This teaching text is published in 1938 by a gifted and learned Dean of the School of Religion of the University of Southern California. His chapters are each labelled as an "Inquiry". His approach is properly tuned to Books which have not been understood for eons. Knopf writes as an inspired believer who is convicted with the idea that Truth is the heart of "modern Bible study", in which he joins Spinoza [14] and the archeologists [15]. This work shares discoveries, as if a "new Bible lies open before us".

I love the suggestion in the Introduction that "the Bible was not written for texts", but for solutions to the turmoil of life. Citing Hosea, "It is love that I delight in and not sacrifice; and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings". How splendid!

This book looks at the Prophets and wonders who they were, what they did, what they really thought, and why. Approach these names with questions: Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Obadiah, Malachi, Joel, Jonah, Daniel. Knopf adds rich "historical" background to the narrative, and provides plausible insights for the facts he shares. For example, the children in Isaiah's family were given symbolic names--"Remnant", "Booty, and "Prey". [52] Is this not a warning to Judah, as Sargon rises up out of Assyria?