131 - Hosea: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

Hosea: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(Anchor Bible. vol. 24)
By Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman
Garden City, Doubleday, 1980. 699 pp. $14.00.

This hefty and monumental production is an exhaustive, new look at Israel's first literary prophet. Its special focus is the literary and textual questions related to Hosea, rather than the more recent emphasis on form-critical analysis, as represented in the excellent Hosea commentary by Hans Walter Wolff (1974) in the Hermeneia series.

The new translation is clear and seeks to represent faithfully the style of Hosea--an achievement in itself, given the notoriously corrupt state of the Hebrew text. The introductory material, including the phenomenon of eighth-century B.C. prophecy and a survey of previous literature on the subject, is most valuable. If anything, this work is a bit overwhelming, save that it is well indexed. It is a must for any serious student of the Book of Hosea.

Robert A. Bennett
Episcopal Divinity School
Cambridge, Mass.