Abstract
Ammann, Sonja, Götter für die Toren. Die Verbindung von Götterpolemic und Weisheit im Alten Testament (BZAW, 466; Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2015), pp. x+ 332. €99.95/ $140.00/£74.99. ISBN 978-3-11-036410-1; e-ISBN 978-3-11-038587-8 (e-Pub), 978-3-11-036538-2 (PDF); ISSN 0934-2575.
The intention of this monograph is to explore and analyse the connection between biblical/postbiblical idol polemics and wisdom. Albeit that Gerhard von Rad dedicated an insightful chapter of his Wisdom in Israel to texts concerned with this topic (Isa. 40.19-20; 41.6-7; 44.9-20; 46.1-2, 5-8; Jer. 10; Hab. 2:18-19; Ps. 135; Bel and the Dragon; Ep. Jer.; Sap. 13-15; Jubilees etc.), A.'s intention is to offer a more systematic treatment of this subject. She explores particular texts, each supplied with text-critical notes, namely Isa. 40.12-31; 41.6-7; 41.21-29; 42.8-9; 42.17; 44.9-20; 45.14-17; 45.20-21; 46.1-7; 48.3-5; Jeremiah 10; Psalms 113 (LXX); 134 (LXX); 135; Epistle of Jeremiah; Sap. 12.23-15.19. She implements a discourse-analytical approach grounded in the sociology of knowledge. First, this approach enables A. to depict the coupling of idol polemics and wisdom. This is achieved by employing terms to delineate particular discourse strands (as opposed to literary genres) and also to explore joint patterns of thought that are fundamental to the use of comparable forms and terminology in idol polemics and wisdom texts. Second, within this discourse-analytical approach, the texts are conceptualized as portions of a discourse through which phenomena are constituted. In the chapters concerned with the exploration of the abovementioned texts, A. succeeds in ascertaining the literary development of the coupling of wisdom and idol polemics. Moreover, apart from the redaction-critical examination of the texts in question, she also equips the argumentation with an interpretation of the sapiential and polemical aspects and the manner in which they are blended.
Bálintkárolyzában
Anderson, Gary A., Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition (New Haven, CT/London: Yale University Press, 2015), pp. x + 222. $20.00/£12.99. ISBN 978-0-300-19883-6 (paperback).
Anderson's Sin: A History (Yale, 2009) argued that, by the Second Temple period, a ‘debt’ metaphor for sin had replaced the ‘weight’ metaphor more common in the HB. The economic linkage between sin and debt set the context in which alms-giving accrued credit in a heavenly treasury, the theme explored in this sequel (first published in hardback in 2013 but not reviewed in the B.L.). The book is comprised of 13 readable chapters which fall into two parts. Part One (chs. 2-7) explores the nature of ‘charity’ as giving in relation to God. This fundamental notion arises out of A.'s insistence that charity is ‘a declaration of belief about the world and the God who made it’ (p. 4). The second part (chs. 8-13) investigates the ‘horizontal’ dimension of charitable giving, in particular whether the merit that accrues from this virtuous act is in any way transferable. A.'s nuanced affirmative leads to a consideration of purgatory-a concept due for rehabilitation, since ‘purgatory depends on a robust understanding of sanctification and merit… that is deeply grounded in the biblical narrative’ (p. 164). With a subtitle laying claim to the ‘biblical tradition’, it is striking that the case is made predominantly through readings of Tobit and Ben Sira. Throughout the book, A. not only engages Jewish and Christian sensibilities from antiquity but also brings his study into the present day. As he acknowledges, for Christians the long shadow of the Reformation touches many parts of this book. A.'s erudite, eirenic, and valuable study deserves as wide a hearing as its predecessor.
David J. Reimer
Balentine, Samuel E. (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology (2 vols.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. xxvi + 587 (vol. 1), xiv + 558 (vol. 2). $395.00/£255.00. ISBN 978-0-19-023994-7 (vol. 1), 978-0-19-023995-4 (vol. 2), 978-0-19-985869-9 (set).
The publisher has declined to make a review copy of this two-volume work available to the B.L., and so no assessment of the work can be made here, but it is understood that the publication contains 164 articles in alphabetical order from ‘Abraham’ to ‘Justice, Justification, and Righteousness’ (in vol. 1) and from ‘Kingdom of God (Heaven)’ to ‘Word (Logos)’ (in vol. 2). Among the biblical/theological themes receiving individual entries are adoption, allegory and typology, anger, anthropology, apocalypticism, apostasy, asceticism, atonement, authority and order, barrenness, blessings and curses body, call, canon, comfort and mourning, conversion, covenant, cult and worship, the Day of the Lord, death and dying, the Decalogue, devils and demons, education. election, eschatology, ethics, exile and dislocation, faith, family, fear, festivals and holy days, flesh, fools and foolishness, foreigners, forgiveness, freedom and slavery. friendship, genealogy, glory, God and gods, good and evil, grace, guilt and innocence, heaven and earth, holiness, holy war, honour and shame, hope, hospitality, identity, idols and idolatry, the image of God, inheritance, joy, justice and righteousness, kings and kingship, knowledge, labour, land, love, marriage, mercy and compassion, miracles, monsters, mystery, nature and natural resources, oaths and vows, peace, persecution, politics and systems of governance, prayer, priests and priesthood, prophets and proph-ecy, reconciliation, redemption, remnant, revelation, reward and retribution, sexuality. sickness and healing, sin, story and memory, tabernacles and temples, theophany, torah, tradition, truth, underworld, violence, wealth and poverty, and wisdom. Four OT figures are the subject of separate entries, namely Abraham, Adam, David, and Moses; and several OT books/collections are treated under the headings of ‘Genesis’, ‘Exodus’, ‘Leviticus and Numbers’, ‘Deuteronomy’, ‘Historical Narratives (Joshua-2 Kings)’, ‘Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles’, ‘Psalms’, ‘Wisdom Literature’, ‘Megillot’. ‘Isaiah’, ‘Jeremiah’, ‘Ezekiel’, and ‘Book of the Twelve (Minor Prophets)’.
(Book List Editor)
Ballentine, Debra Scoggins, The Conflict Myth and the Biblical Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. xii + 292. £47.99. ISBN 978-0-19-937025-2.
B. presents a comprehensive study of the conflict myth in biblical traditions, arguing that instances of the myth should be read primarily as ideology legitimating divine and political personalities and institutions. She offers chapters on each of: the nature of myth; the conflict topos in Babylonian, Egyptian, Ugaritic and Mari texts; the conflict myth in the HB read against West Asian traditions; the conflict myth in visions of the eschaton in second temple Jewish, early Christian and rabbinic texts; and the use of the conflict myth to legitimize or delegitimize the figures of Jesus, Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Gamaliel. In her conclusion, B. argues forcefully for eliminating the language of chaos or Chaoskampf from the discussion of this mythic motif. The point B. makes about the myth being used to legitimate and delegitrmate figures and nations is well made. However, this does not fully account for the material. Sometimes the myth is used simply to praise God (e.g. 4 Ezra 8.20-23). Further discussion of the liturgical use of the myth in lament (e.g. in Pss. 74 and 89) and praise (e.g. Ps. 104 and Pr. Man. 1-4) would have been desirable. Similarly, B. might have made clearer the fact that not all second temple Jewish and rabbinic uses of the myth are eschatological (e.g. Pss. Sol. 2.25-25). She studies some texts which do not mention conflict (e.g. 2 Bar. 29.4; 1 En. 60.7-25; 4 Ezra 6.47-52), suggesting that ‘conflict myth’, like Chaoskampf, is an inadequate appellation. An excellent study nonetheless.
Bartholomew, Craig C. and Heath A. Thomas (eds.), A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), pp. xi+ 304. $29.99/£19.99. ISBN 978-0-8010-3087-1.
This volume brings together a range of Evangelical biblical scholars to reflect on a jointly authored ‘manifesto’ on theological interpretation (included in the volume). The book derives from the Institute for Biblical Research's ‘Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar’ that ran from 2012 to 2014. The manifesto sets out 12 tenets for theological interpretation that together form a hermeneutical framework, rather than a method, for ‘hearing God's address’ in Scripture. The essays often overlap in subject matter, but together provide a helpful range of reflection on the relationship between dogmatic and historical criticism, the legacy of early Christian interpretation, the Canon as context for interpretation, the narrative shape of Scripture, the missional impulse of Scripture, and much more. In a few areas the volume left me wanting to hear more, including attention to Scripture's non-narrative dimensions as a theological resource (the volume repeatedly emphasized the narrative shape of Scripture), disagreements with early Christian interpretation, and the problem of the relationship between the testaments. Only a few essays demonstrated with examples how theological interpretation makes a difference when interpreting specific texts. Nonetheless, the volume offers an informed one-stop shop for those interested in the major concerns of theological hermeneutics.
Matthew Lynch
Bosworth, David A., Infant Weeping in Akkadian, Hebrew, and Greek Literature (Critical Studies in the Hebrew Bible, 8; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016), pp. x + 148. $29.95. ISBN 978-1-57506-463-5.
The merit of the book is threefold: first, it elevates into the arena of discussion the unexplored topic of infant weeping; second, it couples the science of infant weeping with the analysis of ancient texts; and third, by comparing ancient texts, it presents the topic in a new light. Chapter 1 affords the methodological background. It investigates infanticide, abandonment, abuse and caregiving. In literary testimonies of infant weeping, the weeping demeanour may not occur in segregation but in the context of additional behaviours. These collectively evoke caregiving or hostility, or may even bespeak the ambivalence in the caregiver (the blending of caregiving and hostility). Chapter 2 presents Akkadian incantations (which reflect this ambivalence) but also the magic of music, crying in Mesopotamian incantations, noise and its consequences in mythic narratives. Chapter 3 focuses on HB texts, such as Exodus 2; Genesis 21 and Ezekiel 16. The examination draws significant parallels especially between the first two texts. Ezekiel 16 is summarily treated. Perhaps the connections with the other two texts could have been further explored (e.g. the proto-confession in Ezek. 16.3 looks into the family-tree of Jerusalem, alluding to her ethnically foreign mother; similarly, in the Ishmael narrative, Hagar is also an ethnically foreign mother, but still both Jerusalem and Ishmael experience the caregiving God). Chapter 4 examines weeping in infant abandonment stories in Greek literature. The concluding chapter offers exhilarating conclusions regarding the compared texts. Mesopotamian parents solicited professional help to soothe their babies, hence the incantations. In Greek texts infant abandonment is prominent and occasionally it was only the viability of a child that elicited the care. Lastly. the resistance to infant abandonment among Jews especially in the Hellenistic period may have been an ethical stance inherited from earlier times.
Bálint Károly Zabán
Brawley, Robert L. (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics (2 vols, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. xxiv + 541 (vol. 1), xii + 556 (vol. 2). $395.00/£255.00. ISBN 978-0-19-020486-0 (vol. 1), 978-0-19-020487-7 (vol. 2), 978-0-19-982991-0 (set).
The publisher has declined to make a review copy of this two-volume work available to the B.L., and so no assessment of the work can be made here, but it is understood that the publication contains 179 articles in alphabetical order from ‘Abortion’ to ‘Luke-Acts’ (in vol. 1) and from ‘Malachi’ to ‘Zephaniah’ (in vol. 2). Most of the OT books-as well as a number of apocryphal and NT books-receive an individual entry, though a number of prophetic books are subsumed into an article on ‘Prophets’. Among the themes and issues that are individually treated are abortion, bioethics, bribery, capital punishment, cheating, children, community, compensation, covenant, creation, death and dying, ecology, economics, egalitarianism, ethnicity, exile and restoration, family, fidelity, flesh, food, forgiveness and reconciliation, free will and determinism, freedom, friendship, gender, good and evil, grace and mercy, holy war, honour and shame, hosp-itality, imperialism, imprisonment, judgement, justice, kidnapping, killing, kinship. land, law, marriage and divorce, monarchy, monotheism, nationalism, natural law, peace, philanthropy, poverty, power, prejudice, racism, rape, restitution, retribution, righteousness, sabbath, salvation, sanctification, sexuality, sin, slavery, stealing, strangers and sojourners, suffering, suicide, theodicy, truth and falsehood, vengeance, violence, virtues and vices, war, and wealth.
(Book List Editor)
Brett, Mark G., Political Trauma and Healing: Biblical Ethics for a Postcolonial World (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), pp. viii + 248. $28.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-7307-1. [Distributed in the UK by Alban Books.]
This book brings together some of B.'s recently published work, largely focused on biblical material, and applies it to modern conversations concerning postcolonial dialogues and reconciliation. B. argues that ‘a hermeneutical fusion between ancient and modern horizons will need to engage with the broader discourse of social imaginaries, and not just with authorial discourses’ (p. 72). B. puts this into action, having worked with a representative body of traditional Aboriginal owners who negotiated ‘a new policy framework for Indigenous land claims in Victoria-a framework subsequently translated into legislation as the Traditional Owner Settlement Act (p. 1). B. approaches texts to respond to contemporary problems by first exploring themes within texts themselves and then by placing them in a broader paradigm of theology and ethics. Themes exposed are nationalism in Deuteronomy and Joshua. B. also explores sovereignty and how it is undermined in the Priestly tradition, arguing that ‘P's ecumenical tone’ expresses ‘a transformation of political discourse … Yhwh's jurisdiction … no longer needs a national conquest narrative to support it’ (p. 101). Similarly, B. finds agreements between Deutero-Isaiah and H, in terms of contesting the authority of empires and looking for a just society for natives and foreigners. Likewise, in Job B. finds an apolitical focus on natural theology. Sceptics might protest about anachronism, suggesting that by putting texts into dialogue with modern concerns they are forced to answer questions they never sought to answer, or that this approach dilutes close critical reading of texts. B. manages to avoid these pitfalls. Despite the complexity of the topics, B's lucid analysis and careful discussion are an excellent demonstration of exactly how academic research can be translated into valuable impact work.
Katherine E. Southwood
Brueggemann, Walter, Chosen? Reading the Bible amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), pp. xviii + 88. $14.00. ISBN 978-0-664-26154-2.
This compact little book addresses an issue that is much more significant than its compass would imply. With Christians particularly in mind, B. considers what the promises of land and the attribution of chosenness to the Israelites in the OT mean in the context of modern political realities. He writes as one who fully supports the existence of the modern state of Israel and its need for security, but who decries what he sees as ‘indifference and cynicism in the policies of the state of Israel, which is regularly immune to any concern for human rights’ (p. xvi). The book is aimed primarily at those US Christians whose ideological convictions lead to their uncritical acceptance and support of Israeli policies, whether because of dispensationalist understandings of history that require the re-establishment of Israel as a prelude to the eschaton, or because of fear that criticism of Israel's policies will give an opening to, or will be construed as. anti-Semitism. In four short chapters B. sets out some general principles involved in reading the Bible, and then discusses in turn Israel's status as ‘chosen’, the question of the land, and the various manifestations of Zionism. There is then a section entitled ‘Q&A with Walter Brueggemann’, which is a digest of B.'s views on five practical questions relating to the situation and to US Christians’ responses to it, a short glossary of technical terms used in the book, and finally a study guide outlining four sessions based on the foregoing chapters. While by no means a complete or comprehensive solution to all the complexities of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and surely not intended as such, B.'s volume is an accessible and thought-provoking attempt to assess how and how far the biblical text can legitimately be allowed to impinge upon our thinking about these difficult questions.
Deborah W. Rooke
Brueggemann, Walter, God, Neighbor, Empire: The Excess of Divine Fidelity and the Command of Common Good (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016), pp. 165. $24.95. ISBN 978-1-4813-0542-6.
This book originated as lectures at Fuller Theological Seminary. After an introduction there are four chapters, each an independent discussion, though with overall thematic links: (1) The Nature and Mission of God: Irreducibly, Inscrutably Relational, (2) Justice: From Zion Back to Sinai; (3) Grace: The Inexplicable Reach Beyond; (4) Law: The Summons to Keep Listening. For those familiar with B.'s oeuvre there are no surprises. though the presentation remains fresh and engaging. He moves seemingly seamlessly between past and present, and sees the macro-context of political economy as the most important context for interpretation, both in the biblical world and today. Imperial policy and practice is the problem he addresses: ‘The Old Testament is offered as an alternative to the imperial narrative that dominates ordinary imagination’ (p. 3). In the Bible the imperial dimension is represented by Solomon and royal liturgies in Jerusalem, while in the contemporary context it is represented by the militarist and consumerist globalizing pretensions of the United States. Over against such imperialisms stand emancipatory covenantal relationality and faithfulness as represented by the Exodus and Sinai tradetions, as B. expounds them. The biblical witness is thus often problematic, and at times Yhwh must be ‘called to account’ for a ‘totalizing propensity’ and a ‘history of barbarism’ (p. 114) in material where the radical distinctives of Israel's traditions are not sufficiently represented. As in B.'s other work, it is a partial reading of the OT, but on its own terms a potent reading.
Walter Moberly
Carroll, M. Dantel, R. and J. Blair Wilgus (eds.), Wrestling with the Violence of God: Soundings in the Old Testament (BBRSup, 10; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. 2015), pp. xiv + 178. $37.50. ISBN 978-1-57506-828-2.
There is no doubt that the question of violence in the OT, especially violence that is divinely authorized or initiated, is one of the major ethical and theological questions of the current era. This collection of essays from scholars working in Christian confessional settings addresses violence as it appears in several specific OT texts, seeking neither to diminish it nor simply to surrender to it but to wrestle with whether and how it might function as Scripture in any meaningful sense. Following an introduction by Carroll and Wilgus, the contributions are ‘The Near-Sacrifice of Isaac: Monstrous Morality or Richly Textured Theology?’ (Paul J. Kissling); ‘How Can We Bless Yhwh? Wrestling with Divine Violence in Deuteronomy’ (Daniel I. Block); ‘Taking the Land by Force: Divine Violence in Joshua’ (Hélène M. Dallaire); ‘Cries of the Oppressed: Prayer and Violence in the Psalms’ (David G. Firth); ‘Suffering Has its Voice: Divine Violence, Pain, and Prayer in Lamentations’ (Heath A. Thomas); ‘ “I Will Send Fire”: Reflections on the Violence of God in Amos’ (M. Daniel Carroll R); and ‘Toward an End to Violence: Hearing Jeremiah’ (Elmer A. Martens). A bibliography and indexes conclude the collection. Although the readings offered are unlikely to find agreement with all readers. this is a valuable attempt to take seriously the outrage that is engendered by such texts in an age that is both characterized by ideological awareness and scarred by religiously motivated violence.
Deborah W. Rooke
Cataldo, Jeremiah W., Biblical Terror: Why Law and Restoration in the Bible Depend upon Fear (London and New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), pp. xiii + 258. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-56767-081-6 (hardback), 978-0-56767-082-3 (PDF), 978-0-56767-083-0 (ePub).
C. sets out to explore the role of religion in postexilic Yehud, seeking the social conditions which led to the development of the monotheism evidenced in biblical texts from this period. He makes a distinction between the deity as such and human approaches to transcendence, desiring to uncouple theology and historical-cultural religious profiles by addressing the way in which religious views emerge from social needs even if they are presented textually as pre-existing divine commands. In order to develop his argument, C. uses the theones of Žižek, Foucault and Deleuze to provide reading lenses for interpreting texts such as Ezra-Nehemiah and the writings of prophets. In the main chapters of the book he applies Žižek's views on contradistinction and difference to reading laws which ban inter-marriage, followed by a critique of the temple symbolism in Haggai-Zechariah. He argues that the returnees under Cyrus were anxious about being marginalized in Yehudite society as it already functioned. The group met this problem by asserting the primacy of their own particular cultural values over the whole land. In the subsequent chapters C. develops this view by arguing that themes of Restoration and Theocracy created a Utopian idealism in service of a group's desire to dominate, balanced by fear of irrelevance and served by the demonstration of the disorderliness of the world without monotheistic law and covenant to provide identity. The study is thoroughly researched in the fields of cultural theory as well as in biblical scholarship such as that of Blenkinsopp and is logically constructed; it deserves careful reading.
Mary E. Mills
Davis, Ellen F. with Austin McIver Dennis, Preaching the Luminous Word: Biblical Sermons and Homiletical Essays (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), pp. 365. $33.00/£22.99. ISBN 978-0-8028-7423-8. [Distributed in the UK by Alban Books.]
Davis is a scholar and a preacher committed to biblical exegesis, which for her means ‘narrowing the gap between academic theology and … the proper concerns and ministries of the church’ (p. xxiv) to help us to recover ‘the oddness of the everyday’ (p. xi). Sermons should be more like poems (or works of art) than lectures, and she demonstrates her thesis with 50 sermons (38 OT, 12 NT) and five essays on witnessing to God in everyday life. Her underlying philosophy is sound. Illustrations are out-they detract rather than enlighten. In the wake of George Herbert she recogniszes that ‘nobody goes out of church as they came in’ and the preacher's role is not to impress but to enable the text to come alive, leading to repentance and commitment. The meat, however, is more in the five essays than the 50 sermons, where the food on the table hardly measures up to the menu. Despite her best intentions, Davis is a lecturer before she is a preacher. More head than heart, more George Bernard Shaw than Samuel Beckett, and too often her allusions (illustrations?) clearly demonstrate the point she wishes to make, leaving little scope for the listener's imagination or for the depths of the text. She is right to stress the need to educate the imagination of the hearers and to see the preacher as an elementary language teacher, not a conceptual translator, but it would have been good to see sermons that got nearer to doing it.
Alec Gilmore
Dietrich, Jak, Der Tod von eigener Hand. Studien zum Suizid im Alten Testament, Alten Ägypten und Alten Orient (Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 19; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), pp. xvi + 381. €129.00. ISBN 978-3-16-154055-4.
The detailed study (D.'s Leipzig Habilitationsschrift) in vestigates the significance of suicide in the HB, Ancient Egypt and the ANE. D. fuses a historical-critical approach with insights from social and cultural anthropology focusing on the interpretative framework of honour and shame. This allows him to understand suicide as a Sinngeschichte. i.e. as an attempt to solve a problem relevant to a person's life. Following Jean Baechler's 1975 study (Les Suicides), D. identifies three categories of suicide in the cultures under scrutiny: escapist, aggressive and oblative suicides. The bulk of the evidence addresses escapist suicides. Here D. distinguishes between killing by one's sword (e.g. Saul, Abimelech, Ursā von Urartu), precipitation from a cliff, self-immolation (e.g. Simri, Assurbanipal, Croesus), and suicides as a result of a fundamental crisis of life (e.g. Ahithophel, Naneferkaptah). Under the rubric of aggressive suicides D. subsumes e.g. Samson while oblative suicides are found in the Sacrifice of Jonah and the martyr legends of 2 Maccabees. On the basis of the rich evidence and the detailed investigation of the problem D. is able to conclude that the biblical evidence does not differ from the ANE. D. regards suicide as an accepted solution to a problem of one's life but notes a certain lack of a discussion. Nowhere does the evidence suggest that suicide is the only/best option. Rather it seems to be seen as an individual decision, based on the society's understanding of honour and shame. Suicide is also neither part of the discourse about illness or sin but often ultima ratio when a life worth living loses its value. D. has to be congratulated on a fascinating and careful study of a neglected aspect and to be thanked for presenting the rich material in such a clear manner.
Anselm C. Hagedorn
Dochhorn, Jan, Susanne Rudnig-Zelt and Benjamn Wold (eds.), Das Böse, der Teufel und Dämonen-Evil, the Devil, and Demons (WUNT, 11/412; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), pp. xiv + 297. €84.00. ISBN 978-3-16-152672-5; ISSN 0340-9570.
This collection of essays is the product of an international network of researchers, as well as two international conferences. The essays (nine in English and six in German) are divided into five categories. I. Old Testament: the devil and OT monotheism (S. Rudnig-Zelt, in German); images of evil in OT wisdom literature (M. Saur, in German). II. Qumran: Enochic literature and the persistence of evil: giants and demons, Satan and Azazel (M. Goff); a female demon at Qumran? Lilith, female demons and 4Q184 (M. Goff); Belial, free will, and identity-building in the Community Rule (M.T. Brand). III. New Testament: apotropaic inversion in the temptation pericope of Jesus and at Qumran (M. Morris); apotropaic prayer and the Matthean Lord's Prayer (B. Wold); Satan and cosmological dualism in the Gentile mission (E. Koskenniemi); the punishment of the sexual sin in 1 Cor. 5.5 (J. Dochhorn, in German); the devil, demons, evil and the cosmos in the epistle of James (O Wischmeyer, in German); Cain, the son of the devil: a tradition-historical investigation of 1 Jn 3.12 (J. Dochhorn, in German). IV. Late Antiquity and Middle Ages: tradition and innovation in Targum Jonathan to 2 Sam. 22.5; Isa. 13.21; 34.14; Hab. 3.5 (H.M. Patmore); Judas and St Brandan: the sinner, the holy man and the sabbath rest from the torments of hell (J. Bockmann, in German). V. General Perspectives: religion: an aspiration to surmount dualistic reality? (O Davidsen); what is a demon? an evil spirit? Satan? (R.E. Stokes). One of the editors (Rudnig-Zelt) gives a helpful introduction (in German) that summarizes the contributions and relates them to each other and to the main themes. The three main topics are far too large for the volume to be anything like comprehensive, but there are some interesting explorations on these themes here.
Lester L. Grabbe
Dubbink, Joep (ed.), Bijbelse Theologie (Amsterdamse Cahiers voor Exegese van de Bijbel en zijn Tradities, 30; Bergambacht: Uitgeverij 2VM, 2015), pp. 163. €21.00. ISBN 978-94-90393-54-0.
This collection of papers was assembled to celebrate the 80th birthday of Karel Deurloo, one of the founders of the Amsterdam school of theology, who instigated the series ACEBT in 1980. The last two letters of that acronym then stood for ‘en Bijbelse Theologie’ but ever since Cahier 17 (1999) the words ‘van de Bijbel en zijn Tradities’ have been substituted. For this particular volume the original title of the series would have been more appropriate. A general summary of the current debates in Biblical Theology since Brueggemann (1997) is given by Paul Sanders and Klaas Spronk. Brueggemann's own ideas are developed by Eep Talstra, and the arguments of Philip Davies for reading the Bible with no confessional bias are discussed by Klaas Smelik. Other complementary general surveys include a detailed review of one in Dutch by Koorevar and Paul (2013) by Adri van Wal, and by Joep Dubbink on one on Christian dogmatics prepared for the Dutch Reformed Church by van den Brink & van der Kooi (2015). Special attention is paid to the notable contributions of some other scholars such as von Rad (Ed Noorts), Childs (Klaas Spronk), and Breukelman and his predecessors who had laid the ground for the development of the Amsterdam school (Gerard van Zanden). The changing face of the ecclesiastical influence on the Amsterdam Chair of Theology is traced by Rinse Reeling Brouwer, contrasting the contributions of Breukelman, Zuurmond and Deurloo. A discussion of Talstra's work on biblical texts and its implications for theology is discussed by Bob Becking, of the feminist approach of the Roman Catholic scholar Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza by Manna Slootmans, and of distinctive contributions from Mennonite scholarship in The Netherlands by Christiane Karrier-Grubbe. As for liturgy, Peter-Ben Smit suggests a better understanding of the phrase et cum spiritu tuo. Affiliations for all the contributors and English abstracts of their papers can be found at the end of the book.
Mervyn Richardson
Durand, Jean-Marie, Thomas Romer and Lionel Marti (eds.), Colères et repentirs divins. Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 24 et 25 avril 2013 (OBO, 278; Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2015), pp. x + 393. Several figures. €120.00. ISBN 978-3-7278-1785-4 (Academic Press Fribourg), 978-3-525-54404-4 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht); ISSN 1015-1850.
This 2013 conference addressed a perennial and complex problem for ancient as much as modern contexts: what caused divine anger, how was it manifest, and how abated? The resultant proceedings give an intriguing set of perspectives over nearly 400 pages and 23 articles, all but one in French, some with brief English summary. About half deal directly with the HB, half with other ancient contexts. Their arrangement is neither author-alphabetic nor thematic but follows their order of initial delivery, more relevant to the conference than the volume, and necessitating more digging to unearth the abundant riches. Regrouping them thematically, three articles deal with Mesopotamia in general: Yoram Cohen (in English) challenges the ‘positivist’ consensus view on the emergence of Mesopotamian theodicy; Nele Ziegler discusses innocent suffering in Ludlul bel nemeqi and Lionel Marti contrasts ideology and Realpolitik in Assyria. Three essays focus specifically on Mari: Dominique Charpin presents a general summary and specific examples; Jean-Marie Durand questions the coherence of ancient and modern terms for fault, sin, remorse and repentance; while Mchaël Guichard gives the first publication of abilingual penitential psalm (with photographs, transliteration, translation and commentary). Youri Volokhine alone gives an Egyptian perspective, on skin conditions as divine punishment. Two writers explore general biblical themes: Christophe Nihan considers excessive divine anger, while Thomas Römer ponders divine ‘repentance’. Several focus on Pentateuchal texts: Albert de Pury on priestly narrative, Michaela Bauks on Genesis 2-4, Stéphanie Anthonioz on the flood (comparing Atra-hasis), Micaël Bürki on Numbers 5-3, Olivier Artus on Numbers 11 and Jürg Hutzli on Numbers 25. The remaining biblical papers are: Daniel Bodi on Ezekiel 14 (referencing the Gilgamesh and Erra epics); Hervé Gonzalez on Zechariah 1-8; Jean-François Landolt on Qohelet; and Hans-Peter Mathys on the Chronicler. Finally, four articles address postbiblical themes: David Hamidovié on Mastema in Jubilees; Philippe Borgeaud on the Elysian Demeter; John Schied on Roman deities; and Bernadette Martel-Thoumian on late Mameluke texts. An index of sources concludes this very useful volume.
Philip S. Johnston
Elliott, John H., Beware the Evil Eye: The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World. I. Introduction, Mesopotamia, and Egypt (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016), pp. xxii + 209. £16.00. ISBN 978-0-2271-7568-2.
Elliott, John H., Beware the Evil Eye: The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World II. Greece and Rome (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016), pp. xxxvi + 334. £27.50. ISBN 978-0-2271-7613-9.
It should be explained to B.L. readers that these are the first two volumes of a projected four-volume study. Although mentioned briefly in the volumes under review here, OT and related matters will be dealt with in vol. 3 (forthcoming, along with vol. 4). The study is announced as an ambitious project, to offer a full survey and analysis of the phenomenon of the Evil Eye (EE) in all its manifestations. The EE is argued, in accordance with many previous studies, to have its likely origins in Sumer, and subsequently spread by cultural contacts to all contiguous regions, becoming endemic throughout the circum-Mediterranean world and the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic religious and geographical spheres (travelling by way of the latter, for example, as far as Indonesia). The phenomenon was explained by early writers (e.g. Pliny, Plutarch) on the basis of the prevailing ‘extromission’ theory of vision, which contrasts with modern assessments of vision as a passive, receptive faculty. E. stresses the importance of distinguishing between the emic and etic approaches, and recognition of the legitimacy of the former. He notes that it is not to be dismissed as mere superstition or magic, since the classical writers give reasoned accounts of why it is a real, rather than an imagined. fact of life. The EE was not necessarily consciously malevolent, in contrast to witchcraft or even under the control of its operator. While the biblical evidence will not be treated until vol. 3, E. insists that there is extensive evidence, largely lost from sight by loose translation or failure to recognize the obvious, and sees his purpose in cataloguing the extensive evidence from elsewhere as preparatory to its recognition in the biblical and penbiblical corpus. The materials then presented in detail, documentary and icono-graphic, spells and amulets, offer compelling evidence for the ubiquity of belief in the EE in the cultural zones identified. The greater part of vol. 2 (pp. 47-266) consists of further analysis of the evidence surveyed, including two lengthy excursi, the first on envy, and the second on the apotropaic formulae kai sy, kai soi, et tibi, and et tibi sit. Exhaustive bibliography is provided both of primary and secondary materials. It is to be hoped that when vol. 3 in particular is published, it will stimulate further researches into this intriguing and perhaps misunderstood phenomenon.
Nicolas Wyatt
Galvin, Garrett,David's Successors: Kingship in the Old Testament (Collegeville. MN: Liturgical Press, 2016), pp. xi + 173. $19.99. ISBN 978-0-8146-8276-0.
Following his Preface, in the first chapter G. picks up on how an interdisciplinary analysis that includes engagement with intertextual concerns, social sciences, and literary analysis respecting kingship in the Psalms, the writing prophets and the writings might also reflect on an appropriate understanding of kingship in the OT. The second chapter discusses kingship as an institution by tracing the development of its polity under five specific kings and in the Psalms. The issues set out in these preliminary chapters are then tested through a further five chapters that discuss the reigns of Jeroboam, Ahab, Hezekiah, Manasseh and Josiah respectively, and in these G. offers a number of useful observations on the different approaches to these five found in Kings and Chronicles. These are followed by a recapitulation of the main conclusions in a final chapter. In addition to engaging closely with the sometimes considerably different representations of these kings found in Kings and Chronicles, these analyses also consider evidence from the Psalms, the ANE and archaeology. This, G. believes, permits him to offer ‘a more nuanced vision’ of kingship than might be garnered from the book of Kings alone. Thus, for example, he can note that there is ‘considerable archaeological evidence of Ahab's successful leadership, yet the Bible chooses to tell a different story’. His exploration of the texts, he believes, ‘may leave us with a more ambiguous picture of kingship than we started with, but it also allows us to avoid being the captives of ideology’. There is a bibliography, a Scripture index and an authors and subjects index. although its listing of authors is certainly incomplete. Misprints are few, but curiously on p. 91 the same sentence is repeated just eight lines apart. Although arguments need to be tested and some, perhaps, could be strengthened further, to the extent that the book provides some corrective to the prevailing tendency to favour a Deuteronomistic view of kingship it could prove a useful addition to recent discussion on the subject.
George Nicol
Greidanus, Soney, Preaching Christ from Psalms: Foundations for Expository Sermons in the Christian Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), pp. xx + 595. $40.00/£26.99. ISBN 978-0-8028-7366-8. [Distributed in the UK by Alban Books.]
This substantial volume builds on the author's Preaching Christ from the Old Testament(seeB.L.2000, p. l43). It reiterates that work's Christian exegetical principles and an expository method that seek to read and present texts in the context of the Christian canon. The wide body of scholarly literature concerning Psalms is succinctly and astutely summarized, with extensive footnoting of relevant sources for literary. historical and theological approaches. Particular issues arising in the preaching of psalms are discussed. A chapter is then devoted to application of the method to each of 22 psalm texts, representing an introduction and then the seasonal provisions of the Revised Common Lectionary Year A. These are Psalms 1, 2, 8, 22, 23, 29, 32, 47, 51. 72 (two sections), 80, 95, 96, 100, 104, 118 (two sections), 121, 122, 130 and 146. Appendixes include a summary of the exegetical method, a very brief model (structure) of an expository sermon, three sample sermons and a variety of suggestions for series of sermons on psalms. A select bibliography, subject index and select Scripture index round the work off. The wealth of material covered by the book makes it a good resource for dipping into, offering valuable insights variously into Christian exegesis, the Psalter and homiletics. This reviewer regrets that its model of preaching is largely limited to exposition. Nevertheless, it provides excellent foundations for any form of Christian scholarly or mimsterial engagement with Psalms.
Smon P. Stocks
Hamer, Colin, Marital Imagery in the Bible: An Exploration of Genesis 2:24 and its Significance for the Understanding of New Testament Divorce and Remarriage Teaching (London: Apostolos Publishing, 2015), pp. 334. £19.99. ISBN 978-1-910942-25-3 (paperback), 978-1-910942-27-7 (e-book).
This PhD thesis (University of Chester) embodies an impressive amount of research. extensively documented and illustrated with diagrams. The aim of this very detailed work is to show the relationship between the heavenly marriages of, first, God and humanity (springing from Gen. 2.24, the key text); secondly, God and Israel; and thirdly, Jesus and the Church. The claim H. makes is that the social reality of ‘mundane'’ marriage is ‘mapped on to the target domain’ of Yahweh's marriage to Israel and the ‘marriages’ of Creator and created and of Christ and his Bride, the Church. In other words, the contemporary Christian approach to marriage has reversed the thrust and turned the metaphor upside down. The technical terms and the diagrams make for dense reading but are well worth the concentration required. It is to be hoped that H. will follow up his thesis with a more direct exploration of the conclusions of his research for the understanding of Christian marriage, divorce and remarriage. (A mischievous comment: if the Reformation theologians had read this thesis, would the Tudor church have had a different outcome?)
Godfrey Ashby
Houston, Fleur S., You Shall Love the Stranger as Yourself: The Bible, Refugees, and Asylum (Biblical Challenges in the Contemporary World; London and New York: Routledge, 2015), pp. xii + 201. £26.99 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-138-85931-9 (paperback), 978-1-138-85930-2 (hardback), 978-1-315-71738-8 (e-book).
Taking seriously the series of which this work is a part, H. here weaves together both the Bible and the pressing issue of refugees and asylum in the contemporary world. This is not a simplistic reading of the biblical text as providing the answers to the current issues. Rather, H. develops a hermeneutically sophisticated approach which recognizes ways in which the Bible can contribute to discussion while appreciating that it also gives evidence of the sorts of problems which arise in contexts of displacement. A key strength of the work is the way H. outlines the current refugee crisis and the practice of international law in dealing with asylum, using Britain, Australia and the USA as her main case studies. With this background, H. then examines a range of texts from the whole of the Protestant canon, noting ways in which these texts can contribute to the discussion while acknowledging that some represent a significant challenge. Throughout, it is clear that H. is an advocate of refugee rights and offers a sustained critique of current practice, including some well-intentioned forms of philanthropy which may make the problem worse. In the end, she proposes that hospitality provides the model by which Christians may show commitment to justice and compassion.
David G. Firth
Irsigler, Hubert, ‘Denk an deinen Schöpfer’. Studien zum Verständnis von Gott, Mensch und Volk im Alten Testament (Stuttgarter Biblische Aufsatzbände, 60; Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2015), pp. 349. €52.00. ISBN 978-3-460-06601-4.
The collection's subtitle makes clear what segment of the Freiburg professor's work is highlighted here. The volume contains the following essays by I.: ‘ “Umsonst ist es, dass ihr früh aufsteht…”: Psalm 127 und die Kritik der Arbeit in Israels Weisheitsliteratur’; ‘Gott als König in Berufung und Verkündigung Jesajas’; ‘Quest for Justice as Reconciliation of the Poor and the Righteous in Psalms 37, 49, and 73’; ‘Von der Unheilsbotschaft zur pastoralen Prophetie: Erwählungsglaube zwischen Widerspruch und Aktualisierung im Buch Amos’; Tjobs letzte Hoffnung: 16,18-22 und 19,23-27 im Kontext der Ijobdichtung’;’ “Meine Wonne ist es, bei den Menschen zu sein” (Spr 8,31): Welt-Weisheit im Glauben des biblischen Israel’; ‘Kontroversen um die Identität Israels in alttestamentlicher Zeit’; ‘Zur Interdependenz von Gottes- und Menschenbildern im Kontext alttestamentlicher Anthropologien’; ‘“Jahwe und seine Aschera” in althebräischer Epigraphik: Zur Kontroverse um ihre Beziehung’; Exilserfahrung: Existenzielle Herausforderung und Wege ihrer Bewältigung im biblischen Israel’; ‘ “Und denk an deinen Schöpfer …”: Gott in Freude und Dunkel des Menschenlebens nach Kohelet 11,9-12,7’. This is a wide-ranging collection of excellent essays which it is very convenient to have in one handy volume now, some of them originally having been placed in relatively inaccessible publications. We can be grateful to I. and his pupils and other collaborators for putting together such a fine collection.
Joachim Schaper
Keel, Othmar and Silvia Schroer, Creation: Biblical Theologies in the Context of the Ancient ‘Near East (trans. Peter T. Daniels; Winona Lake, TN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), pp. xii + 244. 169 figures. $44.95. ISBN 978-1-57506-093-4.
Supplied with plentiful illustrations, this densely rich volume seeks to illuminate the OT creation traditions within their ancient context, in the style of Othmar Keel's classic work, The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms (New York: Seabury, 1978). After discussing the numinous aspects of natural phenomena, and the links between creation and blessing, Keel and Schroer explore ancient metaphors for creation, such as birthing, handicraft, battle and command. Another substantial section considers major creation texts (Gen. 1; Gen. 2-3; Ps. 104), especially on the origin of humanity, within their ANE setting. The volume ends with shorter treatments of the destruction of creation (as in the flood), the divine speeches in Job 38—41, three sixth-century Bce Greek natural philosophers, and selected wisdom traditions in the Hebrew and Greek OT. The authors conclude: ‘The unexamined idea that Israelite monotheism deprives Creation of its sanctity must be corrected at least in part… Israel's God is not merely a God of History but also always a God of Creation’ (p. 192). An appendix (pp. 194-208) prints 12 creation texts from Mesopotamia and Egypt, and the volume closes with a bibliography and indexes of authors and scriptural references. The book's strength lies in its abundant provision of well-chosen illustrated material to assist the reader in interpreting the OT creation stories within their ancient context.
Jeremy Corley
Lee, Il-Rye, Der Streit um das Gottesbild des leidenden Israeliten. Monotheismus und Theodizeefrage in ausgewählten Klagepsalmen des Einzelnen (Europäische Hochschul-schnften, Reihe XXIII: Theologie, 937; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013), pp. xiv + 255. Several tables. £37.40. ISBN 978-3-631-63852-1; ISSN 0721-3409.
The research which has resulted in this publication was conducted at the University of Bochum and was supervised by Klara Butting. Her established expertise in matters of pastoral and theological judgement has been linked to the obvious enthusiasm of the researcher, who is Korean by birth, ordained and teaches at Seoul Theological University, teamwork which has produced a fine work of scholarship. In the three psalms of lament (3, 38 and 88) selected for close criticism she shows that many of the aspects of modern debates around theodicy were as topical then as they are now. All three psalms are dealt with thoroughly and systematically, with a translation that is carefully justified linguistically, and a structural analysis in which the threads of a logical argumentation are traced. Psalm 3 is seen to present Yahweh as a god of salvation, Psalm 8 as an exclusive god, and Psalm 88 as a god of life. All display different interactions within the triangular relationshp of supplicant, adversary and deity. So many of the themes that are touched on are echoed in other Psalms, but by carefully concentrating on these three. and treating them in a far more thorough way than any commentary on the whole book of Psalms would have done, the author has been able to draw from ancient psalmody material which may help to bring a measure of comfort to some who currently seek relief from trauma.
Mervyn Richardson
Leuenberger, Martin, Gott in Bewegung Religions- und theologiegeschichtliche Beiträge zu Gottesvorstellungen im alten Israel (FAT, 76; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. 2016), pp. xvi + 379. €49.00. ISBN 978-3-16-154761-4; ISSN 0940-4155.
This is an unrevised paperback reprint (with students in mind) of a book first published in 2011, and reviewed in B.L. 2012, p. 150. The cloth edition is currently €99. twice the price of this ‘student edition’.
Lester L. Grabbe
Martin, Oren R., Bound for the Promised Land: The Land Promise in God's Redemptive Plan (NSBT, 34; London: Apollos/Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015). pp. 208. £14.99. ISBN 978-1-7835-9189-3.
Biblical theology is often the preserve of NT scholars more than OT experts, whereas the concept of the ‘promised land’ tends to be seen as a uniquely OT idea, foreign to the NT application of a relationship with Israel's God and its associated promises and blessings to a broader international community through the Messiah. In this book, M. presents a thorough survey of the land promise throughout Old and New Testaments. proposing a via media between dispensational and covenant theological approaches to the patriarchal land promise. He critiques both the dispensational rejection of typology which links the land promise to broader ‘new creation’ expectation, and the widespread allegorization and spiritualization of OT promises by covenant theologians. Instead, he appeals to the biblical hope of ‘new heavens and a [physical] new earth’, as the proper telos and antitype of the focus on the land of Canaan throughout the OT, expanding and ‘fulfilling’ the promise with something better, rather than ‘replacing’ it as such. Nevertheless, it is hard to see how the dissolving of a specific land promise to the specific nation of Jacob's descendants within a global ‘land’ and international people of God can be seen as an acceptable fulfilment of the very specific ethnic and territorial expectations of the Hebrew prophets. The exegesis herein of specific texts in both testaments is frequently problematic, even acknowledging M.'s presuppositions of final-form textual integrity and theological continuity and coherence throughout Old and New Testaments. Yet just a slight adjustment of approach might substantially improve the exegesis and support the overall thesis, if one were to allow for ongoing territorial and national diversity within the unity of an eschatological new/renewed creation.
James E. Patrick
Mcconville, J. Gordon, Being Human in God's World: An Old Testament Theology of Humanity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), pp. xii + 228. $27.99. ISBN 978-0-8010-4896-8.
This book emerges from the author's interest in biblical spirituality with a special focus on an OT theology of humanity. It is not a work of secular anthropology but is aligned with the embodied nature of theological views expressed within time and space in the OT. Nor does it contain a passive abstract profile of ideas but is linked to lived experience, ‘addressing the transformative nature of biblical materials. The theme of human embodiment draws together the separate textual explorations made by the chapters of the book. From the human person as Imago Dei in Genesis’ creation narratives to body imagery such as heart, soul, spirit, glossing individuality with the image of situatedness and relationalism, the study suggests continuity of human health with the non-human world, through being placed in a land. Once there, embodiment aligns human spirituality with cultural memory and worship as well as offering profiles of the political self, work and creativity, gender and human formation. This book offers a scholarly yet accessible examination both of biblical materials from an ancient society and of the ways in which the models of personhood found therein offer viable conversation partners for contemporary debate.
Mary E. Mills
Millar, J. Gary, Calling on the Name of the Lord: A Biblical Theology of Prayer (NSBT, 38; London: Apollos / Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016), pp. 264. $24.00. ISBN 978-0-8308-2639-1.
This survey largely consists of a discussion of key texts on prayer in the Pentateuch. Former and Latter Prophets, Writings, Psalms (where a strong messianic reading is given), Gospels, Acts, Paul and later NT books. While from a committed Christian perspective, M. engages extensively with critical scholarship and sheds fresh light on a number of texts. This is largely due to a clear argument: that the basis of biblical prayer is the covenantal commitment of the Lord to his people. The first mention of prayer is Gen. 4.26, where God is asked to fulfil his promises. Such prayer for the Lord's future deliverance is to be distinguished from praise, which is the response to his salvation. The pattern of the Lord answering his promises allows M. to incorporate the wisdom writings. In the NT the character of prayer is reshaped through a fresh understanding of how God is at work through Jesus Christ by his Spirit. The demise of this ‘big picture’ view of prayer in the modern church and the implications of the study for the Christian practice of prayer are sketched in a final chapter. Some may wish to question whether M. works with too narrow a definition of prayer, especially in relation to God as creator. However, this is a valuable study for anyone interested in the theology of prayer.
Philip Jenson
Myles, Robert J. and Caroline Blyth (eds.), Sexuality, Ideology and the Bible: Antipodean Engagements (The Bible in the Modern World, 70; Sheffield Studies in the Bible and Culture, 1; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015), pp. xvi + 185. £60.00/ e85.00/$95.00. ISBN 978-1-909697-83-6; ISSN 1747-9630.
A collection of essays from scholars at all stages of their academic careers who are located in the Antipodes and who, in the words of the introduction, ‘seek to unmask a sexual ideology that structures our wider interpretive and contextual frameworks’ (p. xi). The collection covers themes from both Old and New Testament, as follows: Robert J. Myles, ‘Introduction: The Antipodean Underside of Sexuality, Ideology and the Bible’; Deane Galbraith, ‘The Perfect Penis of Eden and Queer Time in Augustine's Reading of Paul’; Emily Colgan, ‘ “Come upon Her”: Land as Raped in Jeremiah 6.1-8’; Christina Petterson, ‘Imagining the Body of Christ’; Roland Boer, ‘The Matriarch's Muff; Alan H. Cadwallader, ‘Paul Speaks like a Girl: When Phoebe Reads Romans’; Gillian Townsley, ‘ “We're Here, We're Queer—Get Used to It!”: Exclamations in the Margins (Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4.2)’; Elaine M. Wainwright, ‘Queer[y]ing the Sermon on the Mount’; Yael Klangwisan, ‘Promethea's Song of Songs’; Caroline Blyth and Teguh Wijaya Mulya, ‘The Delilah Monologues’; and, to round off the collection, the only contribution from a non-antipodean scholar: Hugh S. Pyper, ‘Response: Queering the Antipodes’. This is indeed a delightfully queer collection which selfconsciously situates itself in an antipodean (i.e. diametrically opposed) relationship to other scholarship by virtue of both its ideological consciousness and its cultural identity. and which in so doing offers an illuminating challenge to the more dominant paradigms against which it defines itself.
Deborah W. Rooke
Niditch, Susan, The Responsive Self: Personal Religion in Biblical Literature of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015), pp. x + 190. $50.00. ISBN 978-0-300-16636-1.
To anyone reared on historical criticism and looking for something different, reading N. is like tasting water in the desert; the water had been there all along, but rarely noticed until someone drew attention to it. ‘Personal religion’ can be found throughout the OT, but N. focuses on the postexilic period because prior to the exile anything personal seemed to take second place to the institutions. (She wisely avoids any mention of ‘spirituality’, no doubt because of its many and varied associations and a lack of any clear definition, but at times what she describes is not a million miles away from what many today would understand by that term and for that reason, if no other, the theme will resonate with many people in many countries today.) After an introduction that sets the theme for what is to come, N. examines such matters as the ‘sour grapes’ proverb (Ezek. 18.2 and Jer. 21.29); laments (esp. Psalms and Jeremiah); vows (e.g. Jacob at Bethel); burial; visions (Zechariah), sign acts (Jeremiah and Ezekiel) and other experiences of the divine; and finally ‘dynamics of the personal in late-biblical narration’ (Ruth, Tamar, and Jonah). Such multum in parvo, backed up by notes, bibliography and indexes, defies detailed critique in a brief review but, with a wide variety of texts, a clear common thread and a theme not frequently dealt with, surely suggests something for everyone. Fine for scholars, desirable for preachers, and ideal for theological students in a study group.
Alec Gilmore
Olyan, Saul M. (ed.), Ritual Violence in the Hebrew Bible: New Perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. xii + 190. $74.00/£47.99. ISBN 978-0-19-024958-8; e-ISBN 978-0-19-024959-5.
As O. states in his introduction, although the question of violence in the HB has been of interest to scholars for some years, very little serious work has been done on specifically ritual violence in the HB. This volume is therefore designed to address that intriguing and troubling topic. Following O.'s introduction, the main body of the book consists of eight essays, in which cognitive perspectives jostle with social-scientific and mythopoetic approaches, among others, in the quest to understand more fully the narratives of ritualized violence in the HB: Debra Scoggins Ballentine, ‘What Ends Might Ritual Violence Accomplish? The Case of Rechab and Baanah in 2 Samuel 4’; T.M. Lemos, ‘Dispossessing Nations: Population Growth, Scarcity and Genocide in Ancient Israel and Twentieth-Century Rwanda’; Mark Leuchter, ‘Between Politics and Mythology: Josiah's Assault on Bethel in 2 Kings 23:15-20’; Nathaniel B. Levtow, ‘Cognitive Perspectives on Iconoclasm’; Susan Niditch, ‘“The Traffic in Women”: Exchange, Ritual Sacrifice, and War’; Saul M. Olyan, ‘The Instrumental Dimensions of Ritual Violence against Corpses in Biblical Texts’; Rüdiger Schmitt, ‘Establishing Communitas: Royal Rites of Military Loyalty’; and Jacob L. Wright, ‘Urbicide: The Ritualized Killing of Cities in the Ancient Near East’. Indexes of references and subjects complete the collection. This is an important contribution to scholarship on a neglected aspect of the HB that continues to have resonance in the contemporary world, regardless of how distasteful a topic it may be to some modern sensibilities.
Deborah W. Rooke
Snoer, Gordon L., The Use of the Old Testament in a Wesleyan Theology of Mission (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016), pp. ix+ 310. 3 tables, 1 map. £21.50/€32.25/ $43.00 (paperback), £18.00/€27.00/$36.00 (PDF). ISBN 978-0-227-17602-3 (paperback), 978-0-227-90560-9 (PDF).
Readers in search of a theology of mission are hardly likely to make the OT or indeed the Methodists their first port of call, nor are OT students likely to put an understanding of the OT's theology of mission high on their list of priorities, but in 1813 Methodist leadership thought otherwise, resulting in a sound basis for their work from Britain to North America and their first OT scholar in Adam Clarke, an excellent linguist (twenty languages) with a reputation for expository preaching. A richer understanding of the text and a reinvigorating drive for their widespread missionary activity were a couple of by-products. So where exactly did they dig? In three places: universalism (allied to monotheism), inclusion and exclusion, and Israel's relationships to other nations where the question was centrifugal (Israel witnessing to the other nations) or centripetal (Israel as the light that would draw other nations in). With the passing of time and the development of Methodist doctrine (the Holiness Movement in particular), changes have come, but the OT has never been lost sight of and the prevalence of Scripture remains paramount, though perhaps now more as collaborative evidence than the driving force. S. is to be congratulated on his patient and penetrating research and James Clarke & Co. on publishing it. It may be of limited appeal, but even those well informed on OT. mission and theology will not want to pass it by as it is an important contribution to all three. The lack of an index of Scripture References is unfortunate, suggesting that author and publisher saw it as a book for theologians rather than biblical scholars, and ‘preventing’ (grace) is surely a misprint for ‘prevenient’ (p. 41 n. 130 and p. 67 n. 71).
Alec Gilmore
Stalder, Will, Palestinian Christians and the Old Testament: History, Hermeneutics, and Ideology (Emerging Scholars; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), pp. xxiv + 422. $99.00. ISBN 978-1-4514-8214-0 (paper), 978-1-4514-9675-8 (e-book).
What do you do when, as a faith community, the texts that you hold sacred appear to undermine a fundamental aspect of your very existence? This is a question that is peculiarly pressing for Palestinian Christians living in the orbit of the modern state of Israel. and which S. attempts to address in his revised PhD dissertation (Aberdeen, 2012; supervised by Joachim Schaper). First, he reviews and assesses the hermeneutical approaches of several Palestinian exegetes from different ecclesiastical traditions. Then he reviews the political and theological contexts within which Christianity has grown among the Arab population in Israel since the end of the Ottoman Empire. In particular he demonstrates how the general interpretative stance among Palestinians has shifted dramatically since 1948 when modern-day Israel came into being. S. then reviews and critiques other non-Palestinian responses to the political and hermeneutical conundrum, before offering his own hermeneutic based on historical-critical considerations and using Deuteronomy 7 as an example. His basic stance is that Deuteronomy 7 needs to be understood as a seventh-century BCE ideological and metaphorical statement urging political and religious unity between Israel and Judah, rather than as a literal expression of the deity's will for the Canaanites or of any historical reality. S.'s attempt is a brave one, and his desire to contribute in this way towards healing the Israel-Palestine conflict is laudable. Particularly interesting and valuable is his survey of the concomitant political and hermeneutical developments thus far. However, I can't but feel somewhat uneasy about the ease with which his own solution cuts through the emotionally inflammatory readings of Deuteronomy 7 to the sane and detached territory of historical criticism, like Moses through the Red Sea. I do not decry the value of historical criticism; but its great weakness in a context like this is that it ignores the ideology that pervades the very mindset of the texts. There is no such thing as ‘just’ a metaphor. Metaphors are chosen for their emotional impact, not for their factual veracity; ‘wipe out the Canaanites’ may really only mean ‘let's all pull together’, but it does so at the cost of subliminally demonizing the Canaanites. S.'s reading is certainly better than the literalistic pogrommatical ones, but ultimately it falls short of truly addressing the exegetical impasse faced by Palestinian Christians.
Deborah W. Rooke
Stiebert, Johanna, First-Degree Incest and the Hebrew Bible: Sex in the Family (LHBOTS, 596; London/New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016), pp. xii + 228. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-5676-0033-2.
This volume explores sexual relations between first-degree relatives in the OT (such relatives being defined as one's parents, one's children, or one's full siblings). Before turning specifically to the OT, S. examines the reasons and rationale for incest taboos. with reference to the social-evolutionary approach of Durkheim, the psychological approach of Freud, the anthropological approach of Lévi-Strauss, and the sociological approach of Westermarck, and the chapter concludes with an examination of father-daughter incest in antiquity and modernity. The following chapter considers incest in the non-narrative texts of the OT (with special reference to the proscriptions of Lev. 18 and 20) and concludes that sexual relations between close family members is regarded in the OT as destabilizing and undesirable rather than incestuous and illegal, and that it was viewed more as a challenge to authority and convention than as a depraved crime. Next. S. examines the narrative texts of the OT: among the passages considered are Genesis 9, Judges 19, and Ezekiel 16, and attention is given to the relation between Ruth and Naomi. Given the theme of this volume, it inevitably makes for an uncomfortable read, but S. deftly succeeds in examining a difficult subject in a sensitive manner. This is a well-documented study, full of important insights, and serves to complement S.'s earlier detailed analysis of inter-family relations in her volume Fathers and Daughters in the Hebrew Bible (reviewed in B.L. 2015, p. 29).
Eryl W. Davies
Strawn, Brent A. (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (2 vols.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 1176. $395.00/£255.00. ISBN 978-0-19-984330-5.
The publisher has declined to make a review copy of this two-volume work available to the B.L., and so no assessment of the work can be made here, but it is understood that the publication contains 130 entries which collectively cover biblical law itself (its nature, collections and genres), the ancient contexts of biblical law throughout the Mediterranean world (ANE, Graeco-Roman and early Jewish), and the afterlife and influence of biblical law in antiquity and in modern jurisprudence around the world. Essays include treatments of the Book of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount. Greek Law and the Laws of Hammurapi, as well as such topics as testimony and witness, property, ritual, rhetoric, gender and sexual legislation.
(Book List Editor)
Taschl-Erber, Andrea and Irmtraud Fischer (eds.), Vermittelte Gegenwart. Kon-zeptionen der Gottespräsenz von der Zeit des Zweiten Tempels bis Anfang des 2. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. (WUNT, 367; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), pp. xi + 365. €129.00. ISBN 978-3-16-154617-4; ISSN 0512-1604.
This began as a conference at the University of Graz in honour of Johannes Marböck on his 80th birthday. A very helpful introduction (in German) by the editors surveys the various intermediaries and mediator figures in early Judaism and Christianity, as well as summarizing these essays on the mediation of God's presence (all in German except for one in English): the angel Rafael and the widow Judith, aspects of God's mediated presence in the Apocrypha (B. Ego); metaphorical mediation of God's presence exemplified by the Song of Songs (L. Schwienhorst-Schönberger); Ben Sira 24.22-decoding a metaphor (N. Calduch-Benages, in English); reception of Ezekiel's chariot vision in the late OT and Second Temple periods (F. Sedlmeier); Enoch as the son of man in the Parables of 1 Enoch and the broader traditional context (L. Stuckenbruck): Enoch and Metatron, the ‘Prince of the Divine Presence’: ‘apocalypse’ and ‘second God'’ (D. Boyarin); the function of Jewish wisdom speculation in the evolution of NT Christologies in the Synoptic Gospels (M. Ebner); Jesus as the image of God in the Fourth Gospel (J. Frey); mediator statements of the epistolary literature in their early Jewish and Hellenistic contexts (S. Vollenweider); the Pauline concept of mediation of the Torah (Gal. 3.19) (C. Heil); the exclusive mediator in the letter to the community at Colossae (A. Taschl-Erber); Jesus as ‘mediator’ in Hebrews (W. Kraus). This is a useful volume, especially since most areas of the subject are addressed by one or another essay in it.
Lester L. Grabbe
Waters, Jaime L., Threshing Floors in Ancient Israel: Their Ritual and Symbolic Significance (Emerging Scholars: Bible; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), pp. xiv + 207. $44.00. ISBN 978-1-4514-8523-3 (paperback), 978-1-4514-9660-4 (e-book).
The author's purpose is to demonstrate that threshing floors sustained and nourished communities in ancient Israel and were used for more activities than threshing and winnowing in order to produce grain. In this thorough and scholarly analysis, W. says that Yahweh was intimately connected to threshing floors which were under his control. It was here that Israel was blessed or cursed by success or failure of grain production. Yahweh could curse with famine (Hosea), bless with abundance (Joel), and save from attack (Judges 6). It is often overlooked that threshing floors served purposes beyond agriculture; they were open-access spaces ‘that anyone in society could use as a location where Yahweh was reachable’ (p. 137). Threshing floors were prepared hard surfaces, and because they were used seasonally they could be adopted as sacred spaces where Yahweh was especially present and accessible (p. 100) for a range of sacred functions such as rituals (including mourning and lamentation), theophanies, sacrifices, fleece laying, and the seeking of divine approval (for example about whether to go to war). Threshing floors could also be dangerous places, such as when David's ark procession paused and a ‘blunder’ was made (p. 113), or could be transmuted into permanent sacred spaces, such as in the case of the Solomonic temple. W. discusses how the language of threshing and winnowing was also used by Israel's prophets to describe Yahweh's approval and disapproval of Israel's behaviour. She presents a well-written and engaging study about an ‘overlooked’ subject which is an accessible and welcome addition to OT scholarship.
Roger Ryan
Widmer, Mchael, Standing in the Breach: An Old Testament Theology and Spirituality of Intercessory Prayer (Sirphrut, 13; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), pp. xiv + 592. $64.50. ISBN 978-1-57506-325-6.
In this book W. examines OT intercessory prayers, expanding upon his dissertation (University of Durham) on Moses’ intercessory prayer. In the core chapters he focuses in turn on the prayers of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, Jeremiah, Joel and Amos. By doing so, he aims to gain a better understanding of ‘the nature and function of the biblical mediatory role’ (p. x), which he claims is ultimately exemplified through Jesus Christ. As a result, he issues a call for Christians to fulfil their role as intercessors by participating in the continued intercessory work of Jesus Christ. W. demonstrates how biblical intercession informs many key components of biblical theology, such as the relationship between divine love and divine wrath and humanity's role in divine decisions. The primary metaphor of ‘standing in the breach’ that he discusses and his observation of ‘divine initiative in the process of reconciliation’ (p. 525) profoundly shape an understanding of intercessory prayer. As W. explains, ‘We shall see again and again in our exegesis that intercessory prayer engages with the tension between the divine attributes of love and justice. Or to put it differently, the intercessor stands in the breach between divine mercy and righteous wrath’ (p. 14). This book offers a breadth of fresh material on intercessory prayer in the OT and reflection on its relation to NT material.
Brittany N. Melton
Wilkens, Lorenz, Von unendlicher Huld und Treue. Studien zur Theologie des Bundes (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2014), pp. 222. £37.00. ISBN 978-3-631-63632-9 (print), 978-3-653-04726-4 (e-book).
‘This book is no monograph’, W. warns his reader in the first line. Indeed, it isn't. The author has brought together essays, lectures and sermons, all around the subject of the covenant and the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. In a postmodern style the author inserts his letters with various correspondents. The first part is three papers on the confessing church. The second part is a more philosophical reflection on ontology, covenant and creation. The third part reflects on vanous covenant makings including Genesis 15, Exodus 4,20 and 34. The fourth part discusses the ethical systems of Kant, Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer in light of the covenant. The fifth and largest part is a collection of 25 sermons, mostly on the NT. This is a garden in which every flower can bloom.
Nathan Macdonald
Wright, Christopher J.H., How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), pp. 288. $18.99. ISBN 978-0-310-52464-9.
Noting two problems in Christian circles-that some do not bother to preach or teach the OT while others jump quickly to interpret the text as if it is simply ‘all about Jesus’ (pp. 53, 212)-W. devotes the first quarter of his book to explaining why Christians should preach and teach the OT and the remainder to illustrating how to do it through the genres of stories, law, prophets, psalms and wisdom literature. He reads the whole Bible as one great story comprising six stages, namely: (1) Creation, (2) Fall, (3) Promise. (4) Gospel, (5) Mission and (6) New Creation, and expounds, through graphic illustrations, how the OT can be preached and taught from the world of Stage 3 (why not Stages 1 and 2?), in the light of the gospel events (Stage 4), to the contemporary world (Stage 5) in anticipation of what is to come (Stage 6) (pp. 33-38). Although W. mentions the divisions into Stages 1-3, he seems to treat Stages 1 and 2 as ‘background’ and Stage 3 as the OT ‘proper’ (pp. 36-37). In spite of this shortcoming, the book fulfils its purpose by providing both a theoretical basis and practical guidelines. It offers useful study tools in each chapter, including Questions and Exercises, Checklists and Sample Outlines, to prompt preachers and teachers to use these practical guides in the analysis of their selected OT texts to improve their existing and future sermon works.
Kai-Wen Karen Yuan
Note also the following books reviewed in other sections of this Book List
Abernethy, Andrew T., The Book of Isaiah and God's Kingdom: A Thematic-Theological Approach -see p. 71
Bremer, Johannes, Wo Gott sich auf die Armen einlässt. Der sozio-ökonomische Hintergrund der achämenidischen Provinz Yehud und seine Implikationen für die Armentheologie des Psalters - see p. 26
Cocco, Francesco, The Torah as a Place of Refuge: Biblical Criminal Law and the Book of Numbers- see p. 56
Cruz, Juan, ‘Who Is Like Yahweh?’: A Study of Divine Metaphors in the Book of Micah -seep. 73
Cudworth, Troy D., War in Chronicles: Temple Faithfulness and Israel's Place in the Land - see p. 93
Dubovský, Peter et al. (eds.), The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah - see p. 27
Edelman, Diana et al. (eds.), Religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire: Emerging Judaisms and Trends -see p. 28
Gibson, Jonathan, Covenant, Continuity and Fidelity: A Study of Inner-Biblical Allusion and Exegesis in Malachi - see p. 77
Greenway, William, For the Love of All Creatures: The Story of Grace in Genesis -see p. 58
Hiepel, Ludger and Marie-Theres Wacker (eds.), Zwischen Zion und Zaphon. Studien im Gedenken an den Theologen Oswald Loretz - see p. 5
Lau, Peter H.W. and Gregory Goswell, Unceasing Kindness: A Biblical Theology of Ruth- see p. 98
ØKland, Jorunn et al. (eds.), Constructions of Space. III. Biblical Spatiality and the Sacred -see p. 8
Saner, Andrea D., ‘Too Much to Grasp’: Exodus 3:13-15 and the Reality of God -see p. 62
Schmidt, Brian B., The Materiality of Power: Explorations in the Social History of Ancient Israelite Magic - see p. 38
Tiemeyer, Lena-Sofia (ed), Priests and Cults in the Book of the Twelve - see p. 84