Review of:

Tim Bulkeley: Amos: Hypertext Bible Commentary. Auckland: Hypertext Bible, 2005. ISBN 0-473-10714-7. US$ 25.00 for individuals, US$ 40.00 for institutions, but also available – free – on the web: http://hypertextbible.org/amos

This is not a book, it is a CD. But it is a CD which functions like a book, or rather like a library. Imagine a Bible commentary where you have the text (Hebrew and English) and comments in front of you, and where you at the same time are only a click away from relevant entries in exegetical and theological dictionaries, or where another click will enable you to listen to the text being read in Hebrew or English. This is the kind of commentary Dr Tim Bulkeley and the Hypertext Bible Project provides for us.

Dr Bulkeley is a British Old Testament scholar now teaching in Auckland, New Zealand. In our context it is also of interest to notice that he for nearly a decade (in the 1980s) taught in Kinshasa, DRC, at the Faculté de théologie protestante au Zaire. In spite of this the commentary has no traces of African Old Testament scholarship. Still, a few more general references to Africa can be found: geographical (the entry on earthquake relates the earthquake in 1:1 to the African ‘rift'; the entry on trade and commerce notices that the Phoenicians claimed to have sailed right round Africa) as well as cultural (the entry on monarchy compares the state development with African experiences; the entry on genre compares greetings in DR Congo and the West). Cf. also below, the discussion of Amos 9:7.

The mission of the Hypertext Bible Project is to disseminate – in an electronic format – current biblical scholarship to a wide audience. This mission should indeed be within reach, as the commentary not only can be purchased as a CD, but is also available free (currently, it is said) on the web (cf. the address above). The project has here set an excellent example for other researchers. One of the major difficulties of doing biblical studies today is a publishing boom of books and journals that hold prices which effectively prevent most of us from reading them. For some years it has been argued that ‘the web is the solution'. But the problem is that most of what is available – free – on the web is either very old or very biased. In this respect the Hypertext Bible Project – and its Amos commentary – is an exception, and indeed a very welcome one.

The strength of this hypertext commentary is found in all the material that is linked up to the verse-by-verse commentary. The reader/user can easily jump from (Hebrew or English) text to comments, or from introductory problems to the beautiful sound of the (Hebrew or English) text being read. An illustrative example can be the famous disputation speech in Amos 3:3-8. One entry gives a survey of the whole chapter, and the interaction between vv. 3-8 and the surrounding text is here emphasized. Another entry approaches vv. 3-8 in more details, and then with further entries on rhetorical questions, the function of repeated words, monotheism, etc. And these entries again have new entries: from ‘monotheism' there are for example links to texts and archaeology on pre-exilic popular religion. This is simply exciting, and an excellent way to get an overview.

But all the material that is linked up to the verse-by-verse hypertext commentary is also its weakness. It includes such a wide spectrum of material (isagogics, exegesis, history of Israel) and is aimed at such a wide audience (the ‘thinking but untrained, as well as tertiary-trained students of the Bible' and ‘various Christian and Jewish communities as well as secular readers') that the final result inevitably becomes somewhat superficial. The CD is more than a commentary, it is a whole library, but as such it lacks the more heavy volumes of the library.

An illustrative example of this problem can be the interpretation of Amos 9:7, the text comparing Israel and the African nation of Cush. First, one is (and some of us positively) surprised to find that the Hebrew bene cushiyim, which traditionally is rendered ‘children of Cush/Ethiopia/Nubia/Sudan', here is rendered ‘Africans': ‘Are you not like the Africans to me, children of Israel?' This interesting interpretation is, however, not further substantiated; neither in the exegetical entry on Cush, nor in the commentary, which only paraphrases the text. And this lack of exegetical and hermeneutic interest is disappointing; one gets the impression that the author took the first step, but then changed his mind. Second, the same verse shows that the English text that can be listened to is another text than the translation given in the commentary. And in this case the commentary renders the bene cushiyim as ‘Africans', whereas the voice version not that politically correct renders it ‘negroes'.

In conclusion, though, it should be acknowledged that this is a good commentary. Good in the sense that it brings together a whole library of information, but also good in the sense that this material is organized in a structured and understandable way. And it is certainly also good in the sense that everyone with access to internet can go right into it, without costs.

Reviewed 2006-07-14by Knut Holter, School of Mission and Theology, Misjonsvegen 34, N-4024 Stavanger, Norway. E-mail: knut.holter@mhs.no