Abstract
Arnold, Bill T., Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014 [repr. 2016]), pp. xvi + 409. 12 plates. £34.99. ISBN 978-0-521-70547-9.
As far as introductions to the OT go, this is a relatively slender offering. However, what it may lack in volume is more than compensated for by the quality of its content and presentation. Rather than being a companion that introduces the critical issues of every biblical book, the work pays particular attention to the common heritage of the three Abrahamic religions, presenting the theme of monotheism as the single most important legacy of the OT, described by A. as ‘Israel's gift to the world’ (p. 3). The volume includes sidebar discussions with topics ranging from issues of historical-critical research and archaeology to acrostic structures in poetry. An impressive selection of illustrations and maps is included, although perhaps more might have been reproduced in colour. For the interested reader, valuable bibliographies conclude each chapter. A rudimentary glossary helps complete a succinct yet informative introduction to the text and world of the OT that will appeal to students and teachers alike. In addition to the book there is a web component, directions to which can be found somewhat hidden away on p. iv (‘Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521705479’). This useful resource includes a 160-slide PowerPoint that covers key terms and ideas associated with the OT, and a test bank of questions. A separate file contains answers, and there is also a series of lecture slides that cover each chapter.
Andrew P. Langley
Baden, Joel, Hindy Najman and Eibert Tigchelaar (eds.), Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy (2 vols.; JSJSup, 175.1 and 175.2; Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. xliv + 725 (vol. 1), xi + 1478 (vol. 2). €162.00/$180.00. ISBN 978-9-0043-2473-2.
This two-volume Festschrift is billed as a ‘sign-post’ rather than a grand finale, in which the 25-page publication list contains contributions from 73 scholars. The articles are arranged in alphabetical order by author. Volume 1 contains: S. Ackerman, ‘Between Athens and Jerusalem, on the Wings of a Dove?’; S.L. Adams, ‘The Social Location of the Scribe in the Second Temple Period’; P. Alexander, ‘Heraclitus’ Homeric Problems and Midrash Genesis Rabbah: Comparisons and Contrasts’; K. Atkinson, ‘The Identification of the “Wicked Priest” Reconsidered: The Case for Hyrcanus II’; H.W. Attridge, ‘What's in a Name? Naming the Unnameable in Philo and John’; J.S. Baden, ‘Redactor or Rabbenu? Revisiting an Old Question of Identity’; J. Barton, ‘Old Testament Ethics: Story or Style?’; C.D. Bergmann, ‘Future Food and Future Feasting: Tracing the Idea of the Meal in the World to Come in Qumran Literature’; K. Berthelot, ‘Casting Lots and Distributing Territories: The Hellenistic Background of the Book of Jubilees and the Genesis Apocryphon’; S. Beyerle, ‘Authority and Propaganda: The Case of the Potter's Oracle’; G. Boccaccini, ‘How Jesus Became Uncreated’; D. Boyarin, ‘Thrēskeia in 4 Maccabees’; G.J. Brooke, ‘The Visualisation of the Sacred at Qumran’; J.E. Burns, ‘The Wisdom of the Nations and the Law of Israel: Genealogies of Ethnic Difference in Ben Sira and the Mekhilta’; L. Carlson, ‘Zechariah, Zerubbabel, and Zemah: Ideological Development in Early Postexilic Judah’; R.J. Clifford, ‘The Divine Assembly in Genesis 1–11’; J. Day, ‘The Enochs of Genesis 4 and 5 and the Emergence of the Apocalyptic Enoch Tradition’; M.B. Dinkler, ‘Genre Analysis and Early Christian Martyrdom Narratives: A Proposal’; R. Doran, ‘The Disappearing God in Ezekiel the Tragedian’; A. Finitsis, ‘Scent of a Woman: The Influence of Lady Wisdom on 2 Maccabees’; A. Fitzpatrick-McKinley, ‘Preserving the Cult of Yhwh in Judean Garrisons: Continuity form Pharaonic to Ptolemaic Times’; S.D. Fraade, ‘ “If a Case Is Too Baffling for You to Decide…” (Deuteronomy 17:8-13): Between Constraining and Expanding Judicial Autonomy in the Temple Scroll and Early Rabbinic Scriptural Interpretation’; E. Frahm, ‘Of Doves, Fish, and Goddesses: Reflections on the Literary, Religious, and Historical Background of the Book of Jonah’; J. Frey, ‘Fire and Water? Apocalyptic Imagination and Hellenistic Worldview in 2 Peter’; M. Goff, ‘Where's Enoch? The Mythic Geography of the Qumran Book of Giants’; E.S. Gruen, ‘Josephus and Jewish Ethnicity’; C. Hempel, ‘Cutting the Cord with the Familiar: What Makes 4Q265 Miscellaneous Rules Tick?’; R. Hendel, ‘The Dream of a Perfect Text: Textual Criticism and Biblical Inerrancy in Early Modern Europe’; M. Henze, ‘ “I Am the Judge”: Judgment in the Apocalypse of Abraham’; K.M. Hogan, ‘Mother Zion in Baruch 4:5–5:9 and 2 Baruch 1–12: A Study of Different Models of Intertextuality’; N.S.S. Jacobs, ‘Scribal Innovation and the Book of Tobit: A Long Overdue Discussion’; J. Jokiranta, ‘What Is “Serekh ha-Yahad (S)”? Thinking about Ancient Manuscripts as Information Processing’; R.G. Kratz, ‘Deity and Divine in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls’; J. Kugel, ‘Simeon and Levi's Attack on Shechem, or: The Mystery of MS C of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs’; R. Kugler, ‘What Really Troubles Andronikus? A Note on P.Polit.Iud 1’; H.S. Kvanvig, ‘Who Were the Advisers to the King? A Comparative Study of Royal Consultants in Mesopotamia and in Israel’; P.T. Lanfer, ‘Solomon in the Garden of Eden: Autonomous Wisdom and the Danger of Discernment’.
Volume 2 contains: A. Lange, ‘Inner- and Extra-Jewish Polemics: The Parting of the Way Once Again’; K.-J. Lee, ‘ “Ask What You Wish”: The Intersection between Economic Freedom and Cosmopolitanism in 1 Esdras’; D.B. Levenson and T.R. Martin, ‘The Place of the Early Printed Editions of Josephus’ Antiquities and War (1470–1534) in the Latin Textual Tradition’; I.E. Lilly, ‘Conceptualizing Spirit: Supernatural Meteorology and Winds of Distress in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East’; T.H. Lim, ‘Covenantal Nomism and the Hebrew Bible’; C.M. Maier, ‘From Zedekiah to the Messiah: A Glimpse at the Early Reception of the Sprout’; S. Moore, ‘Ethnicity and Essentialism in and about Ezekiel's Tragedy’; H. Najman and B.G. Wright, ‘Perfecting Translation: The Greek Scriptures in Philo of Alexandria’; J. Nati, ‘The Community Rule or Rules for the Communities? Contextualizing the Qumran Serakhim’; J.H. Newman, ‘The Thanksgiving Hymns of 1QHa and the Construction of the Ideal Sage through Liturgical Performance’; S. Niditch, ‘Beautiful Theories: Approaching Deut 21:1-9 as Ritual Performance and Narrative Medium’; M.R. Niehoff, ‘Desires Crossing Boundaries: Romance and History in Josephus’ Antiquities’; V. Noam, ‘Lost Historical Traditions: Between Josephus and the Rabbis’; S.M. Olyan, ‘Defects, Holiness, and Pollution in Biblical Cultic Texts’; M. Popović, ‘Anthropology, Pneumatology, and Demonology in Early Judaism: The Two Spirits Treatise (1QS 3:13-4:26) and Other Texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls’; Έ. Puech, ‘Les Esséniens et la croyance à la résurrection: De l'eschatologie zoroastrienne aux notices de Josèphe et d'Hippolyte’; R. Raphael, ‘Metacritical Thoughts on “Transcendence” and the Definition of Apocalypse’; E.D. Reymond, ‘The Passive Qal in the Hebrew of the Second Temple Period, Especially as Found in the Wisdom of Ben Sira’; Z. Rodgers, ‘A Twentieth-Century Irishman's First-Century Palestine: George Moore's The Brooke Kerith’; C. Rowland, ‘Blake, Enoch, and Emerging Biblical Criticism’; K. Schmid, ‘The Origins of the Book of Isaiah’; C.J. Sharp, ‘The Poetics of Abjection in Psalm 44’; G.E. Sterling, ‘The End of Military Campaigns: Gamala and Masada in The Jewish War of Josephus’; O. Stewart, ‘ “I Will Speak…with my Whole Person in Ecstasy”: Instrumentality and Independence in the Sybilline Oracles’; R.E. Stokes, ‘Airing the High Priest's Dirty Laundry: Understanding the Imagery and Message of Zechariah 3:1-7’; E. Tigchelaar, ‘Thrice Nahum 3:8-10; mt, lxx and 4Q385a 17 ii—New Proposals’; E. Tov, ‘Textual Criticism of Hebrew Scripture in the 20th Century’; J.R. Trotter, ‘The Role of Charity in the Testament of Job’; E. Ulrich, ‘The Samaritan and Masoretic Pentateuch: Text and Interpretation(s)’; J.W. van Henten, ‘Masada World Heritage Site: Josephus the Narrator Defeated’; J.C. VanderKam, ‘Mastema in the Qumran Literature and the Book of Jubilees’; C. Wassen, ‘Women, Worship, Wilderness, and War: Celibacy and the Constructions of Identity in the Dead Sea Scrolls’; R.R. Wilson, ‘Resonances of Jeremiah in Daniel 9’; G.G. Xeravits, ‘The Angel's Self-Revelation in Tobit 12’; J.K. Zangenberg, ‘Peace from the Ashes: Commemorating the Wars in the East, the Centre, and the West of the Roman Empire during the “Long Year of the Four Emperors” (68–70 ce)’; S. Zuckier, ‘Hu Ezra Alah mi-Bavel: Ezra as an Exemplar of Babylonian Superiority in Rabbinic Literature’. There is everything the title promises, and more, offering a rich feast of scholarship.
Dwight D. Swanson
Barton, John (ed.), The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Companion (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016), pp. xii + 613. 1 halftone, 5 line illustrations, 5 maps. $45.00/£37.95. ISBN 978-0-691-15471-8.
This volume is compiled of 23 chapters, divided into 4 parts, focusing on the historical and social context, literary genres, religious themes, and reception of the HB. It is written for a general readership and every chapter includes good notes and suggestions for further reading that can lead to in-depth engagement with the topic. The writers are all specialists committed to encouraging rigorous study of the Bible as one of the great texts of human culture. The opening chapter by B., ‘The Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament’, explores the significance of how the ancient texts are named. Subsequent chapters are: ‘The Historical Framework: Biblical and Scholarly Portrayals of the Past’ (F. Stavrakopoulou), ‘The Social and Cultural History of Ancient Israel’ (K. Southwood), ‘Israel in the Context of the Ancient Near East’ (A. Frendo), ‘The Narrative Books of the Hebrew Bible’ (T. Römer), ‘The Prophetic Literature’ (R.G. Kratz), ‘Legal Texts’ (A. Bartor), ‘The Wisdom Literature’ (J. Grillo), ‘The Psalms and Poems of the Hebrew Bible’ (S. Gillingham), ‘Monotheism’ (B.D. Sommer), ‘Creation: God and World’ (H. Spieckermann), ‘The Human Condition’ (H. Marlow), ‘God's Covenants with Humanity and Israel’ (D. Markl), ‘Ethics’ (C.L. Crouch), ‘Religious Space and Structures’ (S.C. Russell), ‘Ritual: Diet, Purity and Sacrifice’ (S.D. Kunin), ‘Reception of the Old Testament’ (A. Gray), ‘Historical-Critical Enquiry’ (C. Bultmann), ‘Literary Approaches’ (D. Jasper), ‘Theological Approaches to the Old Testament’ (R.W.L. Moberly), ‘Political and Advocacy Approaches’ (E.W. Davies), ‘Textual Criticism and Biblical Translation’ (C. McCarthy), and ‘To Map or Not to Map?’ (A. Curtis). Each contributor adopts a distinctive style and together they demonstrate the value of serious biblical scholarship that is willing to cross the boundaries of church, synagogue and university to engage with voices who read these texts differently. There is much in this volume for everyone, experienced scholars and newcomers to the Bible; and it is an excellent resource for students as an alternative, thematic, approach to traditional ‘introductions’.
Janet E. Tollington
Barton, John, The Old Testament: Canon, Literature and Theology: Collected Essays of John Barton (Society for Old Testament Study Monographs; London and New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. xvi + 292. £37.99. ISBN 978-1-138-26495-3.
This is the paperback edition of a work published in hardback in 2007, and reviewed in B.L. 2009, pp. 4–5.
(Book List Editor)
Ben Zvi, Ehud, Claudia V. Camp, David M. Gunn and Aaron W. Hughes (eds.), Poets, Prophets, and Texts in Play: Studies in Biblical Poetry and Prophecy in Honour of Francis Landy (LHBOTS, 597; London and New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), pp. xxx + 264. £9.00. ISBN 978-0-5672-2409-5.
This collection of essays is assembled as a tribute to the long-time professor of biblical studies at the University of Alberta who ‘is considered by many to be the finest critic of biblical poetry writing today’ (p. xix). After an Introduction by C.V. Camp and D.M. Gunn, the 15 essays are organized in two parts. ‘Part I: Contemporary Perspectives on Ancient Texts’ contains nine essays: ‘Of an Imagination All Compact: The Garden, the Forest and the Wasteland as the Apple of the Prophetic Poet's Eye’ (J.R. Linville); ‘Divine and Human Wisdom in the Book of Hosea: A Pedagogical Perspective’ (K. Berge); ‘Remembering Hosea: The Prophet Hosea as a Site of Memory in Persian Period Yehud’ (E. Ben Zvi); ‘Misapprehensions, Ancient and Modern, about Lions (Nahum 2:13)’ (D.J.A. Clines); ‘Intertextuality in Zechariah 9:13-15’ (D.V. Edelman); ‘A Bird on the Roof: Trauma and Affect in Psalm 102’ (F.C. Black); ‘The Man in the Song of Songs’ (J.C. Exum); ‘ “The Most Beautiful Woman”, “Woman Wisdom”, and “The Strange Woman”: On Femininity in the Song of Songs’ (D.V. Arbel); and ‘Poetry amid Ruins’ (P.J. Sabo). ‘Part II: Ancient Texts and their Cultural Afterlives’ contains six essays focusing on reception history or, in Sawyer's term, ‘reception exegesis’: ‘Reflections on the Reception Exegesis of Isaiah’ (J.F.A. Sawyer); ‘Poetry, Mercy, and the Phenomenology of Justice’ (B.L. Berger); ‘The Poet's Silence: Language and Non-Language in Rosenzweig’ (A.W. Hughes); ‘Loving the Highwayman: Proverbs 1–9 and the Romance of the Road’ (C.V. Camp and D.M. Gunn); ‘Handel and the “Queen of the Garden” ’ (P.R. Davies); and ‘The Bible in Moominvalley: The Child as Reader and the Deceptive Biblical Author’ (H.S. Pyper). The editors express the hope ‘that this volume will be a fitting tribute’ to Francis Landy and ‘that it will be reminiscent of some aspects of his work and thought—work and thought that we continue to celebrate’ (p. xxx). They have assuredly achieved those aims.
Aboseh Ngwana
Berlin, Adele and Marc Zvi Brettler (eds.), The Jewish Study Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2nd edn, 2014), pp. xxvii + 2309 + 9 maps. £29.99. ISBN 978-0-19-997846-5.
The greater part of this revised Study Bible, the first edition of which appeared in 2004, is taken up with commentary on the biblical text, the whole of which is included in the njps translation (with the one variant of changing the rendering of hat'at from ‘sin offering’ to ‘purification offering’). The layout is not dissimilar to that of the Miqraot Gedolot, with commentary in the margin and at the foot of the page. Although the commentators were encouraged to revise their commentaries as appropriate, the main change in this second edition is the addition of many more essays in the final part of the volume. These essays are now grouped under five headings: ‘Jewish Interpretation of the Bible’ (ten essays), ‘Biblical Ideas and Institutions’ (eight essays), ‘The Bible in Jewish Life’ (seven essays), ‘Backgrounds for Reading the Bible’ (thirteen essays), and ‘The Hebrew Bible in Other Scriptures’ (two essays). The relative brevity of the commentary proper may mean that the essays will be of most use in classrooms. The fact that the names of almost all the contributors will be familiar to readers of this Book List is testimony to the major role that Jewish scholars have come to play in contemporary biblical criticism and interpretation. Those who missed acquiring the first edition, which for some reason was not reviewed in the B.L., now have the opportunity to make amends.
Walter Moberly
Boer, Roland, Michael Carden and Julie Kelso (eds.), The One Who Reads May Run: Essays in Honour of Edgar W. Conrad (LHBOTS, 553; London and New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2012), pp. xxxv + 266. £31.99. ISBN 978-0-5672-0394-6.
Following a brief biography of Conrad and list of his publications, the book divides into three parts that include a total of 16 contributions, followed by a Bibliography, and Indexes of References and Authors. ‘Part I: Reading Prophets’ consists of five essays: P.R. Davies, ‘Reading Jeremiah’; J.E. McKinlay, ‘Filling the Gaps and Putting Huldah to Use’; F. Landy, ‘Paradoxes of Prophetic Language in Isaiah’; S.-H. Jang, ‘Hearing the Word of God in Isaiah 1 and 65–66: A Synchronic Approach’; and N. Habel, ‘Isaiah Redivivus’. ‘Part II: Reading Literarily’ has four contributions: J. Lim, ‘Did the Scholar(s) Get it Right?’; R. Boer, ‘The Anomaly of Interpretation’; K.M. Stott, ‘Ezra's “Lost Manuscripts”: Narrative Context and Rhetorical Function’; and G. Aichele, ‘The Signifier's Body: Postmodern Semiotics and the Bible’. ‘Part III: Engaged Readings’ contains seven essays: E.M. Wainwright, ‘ “Hear then the Parable of the Seed”: Reading the Agrarian Parables of Matthew 13 Ecologically’; M. Carden, ‘Getting to Know You: Reformation Marriage Ideologies and Contemporary Debates on Same-Sex Marriage’; J. Kelso, ‘A Woman Is Being Beaten and Maybe She Likes It? Approaching Song of Songs 5:2-7’; J. Havea, ‘First People, Minority Reading: Reading Jonah, From Oceania’; P. Morris, ‘Biblical Justice: Recompense, Revenge and Restoration’; R. Boer, ‘A Web of Fascination: Marxism and the Bible’; and M. Carden, ‘Dying to Bring Heaven Down to Earth: The Mother of Melchizedek and Miraculous, Messianic Mothers in the Bible’. Sadly Ed Conrad died in 2017, yet these essays, published several years earlier, remain a richly varied tribute that provides the reader with much food for thought and reflects well the considerable affection in which he was held by the circle of colleagues, students, and friends who contributed to the volume and the value they place on his scholarly work. That affection and regard is nicely captured in Philip Davies's imagined conversation, sharing a beer on Conrad's Brisbane porch while discussing scholarly issues on which they might not completely agree, a conversation that now must remain in the imagination.
George Nicol
Brown, William P., A Handbook to Old Testament Exegesis (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), pp. xv + 363. $35.00. ISBN 978-0-6642-5993-8.
This is a superb introduction to OT exegesis. It is well conceived, beautifully written, and consistently creative. The author leads readers through a wide range of exegetical approaches, but does so with a careful focus on reading the biblical text well. He chooses Genesis 1–3 as his test-case in each chapter, an excellent choice given B.'s decades of scholarship on those same chapters. He begins his book with a section on ‘self-exegesis’, where he asks readers to consider their biography and socio-religious history and what that might bring to their interpretation of Scripture. He then explores Genesis 1–3 from a range of analytical approaches, most of which will be familiar to consumers of exegetical introductions (e.g. text-critical analysis, literary analysis, structural analysis, canonical analysis). But from even the most traditional approach he brings fresh insights that will interest the beginner and delight the most seasoned scholar. Then B. turns toward ‘readings in place’, by which he means diverse perspectives from which people interpret the Bible. He hopes that in these places exegetes find dialogue partners to hear the biblical text differently (e.g. science, ecology, gender, empire, minority, disability). The book is pitched at a graduate level, and will likely prove challenging and overly technical for a first-year undergraduate (e.g. recommending HALOT for word studies, p. 30; referring to the ‘text-critical editor of the book of Genesis in the BHS’, p. 55). But for graduate and postgraduate OT exegesis, this is now my go-to book.
Matthew J. Lynch
Chapman, Stephen B. and Marvin A. Sweeney (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. xvii + 525. £21.99. ISBN 978-0-5217-0965-1.
‘Comprehensive’ is the first word that comes to mind. ‘Do we need yet another “Companion”?’ is the first question. The publishers, editors and 21 North American academics plus John Goldingay and R.W.L. Moberly have no doubt, and one reason given is the shift in biblical studies from Christian and Jewish theological faculties to the secular universities. Hence, in six essays on ‘Reception and Use’ (Part V), we have F.E. Greenspahn (‘The Hebrew Bible in Judaism’) pointing out that the relationship between biblical Judaism and current practice is more complicated than is often realized and merits more attention than it gets; R.W.L. Moberly (‘The Old Testament in Christianity’) identifying three features worthy of more study, namely the value of the lament psalms for spiritual understanding, debt remission, and the need for Christians to come to terms with what the Jews understand by torah; W.A. Saleh, with a comprehensive account of ‘The Hebrew Bible in Islam’; D.L. Jeffrey on ‘The Hebrew Bible in Art and Literature’; J. Goldingay on ‘The Theology of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament’; and N.J. Duff (‘The Old Testament in Public: The Ten Commandments, Evolution, and Sabbath Closing Laws’), with a somewhat limited focus on the role of the OT in the US Constitution. Three contributions on ‘Historical Background’ (Part II) provide fresh insight and good documentation, covering ‘The Ancient Near Eastern Context’ (K.L. Sparks), ‘The History of Israelite Religion’ (B.A. Strawn), and ‘The Hebrew Bible and History’ (M.Z. Brettler), the last making the point that instead of thinking of the Bible as ‘history’ we might think of it as containing ‘many narratives that depict the past’. Other contributions tread fairly traditional paths but not necessarily in traditional ways. ‘Text and Canon’ (Part I) has ‘Texts, Titles and Translations’ (J.C. VanderKam) and ‘Collections, Canons and Communities’ (S.B. Chapman). ‘Methods and Approaches’ (Part III) has ‘Historical-Critical Methods’ (J.J. Collins), ‘Social Science Models’ (V.H. Matthews), and ‘Literary Approaches to the Hebrew Bible’ (A. Berlin). More familiar topics in ‘Subcollections and Genres’ (Part IV) give us ‘The Pentateuch and Israelite Law’ (T.B. Dozeman), ‘The Former Prophets and Historiography’ (R.D. Nelson), ‘The Latter Prophets and Prophecy’ (M.A. Sweeney), ‘The Psalms and Hebrew Poetry’ (W.P. Brown), ‘Wisdom’ (S.E. Balentine), ‘Late Historical Books and Rewritten History’ (E. Ben Zvi), ‘The Biblical Short Story’ (L.M. Wills), ‘Apocalyptic Writings’ (S.L. Cook), and ‘Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal Books’ (S. Pace). Notes and Further Reading follow each article, the index runs to 42 pages and the book is well produced at a modest price.
Alec Gilmore
Clifford, Hywel (ed., with Douglas Earl, Ryan P. O'Dowd and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer), Companion to the Old Testament: Introduction, Interpretation, Application (London: SCM Press, 2016), pp. xii + 271. £25.00. ISBN 978-0-334-05393-4.
This book has been edited by a Christian Tutor and is an excellent introduction to the OT including the Apocrypha. While there is a stated position that the volume is written to enhance Christian understanding and interpretation, there is a good selection of sources used, and the work would certainly be a good introduction for any student as it is full of information that students will find useful, as well as also having much to commend it to other readers. Each chapter is divided into three sections (as intimated by the subtitle of the volume): Introduction, Interpretation, and Application. Throughout the book there are boxed short exemplars of how different writers have understood the passage under discussion. These are very wide-ranging indeed—including worldwide sources. There are excellent suggestions for further study—again wide-ranging. There are some inconsistencies in the book: for example, in the chapter on the Prophetic books there is not an introductory paragraph on each book as there is in every other chapter, but rather there is a table outlining the main themes to be found in those books. The volume ends with a very helpful index. For anyone interested in the history of interpretation and application of the OT, this is to be recommended as a resource to be consulted and used.
Francis Loftus
Collins, John J., T.M. Lemos and Saul M. Olyan (eds.), Worship, Women and War: Essays in Honor of Susan Niditch (Brown Judaic Studies, 357; Providence, RI: Brown University, 2015), pp. xvi + 320. $59.95. ISBN 978-1-930675-93-3 (hardback), 978-1-930675-97-1 (e-book).
This collection of essays in honour of Susan Niditch, Professor of Religion at Amherst College, Massachusetts, addresses four areas in which Niditch has made important contributions: I. Folklore, Mythology and Oral History; II. Israelite Religion and Ancient Judaism; III. Warfare and Violence; and IV. Gender. Section I contains contributions by M.S. Smith (‘The Passing of Warrior Poetry in the Era of Prosaic Heroes’); E.L. Greenstein (‘The Fugitive Hero Narrative Pattern in Mesopotamia’); R. Doran (‘Ending a Performance: The Tenants in Luke 20:9-19 and Gospel of Thomas 65’); M. Mills (‘A Story about Some Stories’); R.B. Coote (‘The Gospel of Mark: Baptism and Passover Initiation’); R.R. Wilson (‘Orality and Writing in the Creation of Exilic Prophetic Literature’). Section II: E. Bloch-Smith (‘Massebot Standing for Yhwh: The Fall of a Yhwistic Cult Symbol’); CA. Newsom, ‘ “The Righteous Mind” and Judean Moral Culture: A Conversation between Biblical Studies and Moral Psychology’); S.M. Olyan (‘Ritual Inversion in Biblical Representations of Punitive Rites’). Section III: B.E. Kelle (‘Moral Injury and the Interdisciplinary Study of Biblical War Texts: The Case of King Saul’); F.R. Ames (‘Collateral Duties: Military Objectives and Civilian Protections in Deuteronomy’); J.J. Collins (‘The Agonistic Imagination: The Ethics of War in Deuteronomy’); J.L. Wright (‘Rahab's Valor and the Gibeonites’ Cowardice’). Section IV: S. Ackerman (‘The Women of the Bible and of Ancient Near Eastern Myth: The Case of the Levite's שגליפ’); T.M. Lemos (‘Were Israelite Women Chattel? Shedding New Light on an Old Question’); S. Park (‘Crossings, Transgressions, and Movement in the Jephthah Cycle’); J.A. Hackett (‘Ruth's Beginnings: A Study in Contradictions’); R. Doran (‘Building Power: Gender, Identity, and Conspicuous Consumption in Fin de Siècle Tang China’); R.S. Kraemer (‘Rufina Refined: A Woman archisynagōgos from Smyrna, Yet Again’). There is a brief introduction by Collins, a list of Niditch's publications, and indexes of ancient sources and of subjects. The volume's well-defined focus and the quality of the articles make this a valuable resource.
J. Cheryl Exum
Dequeker, Luc, Studia Hierosolymitana (Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 81; Leuven: Peeters, 2016), pp. xii + 249. €65.00. ISBN 978-90-429-3311-8.
D. is professor emeritus of the Old Testament in the Catholic University of Leuven. Here are nine previously published essays and two new contributions. Part I (‘Restoration after Exile’) contains essays on King Darius and the prophecy of 70 weeks (Daniel 9), Darius the Persian and the reconstruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 4.24), Nehemiah and the restoration of the temple after the exile, and 1 Chronicles 24 and the royal priesthood of the Hasmonaeans. Part II (‘Hellenizers Defiling Jerusalem's Holiness’): Jason's gymnasium in Jerusalem (2 Macc. 4.7-17) as the failure of a cultural experiment, the holiness of Jerusalem and the origin of Qumran, the city of David and the Seleucid Acra in Jerusalem, and the ‘tomb of David’ in the City of David—a biblical tradition reconsidered. Part III (‘Praying at the Synagogue for Jerusalem's Reconstruction by the Messiah’): the zodiak of the Synagogue of Beth Alpha and the midrash (in French), and the synagogue mosaic at Sepphoris (Zippori) in Galilee. Part IV (‘The Eschaton—New Jerusalem Coming Down from Heaven on Earth’): worshipping the Lamb and celebrating the Lamb's holy wedding in the New Jerusalem. There is a bibliography for each section but no indexes.
Lester L. Grabbe
Douglas, J.D. and Merrill C. Tenney, NIV Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017 [repr. of 1989 publication]), pp. xxx + 672. $19.99. ISBN 978-0-310-53489-1.
This was originally The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary (1963), a volume of over 5000 entries with photos and illustrations, by 65 mid-20th-century scholars in the Evangelical tradition. It was revised due to new archaeological data, and the publication of the niv, and retitled The New International Dictionary of the Bible (1987). The latter included scholar initials after entries, some with brief bibliographies; and while the revision was based on the niv, other versions were considered (e.g. kjv, jb, nasb, neb, rsv) and occasionally preferred (kjv proper noun spellings). It contained a lengthy Scripture Index, and an index to its colour maps. It was then condensed and published as NIV Compact Dictionary of the Bible (1989)—this is a reprint—but was not reviewed in the B.L. at the time. It compensates for its reduced contents in various ways: an introductory section ‘How to Use this Book’ about the Bible's contents, history, and culture (not in the 1987 edition consulted), and at the back the sections ‘Names Not Listed in the Dictionary’ (with biblical references) and a ‘Topical Index’ categorized and cross-referenced in nearly 150 larger topics (not in the 1987 edition consulted), but fewer maps in black and white only. It was never intended primarily for scholarly use, but for general use. It covers standard fare in dictionaries (e.g. Assyria, inheritance) but also doctrines (e.g. justification, sanctification), and some entries are listed under kjv spellings (e.g. duke, venison). This dictionary is informative but dated.
Hywel Clifford
Durken, Daniel (ed.), The New Collegeville Bible Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017), pp. xiii + 1538. $79.95. ISBN 978-0-8146-4659-5.
This is a one-volume Bible commentary and is the combination of 37 previously issued commentaries on the individual biblical books or sets of books. It is the third edition of a biblical commentary published by Liturgical Press. The advantage this commentary has over some others is that it includes commentaries on the full Roman Catholic Bible including books from the OT Apocrypha (the deuterocanonical books: Judith, Tobit, Baruch, 1–2 Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] and the Wisdom of Solomon). The text used is the New American translation (this is not included), though some of the commentaries are based on the translations of the 33 individual authors. There is some unevenness in editing, as there are references to the text being included at the ‘top of the page’, but it is not reproduced. Each of the biblical and apocryphal books has an introduction and commentary. The individual commentaries on the text take paragraph form; it is not a verse-by-verse commentary. The opening chapters are helpful on the background to the Bible and the history of its interpretation. This work is from Roman Catholic scholars, but there is clear recognition of the variety of interpretations possible. There are maps at the end of the work, of the ancient world and of Palestine at the time of Jesus, with a diagram of the Solomonic Temple. This is a useful introductory commentary which will be of value to those who wish to begin serious study of the text, and it succeeds in its stated aim of ‘opening up the sacred Scriptures to ever-new generations of Catholics’.
Francis Loftus
Dyma, Oliver, Stefanie-Ulrike Gulde-Karmann and Dagmar Kühn (eds.), ‘Der Herr des Himmels möge lang machen seine Tage und seine Jahre’. Religionsgeschichtliche Beiträge. Festschrift für Herbert Niehr zum 60. Geburtstag (AOAT, 427; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2015), pp. x + 225. €98.00 (hardback), €110.00 (e-book). ISBN 978-3-86835-171-2 (hardback), 978-3-86835-172-9 (e-book).
The essays in this volume, honouring Professor Herbert Niehr of the Catholic Theological Faculty at the University of Tübingen, come from participants of his ‘Oberseminar’ and doctoral students in the ‘Symbole der Toten’ programme of the Institut für die Kulturen des Alten Orients (IANES). Attesting the wide-ranging interests and expertise of the honorand, the contributions are as follows: F. Berg, ‘Die vergessene Hauptstadt. Zur Stellung Samarias in der politischen Organisation Israels zur Zeit der Omriden (1. Hälfte 9. Jh. v. Chr.)’; H. Bloedhorn, ‘Julius Euting in Palmyra. Zur Entdeckung der hebräischen Haustürninschriften’; O. Dyma, ‘Sacharja im Beschwörungskontext. Zu ungewöhnlichen Rezeptionen des Sacharja-Buches’; D. Kühn, ‘ “The King's Two Bodies” (E. Kantorwicz). Ein Konzept zum Verständnis des hellenistischen Herrscherkults im Vorderen Orient am Beispiel Antiochos I. von Kommagene’; M. Lange, ‘Umgang mit den Toten in Marqas/Gurgum’; S. Lange, ‘Inszenierung eines Familienrituals für die Könige von Akkad. Das kispum im Text Mari 12803’; P. Maier, ‘ “Child Sacrifice” Customs in Ancient Israel and Phoenicia?’; H. Michelau, ‘Der Aspekt der (persönlichen) Frömmigkeit in der Waagschale des Lebens. Zur Deutung der hellenistischen Adorantendarstellungen in der Sepulkralkunst’; A. Rohrmoser, ‘Das “Widderhorn” in der Webtechnik des Kivrim und als Ornament des Alten Orients’; G. Theuer, ‘ “Ihr sollt erkennen, das ich JHWH bin” (Ex 6, 7). Zur Rede von Gott in der Exoduserzählung. Implikationen für unser Sprechen von Gott’; and J. Töyräänvuori, ‘The Beloved as a Title of Royal Legitimation in Ugaritic and Biblical Texts’. Each essay includes a bibliography, and there is an index with entries for subjects, deities, personal and place names, and texts. Those interested in the history of religion and the topics of death and kingship should like to consult this volume.
William L. Kelly
Firth, David G. and Lindsay Wilson (eds.), Interpreting Old Testament Wisdom Literature (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017), pp. xv + 232. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-8308-5178-2.
Anyone familiar with the IVP volumes on Interpreting the Psalms (2005), Isaiah (2009) and Deuteronomy (2012) will know roughly what to expect from this volume. After a brief introduction, Craig G. Bartholomew (‘Old Testament Wisdom Today’) gives a detailed introduction to recent developments in the area of OT Wisdom. The rest of the essays are based on papers given at the Tyndale Fellowship Old Testament Study Group in 2015, and are divided into two sections. The first section contains four essays on wisdom books: Ernest C. Lucas, ‘The Book of Proverbs: Some Current Issues’; Lindsay Wilson, ‘Job as a Problematic Book’; Katharine J. Dell, ‘Reading Ecclesiastes with the Scholars’; and Rosalind Clarke, ‘Seeking Wisdom in the Song of Songs’. The second section contains six essays on themes: Gregory Goswell, ‘Is Ruth Also Among the Wise?’; Lennart Boström, ‘Retribution and Wisdom Literature’; David G. Firth, ‘Worrying about the Wise: Wisdom in Old Testament Narrative’; Christopher B. Ansberry, ‘Wisdom and Biblical Theology’; Simon P. Stocks, ‘ “Children, Listen to Me”: The Voicing of Wisdom in the Psalms’; and Brittany N. Melton, ‘ “Oh, that I Knew Where I Might Find Him”: Aspects of Divine Absence in Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes’. The volume is neither an introduction to the wisdom literature, nor a volume focusing on detailed minutiae, but rather something in the middle. This is a useful resource for anyone studying or teaching in this area.
William Ford
Gordon, Robert P., Hebrew Bible and Ancient Versions: Selected Essays of Robert P. Gordon (Society for Old Testament Study Monographs; London and New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. xxxii + 375. £37.99. ISBN 978-1-138-25213-4.
This is the paperback edition of a work published in hardback in 2006, and reviewed in B.L. 2007, pp. 8-9.
(Book List Editor)
Harvey, Susan Ashbrook, Nathaniel DesRosiers, Shira L. Lander, Jaqueline Z. Pastis and Daniel Ullucci (eds.), A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (Brown Judaic Studies, 358; Providence, RI: Brown University, 2015), pp. xix + 304. $59.95. ISBN 978-1-930675-94-0.
After an appreciation of the honoree, the essays are divided under two headings. Under I, ‘Jews and Christians in the Greco-Roman World’, are the following essays: Jesus’ baptism by John in the context of 1st-century Judaism (T.A. Bergren), Jews in the Acts of Philip V-VII (D.J. Bucher), Theclas and the governor (R. Doran), on not giving up the Godfearers (P. Fredriksen), physical violence between Jews and Christians in late antiquity (J.G. Gager), how the Dead Sea Scrolls help us to think about gender in ancient Judaism (M.L. Grossman), religious identity and the aural imagination in the Testament of Adam (K. Haines-Eitzen), the night Rabbi Aqiba slept with two women (J.D. Rosenblum), the social formations of Paul and his Romans (S.K. Stowers), ‘Hebrews’ and ‘Jews’ in early Christian art (A.P. Urbano), the fate of the Judaean writings in Flavian Rome (H. Wendt), and cultural creativity in Egyptian Judaism (B.G. Wright). Under II, ‘Women in Judaism and Christianity’, are the following essays: the female martyr in 2 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and The Acts of Paul and Thecla (L.H. Cohick), Susanna's choice (M.R. D'Angelo), oath taking and women in the Mediterranean world (N. DesRosiers), Optatus’ account of Lucilla in Against the Donatists (J. Eyl), gender and apocalypticism in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games Trilogy (J. Kraemer and S.L. Lander), ‘the most honorable lady, Theophile’ in Luke1.3 and Acts 1.1 (R.A. Kraft), ‘this poor widow’ in Mark 12.43 (A.-J. Levine), Jewish mother as teacher (S. Marks), religious autobiography and agency in early modern Italian writer Lucia Brocadelli (E.A. Matter), the reliability of Jewish women's narratives from the Cairo Genizah (R.L. Melammed), Miriam's well, rabbinic variations on a folk motif (S. Niditch), reflecting on race and ethnicity in Origen's exegesis of the Song of Songs (E. Pagels), exile and gender in postexilic storytelling (A. Reinhartz), Mary Douglas's grid and group, and gender and demons (S.L. Schwarz), professions of Jewish women in the late ancient Levant (K.B. Stern), and andrea in Musonius Rufus (D. Ullucci). There are five editors of this volume, but still none of them managed to write an introduction or conclusion that served to summarize the essays or attempt to draw them together into a whole. Even a Festschrift should be integrated into a unit by the editors, instead of ‘just one damned essay after another’. However, there is a good subject index.
Lester L. Grabbe
Heckl, Raik (ed.), Methodik im Diskurs. Neue Perspektiven für die Alttestamentliche Exegese (Biblisch-Theologische Studien, 156; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Theologie, 2015), pp. x + 174. €26.99. ISBN 978-3-7887-2835-9.
The five articles of this anthology contain the results of reflection and dialogue initiated in the context of the EABS International Meeting in Leipzig in 2013. The contributions to the volume have methodological problems in view and seek to point out connecting lines between different methodological beginnings, using particular questions as vantage points. The apparent purpose is to develop certain aspects of the methodology of biblical exegesis. The articles debate questions of access to literary history, enquire into the nature of biblical narrative, advance an ancient form of marking intertextuality, and adumbrate the issue of perspectivizing interpretation. An additional contribution from a linguistics viewpoint, determined by culture studies, is devoted to an interdisciplinary research question, which is of particular importance to biblical scholars regarding genre criticism. U. Fix, ‘Multidisciplinary Text Type Knowledge: Prerequisite for the Work of Text Subjects’, claims that text linguistics can serve as an auxiliary science for all subjects dealing with texts. O. Dyma, ‘True Stories: Between Fictionality, Genre, World View and Validity Claim’, draws attention to the limitations of a purely literary access to the biblical texts. R. Heckl, ‘ “Nobody Was Like Him”: The Incomparability of Hezekiah and Josiah in the Concept of the Chronicler’, highlights that a formula of incomparability in the book of Kings is absent from the book of Chronicles. A. Kunz-Lübcke, ‘Jonah—Swallowed Hero or Adventurous Sea Traveler? The Book of Jonah in the Sea of Interpretations’, underscores that a typification of narratives has a lasting effect on the possibilities of interpretation. T. Wagner, ‘Impulses for Redaction History: Compilation of Sources in the Context of Reception’, asserts that a reception-oriented examination of a compiled text widens the view of the processes of its editorial history. Finally, K. Weingart, ‘Do You Recognize What You Read? For Marking Citations in the Old Testament’, upholds that from the text-analytic point of view, if a citation is assumed to explain a given congruence with the text, then the probability that this is actually the case increases if the reference text is reproduced in an inverted, mirroring fashion.
Bálint Károly Zabán
Hess, Richard S., The Old Testament: A Historical, Theological, and Critical Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), pp. xiv + 801. $49.99. ISBN 978-0-8010-3714-6.
H.'s book is unashamedly aimed at the evangelical Christian market. For instance, although there is interaction with other points of view, the reader's attention in the bibliographies is overwhelmingly directed to evangelical writers and commentaries though there are some surprising omissions, e.g. Goldingay on Isaiah. After a brief introduction, each book of the Old Testament (sic) is analysed under the headings of ‘Name, Text, and Outline’, ‘Overview’, ‘Reading’ (under which we have ‘Premodern Readings’, ‘Source Criticism’, ‘Tradition History’, ‘Literary Readings’, ‘Gender and Ideological Criticism’, ‘Ancient Near Eastern Context’, and ‘Canonical Context’), and ‘Theological Perspectives’. Under these headings, there is a vast amount of information about scholars and ideas, but one wonders if many such pieces of information may be too brief to be of value. There are maps, colour photographs, and diagrams which break up the text. Insights from modern scholars around the world enlighten the text. Modern issues are dealt with, although in a way that does not interfere with a fairly traditional sense of the authority of the text, not least its essential historicity. Even here, one feels that H. can hedge his bets—for instance, in what sense Jonah is history is never really spelt out. There is a massive amount of information in the book which will go down well in the circles for which it is intended and where it may well open some eyes to bigger issues of the OT, but readers from other traditions will also find some useful material here.
Peter S. Ballantine
Hulster, Izaak J. de, Brent A. Strawn and Ryan P. Bonfiglio (eds.), Iconographic Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: An Introduction to its Method and Practice (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), pp. 383. €45.00. ISBN 978-3-525-53460-1.
As its subtitle suggests, this volume is intended as a textbook to introduce the uninitiated to the use of visual materials in textual analysis of the HB/OT. It does so by offering a total of 18 chapters, 11 of which have been written by the three editors, singly or together. Under the rubric of the ‘Torah/Pentateuch’, de Hulster offers ‘Picturing Ancient Israel's Cosmic Geography: An Iconographic Perspective on Genesis 1:1–2:4a’; Strawn, ‘The Image of God: Comparing the Old Testament with Other Ancient Near Eastern Cultures’; T. Staubli, ‘The “Pagan” Prehistory of Genesis 22:1-14: The Iconographic Background of the Redemption of a Human Sacrifice’; Strawn again, ‘ “With a Strong Hand and an Outstretched Arm”: On the Meaning(s) of the Exodus Tradition(s)’; and then Strawn with de Hulster, ‘Figuring Yhwh in Unusual Ways: Deuteronomy 32 and Other Mixed Metaphors for God in the Old Testament’. With respect to the Prophets, R. Schmitt offers ‘Royal Construction in the Book of Kings: Architecture and/as Iconography’; de Hulster, ‘Of Angels and Iconography: Isaiah 6 and the Biblical Concept of Seraphs and Cherubs’; R. Hunziker-Rodewald, ‘Thrones in Sheol: An Ancient Near Eastern Motif in Isaiah 14:9’; de Hulster again, ‘ “A Monument and a Name”: Isaiah 56 and the Aniconic Image’; and then with Strawn, ‘The Power of Images: Isaiah 60, Jerusalem, and Persian Imperial Propaganda’; T. Staubli, ‘What Do You See? Reading Zechariah's YHWH-Vision (4:1-14) in Light of Southern Levantine Lunar Iconography’; and R. Bonfiglio, ‘Divine Warrior or Persian King? The Archer Metaphor in Zechariah 9’. Essays devoted to the ‘Kethubim (and Beyond)’ are Strawn's ‘Lion Hunting in the Psalms: Iconography and Images for God, the Self, and the Enemy’; J. LeMon's ‘On Wings in a Prayer: Multistable Images for God in Psalm 63’ and ‘Masking the Blow: Psalm 81 and the Iconography of Divine Violence’; Strawn's ‘ “The Fear of the Lord” in Two (or Three) Dimensions: Iconography and Yir'at Yhwh’; de Hulster's ‘Iconography, Love Poetry, and Bible Translation: A Test Case with Song of Songs 7:2-6’; and T. Staubli's ‘Judith's Victory Celebration and the Iconography of Twigs in Judith 15:12-13’. While its anthological character means the volume lacks the coherence of conventional introductory textbooks, the editors have gone some way to mitigating this problem by offering a lengthy and instructive introductory essay on the theory and practice of iconographic exegesis and by supplying bibliographies and an assignment/exercise at the end of each chapter. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this volume as a whole offers an illuminating demonstration of the practice and potential of iconographic exegesis.
David Shepherd
Junior, Nyasha, An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), pp. xxv + 152. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-6642-5987-7.
This small book adds to the collection of womanist biblical interpretations/hermeneutics produced in recent years. It is an introduction to womanist biblical interpretation and its relationship with feminism and womanism in general, and with feminist biblical interpretation in particular. The African American womanists treat womanism as independent of feminism, because the latter implies white feminism and focuses on gender issues while the former addresses oppression. The book comprises two parts. Part 1 is informative of the rise and development of feminism: the three ‘waves’ of feminism, the forerunners of feminist biblical interpretation (Sarah Moore Grimké, Angelina Grimké, etc.), and the forerunners of womanist biblical interpretation (Maria W. Stewart, Anna Julia Cooper, etc.). Part 2 contains in-depth analyses and evaluative assessments of womanist and feminist biblical scholarship and the reception of such scholarship in related fields of study: womanist approaches in religious studies related fields (Katie G. Cannon, Delores Williams), feminist biblical interpretation (Phyllis Trible, Phyllis Bird, T. Drorah Setel, Adela Yarbro Collins, Sharon H. Ringe, etc.), and womanist biblical interpretation (Renita Weems, Clarice Martin, etc.). The reason for womanist biblical interpretation not receiving adequate scholarly attention is the lack of consistency in womanist approaches—similarly feminist approaches—in biblical studies. J. concludes that womanist biblical scholarship has to increase in number, in terms of both scholars and works, and make itself more accessible. This book begins as an introduction and finishes well in prompting what the field can do for womanist biblical scholarship. A good read.
Hedy Hung
Kalimi, Isaac (ed.), Bridging between Sister Religions: Studies of Jewish and Christian Scriptures Offered in Honor of Prof. John T. Townsend (The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, 51; Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. xviii + 340. €139.00/$167.00. ISBN 978-90-04-32453-4.
John Townsend was a NT scholar (in Philadelphia and Cambridge, MA) with a rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew until obliged to teach it. He then became increasingly interested in rabbinic literature both in itself and as essential for NT interpretation. He is best known for his translation of Midrash Tanḥuma (Buber Recension), recognition of the importance of the anti-Roman School of Shammai, and rewriting the passion narrative without anti-Jewish implications. His conciliatory approach is well captured by the title of this attractive Festschrift, and its contributors follow his lead. Part One, ‘The Man and the Book’, by the editor, consists of an introduction to the volume plus biography and bibliography of the honorand. Part Two, ‘Hebrew Bible and its Interpretation’, comprises J.L. Crenshaw, ‘Divine Vulnerability: Reflections on the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22)’; G. Eidevall, ‘Shifting Emphasis: Examples of Early and Modern Reception of the Book of Amos’; and A.E. Gardner, ‘Interpreting the Writing on the Wall in Daniel 5’. Part Three, ‘New Testament and its Interpretation’, contains L.M. Wills, ‘The Jewishness of the Gospel of Mark’; C. Wassen, ‘Jesus’ Work as a Healer in Light of Jewish Purity Laws’; R.L. Brawley, ‘The ’Ιουδαῖοι in the Gospel of John’; J.B. Tyson, ‘Acts, the “Parting of the Ways”, and the Use of the Term “Christians”’; and E.J. Epp, ‘Early Christian Attitudes toward “Things Jewish” as Narrated by Textual Variants in Acts: A Case Study of the D-Textual Cluster’. Part Four, ‘Talmudic and Midrashic Studies’, has Y. Elman, ‘Some Aspects of Interreligious Polemic in the Babylonian Talmud’; R. Ulmer, ‘Egyptian Motifs in Late Antique Mosaics and Rabbinic Texts’; and A. Lehnardt, ‘The Binding Fragments of Midrash Tanhuma (Buber) from the Municipal Library of Trier’. Finally, Part Five, ‘Jewish–Christian Relationship’, offers R. Kimelman, ‘ “We Love the God Who Loved Us First”: The Second Blessing of the Shema Liturgy’; B. Chilton, ‘Jewish Mysticism, Nostra Aetate, and Renewal in Judaism and Christianity’; and M.W. Duggan, ‘Hanukkah and Community Identity in 1–2 Maccabees and John’. There are concluding indexes of authors and ‘Scripture’, the latter misnamed since it more helpfully includes all ancient texts cited.
Philip S. Johnston
Klein, William W., Craig L. Blomberg and Robert L. Hubbard Jr (eds.), Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 3rd edn, 2017), pp. 704. $44.99. ISBN 978-0-3105-2417-5.
Klein, William W., Craig L. Blomberg and Robert L. Hubbard Jr, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation Workbook: Study Questions, Practical Exercises, and Lab Reports (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), pp. 185. $22.99. ISBN 978-0-310-53668-0.
The larger work here is the third revised edition of a textbook for undergraduate courses on hermeneutics (the first edition of 1993 was reviewed in B.L. 1994, p. 91). It continues to follow the basic outline of the second edition from 2004, but is expanded and brought up to date. One of the notable additions is the integration of insights from speech-act theory at various places. There are new sections on inner-biblical allusions, the nature of genre, and feminist and LGBT hermeneutics. The project is very ambitious in its scope, with overviews of the history and contemporary approaches to biblical interpretation, the various genres of biblical literature, a discussion of the general principles of exegesis of prose passages and poetry, and of the use and application of the biblical text. Following the lead of E.D. Hirsch, the writers argue that the meaning of the biblical text is determined by the original author, and the task of biblical interpretation is to decode that intended meaning. All other ‘meanings’ are in reality the significance of the text for subsequent readers. There is little acknowledgement of the hermeneutical complexities caused by multiple authorship and the long process of evolution of the biblical text. The target readership of this volume is conservative evangelicals. It is unlikely to receive enthusiastic reception outside of those circles, but for its intended audience it will continue to provide a valuable service. It is clearly and competently written and demonstrates some willingness courteously to consider alternative approaches and viewpoints that fall outside of the adopted framework. The accompanying Workbook is a new feature, designed to provide additional help when the textbook, or more realistically parts of it, is used as the basis of an undergraduate course. It follows the chapters of the main book and offers exercises, meant to assist students in engaging more deeply with the material. These include questions on the content of the respective chapters, as well as guided studies of biblical passages, focused on developing different exegetical skills and hermeneutical competencies. There are various ideas there that could be profitably adopted.
Tchavdar S. Hadjiev
McDonald, Lee Martin, The Formation of the Biblical Canon. I. The Old Testament: Its Authority and Canonicity; II. The New Testament: Its Authority and Canonicity (London and New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 4th edn, 2017), pp. xl + 539 (vol. 1), vii + 450 (vol. 2). £250.00. ISBN 978-0-5676-6933-9. Available individually as PDF e-books, £129.99 each: ISBN 978-0-5676-6877-6 (vol. 1), 978-0-5676-6885-1 (vol. 2).
This is a greatly expanded and reworked version of M.'s The Biblical Canon, of which the second edition was reviewed in B.L. 1997, pp. 14–15 and the third in B.L. 2008, p. 114 (the first edition was not reviewed). It offers exhaustive coverage of the relevant ancient texts and modern discussions of the canonization of both Testaments, with useful tables listing different canonical arrangements of the books. There is an up-to-date survey of the evidence from the Scrolls, and a detailed survey of scholarly evaluation of the Muratorian Fragment, both of which have moved on considerably since the last edition of the book. The discussion of rabbinic evidence is full and detailed. There is also more on non-canonical early Christian literature, with a consideration of whether the canon ought to include further works, and even well-attested agrapha. For OT scholars, vol. 1 is clearly the more important but arguments run through both volumes, since the history of the OT and NT canons cannot be entirely disentangled. M. is judicious and careful in his own conclusions, and fair to all the scholars whose positions he assesses. (There is a helpful short excursus by James A. Sanders on what we should call the ‘Old Testament’.) At nearly 1000 pages the work is possibly too long (and sometimes repetitive), and the price will deter all but libraries; but for anyone seriously interested in the biblical canon it is an indispensable resource. It is also very readable, despite the scale. From being a minority interest, the question of canon has in the last few decades become a topic of intense interest, and M. is now probably the world's leading expert on the subject.
John Barton
McEntire, Mark, A Chorus of Prophetic Voices: Introducing the Prophetic Literature of Ancient Israel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), pp. xvii + 253. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-6642-3998-5.
This volume aims to be an introduction to the prophetic literature for undergraduates and postgraduates, but it is able to go beyond. Here M.'s reading strategy is eclectic. He combines the different reading methods, demonstrating how the canonical approach can be properly done in historical context. To tackle a difficult text, a diachronic reading to get the text's theological purpose can be fruitful. Further, a good canonical reading can offer insights from within the prophetic literature (or the Old Testament) without Christian influence. Several pedagogically useful aspects are worth mentioning: the structure of the volume is user-friendly; the volume deploys a scheme of ‘moment, character, voice, canon’ (pp. xv-xvi), hence the discussions on Isaiah, the Twelve, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are presented according to the historical development of crises—the Assyrian crisis, the Babylonian crisis, and the Restoration crisis; and the frequent use of topical tables and discussion boxes to address popular interests. One weakness this reviewer finds with the volume is the lack of details where needed. Though undergraduates may need to catch up with the hermeneutical issues and the textual complexities under discussion, the educator can decide how to make use of this excellent tool.
Hedy Hung
Merlo, Paolo and Angelo Passaro (eds.), Testi e contesti: Studi in onore di Innocenzo Cardellini nel suo 70° compleanno (Supplementi alla Rivista Biblica, 60; Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 2016), pp. 168. €18.00. ISBN 978-88-10-30248-4.
This collection of studies in honour of the Professor Emeritus of OT Exegesis at the Pontifical Lateran University contains the following papers: P. Merlo, ‘Die Inschrift des Kulamuwa KAI 24 und ihre Rhetorik’; A. Passaro, ‘Israel and the ץראה יבשי: The “Unresolved Tension” in the Book of Joshua. Between Fulfilment and Non-fulfilment’; F. Bianchi, ‘1 Sam 2, 12-17: Note filologiche e storiche’; S. Bazyliński, ‘Il Salmo 95: Un testo antologico o unitario?’; M. Nobile, ‘Da Ez 37; 38–39; 40–48 agli scritti di Qumran’; M. Settembrini, ‘Osservazioni sulle origini dello schema dei quattro regni in Daniele 2’; C. Dohmen, ‘Israeliten als Sklaven’; S. Paganini, ‘Dall'esegesi alla teologia biblica: Le leggi sugli schiavi nel Pentateuco’; G.L. Prato, ‘Morte e oltretomba nell'antico Israele nell'ottica di una tanatologia culturale’; B. Ognibeni, ‘I figli e la madre: Is 62, 5 e Gv 19, 27’; R. Penna, ‘L'assenza della “purificazione” nel vocabolario soteriologico di Paolo’; G. Pulcinelli, ‘Appunti sulla morte di Gesù e la sua interpretazione sacrificale nel NT’. The editors provide a biographical profile of the honoree, and a list of his publications.
(Book List Editor)
Nogalski, James D., The Book of the Twelve and Beyond: Collected Essays of James D. Nogalski (Ancient Israel and Its Literature, 29; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2017), pp. xiv + 363. $49.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-164-2.
Scholars working with the Minor Prophets will be familiar with the author and many of the essays collected here. Even so, the introductory authorial reflections (pp. 1-20) offer a fascinating glimpse of the origin and development of N.'s work on the Book of the Twelve. Understandably, this anthology does not include his most recent essays, but it is otherwise comprehensive. The essays are arranged under four headings. I give the year of the original publication in brackets. ‘Redactional Texts’ encompasses ‘The Redactional Shaping of Nahum 1 for the Book of the Twelve’ (1993), ‘Zephaniah 3: A Redactional Text for a Developing Corpus’ (2000), ‘Zechariah 13:7-9 as a Transitional Text: An Appreciation and Reevaluation of the Work of Rex Mason’ (2003), ‘Micah 7:8-20: A Reevaluation of the Identity of the Enemy’ (2010), ‘One Book and Twelve Books: The Nature of the Redactional Work and the Implications of Cultic Source Material in the Book of the Twelve’ (2009), and ‘Not Just Another Nation: Obadiah's Placement in the Book of the Twelve’ (2012). Under ‘Thematic Explorations’ we find ‘Joel as “Literary Anchor” for the Book of the Twelve’ (2000), ‘The Day(s) of YHWH in the Book of the Twelve’ (1999, in this version 2003), ‘Recurring Themes in the Book of the Twelve: Creating Points of Contact for a Theological Reading’ (2007), and ‘Jerusalem, Samaria, and Bethel in the Book of the Twelve’ (2012). ‘Intertextuality’ brings together ‘Intertextuality and the Twelve’ (1996), ‘Zephaniah's Use of Genesis 1–11’ (2014), and ‘Job and Joel: Divergent Voices on a Common Theme’ (2013). Finally, there are three essays under ‘Textual Criticism and Tradition History’, namely ‘The Problematic Suffixes of Amos 9:11’ (1993), ‘Obadiah 7: Textual Corruption or Politically Charged Metaphor?’ (1998), and ‘Reading David in the Psalter: A Study in Liturgical Hermeneutics’ (2001). The book concludes with a bibliography and indexes for ancient sources and modern authors.
Thomas Renz
Rubin, Barry A. (ed.), The Complete Jewish Study Bible: Insights for Jews and Christians (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2016), pp. lxii + 1905. £41.99. ISBN 978-1-61970-867-9. [Distributed in the UK by Alban Books.]
The Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) translation by David Stern has been updated for this new Study Bible, edited by R. It includes short introductions to each book from a messianic Jewish perspective, very brief study notes at the bottom of the page, a number of short topical articles, and eight colour maps. The textual notes tend to provide explanations of unfamiliar terms or practices, and occasionally include references to rabbinic teachings. Stern's choice to typeset the translation in one column, instead of two, for the sake of the layout of poetic sections, makes the prose sections appear rather dense. His translation of the Tanakh is a paraphrase of the 1917 JPS translation in modern English, with a number of Hebrew/Aramaic names and terms transliterated according to modern Israeli pronunciation, sometimes accompanied by English translations in parentheses. Yiddish words have been removed from his original CJB translation (1998), to make the text easier to read and understand. The translation of the Greek B'rit Hadashah (New Testament) is Stern's own, published as the Jewish New Testament in 1989. The Study Bible includes helpful introductory material, and an appendix containing glossaries and indexes. Since Stern's original intention for his translation was that it could be used in Messianic synagogues, R. has included in this Study Bible two tables in the back with suggested readings for Shabbat services and other occasions in the Jewish calendar year. This is a rich resource for those seeking to understand messianic Jewish interpretations of the Bible.
Alison R. Gray
Ska, Jean-Louis, Antico Testamento. I. Introduzione (Fondamenta; Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 2015), pp. 267. €22.50. ISBN 978-88-10-43202-0.
Ska, Jean-Louis, Antico Testamento. II. Temi e letture (Fondamenta; Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 2015), pp. 278. €22.50. ISBN 978-88-10-43205-1.
S., professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, offers no explanation of the purpose and intended readership of these two small volumes (19 × 12 cm). They are evidently pedagogic, but probably not intended for absolute beginners. The ‘Introduction’ is rather different from the traditional Einleitung. The brief chapters on successive parts of the OT describe their broad purpose and general characteristics rather than tackling the standard historical-critical questions (some of these are addressed, haphazardly, in the second volume); and its most distinctive feature is the first five chapters, which together make up a guide on how to read the OT: reading narrative; how different it is from classical literature (S. overpresses this point); the principles of ancient narrative; dealing with difficulties and contradictions. The second volume, ‘Themes and Readings’, contains 16 chapters each centred on a theme (e.g. creation, work, love, power, the sacrifices) and/or a text (e.g. the Flood story, the Decalogue, the Jubilee, the tower of Babel). S. is a distinguished scholar of the Pentateuch; the subjects of these essays are markedly weighted towards it, and his treatment in the Introduction of the sapiential and prophetic canons is rather sketchy. His approach is often unusual, and his ideas, though not absolutely original, are interesting and often worth discussing. That, for example, the canon emulates the culture of other nations I found possible but overdrawn. S. is a clear and lively writer. Students with some previous elementary initiation will learn a lot, though not according to the standard curriculum.
Walter J. Houston
Spronk, Klaas (ed.), The Present State of Old Testament Studies in the Low Countries: A Collection of Old Testament Studies Published on the Occasion of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap (OTS, 69; Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. xii + 296. €126.00 (hardback), €115.00 (e-book). ISBN 978-9-0043-2613-2 (hardback), 978-9-0043-2625-5 (e-book).
Members of SOTS, which celebrated its centenary in 2017, will want to congratulate the OTW, with which we hold joint meetings every three years, on their 75th anniversary. S. offers a survey of the work of the society and its members (‘Seventy-Five Years Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap: The Study of the Old Testament in the Netherlands and Belgium’). Other contributions are: B. Becking (‘Micah in the Low Countries’); K. van Bekkum and E. Peels (‘Revelation, History and Religious Plurality: Old Testament Studies from the Apeldoorn/Kampen Reformed Perspective’); J. Fokkelman (‘Salient Features in the Book of Job’); G. van der Kooij (‘A Changing “Archaeology of Palestine” at the University of Leiden, 1959–2014’); G. Kwakkel (‘Gender Perspectives on Hosea 2:4-25: Contributions from the Netherlands from 1988 until 2003’); C. Labuschagne (‘The Rise and Demise of the So-called Deuteronomistic History: A Plea for the Compositional Unity of Genesis-Kings’); B. Lemmelijn and H. Ausloos (‘Septuagint Studies in Louvain’); P. van der Lugt (‘The Dynamics of the Incomparable God Highlighted by the Immobility of an Idol: The Rhetorical Integrity of Isa. 40:12-26, 41:1-7 and 46:1-13’); E. Noort (‘Biblical Violence and the Task of the Exegete’); R. Oosting (‘Computer-Assisted Analysis of Old Testament Texts: The Contribution of the wivu to Old Testament Scholarship’); M.-J. Paul (‘Old Testament Exegesis and Biblical Theology from an Ede/Leuven Evangelical Perspective’); E. Talstra (‘Data, Knowledge and Tradition: Biblical Scholarship and the Humanities 2.0: Exodus 19 as a Laboratory Text’); L.M. Teugels (‘Towards an Annotated Edition of Tannaitic Parables’); and W.G.E. Watson (‘Delimitation Criticism: An Interim Evaluation’). Some articles contain illustrations and there are indexes of authors and textual references. Scholars and students interested in learning more about developments in OT research in the Netherlands and Belgium will find a wealth of information here.
J. Cheryl Exum
Strawn, Brent A., The Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017), pp. 336. $29.99. ISBN 978-0-8010-4888-3.
The book successfully highlights an increasingly acute complication. S. grounds the claim that the OT is on the demise, if not already expired, on a linguistic analogy. According to this, the OT is a language or very much like a language, inferring that it may become extinct just like any other language. What is meant by this linguistic analogy is that the OT, like any other piece of literature or art, is a means used for understanding and interpreting reality. Section one describes the state of the matter in three chapters, focusing on the causes of the dwindling of interest in the OT and the lack of in-depth knowledge of it, probed by actual concrete surveys and examples. The terms and concepts ‘pidginization’ and ‘depidginization’ or ‘creolization’ are also introduced to expand the issue concerning the pidginized and creolized forms of the OT language, which are a far cry from the original language and native speakers. Section two assesses the consequences of the pidginization of the language of the OT as caused by such movements as the New Atheism, the Marcionites (from Marcion to Adolf von Harnack) and the Happiologists (John Osteen et al.). Section three furnishes the following possible remedies for the dilemma: the promotion of learning old languages, bilingualism, regular use, adequate linguistic training, intentionality in language practice and learning. The six appendixes provide valuable data respecting the usage of OT passages in proportion to NT texts for sermons.
Bálint Károly Zabán
Thatcher, Tom, Chris Keith, Raymond F. Person Jr, Elsie R. Stern and Judith Odor (eds.), The Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media (London and New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), pp. xviii + 479. £150.00. ISBN 978-0-567-22249-7.
The aim of this dictionary is to treat topics relating to the modes and effects of communication in antiquity, especially in relation to the Bible. The subjects include general topics one might expect for media studies, such as ‘sound mapping’, ‘performance criticism’, ‘orality’, ‘Homeric Question’, ‘papyrus’, ‘wax tablet’, and ‘drama (Greco-Roman)’. Topics more closely related to HB/OT studies include ‘abecedaries’, ‘Amarna letters’, ‘circumcision’, ‘Mishnah’, ‘prophecy’, ‘Ras Shamra’, ‘sabbath’, ‘synagogues’, ‘rewritten scripture’, and ‘Yavneh’. Also many entries relate to the NT and early Christianity. There are some puzzles, however. The Vindolanda archive is perhaps unusual enough to have its own entry, but why not cross-referenced to ‘Writing and Writing Materials’, and vice versa? The entries ‘memory, cognitive/personal’ and ‘memory, gist and verbatim’ in the table of contents do not in fact exist! There are, though, many entries with ‘memory’ as the second part, including ‘gist memory’ and ‘cognitive/personal memory’. Also included are ‘collective memory/social memory’ (mainly on collective memory but making no distinction between collective and social memory and giving no cross-reference to ‘social memory’) and also ‘social memory’ (both defining the difference between it and collective memory and giving a cross-reference to the other entry). Some names of researchers important for ancient media studies are also included (Mikhail Bakhtin, Jan Assmann, Jack Goody, Milman Parry, Rosalind Thomas), even some of those who have actually contributed to the dictionary (Werner Kelber, Barry Schwartz). The entry on Ruth Finnegan mentions her contribution to the Great Divide debate and her critique of Walter J. Ong, but the entry on Ong makes no reference to either the Great Divide debate or Finnegan's criticisms of him. Entries end with ‘further reading’. There are a few names of contributors that will be well known to B.L. readers, but many are not likely to be familiar, since this is a somewhat specialized study. Before the alphabetical entries, there is an introduction by the editors that discusses media studies and their relationship to biblical studies. This is a useful work of reference but also with some organizational flaws.
Lester L. Grabbe
Note also the following books reviewed in other sections of this Book List:
Anderson, Bradford A., An Introduction to the Study of the Pentateuch — see p. 63
Campbell, Joan C. and Patrick J. Hartin (eds.), Exploring Biblical Kinship: Festschrift in Honor of John J. Pilch — see p. 174
Dozeman, Thomas B., The Pentateuch: Introducing the Torah — see p. 65
Finkelstein, Israel et al. (eds.), Alphabets, Texts and Artefacts in the Ancient Near East: Studies presented to Benjamin Sass — see p. 22
Gauthier, Randall X. et al. (eds.), Septuagint, Sages, and Scripture: Studies in Honour of Johann Cook — see p. 55
Hutton, Jeremy M. and Aaron D. Rubin (eds.), Epigraphy, Philology and the Hebrew Bible: Methodological Perspectives on Philological and Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible in Honor of Jo Ann Hackett — see p. 252
Killebrew, Ann E. and Gabriele Faßbeck, Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology: VeHinnei Rachel. Essays in Honor of Rachel Hachlili — see p. 25