Abstract
This collection explores the re-use within the writings of the New Testament of material drawn from the Book of Exodus, following the model established in the series of studies on the New Testament and the Scriptures of Israel edited by Steve Moyise and Maarten Menken between 2004 and 2012. The opening chapter by Drew Longacre surveys the place of Exodus within Second Temple Judaism. Perhaps surprisingly, it does not treat in detail the reception in Jewish literature of these foundational narratives of salvation, election, covenant and law, but concentrates instead on the differences between the Greek and Hebrew versions of the work, emphasising the textual pluriformity characteristic of the scriptural writings throughout this period. A further nine chapters cover the use of Exodus within the four Gospels (treating Luke-Acts as a unity), the accepted and disputed Pauline epistles, Hebrews, the general letters and the Book of Revelation. The volume concludes with a final reflection, drawing out some common findings and possible directions for future study. These contributions illustrate the rich variety of ways in which the New Testament authors deploy the language, imagery and literary structures of the exodus narratives. They appeal to them selectively in order to express their faith in the redemption and ongoing divine presence made available in Jesus (e.g. the Gospels of Matthew and Mark), to frame his rejection as part of a wider pattern of Israel’s disobedience and idolatry (e.g. Acts, Romans, Hebrews), or to help Gentile believers forge a new communal identity as the people of God (e.g., 1 Peter).
Several chapters engage helpfully with some of the wider methodological issues which are prominent in current scholarly discourse about early Christian interpretation of the Jewish scriptures. The question of the extent of the influence of the later interpretation of a scriptural text on its treatment in the New Testament is carefully addressed in the chapters on the disputed Pauline letters and the general letters offered by Seth Ehorn and Katie Marcar, respectively, for instance. It is also central to Daniel Gurtner’s investigation of Mark’s Gospel, which concludes that the evangelist’s appropriation of Exodus themes is not always mediated through an Isaianic lens. Michelle Fletcher’s excellent study highlights the importance of attending to the ways in which the echoes of Exodus in the Book of Revelation both interact with the other scriptural allusions to which they are connected in their new literary context and also evoke wider cultural resonances from within Graeco-Roman philosophy and literature. Jeannine Brown’s analysis of the narrative patterns common to the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Exodus is also particularly illuminating, arguing persuasively that Matthew’s story of Jesus presents him as more of a new Israel than a new Moses. This focused volume succeeds, then, in foregrounding the fundamental significance of the Exodus traditions for the development of early Christian theology, and the multi-layered and multivalent nature of their re-uses of them.