OK, the above paragraph is excessive in its hyperbole, and your chances of finding lasting love will suffer if you take the above too seriously, but this book stands alone and above all other books on the Old Testament. This book is an unabashed conservative evangelical text on all of the issues surrounding the development, canonicity, authenticity, authorship, etc., of each of the OT books.

Now this book does not interpret the OT through a conservative filter of thought: Instead, it presents ALL of the relevant evidence for and against claims of the various higher critics over the last two centuries. The diligent reader who is truly unafraid to grapple with the higher critical OT theories and can handle the possibility that what orthodoxy teaches is wrong or contrary to the evidence will find this book a veritable treasure chest of information, archaeology, history, cultural development, and theology. And, those who approach this book allowing the higher critics the possibility that they might be right in some areas will see that the negative higher critical views of the OT stand on the flimsiest and most circular pieces of evidence. In other words, the conservative view is vindicated in an honest and forthright fashion.

Let me state some of the positives of this book:

1. Over 100 pages are spent discussing the history, origin, and developments of the various documentary theories of the Pentateuch and OT documents. Archer gives a devastating critique of the Wellhausen theory and at the same time provides an argument for Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch (or almost all of it) that is common sensical, philologically, and internally supported by the text, archaeology, and non-circular reasoning.
2. The evidence is presented fairly. The unbiased reader cannot accuse Professor Archer of being one sided.
3. Archer is a master linguist. He knows 30+ languages, and he puts his encyclopedic linguistic knowledge to great use in the text.
4. The discussion of the individual books of the OT is very comprehensive and filling. For example, everybody from layperson to Th.D. could profit from reading the thorough discussion of Exodus and the debate about who the Pharaoh of the Exodus was. Those who are pressured to deny the unified Isaianic authorship of Isaiah in favor of two or more ``Isaiah'' prophets should see his marvelous discussion of the issue.
5. Problems still facing the evangelical OT scholar today (such as the exact locations of the people listed in the Genesis table of nations and the scientific problems that are raised by a global flood) are presented openly and honestly.
6. The cultural background of the OT is presented in readable terms. Never, ever, does Archer obscure what he wants to say with technical jargon. He writes clearly and compellingly.