Book excerpt: Engaging and accessible to students from all backgrounds, A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament is an updated and concise version of Michael D. Coogan's best-selling The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures (OUP 2013). Incorporating historical andcritical methodology, students will be introduced to literary analysis and other interpretive strategies as they explore the Old Testament.Providing a nondenominational and nondoctrinal treatment, this text offers a unique and captivating introduction to the Hebrew scriptures themselves and to how they have been--and can be--interpreted.