Christian Origins
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW. By John Nolland. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005. Pp. xcviii + 1481. $80.00, ISBN 0-8028-2389-0.
distasteful, especially given Matthew’s (27:25) place in a history of Christian antisemitism. Zeba A. Crook
Carleton University
MATTHEW 21-28. By Ulrich Luz. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2005. Pp. xliv + 680. $90.00, ISBN 0-80063770-4.
This is the final volume in Luz’s commentary on Matthew. The format is the same as the previous two volumes. For each section of Matthew there is an introduction, Luz’s translation, comments on the structure of the textual unit, a history of interpretation, commentary (with appropriate excurses), and somewhat new sections on the text’s “meaning for today.” There are also very helpful cross-references to volume two (Hermeneia 2001), but the cross-references to volume one refer to the German edition. There is a planned revision of the English translation of volume one (1989) for the Hermeneia series. Luz’s focus throughout all volumes of the commentary is on the “history of the way the text has influenced subsequent generations” (Wirkungsgeschichte), and for volume three, Luz comments on many works of art. Since Matt 21-28 deal with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and his death and resurrection, the trajectory of this volume, is drawn inescapably toward Matthew’s negative portrayal of the Jewish leaders. Although Luz finds Matthew’s portrayal of the Jewish leaders and their followers troubling, he subsumes this under the usual view of “sibling rivalry” and the post-70 separation of Matthew’s group from other forms of Judaism. This is a landmark commentary. Fred W. Burnett Anderson University
IN
ROMANART. By Tonio Hölscher. Translated by Anthony Snodgrass and Anne-Marie KünzlSnodgrass. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xxxv + 151; plates, glossary. $28.99, ISBN 0-521-66569-8.
Like the other commentaries in the series, this commentary is enormously learned, exhaustive in its detailed textual, literary, redaction- and source-critical comments and bibliographical material, and interesting, useful, and accessible to a wide range of readers. Nolland pays special attention to Matthew’s “Jewishness,” his use of sources, particularly Mark, Q, and the HB, and to the literary structure and narrative techniques (e.g., repetition, framing, chiasm) Matthew uses to achieve his theological goals.A few items of interest: Nolland dates Matthew before the build up toward the Jewish war (not post-70, as is more common), which places Mark and Q even earlier, which in turn allows him to argue in favor of general historical reliability. In breaking down Matthew into sections, Nolland follows the five-part discourse/narrative divisions in Matthew, though often he further subdivides those sections. I feel that Nolland underemphasizes the extent of Matthew’s creativity, especially in terms of his fulfillment formulas and the citation of scripture. Finally, there is a puzzling use of the phrase “final solution” that is troubling and
MATTHEW: A SHORTER COMMENTARYBASEDONTHETHREE-VOLUME INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY. By W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison. NewYork: T & T Clark, 2004. Pp. xxix + 549. $35.00, ISBN 0-567-08249-0.
As the title indicates, this work is a shorter version of the three-volume International Critical Commentary (ICC) that has taken its place in Matthean scholarship as perhaps the foremost historical-critical commentary. The shorter version is done byAllison, and its target audience is “readers who find the larger commentary too involved or too difficult.” In that light, this work, Allison says, “comments not on the Greek text but on my own English translation.” There are no major revisions of the three-volume work, and any subsequent publications of the shorter version will follow revisions in the three-volume commentary, not vice versa. Bibliographies in the shorter version cover basic works only through approximately 2003 but are helpful nonetheless for the novice. The shorter commentary is an excellent tool for students, busy pastors and priests, and laypeople, and it is an excellent entrée into the larger
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commentary if one wants to pursue a point in more depth. One wishes for at least a subject index, but given the reasonable price, this is a highly recommended book for its intended audience.
Fred W. Burnett Anderson University
MATTHEW AND THE DIDACHE: TWO DOCUMENTS FROM THE SAME JEWISH-CHRISTIAN MILIEU? Edited by Huub van de Sandt. Minneapolis, MN.: Fortress, 2005. Pp. vi + 310. $49.00, ISBN 0-80063722-4.
To the debate about the relationship between Matthew and Didache (Didache dependent upon Matthew, or vice versa? Both dependent on common traditions? Didache completely independent of Matthew?) may be added the question posed in the subtitle of this volume, whose contents include: 1) “Hypotheses on the Development of Judaism and Christianity in Syria in the Period after 70 C.E.” (B. ter Haar Romeny); 2) “The Milieu of Matthew, the Didache, and Ignatius of Antioch: Agreements and Differences” (C. Jefford); 3) “The History and Social Setting of the Matthean Community” (W. Weren); 4) “When, Why, and for Whom Was the Didache Created? Insights into the Social and Historical Setting of the Didache Communities” (A. Milavec); 5) “The Sermon on the Mount and the TwoWays Teaching of the Didache” (K. Syreeni); 6) “The Use of the Synoptics or Q in Did. 1:3b-2:1” (J. Kloppenborg); 7) “The Halakhic Evidence of Didache 8 and Matthew 6 and the Didache Community’s Relationship to Judaism” (P. Tomson); 8) “Didache 9-10: A Litmus Test for the Research on Early Christian Liturgy Eucharist” (G. Rouwhorst); 9) “Les charismatiques itinérants dans la Didachè et dans l’Évangile de Matthieu” (A. Tuilier); 10) “Two Windows on a Developing Jewish-Christian Reproof Practice: Matt 18:15-17 and Did. 15:3” (H. van de Sandt); 11) “Eschatology in the Didache and the Gospel of Matthew” (J.Verheyden); and 12) “Do the Didache and Matthew Reflect an ‘Irrevocable Parting of the Ways’ with Judaism?” (J. Draper). The essays by Haar Romeny, Jefford, Kloppenborg, and Draper are of particular note because of their wide interest to all students of early Christianity.
Michael W. Holmes
Bethel University
THE LAST WEEK: A DAY-BY-DAY ACCOUNT OF JESUS’ FINAL WEEK IN JERUSALEM. By Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006. Pp. xii + 220. $21.95, ISBN 978-0-06-084539-1.
The Last Week is clearly written and easily accessible. It offers but three pages of notes and is not a “scholarly work” even though the scholarship is evident in the presentation. Borg and Crossan present a more popularized application
of a sociopolitical lens to the last week of the life of Jesus in Mark 11-16. Jesus is presented as having a political and theological agenda that is strictly anti-imperial (anti-Roman). This is the underlying paradigm of the work. The presentation of Jesus as a political revolutionary should come as no surprise to those familiar with Borg and Crossan’s other works (much less those of R. Horsley, S. G. F. Brandon, J. J. Tabor, and even G. Stemberger). Borg and Crossan present a genuine rereading of Holy Week imbued with often overlooked meanings and possibilities. The Last Week is significant in that even if one does not choose to accept the paradigm completely, one could still gain an insight into the times and teachings of Jesus.
Charles Ensminger Niota, TN
FROM QTO “SECRET” MARK:A COMPOSITIONHISTORYOFTHEEARLIEST NARRATIVE THEOLOGY.
By Hugh M. Humphrey. New York: T & T Clark, 2006. Pp. v + 170. $29.95. , ISBN 0-567-02512-8. Humphrey says Mark first compiled Peter’s preaching of the Q material, expanding it into a narrative (chapters one to thirteen) portraying Jesus as the Son of God inspired by Wisdom, the eschatological Teacher. This he did while Peter was preaching in Rome. Later he narrated Peter’s preaching of the cross, creating the Passion Narrative. It was “Pauline” in its Christology of a self-emptying Son of Man/Adam. This was on the eve of Claudius’s expulsion of Jews from Rome. Taking both texts to Alexandria, Mark decided to unite the two texts, seeding each half with new materials recalling or foreshadowing the other, adding the theme of discipleship in a world not likely to end as soon as he had first expected. Humphrey takes too seriously the various patristic notes about Mark’s authorship (which his theory seeks to harmonize, making them refer to different Markan drafts) as well as Suetonius’s equivocal note on Claudius expelling Jews.An interesting though not a crucial book, Markan specialists should be sure to read it.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
LORD OF THE COSMOS: MITHRAS, PAUL,ANDTHE GOSPEL OF MARK. By Michael Patella. NewYork: T & T Clark, 2006. Pp. x + 134. $29.95, ISBN 0-567-02532-2.
The title promises much, but the book delivers nothing. Patella in no way documents his guess that Paul learned Mithraism in Tarsus and used its cosmic cross of intersecting ecliptic planes to communicate his own Gospel. He contradicts himself as to whether or not Mithraism provided participation in the deity; so Paul either offered a better product with baptismal sharing in Christ or, alternatively, somehow used the notion of Mithraic salvific participation to communicate his own Christian version. Patella uncritically assumes that the Evangelist
Mark was a friend of Paul in Rome, and that Mark’s Gospel thus embodies Pauline soteriology as well as the imagined Mithraic interest. Mark presents Jesus as, like Mithras, a cosmic savior battling against evil, but also as the utter antithesis to the Platonic cosmology (in the Timaeus) that Patella identifies with Mithraism. Bartimaeus denotes Christian conversion from the Platonic worldview. The book is rambling, repetitive, and mostly irrelevant to the stated topic, if we can even be sure what that is. Give this one a miss.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
PREACHING MARK’S UNSETTLING
MESSIAH. Edited by David Fleer and Dave Bland. St. Louis, MO: Chalice, 2006. Pp. xi + 188. $19.99, ISBN 0-8272-2986-0.
This collection, which grew out of the May 2005 Rochester College Sermon Seminar, will be helpful to preachers. Part one offers a series of essays considering the preaching. Mark. F. Craddock’s essay and sermon, both presented at the seminar, establish the volume’s agenda of using Mark’s preaching of his own Gospel as the model and substance of contemporary sermons, eschewing the-text-as-pretext-forthree-points-with-interesting-contemporaryillustrations method. The approach seeks to embroil the listeners in the Markan text and to confront them with Mark’s demand for discipleship. M. Hooker provides exegetical essays on Mark’s introduction and conclusion, stressing the links of both to the full Gospel. F. Aquino offers a theological assessment of Mark as a call to becoming fully human. J. Barton provides a cultural relevance by imagining a dialogue between Mark and Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Arguing that only a community life of discipleship fully performs Mark makes R. Ward’s essay on performance criticism a final epitome of the volume’s participatory agenda. Part two includes eleven sermons, most of which were crafted after the seminar, on Markan texts. An introduction to each sermon provides compositional comments, emphasizing connections with the essays in part one and providing a model by which others might use part one of the volume to create their own sermons.
Richard Walsh
Methodist College
THE EXORCISM STORIES IN LUKEACTS: A SOCIOSTYLISTIC READING. By Todd Klutz. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series, 129. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xii + 299. $80.00, ISBN 0-521-83804-5.
This monograph, a reworking of Klutz’s 1996 dissertation from the University of Sheffield, examines the exorcism stories in LukeActs alongside ancient sources on demonology, treating, in particular, Luke 4:33-37; 8:26-39; 9:37-43a and Acts 16:16-18. Klutz defines
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“sociostylistic reading” as an “analysis of linguistic style” that includes “attention not only to the linguistic structures of the text itself but also to the various kinds of extratextual forces that constrained and shaped the text’s production in the first place.” Although his work resembles the form-criticism of the Synoptics, Klutz is more interested in placing his pericopae within the larger discourse of Luke-Acts than in the original communities that developed these sources. Klutz enjoys the benefits of such a wide-ranging methodology (multiple tools to reveal complex interrelationships and meanings of a given text) as well as its demerits (lack of focus and occasional moments where more is evoked than what is actually argued or developed). His work will be of interest to scholars of Luke-Acts, of possession and magic in the early Roman world, and of critical methodology.
Robert Paul Seesengood University of North Carolina at Pembroke
THE ORIGINAL LANGAUAGE OF THE LUKAN INFANCY NARRATIVE. By Chang-Wook Jung. Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement Series, 267. New York: T & T Clark, 2004. Pp. xi + 249. $140.00, ISBN 0-567-08205-9.
Most NT scholarship assume that Luke 1-2 were composed in imitation of Septuagintal style and were not originally composed in Hebrew. Jung’s study analyzes the Greek of Luke’s infancy narrative to settle the question with linguistics, finding no basis for a Semitic original. Further, he suggests that Luke 1-2 was not composed but co-opted by the Evangelist. Jung’s work is filled with charts, diagrams, and systematic tables of exegetical options; further, the book is permeated with cross-references to LXX and NT Greek, making it often a slow and laborious reading. Substantial skill with Hellenistic Greek and more than general acquaintance with Greek syntax and formalist/ structuralist modes of NT exegesis are assumed. Further, knowledge of biblical Hebrew is needed to evaluate Jung’s analysis of whether biblical quotations in Luke derive from the Greek or Hebrew text. It is not a good work for introductory students and is more suited to advanced scholars.
Robert Paul Seesengood
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
ECHOES OF SCRIPTURE IN LUKEACTS: TELLING THE HISTORY OF GOD’S PEOPLE INTERTEXTUALLY. By Kenneth
Duncan Litwak.
Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement Series, 282. New York: T & T Clark, 2005. Pp. x + 233. $130.00, ISBN 0-567-03025-3.
Litwak’s work explores the influence of the “OT” on Luke-Acts. The author of Luke-Acts makes few overt references to Jewish Scripture (ca. 25), which has led many scholars to conclude that Luke-Acts, unlike Matthew, was not
written to a Jewish audience. Litwak argues that there are pervasive allusions to Jewish sacred texts in Luke-Acts; these allusions are deliberate intertextual moments and are intended to be more than stylistic imitation; they are critical hermeneutical signatures, vital for an accurate understanding of Luke-Acts. Litwak insists that Luke-Acts must be read as a complete narrative. He argues that Luke’s overarching theme is the nature and development of God’s chosen community and people. “Luke’s” narrative focuses on the continuity of God’s fellowship. With such at its center, Luke-Acts argues its message both overtly (by an explicit statement and citation) and by analogy (through an allusion to the Jewish Scriptures). Technical in places, Litwak’s study is appropriate for intermediate students. It will be of most value to scholars interested in narrative criticism and in the purpose and genre of Luke-Acts.
Robert Paul Seesengood University of North Carolina at Pembroke
JESUSANDTHEIMPURITYOFSPIRITS INTHE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS.
By Clinton Wahlen. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2. Reihe 185. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2004. Pp. xiv + 280. $107.50, ISBN 3-16-148387-1.
What do the Synoptic Evangelists mean when they occasionally call demons “unclean” or “impure spirits?” The author takes the long way round to answer this straightforward question. After the standard survey of Jewish and early Christian usage, he approaches Mark, Matthew, and Luke-Acts from a redactioncritical point of view, evidencing a sure grasp of scholarship on each verse and theme he treats. But Wahlen seems short on answers, in each case making “unclean spirits” a minor function of major themes in each writer, and this only with the aid of overinterpretation. Oddly, at the start he provides two perfectly good explanations. First, many Jews believed that the demons were the ghosts of the Nephilim giants, products of miscegenation between mortals and angels, hence “impure” like all boundaryviolating creatures in Leviticus. Second, others considered demons to be ghosts of the dead, hence unclean just like corpses and cemeteries. The rest of the book is unnecessary and not worth the exorbitant price, except for libraries.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
TESTIMONY AND INTERPRETATION: EARLY CHRISTOLOGY IN ITS JUDEOHELLENISTIC MILIEU. STUDIES IN HONOUROFPETRPOKORNYY YY. Edited by Jií Mrázek and Jan Roskovec. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series, 272. New York: T & T Clark, 2005. Pp. ix + 328. $150.00, ISBN 0-567-08298-9. Pokorny’s interests in early Christianity were wide ranging, and this collection of essays aptly reflects that. The first collection of essays r
deals with Paul—what kind of Jew Paul was (K. P. Donfried), the controversy at Corinth (R. Hoppe), Paul’s Christology (L. Tichy; J. Schröter), the Dionysian background of Ephesians (S. E. Porter), and the earthquake imagery in Paul’s writings (L. J. Kreitzer). Six essays are collected under “Jesus in the Synoptic Traditions” and deal with orality in Mark (M. Myllykoski), Jesus and Gehenna (D. C.Allison, Jr.), apotheosis in Luke 24 andActs 1 (D. Dormeyer), the Christology of Matt 1:8-25 (H. Klein) and the Sermon on the Mount (W. Schrage), and strangely, an article on Jesus outside of the Synoptics (M. Hengel).Articles on the Fourth Gospel include its Christology (J. Bolyki), the vine imagery (S. Pisarek), John and the Enoch tradition (J. H. Charlesworth), Christology and community in the Farewell Discourse (K. Syreeni), and, using Heidegger, John’s notion of “truth” (H. Hübner). “Later Developments” include essays on later understandings of the beginnings of Christology (C. Demke), the seer of Patmos (J. M. Court), and Christology in the Apostles’ Creed (Z. Sázava) and at Chalcedon (P. Ellingworth). For research libraries.
Fred W. Burnett Anderson University
FOUR GOSPELS, ONE JESUS? A SYMBOLIC READING. By Richard A. Burridge. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005. Pp. xviii + 198. $16.00, ISBN 0-8028-2980-5. In this second edition of his well-received introductory treatise, Burridge wanders about freely within the brief compass of six chapters, ruminating on the four portraits of Jesus found in the canonical Gospels, the nature of a Gospel, and their authors and methods of writing; in short, on all manners of information likely to be of value to a beginner in NT studies. There follow sections on the individual Gospels, each one bearing a distinctive, traditional imagery and nomenclature taken from Ezekiel’s four living creatures: 1) the roar of the lion (Mark); 2) the teacher of Israel (Matthew); 3) the bearers of burdens (Luke); and 4) the high-flying eagle (John). A concluding chapter asks the question “four portraits or four Jesuses?” These four portraits justify the diverse interpretations of Jesus that have occurred throughout succeeding Christian history. In short, Burridge’s Christology symbolized by four living creatures makes an excellent introduction filled with wellphrased insights. He explains a literary, critical approach to the Gospels that should remove much of the perplexed anxiety that may afflict ill-prepared readers who fear that biblical science is inimical to traditional religious values.
Casimir Bernas
Holy Trinity Abbey
TWO GOSPELS FROM ONE: A COMPREHENSIVE TEXT-CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. By Matthew C. Williams. Grand Rapids, MI:
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Kregel, 2006. Pp. 256. $21.99, ISBN 0-82543940-X.
Of Streeter’s five arguments for Marcan priority, the linguistic argument—that Matthew and Luke improve Mark’s less-elegant Greek— has been the most enduring and persuasive.Yet neo-Griesbachians have highlighted the inherent subjectivity of many of the criteria used to reach that conclusion. Seeking less-subjective criteria by which to evaluate the phenomena, this interesting study (in a manner similar to that of H. Shinn, Textual Criticism and the Synoptic Problem in Historical Jesus Research: The Search for Valid Criteria) proposes to utilize text-critical criteria—developed to determine which of several variants is primary and which is secondary—as a means of determining whether Mark or Matthew is the primary source of the other. The study is well conceived, but falters in execution because of: 1) the inherent (but in this study largely downplayed) subjectivity of text-critical criteria, and 2) selfimposed limitations that undercut his method (e.g., he restricts himself to the selective NA27 apparatus as a source for variants in Mark, and adopts the NA27 text of Matthew as printed in the Aland synopsis, ignoring virtually all textual variations in Matthew). Finally, it is a classic example of a purely literary approach to the Synoptic Problem; the author, not unaware of possible influences of oral tradition, brings it in only as a possible explanation of evidence (e.g., instances where Matthew rather than Mark has the primary reading) that works against his thesis rather than as a serious factor in Gospel transmission. In short, thought-provoking yet unpersuasive.
Michael W. Holmes Bethel University
SERVANT LEADERSHIP: JESUS AND PAUL. By Efrain Agosto. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2005. Pp. vii + 248. $23.99, ISBN 0-827234-63-5.
Agosto provides a thorough exegesis of the recurrent themes in the leadership displayed by Jesus and Paul. Using NT sources, the author identifies five consistent elements in their leadership: 1) free acceptance of sacrifice and the challenges of leadership; 2) concern with social justice and marginal members of society; 3) a willingness to confront elites and domination systems; 4) inclusive, egalitarian relationship with followers; and 5) personal humility. The author argues that these are the hallmarks of a biblically based “servant leadership” that has relevance for religious leaders in a post-911 environment. This book’s solid exegesis will interest biblical scholars interested in leadership and will stimulate reflection and dialogue among church leaders seeking to understand and align themselves with NT leadership principles. While not a practical book, it would also be a valuable resource in seminary leadership programs, providing an insight into how Jesus
and Paul acted in their contexts. Its usefulness would have been significantly enhanced had the author included a more rigorous examination of the extensive literature and research findings (Christian and otherwise) on the concept of “Servant Leadership.”
Charles Cotton Queen’s University, Canada
HEBREWS: CONTEMPORARY METHODS—NEWINSIGHTS. Edited by Gabriella Gelardini. Biblical Interpretation Series, 75. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Pp. viii + 304. $129.00, ISBN 90-04-14490-0.
This volume, comprising selected papers of the Hebrews Seminar of the SBL International Meeting from 2001-04, is aptly entitled. Fourteen of the twenty-four papers presented in those sessions offer a representative sample of the excellence of contemporary scholarship on Hebrews. The essays are arranged in three parts covering major areas of Hebrews’ research: 1) Cultic Language, Concepts, and Practice; 2) Sociology, Ethics, and Rhetoric; and 3) Textual-Historical, Comparative, and Intertextual Approaches. This collection of essays is a “must read” for every serious student of Hebrews.
Alan C. Mitchell
Georgetown University
PNEUMATOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS: AMTSCHARISMA, PROPHET, AND GUIDE OF THE ESCHATOLOGICAL EXODUS. By Martin Emmrich. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003. Pp. xvi + 104. $27.00, ISBN 0-7618-2679-3.
This revised and abbreviated Ph.D. dissertation examines the pneumatology of Hebrews and concludes that the Spirit plays an integral role in three areas of the sermon: 1) priesthood, 2) prophecy, and 3) pilgrimage. Drawing on Jewish pneumatology evident in the Pseudepigrapha, Qumran Scrolls, Josephus, Philo, and Rabbinic Literature, Emmrich finds supports for the view that the Spirit is linked both to the priesthood of Christ and to that of the believers. Citation formulae in Heb 3:7 and 10:15 give the Spirit a prophetic function in the sermon, and Heb 9:8 shows that the Spirit plays a revelatory role as well. Finally, three warnings in Heb 2:1-4, 3:7-11, and 6:4-6 are evidence of a “retributive pneumatology” designed to keep the recipients of Hebrews on track toward their eschatological goal.
Alan C. Mitchell
Georgetown University
POETICSOFTHEGNOSTICUNIVERSE: NARRATIVEANDCOSMOLOGYINTHE APOCRYPHONOFJOHN.
By Zlatko Plete. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, 52. Leiden: Brill, 2006. Pp. x + 329. $129.00, ISBN 90-04-11674-5.
This book is a revised version of the author’s Yale dissertation, written under the direction of B. Layton. Plete rejects all attempts at sourcecriticism and refers to his work as “an essay in “Gnostic” poetics,” thus taking what I would call a “comp-lit” approach to the text. He sees Plato’s Timaeus as the key to understanding the “poetics” of the “Gnostic” universe. He divides the revelation in the Apocryphon according to the Platonic categories of “Being” (the unknown God and the spiritual realm) and “Becoming” (cosmogony, and the process of salvation). The Savior in the text presents a Platonist revision of the Gospel of John, using Plato’s Timaeus and “Moses” (i.e., Genesis) as the principal sources, with the biblical Wisdom literature as intermediary. Plete’s close reading of the Apocryphon is informed by an impressive knowledge of Graeco-Roman philosophy and literature, as well as Alexandrian Jewish traditions as reflected particularly in Philo. His book is an impressive contribution to scholarship on the Apocryphon of John and on Gnosticism in general.
Birger A. Pearson
University of California, Santa Barbara
“DAS VOLLKOMMENE PASCHA”: GNOSTISCHE BIBELEXEGESE UND ETHIK. By Emmanouela Grypeou. Orientalia Biblica et Christiana, 15. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2005. Pp. 332. €58.00, ISBN 3-447-05064-0.
In the introduction to this book, a Tübingen dissertation written under the direction of S. Gero, the author adopts the definition of Gnosticism (German Gnosis) put forward by H. Jonas in his book The Gnostic Religion. The first part of the book is devoted to a detailed survey of Gnostic biblical interpretation, first as depicted in the writings of the Church Fathers and then as reflected in the primary sources preserved in Coptic. In the second part, Grypeou discusses Gnostic ethics, first as depicted in the heresiological accounts, and then as reflected in the Coptic sources. She sees Gnostic ethics as based upon Gnostic “antinomian” biblical interpretation. Especially interesting is her treatment of “libertinism,” particularly that of the Gnostics described by Epiphanius. (The title of her book, The Perfect Passover, is a phrase taken from Epiphanius’s discussion of one of the “libertine” Gnostic rituals, Panarion 26.4.8). She argues, plausibly enough, that the absence of “libertine” ethics in the Coptic sources does not mean that the Church Fathers cannot be trusted in their accounts of that variety of Gnosticism. It simply reflects the ascetic orientation of the monastic groups in which the texts were copied and circulated. She concludes that Gnosticism first arose among extreme “allegorists” among Hellenized Jews. Her book is a solid contribution to scholarship on the ancient Gnostic religion.
Birger A. Pearson
University of California, Santa Barbara
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THE
LOST GOSPEL: THE QUEST FOR THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS ISCARIOT. By Herbert Krosney. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2006. Pp. xxv + 309; plates. $27.00, ISBN 978-1-4262-0041-0.
THE SECRETS OF JUDAS: THE STORY OF THE MISUNDERSTOOD DISCIPLE AND HIS LOST GOSPEL. By James M. Robinson. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006. Pp. ix + 192. $19.95, ISBN 978-0-06117063-8.
Sometime around 1978, some Fellahin discovered in a tomb at the Jabal Qarara in Middle Egypt, across the river from the town of Maghagha, four manuscripts, two Greek and two Coptic. One of the Coptic manuscripts, now known as the Codex Tchacos, contained the Gospel of Judas. In his book, Krosney, an investigative journalist specializing in historical projects, traces the story of the codex: its sale in 1978 to a Cairo antiquities dealer, H. Asabil, its theft in a burglary in Hanna’s home in 1980, its recovery in Switzerland in 1982, its offering for sale for $3 million to scholars examining it in Geneva in 1983, its deposit in a New York bank vault in 1984 after unsuccessful attempts to sell it, its purchase by F. T. Nussberger in 2000, its failed sale to the dealer B. Ferrini in the same year, its retrieval and removal to Switzerland in 2001 where work commenced on its restoration and translation under the auspices of the Maecenas Foundation in Basel and the National Geographic Society. During its peregrinations and storage in unsuitable environments, the papyrus manuscript suffered an enormous damage.
In his book, Robinson treats the Judas of the NT, “the historical Judas,” “the Gnostic Judas,” and the story of what happened to the codex containing the Gospel from the time of the Geneva meeting in 1983, where Robinson was represented by S. Emmel, up until the time of the preservation work being carried out by Coptologist R. Kasser and others. I treat these two books together for they overlap and provide strikingly different pictures of the same story. Thanks to his association with the National Geographic Society, Krosney was familiar with the content of the Gospel of Judas and gives a summary of it in his concluding chapter. No such advantage was enjoyed by Robinson. Ironically, his book was out of date by the time it was published, for a tentative translation of the Gospel of Judas had already appeared by that time.These two books, taken together, make for a fascinating reading.
Birger A. Pearson
University of California, Santa Barbara
EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT
IN SOCIAL CONTEXT: A READER. By Mark Harding. London: T & T Clark, 2003. Pp. xxii + 370. $29.95, ISBN 08264-5604-9.
This book offers in a single collection sources that are well-known and readily avail-
able in other similar anthologies. It is directed at the undergraduate student, and would be quite useful as a supplementary material for most courses in Christian Origins. Although Harding is interested in the “cultural environment” and the “social context,” there is not very much here that would give students any such understanding. There are eight sections in this book: part one offers sources on the rise and rules of the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires; part two offers sources on the Jewish experience of these empires (539 BCE135 CE), such as the Maccabean revolt, Herod, and the various Jewish revolts; part three considers Greco-Roman literature (e.g., History, Biography, Letters, Poetry), and part four considers Jewish and Christian literature (e.g., Apocalypses, Wisdom Literature, Gospels); part five covers Greco-Roman religion (e.g., sacrifice, cult of the dead, Imperial cult, mystery religions), and part six covers Philosophy (e.g., Epicureanism, Stoicism, Cynic, and other itinerants); part seven provides sources for the Greco-Roman society (e.g., Household, Sexuality, Slavery, Economy, Government, and Sickness and Death); part eight, oddly entitled “Early Judaism and Christianity,” closes the book with sources on Sabbath, the Temple, the various Jewish sects, Qumran, resistance movements, resurrection, and Messianism. With the exception of a few entries in part seven, which are excellent, this is a standard collection of religious, philosophical, and historical primary sources.
Zeba A. Crook
Carleton University
ANTHROPOLOGY AND BIBLICAL STUDIES: AVENUES OF APPROACH. Edited by Louise J. Lawrence and Mario I. Aguilar. Lieden: Deo Publishing, 2004. Pp. 324. $44.95, ISBN 90-5854-026-X.
The essays are as follows (some titles abbreviated): 1) D. Chalcraft, “Nineteenth-Century Comparative Sociology on Israel”; 2) P. F. Esler, “The Context Group Project”; 3) D. J. Clark, “The Influence of Receptor Cultures on the Translation of the Bible”; 4) N. MacDonald, “Genesis 23 and the Models of Economic Exchange”; 5) J. Schaper, “The Oral and the Written, God as Scribe, and the Book of Deuteronomy”; 6) S. L. Sanders, “Parallel Literary Editions of Joshua and the Israelite Mythologization of Ritual”; 7) B. Lang, “An Anthropological Essay on Proverbs 31:10-31”; 8) J. R. Davila, “Ritual and the Jewish Pseudepigrapha”; 9) J. A. Loubser, “Possession and Sacrifice in the NT and African Traditional Religion”; 10) K. Wenell, “Reflections on the Early Jesus Movement and the Huahua Religion”; 11) T. J. Ling, “Virtuoso Religion and the Judean Social Order”; 12) D. J. Davies, “Purity, Spirit and Reciprocity in theActs of the Apostles”; 13) A. L. A. Hogeterp, “Anthropology and the Community as Temple in Paul’s Letters”; and 14) M. I. Aguilar, “Changing
Models and the Death of Culture.” Unfortunately, this collection of essays is not an explication of the different ways that anthropological methods can be used in the study of the biblical world, as the title suggests. Moreover, the papers are of an inconsistent quality: some are interesting and thoughtful (MacDonald, Davies, Aguilar); some are interesting but threaten to set back social-scientific criticism twenty years by their questionable use of cross-cultural parallels (Lang, Wenell, Loubser); some are of a surprisingly low quality given the qualifications of the editors (Schaper, Loubser, Ling); and some are simply out of place in a volume such as this, even if they are themselves interesting papers (Esler, Clark).
Zeba A. Crook
Carleton University
THE
CITY
IN THE VALLEY:
BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION AND URBAN THEOLOGY. By Dieter Georgi. Studies in Biblical Literature, 7. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005. Pp. xxviii + 370. $34.95, ISBN 1-58983-099-7.
The late Professor Georgi was a meticulous NT scholar and historian, and it might come as a surprise for some to see how deeply he was interested in applying the NT to urban concerns. He summarizes his interests in “Personal Reflections on an American Theological Perspective,” and, although he does not explicitly say so, his interest in urban theology seems to be a natural outgrowth of his interest in the sociohistorical situation of early Christianity in urban and Pagan centers. Georgi was convinced that the challenges and problems faced by early urban Christians still have a relevance for the ministry of churches in urban settings today. Topics are diverse—they range over “divine men” to the urban meaning of ekklÇsia—but all of the essays finally drive toward an “urban theology,” that is, the concrete application of sociopolitical actions to urban and Christian living. It is best to read his last two essays first in order to frame the collection (“En Route to an Urban Theology: Can Theology Help Us Understand Urban Society?” and “On Sojourning”). H. Koester gives helpful and moving personal reflections in the “Foreword.”
Fred W. Burnett Anderson University
IN
THE SHADOW OF THE TEMPLE:
JEWISH INFLUENCES
ON EARLY CHRISTIANITY. By Oskar Skarsaune. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002. Pp. 455. $34.00, ISBN 0-8308-2670-X.
This work is a comprehensive study of Jewish influences on early Christianity, from the first century through the pre-Constantinian period. This book is divided into four sections. The first chronicles the history of Judaism from the Hasmonean revolt through the emergence of the rabbis. Special emphasis is placed on Jewish ideas and institutions that provide a
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useful context for Christian origins. Part two tracks down the origins and development of Christianity in the first two centuries. Skarsaune pays careful attention both to larger vestiges of Judaism and the way that Christian practice and theology was forged in dialogue and in contrast with contemporaneous Judaism. The third section adopts a thematic analysis of the Jewish background for various Christian concepts and practices. The final section contains an epilogue that addresses the momentous changes that Christianity underwent in the fourth century, and the significance of these developments for Jewish–Christian relations, both in antiquity and today. This work is written specifically for a general audience, although it is equally suited for the advanced student and scholar. Readers will benefit greatly from the annotated bibliographies that accompany each chapter. The one significant drawback is the lack of a comprehensive subject index, which would have made the book more accessible as a reference work.
Alex Jassen
University of Minnesota
GEOGRAPHY IN EARLY JUDAISMAND CHRISTIANITY: THE BOOK OF JUBILEES. By James M. Scott. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series, 113. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. viii + 337. $65.00, ISBN 0-521-80812-X. This work focuses on early Jewish and Christian conceptualizations of the geographical division of the world and its inhabitants. This discussion is framed around an analysis of the second-century BCE Jewish pseudepigraphic book of Jubilees and its reception in early Christian literature. Jubilees 8-9 contains a systematic rewriting of the Table of Nations in Gen 10, which represents the biblical model of world genealogy. In chapter two, Scott examines how Jubilees 8-9 rewrites its biblical base and how this process illuminates ancient Jewish geographical conceptions. The remainder of the book contains Scott’s detailed arguments for the pervasiveness of Jubilees 8-9 in Christian literature, including Luke-Acts, Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, Theophilus of Antioch, Hippolytus of Rome, and medieval maps of the world. Scott, basing himself on a close analysis of presumed literary dependence, argues that the geographic traditions of Jubilees 8-9 directly or indirectly influenced each of these bodies of literature and ultimately stands behind each of their geographical aspects. Scott’s thoroughly researched and carefully documented study successfully demonstrates the need to consider the world as the ancients understood it when we read their writings. In addition, Scott has provided a fruitful area of research in the study of the afterlife of Jewish pseudepigrapha in Christian literature. Alex Jassen University of Minnesota
JUDAISMBEFOREJESUS:THEEVENTS AND IDEAS THAT SHAPED THE NEW TESTAMENT WORLD.
By Anthony J. Tomasino. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Pp. 345. $24.00, ISBN 0-83082730-7.
This work presents a fine addition to the growing library of surveys of Judaism in the Second Temple period. It is written specifically for a Christian audience with no prior knowledge of the subject, who desire to understand the development of Judaism from the end of the HB through the first century CE and its importance for the NT and for early Christianity. Charts, maps, a glossary, and explanatory text boxes enhance the accessibility of the book. Tomasino carefully balances the need to present a full portrait of Second Temple Judaism and the desire to identify elements in Second Temple Judaism that help to frame better the emergence of Christianity. The book opens with a chapter on the various sources employed to reconstruct Second Temple Judaism and then proceeds to examine Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Tomasino places a heavy emphasis on the theological systems of Judaism and their relationship to the Persian and Hellenistic contexts in which they were formed. There is also a significant discussion of the Jewish context for issues pertinent to the study of the NT and of early Christianity (i.e., messianism).
Alex Jassen University of Minnesota
DERRIDA’S BIBLE (READING A PAGE OF SCRIPTURE WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM DERRIDA). Edited by Yvonne Sherwood. Religion/Culture/Critique Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Pp. xv + 323. Cloth, $79.95, ISBN 1-4039-6628-1; paper, $26.95, ISBN 1-4039-6663-X.
Eschewing “Derrida” as a trademark and/or as a license for transgressive play, this impressive collection follows Derrida’s method of reading texts closely and in unexpected collocations. Specifically, the essayists conjoin small “pages” of scripture (Gen 22 appears most often) and some of Derrida’s recent writings (The Gift of Death appears most often). The editor, thinking of the firm but tumultuous relationship between text/tradition and Derrida/ criticism, tentatively posits the collection’s theme as “faithfulness-rupture.” For those unfamiliar with Derrida, it is the critics’ “faithfulness” to scripture/text that will surprise. But the essayists also rupture texts (or their dominant readings) by pointing to impossibilities (like the gift) within our thought, the performative nature of reading and culture, the promissory nature of justice/messiah, or the deadly effects of death upon meaning. Their most common strategy simply tries “to think” together matters not seemingly easily conjoined but which the texts under review combine (e.g., genealogy and virgin birth, memory and forgetting). Sher-
wood’s reflections on the ambiguous waw are crucial here. Working with the later Derrida, who in their hands resembles Kierkegaard and/ or Levinas (here Eisenstadt’s essay is crucial), they all produce engaged readings, and some a haunting relevance (e.g., Jobling, Heard). The volume boldly includes two responses by the almost convinced.
Richard Walsh
Methodist College
CONTAGIOUS
HOLINESS: JESUS’ MEALS WITH SINNERS. By Craig L. Blomberg. New Studies in Biblical Theology, 19. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005. Pp. 216. $20.00, ISBN 0-8308-2620-3.
Blomberg’s goal is to refute E. P. Sander’s thesis that Jesus welcomed sinners without requiring repentance, and Dennis C. Smith’s claim that Jesus’ meals must be understood as Greek-style symposia. Surprisingly, little space is devoted to Crossan who makes “commensality” the essence of Jesus’message and ministry. Most of the book surveys every conceivable reference to meals in the OT, Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocrypha, and Pseudepigrapha. Little proves relevant to the unsurprising thesis that Jesus seems not to have superstitiously avoided the ritually impure. For Gospel materials to qualify as data for Jesus’ attitudes and practice, they must go back to the historical Jesus, and so Blomberg spends the rest of the book in the task of apologetics. He deems blatant harmonization as a “critical” axiom and employs it everywhere. He even swallows the camels of the Cana miracle, the miraculous catch of fish, and the Emmaus story as sober historical data. The book is really a mass of apologetics that will appeal only to inerrantists.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
TEACHING THE BIBLE: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION. Edited by Mark Roncace and Patrick Gray. Resources for Biblical Study, 49. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005. Pp. xxiii + 440. $39.95, ISBN 1-58983171-3.
Designed specifically for instructors who wish to improve student knowledge, interest, and excitement in learning about the Bible, this superior text takes into consideration all ranges of student knowledge and addresses instructors’ need to engage individuals from the most elementary to the highly specialized. Two hundred seventy-three entries written by ninety-three professors of widely differing backgrounds offer readers a diversity of theological, ideological, methodological, and philosophical perspectives. The book is organized into three distinct sections: part one, strategies for introducing the general skills and concepts in biblical studies; part two, methods for teaching the HB; and part three, methods for teaching the NT. The inclusion of Internet sources
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with models for “traditional” classroom activities provides a comprehensive compendium for instructors in the university, seminary, or lay church group. Roncace and Gray succeed in offering a text that goes beyond pedagogical theory, having compiled a useful collection of effective, imaginative, and enjoyable strategies that represent a dialogue between the wide variety of critical approaches to studying the Bible.
Aaron Saari
Xavier University
WONDERS NEVER CEASE: THE PURPOSE OF NARRATING MIRACLE STORIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENT. Edited by Michael Labahn and Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte. European Studies on Christian Origins, Library of New Testament Studies, 288. New York: T & T Clark, 2006. Pp. xviii + 286. $140.00, ISBN 0-567-08077-3.
This book treats an English-speaking audience to a collection of papers from the 2002 and 2003 meetings of the Early Christianity Seminar of the European Association for Biblical Studies. The scholars represent Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Finland. The first section, treating of the miracle stories of Jubilees, Apollonius of Tyana, Asclepius, the Mishna and Tosefta, and the Emperor cult, are best, demonstrating that one best finds the NT relevance of adjacent literatures when studying them for their own sake. The next sections on the Gospels, Acts, Paul, Revelation, ancient illness taxonomies, and John 21 are learned but seem to offer little new to be learned, often classifying the obvious. An essay on the relation between the Acts of Andrew and Matthias and cognate texts will be the highlight for the elect who study those texts. Libraries ought to have it.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
THE WORD IN THIS WORLD: ESSAYS IN NEW TESTAMENT EXEGESIS AND THEOLOGY. By Paul W. Meyer. Edited by John T. Carroll. The New Testament Library. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004. Pp. xxx + 338. $39.95, ISBN 0-664-22701-5.
The essays and sermons in this collection (of which four items appear in print for the first time) bear an eloquent testimony to the intellectual and pedagogical abilities of their author, whose character and contributions are sketched in a warmly personal yet substantive foreword by J. L. Martyn. Five headings indicate the scope of topics covered: 1) theological and historical interpretation (covering “The ThisWorldliness of the New Testament,” faith and history, the messianic self-consciousness of Jesus, and the role of exegesis in ethical reflection); 2) Pauline exegesis and theology (touching on Rom 7, Rom 10:4, “Pauline Theology: A Proposal for a Pause in Its Pursuit” [with its famous footnote on pistis Christou], the Holy
Spirit in Paul, and Augustine’s reading of Romans); 3) his commentary on Romans (excerpted from the HarperCollins Bible Commentary); 4) Johannine exegesis and theology (including the presentation of God in the fourth Gospel, “Seeing, Signs, and Sources in the Fourth Gospel,” polarity of faith as a Johannine paradigm, and exegetical notes); and 5) shorter studies and sermons (four on Matthean texts and one each on Mark and Luke). In all, a striking collection, whose remarkable breadth is not as impressive as the author’s combination of intellectual erudition and pastoral insight. Highly recommended, especially for seminary libraries and students.
Michael W. Holmes
Bethel
University
SLAVESINTHENEWTESTAMENT:LIT-
ERARY, SOCIAL, AND MORAL DIMENSIONS. By J.Albert Harrill. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. xiv + 322. $25.00, ISBN 0-8006-3781-X.
This is a book not so much about slavery in the ancient world, of which there are many, but about how slaves function as a literary trope in the imaginations of Greek, Roman, and Christian writers. Harrill considers the use of stock motifs of slavery in Christian writing, such as the powerlessness of slaves’ bodies (chapter two), slavery as comedy (chapter three), the elite slave in households (chapter four), the slave trader (chapter five), and the faithful slave and Christian martyrdom (chapter six). The final chapter also sets this book apart from other books on slavery and is perhaps the most important for our own time: it traces the ab/use of the NT in theAmerican slavery debate (chapter seven).This book promises to make a lasting contribution not only by extending our understanding of slavery in antiquity but in illustrating the importance of socio-historical context when using the Bible to support or oppose other moral issues such as, I can imagine, same-sex desire and marriage. This current debate, after all, reflects many of the same hermeneutical approaches.
Zeba A. Crook Carleton University
A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE: ITS HISTORY, METHODS, AND RESULTS. By Paul D. Wegner. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006. Pp. 334. $17.00, ISBN 0-8308-2731-5.
On the one hand, this volume is brilliant in terms of concept, organization, and especially visual appeal: numerous charts, maps, diagrams, lists, drawings, and especially pictures illustrate or explain the subject, providing a rich feast for the eyes and the mind. On the other hand, the text accompanying these visual treats is unreliable—a fatal flaw in a guide aimed at students. Far too often in this volume, one encounters mistakes, misattributions, use of
out-of-date editions or dated discussions, or misleading summaries. An example: the sectional bibliographies list the first edition of Tov’s Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (except p. 142, a reference to the second edition, but with the first edition’s date) while the notes reference the second edition (except p. 125, which cites a “3rd” edition), and the text itself sometimes draws upon the content of one, and sometimes the other.At other places, views attributed to scholars stand in substantial tension (if not in direct contradiction) with the views they actually hold. The rich visual elements of this volume make it attractive to teachers and students alike; it is deeply to be regretted that the unreliability of its content makes its intended use extremely problematic.
Michael W. Holmes
Bethel University
STUDIENZURBIBLISCHENGRUNDLEGUNG DES CHRISTLICH-JÜDISCHEN VERHÄLTNISSES. By Peter Fiedler. Stuttgarter Biblische Aufsatzbände, NT 35. Stuttgart, Germany: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2005. Pp. x + 291. €49.40, ISBN 3-460-06351-3. In this collection of mostly previously published essays, Fiedler’s main concern is to show the constant reorientation that Judaism and Christianity had to make toward each other in developing their own self-identities. Selfidentities were developed, defended, and maintained often in polemical contexts over foundational concepts such as Torah (and sin), the relationship of both Jesus and the Church to the concept of Israel, the significance of the death of Jesus and of the Temple, the relation of Jesus to God, the meaning of and participation in the Eucharist, and the relationship of Christianity to developing rabbinical tradition and Christianity’s presentation of the Pharisees. Fiedler studies these concepts in key passages primarily from Matthew (2:20; 12:18-21), including Matthew’s presentation of the Pharisees and Paul (Rom 9-11). Fiedler’s overall theological point is that what is “uniquely” Christian can only be recovered when polemical passages in the NT against Jews are properly understood and when adjustments are made for the history of their negative impact. This relegates any NT polemic against Judaism to the rhetorical husk that needs to be removed in order to see the core of Christianity. This is a weak (but commonly held) theoretical point in what are otherwise excellent exegetical essays.
Fred W. Burnett Anderson University
JESUS, JUDAISM, & CHRISTIAN ANTIJUDAISM: READING THE NEW TESTAMENT AFTER THE HOLOCAUST. Edited by Paula Fredriksen and Adele Reinhartz. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002. Pp. xi + 129. $19.95, ISBN 0-66422328-1.
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In this short collection, five prominent NT scholars dedicate essays to Krister Stendahl: 1) P. Fredriksen, “The Birth of Christianity and the Origins of Christian Anti-Judaism”; 2) E. P. Sanders, “Jesus, Ancient Judaism, and Modern Christianity: The Quest Continues”; 3) J. G. Gager, “Paul, the Apostle of Judaism”; 4) A. Levine, “Matthew, Mark, and Luke: Good News or Bad?”; and 5)A. Reinhartz, “The Gospel of John: How the ‘Jews’Became Part of the Plot.” Each essay introduces the nonacademic reader to the issue of Christian anti-Judaism in the main areas of earliest Christianity. The overall goal of this collection is to illustrate that earliest Christianity (particularly Jesus and Paul) did not operate outside of or in opposition to Judaism. Rather, Christian anti-Judaism was imported into Christianity later and for the purposes of identity and boundary formation (a process that begins, however, within a couple of generations of Jesus). The brevity, scope, and accessibility of this book make it valuable in undergraduate classrooms and interfaith groups discussing Christianity’s role in the rise of modern anti-Semitism.
Zeba A. Crook
Carleton University
THE HISTORICAL JESUS IN RECENT RESEARCH. Edited by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight. Sources for Biblical and Theological Study, 10. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005. Pp. xvi + 618. $44.60, ISBN 1-57506-100-7.
It is by now a truism that one’s picture of the “historical Jesus” is very likely to be a selfportrait. The same seems to be true of one’s image of the shape and history of the scholarly quest for the historical Jesus. And thus, this massive collection of essays and excerpts reflect the “maximal conservatism” we have come to expect from Dunn. The pieces by scholars not generally deemed conservative nonetheless make a case for a conservative reading of this or that element of the Gospels. Reading the contents of the book, seminarians would never guess that there has been a constant and growing stream of radical Jesus scholarship. The Jesus Seminar appears here several times as a foil for a “sound” conservatism. The result is a syllabus of sectarian exegesis, amenable to the almost denominational perspective of conservative evangelicals who engage in apologetics when they believe themselves to be doing critical scholarship. But the essays are none of them without value, and any theological library should buy it.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary JESUS IN CONTEXT: BACKGROUND READINGS FOR GOSPEL STUDY. Edited by Darrell L. Bock and Gregory J. Herrick. Grand Rapids, MN: Baker Academic, 2005. Pp. 286. $22.99, ISBN 0-8010-2719-5. Though this collection of passages illuminating the Gospels is designed as a companion
to Bock’s Jesus According to Scripture, it is easily usable on its own. Rather than an anthology of relevant, complete texts, Bock and Herrick synchronize important excerpts with successive Gospel passages in the order one finds them, so it is easy to look up the relevant texts at the appropriate point. Material comes from the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, and Rabbinical writings. The omission of Hellenistic Pagan sources reflects the apologetical stance of the editors and intended readers, but one cannot include everything, and the editors kindly direct one to Boring, Berger, and Colpe’s Hellenistic Commentary on the New Testament for the rest. There is no student of the Gospels who will not find this collection most helpful. Individuals and libraries alike should invest in a copy.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
THE
JESUS DYNASTY: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF JESUS, HIS ROYAL FAMILY, AND THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY. By James D. Tabor. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Pp. x + 363. $27.00, ISBN 9780-7432-8723-4.
Tabor is basically rehashing the venerable theory of A. Harnack and E. Stauffer (never mentioned in this book) that Jesus was a messianic king, and that in his absence, James, then Simeon his brother, took over as “caliphs” in his place. There is nothing new here. The book is but a pale ghost of Eisenman’s magisterial James the Brother of Jesus It is dedicated to A. Schweitzer, which is no accident, since it basically recapitulates his theory that Jesus expected that he would usher in the apocalypse by his ministry of healing, preaching, and exorcism, but that John the Baptist’s shocking death made him reconsider, making him realize for the first time that he might have to die too. To this, add H. J. Schonfield’s The Passover Plot, which Tabor’s book greatly resembles in its imaginative mind reading of Jesus and how he might have-cum-must have applied various scriptural prophecies to himself, then endeavored to fulfill them.
Robert M. Price
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
THE BIRTHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: THE INTERTEXTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS. By Thomas L. Brodie. New Testament Monographs, 1. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2004. Pp. vii + 653. $49.50, ISBN 1-905048-03-3.
Brodie’s weighty tome connects much of his previous work on the intertextuality and the literary development of the Gospels. Specifically, he argues that Proto-Luke reflects a dependence upon the Septuagint (especially the Elijah-Elisha narrative) as well as 1 Cor and logia from Matt 5 and 11. Moreover, he maintains that this text becomes the core of the Gos-
pel tradition that the Evangelists creatively engaged. The argument proceeds in four parts: 1) an introduction to ancient writing practices; 2) an articulation of the thesis; 3) a detailed examination of the relationship between ProtoLuke and the Septuagint; and 4) eight appendices on Proto-Luke and NT intertextuality. In the process, Brodie dismisses the nebulous category “oral tradition” in favor of literary dependence, and his Proto-Luke hypothesis renders Q unnecessary. These are bold strokes, and although Brodie perceives the wide-ranging implications that his proposal would have for early Christian history and theology, he restricts himself to a narrow problem. Indeed, despite its title, the book focuses primarily on the Gospels, and its Proto-Luke thesis accounts for just one thread in the formation of the Gospel tapestries. Nevertheless, calling attention to the intertextual connections within the Gospels represents an innovative direction in NT studies and merits further examination. It is perhaps unavoidable, however, that the volume’s highly technical argumentation will restrict readership to specialists and advanced graduate students.
David M. Reis
University of Oregon
