Fathers of the Covenant

Studies in Genesis and Exodus

H.L. Ellison

The Paternoster Press, 1978. Pbk. ISBN: 0 85364 220 6. pp.128.
[Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.]

Most Christians can't make much sense of the Old Testament. For many, it seems irrelevant... primitive... sub-Christian. Others down-grade it by treating it as if it were no more than New Testament theology simplified and written in a special code. Of those who genuinely try to grapple with the monstrous academic apparatus of source-criticism, form-criticism, anthropology, comparative religion and the rest - most give up in despair.

These twelve studies, ranging from Eden to Sinai, show concretely how to interpret a difficult part of the Bible. While H.L. Ellison's teaching of the Old Testament has involved him in technical questions of various kinds, his special and pleasure has always been the discovery, not simple of the linguistic meaning of the Old Testament but above all its spiritual message and its revelation of God's will and character. These studies, eleven of which first appeared in The Hebrew Christian, exemplify the author's characteristic biblical insight, searching spirituality and bracing commonsense.

[From the back cover]

1. Creation (Gen. 1:1-2:3)