Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor
of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

My passion for the Old Testament began early in my Christian life. When I was asked to teach a Sunday School class for young people, I realized that neither I nor my students knew much about the Old Testament. So, in my first year as a Christian, I read the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

When God called me to the ministry, I decided to focus my study on the Old Testament. On the first Monday of March 1963, I attended my first seminary class. It was an Introduction to the Old Testament class. I have been studying the Old Testament my whole Christian life.

Since 1963 I have been preaching, writing, and publishing articles and books about the Old Testament. I have published more than 200 articles and book reviews in English, Spanish, and Russian. In addition, I have published almost 3000 posts on my blog. These posts cover every book of the Old Testament.

In addition to the four books listed below, I have written an introduction to the Old Testament in Spanish, Paso a Paso por el Antiguo Testamento. I have written a commentary on Deuteronomy in Spanish. The commentary was published in the series Comentario Bíblico Mundo Hispano.

I wrote a commentary on 1 and 2 Chronicles. The commentary was published in the Mercer Commentary on the Bible. The commentary of Chronicle was republished in a book titled The History of Israel. I also wrote the study notes for 1 and 2 Kings for The New Interpreter’s Study Bible.

The four books listed below are the results of my work in the classroom. I write for people in the pew. I write on issues that people desire to study and on problems that raise questions in the minds of people who read and love the Old Testament.

The introduction to my books below is my invitation to you to study the Old Testament with me.

Divine Violence and the Character of God

Divine Violence and the Character of God

There is much violence in the Old Testament, both human and divine. Christians and non-Christians react differently to what they read about the God of the Old Testament. Some people are so affected by the violence found in the Old Testament that they give up on God, stop going to church and reading the Bible, and eventually lose their faith.

Others are offended by divine violence and seek to find an alternative explanation for the violent acts of God in the Old Testament. A popular alternative in the twenty-first century is to return to the second century and adopt some form of Marcionism and make the God of the Old Testament to be a different God from the God revealed by Christ in the New Testament.

The purpose of this book is not a defense of God and his use of violence. The author seeks to understand why God acted the way he did and to understand the reason for divine violence in the Old Testament. Yahweh did use violence in his work of reconciliation. However, the use of violence was necessary when everything else failed. Israel provoked God to anger. When God brought judgment upon his people, he did so with tears in his eyes.

Kindle Edition: $9.99 – Buy on Amazon.

Rereading the Biblical Text

Rereading the Biblical Text: Searching for Meaning and Understanding

Rereading the Biblical Text: Searching for Meaning and Understanding deals with problems scholars face in translating Hebrew words and sentences into contemporary English. Modern readers have many choices when selecting a translation of the Bible for personal use. Translators seek to convey to today’s readers the message the biblical writers tried to communicate to their original readers. At times, however, what the original authors tried to convey to their audience was not clear. Claude Mariottini has selected several difficult passages from the Old Testament and compared how different translations have dealt with these difficult texts. Pastors, seminary students, and serious students of the Bible will be challenged to reread the biblical text and understand the message of the biblical writers in a new perspective.

Kindle Edition: $9.99 – Buy on Amazon.

Job and the Problem of Suffering

Job and the Problem of Suffering

The problem of suffering is a topic that is often difficult to approach. The primary focus of the book of Job is the problem of innocent suffering. The suffering of Job raises many issues about the justice of God because Job was a righteous man and his suffering was unprovoked.

The book examines Job’s suffering from the perspective of Job’s friends and from the perspective of Job himself in order to understand the problem of suffering and find timeless teachings that can be applied to the problem of human suffering in our own day.

Paperback: $9.50 – Buy on Amazon.

Isaiah: The Prophet of Hope

Isaiah: The Prophet of Hope

Isaiah is one the most influential prophets in the Old Testament. During Isaiah’s many years of prophetic ministry, Judah went from crisis to crisis. During the crisis posed by the Syro-Ephraimite war, Isaiah proclaimed a message of hope to King Ahaz and the leaders of Judah. He gave them the sign of Immanuel in which Isaiah assured the king that God would be with him to deliver the nation from its enemies.

Isaiah’s message of hope includes the promise of a new age, the hope of a faithful remnant, the hope of a coming Messiah, the establishment of a messianic reign of God, the end of exile, the new exodus and the return of Judah to Jerusalem, the coming of new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17–25; 66:22–23), and the hope of a radical new world where a new king from the house of David will reign in righteousness.

Isaiah’s message of hope finds fulfillment in the child of Bethlehem. The child born in Bethlehem was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s dream that a shoot from the stump of Jesse would reign in righteousness over God’s people.

Paperback: $9.50 – Buy on Amazon.

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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If you are looking for other series of studies on the Old Testament, visit the Archive section and you will find many studies that deal with a variety of Old Testament topics.