Abstract
Steve Moyise,
The Later New Testament Writers and Scripture
, SPCK: London, 2012; 192 pp.: 9780281063864, £15.99 (pbk)
Following on from his previous volumes on the use of Scripture in the Gospels and in the Pauline corpus, Steve Moyise completes the canonical collection by attending to scriptural usage within the later New Testament (NT) writings. The book is composed of five chapters, each of which considers how the respective NT authors utilize Scripture, drawing out the particular hermeneutical and interpretative strategies they so adopt. Its five core chapters are ordered as follows – Acts; 1 Peter; Jude/2 Peter/James; Hebrews; Revelation (this chapter also includes a short note on the Johannine epistles whose scriptural usage is comparatively minimal). Moyise also includes a short introduction and summary conclusion, with the latter giving him the opportunity to compare the different strategies adopted by the NT authors. In particular, he considers how innovative or traditional the respective authors were in their application of Scripture, finding Acts and 1 Peter at the more traditional end of things, and Jude and 2 Peter comparatively far more innovative.
Within the respective chapters, Moyise’s discursive approach varies. This has the benefit both of avoiding slavish repetition, but also (more fruitfully) of attempting to articulate the distinctive interpretative strategy adopted by each of the NT authors. For example, when covering Hebrews, Moyise adopts a linear approach, discussing the particular scriptural citations in the order that they appear within the letter. Conversely, the discussion of Luke’s use of Scripture in Acts is given a more thematic twist; Moyise groups quotations together under broad topic areas such as salvation, judgement or Christ’s death. He attends primarily to the direct citation of Scripture, though he also has some discussion of how broader narratives (e.g., Isaiah’s new exodus, the Isaianic servant or the Davidic psalms) are appropriated by the NT writers. This is particularly the case for Acts, in which Moyise’s comparison of the differing proposals of Doble, Pao and Mallen is a really helpful and succinct summary.
Moyise shows significant familiarity with a wide range of biblical texts and with the sometimes complex, interpretative questions that arise when discussing how such texts use Scripture. The book is thus a very useful one even for specialists – it engages with recent scholarship on various topics and focuses closely on textual and interpretative matters. But, at the same time, it remains very accessible for the lay reader or for students interested in the topic; the concluding sections at the end of each chapter offer helpful summaries of the prior discussion, and Moyise tries to take seriously questions that a relatively inexperienced reader might raise. For example, the fact that the chapter on 1 Peter comes directly after that on Acts is part of an inquiry as to whether the ‘Peter’ of Acts uses Scripture in a similar fashion to the ‘Peter’ who purportedly authors the first letter of that name. All in all, this is a very good and lucid book.