This book and the continuing ones are the best comentery on the book of genesis - A MUST to everyone who wants to understand it.

Westermann's Genesis commentary, long held to be a classic, is a valuable addition to any library concerned with serious study of Genesis. This volume, the first of three, concerns itself with the stories from creation through Noah and the Tower of Babel, traditionally called the "pre-history". Westermann carefully examines each pericope from a scholarly perspective with notes, commentary and comments. The bibliographic notes are also very helpful. His awareness of the vast amount of scholarship in this area is carefully processed to provide all but the beginning Bible students with a most valuable resource to which they will return again and again.

Westermann's Genesis commentary, long held to be a classic, is a valuable addition to any library concerned with serious study of Genesis. This volume, the sceond of three, concerns itself with the stories from Abraham through Jacob. Westermann carefully examines each pericope from a scholarly perspective with notes, commentary and comments. The bibliographic notes are also very helpful. His awareness of the vast amount of scholarship in this area is carefully processed to provide all but the beginning Bible students with a most valuable resource to which they will return again and again.

Westermann's Genesis commentary, long held to be a classic, is a valuable addition to any library concerned with serious study of Genesis. This volume, the third of three, concerns itself with the stories surrounding Joseph, son of Jacob as related in the final chapters of Genesis. Westermann carefully examines each pericope from a scholarly perspective with notes, commentary and comments. The bibliographic notes are also very helpful. His awareness of the vast amount of scholarship in this area is carefully processed to provide all but the beginning Bible students with a most valuable resource to which they will return again and again.

Among his many brilliant works, Claus Westermann's three volume commentary on Genesis is his greatest cotnribution to the study of the Old Tetament. Of course, many non-specialists will find that work quite difficult. In this small work on Joseph, Westermann has disitilled his insights into Genesis 37-50, with a special emphasis on the literary and theological aspects of the Joseph stories. The result is a work that popular readers will find very useful and instructive. Unfortunately, much popular writing on the Bible is quite shallow and comes from a very conservate and purely pietistic perspective. This little book is a rare exception. It is supported by the best of scholarship and addresses the deepest theological concerns of the contemporary church. I highly recommend it for individual readers or for church study groups.

Roots of Wisdom (178 pages) is mostly about Proverbs. It was written in German in 1990 and translated into English for this reprint in Dec 1994. Westermann's commentary is interesting and generally accurate. There are no photos, drawings, glossary or index. For a more current (1999) and more in-depth commentary (568 pages) read THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS by Cody Jones (1999). The comments are interesting and more reader friendly and are accompanied by numerous drawings and photos to give you a sense of the culture of the time. There is an index and glossary as well as 6 translations in parallel to aid understanding.

Westermann is a top German scholar. His works on Genesis are classic. Cody Jones' work on Proverbs is a joke compared to this scholar who has invested his life in understanding the original texts.

While the book does fully discuss the "basic forms of prophetic speech" in detail, it is not a text that can be taken lightly. Much of the information seems a bit convoluted at times and the author seems to be repetitious and occasionally self contradictory. This is a text for serious study of prophetic works contained within the OT and is a classic reference for those willing to muddle through minutia.