already thinking regarding critical Biblical scholarship and the Hebrew Bible. In this way I was able to maintain my Christian faith (albeit in a different form from what it once was) and still deal in an intellectually honest manner with the vast amounts of scholarship on the Hebrew Bible. This is a book I recommend to everyone who wants to study the Hebrew Bible.

2. The Psalms and the Life of Faith by Walter Brueggemann, edited by Patrick Miller. If Enns’ book shaped the way I deal with critical Biblical scholarship, this book shaped the way in which I appropriate the plethora of lament literature within the Bible. This book is a collect of Brueggemann’s essays on the Psalms. The most important of these, in my opinion, is “The Costly Loss of Lament.” That essay influenced how I communicate with God to a very large extent.

3. Biblical Hebrew by Kittel, Hoffer and Wright. This is the book from which I learned Biblical Hebrew. Although my love of Hebrew is due in no small part to my undergrad Hebrew professor, it is also due to Kittel’s excellent text. I really can’t recommend her approach enough. The book isn’t perfect, by any means, but is much closer to perfect than any other first year grammar I’ve had the opportunity to look at. If not for this book, I probably would not be an aspiring scholar of the Hebrew Bible.

4. Proverbs 1-9 Anchor Bible; by Michael V. Fox. This commentary is a large part of the reason that I love the Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible. Adam has already said most of what needs to be said about this book, so I will simply quote him:

Fox is a master interpreter and his work has greatly influenced my understanding of this book (which is also my favorite biblical book [well, his not mine–I prefer Job). Fox’s book is the first title I pick up when I am beginning to study a particular passage in Proverbs 1-9 (outside of my BHS).

5. Genesis 1-11 by Claus Westermann. This was one of the first critical commentaries I read. As such, it was my introduction to how various higher critical theories worked out in practice. Aside from being a solid commentary on Genesis and helping me see what it meant to interact with the Bible critically, it was also fun to read and I learned–and still learn–a ton from it.

I won’t tag anyone, since A) many of those I’m most interested in hearing about have already been tagged and B) Mandy still has to go. I’ll give her a few suggestions for who to tag.