Abstract
This volume consists of an introduction and fifteen studies, most of which were originally presented at meetings of the SBL Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity unit between 2010 and 2012. The book has a greater coherence than some other edited collections, since all the chapters are linked by a particular emphasis on the question of hermeneutical method, a very important and timely subject. The contributions are grouped into 3 sections: general studies; studies in the gospels; and studies in the letters. The first of the two ‘general studies’, which open the volume, is a consideration by Gignilliat of the implications of reading the Old Testament as Christian scripture and interpreting it theologically in the manner of the church fathers. The second, by Hultin, focuses on rabbinic exegesis, highlighting the coherence rather than the atomistic nature of midrashic interpretation. The section on the gospels contains 8 chapters, covering all four gospels, but with a greater concentration on Matthew and Luke. Several authors try to unpack the nature of the relationship between New Testament passages and their ‘inter-texts’, and other methodological issues addressed include a discussion by Notley and Garcia of whether Jesus based his interpretation of scripture on the Hebrew text. The volume concludes with five studies of the letters, which, with the exception of the final chapter by Bunta on Hebrews, concentrate almost entirely on Romans—doubtless an indication of the particular interest in this epistle among SBL participants in recent years. In this section, Gignac’s examination of how the citations in the catena of Rom 3:9–20 function in their new narrative context is perhaps worthy of special note.
All the studies in this collection engage with contemporary issues in the field, and a great strength of many of them is that they offer a close reading of New Testament texts employing Old Testament quotations or allusions but seek to draw out the wider hermeneutical implications of their conclusions. This approach produces some interesting new insights into even passages which have been the subject of much previous study: Rainbow revisits the relationship between Matt 14 and 1 Kings 21, for example, to make the interesting case that the text presents Jesus as having now taken over from John the identity of Elijah, and Rindge’s study of the Parable of the Rich Fool in Lk 12:16–21 persuasively points up the wisdom intertexts of this passage as well as the prophetic parallels. Other long-standing questions are also fruitfully re-opened, as in Bunta’s argument that an early form of merkabah mysticism is present in Hebrews. This volume contains, therefore, individual chapters which will be of value to those interested in a particular text, but also works effectively as a whole collection to engage the reader with the significant and topical question of the methodologies which can be applied to illuminate the New Testament use of scripture.