Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs for Everyone (The Old Testament from Everyone)

I have always read Ecclesiastes as an indictment on life but Goldingay helped me to see it as an embrace of life.

Excellent as a Christian Education study companion!

I am leading a Bible study on Proverbs. I was using Ironside's commentary, which I found kind of dull, but What can you say about most of Proverbs. They are usually self explanatory. I have Goldingay's commentary on Psalms, which is my favorite Psalms commentary after Spurgeon, so I thought I would try this. We are in chapter 19 of Proverbs. JG's commentary on this chapter just blew me away. I stand amazed at the gems of wisdom there. And also in ch 20. For example, his commentary on 20:27 is that God gave us the ability to search inside of ourselves using our human spirit.

I was disappointed that this was not a verse by verse commentary, but definitely worth a look...indeed anything by John Goldingay is usually first rate Biblical stuff!That said, Song of songs section especially was rather more allegorical and 'discursive' than I was hoping for. It was also more along the lines of 'the Bible speaks today' series, which makes conservative Biblical studies accessible to the 'everyman' amongst us, but not as helpful for scholars grappling with the nuances of the text.You might try Carr's Tyndale Commentary on Song of Solomon alongside this for a more systematic exegesis, but I haven't really found a Commentary yet on Song of songs that is critical enough in terms of non-allegorical interpretation, and which really grapples with the very powerful and erotic sexual nuances in the text.

Can recommend all John Goldingay's books for Everyone. Excellent for those who like to read and digest commentaries which are straight forward and interesting.