John Walton was kind enough to take time out of his day to answer a few questions for me. He and Andrew Hill just released the third edition of their A Survey of the Old Testament. I will break down the interview into two posts. John also sat down with Zondervan and talked briefly about the new edition. I encourage you to listen to it as well. I first met John when I was a student at Moody Bible Institute. I was immediately impressed with him. He cared about his students and was more than willing to take time to answer questions. More than anyone he taught me to know and love God through the Old Testament rather than making a series of character studies to model my life after. We'll touch on that in the interview. I'm thankful to Andrew Rogers of Zondervan for making the arrangements for the interview.
Question: Can you describe the differences between a "survey" of the Old Testament, an "introduction" and a "theology" of the Old Testament?
Walton: There is always going to be some degree of overlap between them. A "survey" is intended to provide an understanding of the content of the Old Testament. Its focus is mostly on the story line though it does not ignore the plot line or critical issues. It also will deal with the text on literary and historical levels. In contrast, a "theology" focuses more on the plot line or the meta-narrative. That would talk about what they believed, what we believe, and what makes the text canon and Scripture. The intention of an "introduction" is to discuss and summarize key issues in critical scholarship related to the individual books of the Bible.
The remainder of the interview will be on tomorrow's post.
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