Blog

The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• William Goodman, Yearning for You: Psalms and the Song of Songs in Conversation with Rock and Worship Songs, reviewed by T. Michael W. Halcomb
• David Weiss Halivni, The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud, reviewed by Joshua Ezra Burns
• Isaac Kalimi, ed., Jewish Bible Theology: Perspectives and Case Studies, reviewed by Ginny Brewer-Boydston
• Vita Daphna Arbel, Forming Femininity in Antiquity: Eve, Gender, and Ideologies in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, reviewed by F. Scott Spencer
• Víctor Morla, Los manuscritos hebreos de Ben Sira: Traducción y notas, reviewed by Nuria Calduch-Benages
• Peter W. Flint, The Dead Sea Scrolls, reviewed by George J. Brooke

New Testament and Cognate Studies

The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Jenny R. Labendz, Socratic Torah: Non-Jews in Rabbinic Intellectual Culture, reviewed by Joshua Schwartz
• Thomas L. Thompson, Biblical Narrative and Palestine’s History: Changing Perspectives 2, reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

New Testament and Cognate Studies

Through June 11, the Westminster Bookstore is offering a free PDF download of Iain Duguid’s Is Jesus in the Old Testament? (P&R, 2013). Duguid has been at Grove City College but has recently joined the Westminster Seminary faculty. According to its introduction, Duguid’s essay (the text is a brief 33 pages of prose) has the following major components to its argument:

This month, Logos Bible Software has Frederic Perthes’ Life of John Chrysostom (John P. Jewett, 1854) available for free. According to Logos’s description,

Based on the investigations of Neander, Böhringer, and others, Life of John Chrysostom details the “golden-mouthed” orator’s influence on Asia Minor. It offers a look into his role as preacher and bishop, his interactions with different sects and notable persons during his life, and an exacting account of his three-year exile.

...

Through June 16, Ben Witherington’s What’s in the Word: Rethinking the Socio-Rhetorical Character of the New Testament (Baylor, 2009) is available for free from Logos Bible Software.

In sum, “Expanding on the work in which he has been fruitfully engaged for over a quarter century, Witherington challenges the previously assured results of historical criticism and demonstrates chapter by chapter how the socio-rhetorical study shifts the paradigm.” The volume discusses concerns related to orality and canon, and includes several chapters treating particular texts or phrases within the New Testament.

The June free book of the month seems already to be live on the Logos Bible Software website. The included text is Walter Brueggemann’s Spirituality of the Psalms (Fortress, 2001). The optional, $0.99 add on is Brueggemmann’s David’s Truth: In Israel’s Imagination and Memory (Fortress, 2002).

Google Books has two volumes of Christoph Friedrich Ammon’s Biblische Theologie (Erlangen: J. J. Palm, 1801) available in various full-text formats ( vol. 1, vol. 2).

For this week, Kevin Vanhoozer’s edited volume on the Theological Interpretation of the New Testament is free from Logos Bible Software when users join a Baker-related email list (HT: Tayler Beede). The volume provides a focused selection of the book-specific entries from the larger Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible.

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“120”] William Baird, History of New Testament Research (3 vols.)[/caption]

With last year’s release of the third volume, From C. H. Dodd to Hans Dieter Betz, William Baird brought his helpful series on the recent history of New Testament Studies to a close. Cliff Kvidahl has an informative review that, despite some criticisms, rightly praises Baird’s work as “informative while remaining entertaining. [Baird] brings the reader through the life and work of each scholar without getting bogged down in too much detail.” Those interested can also find the whole 3-volume set available among Logos Bible Software’s prepublication listings.

After having the product available for over 10 years, Logos Bible Software has released a substantive update to their Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts database (ed. Martin Abegg). Most significant among this update’s improvements are that the resource:

• Now contains more than 100 scrolls than in the previous version (737 documents are now represented).
• Several texts in the previous version have been reorganized to reflect the latest scholarship on their reconstruction.
• The database’s morphology has been updated to WHM 4.18.

For more information, please see the Logos blog.

The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include those below. In biblioblog time, some of these reviews date back almost to eternity past, but I’m going ahead and posting them here for future reference.

Update (5/13): The following now includes the April 24 listings I’d missed out previously.

March 14

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Alan Appelbaum, The Rabbis’ King-Parables: Midrash from the Third-Century Roman Empire, reviewed by Rachel Adelman
• Magnar Kartveit, Rejoice, Dear Zion!: Hebrew Construct Phrases with “Daughter” and “Virgin” as Nomen Regens, reviewed by Peter Bekins
• Tyler D. Mayfield, Literary Structure and Setting in Ezekiel, reviewed by Richard G. Smith

New Testament and Cognate Studies

Thanks to Anthony Le Donne for noting the availability of LibriVox recordings for D. F. Strauss’s Life of Jesus and Albert Schweitzer’s Quest of the Historical Jesus. LibriVox also has apps available for Android, iOS, and Kindle users, and the iOS version (at least) allows downloading and storage for offline listening.

Now garnering interest in Logos Bible Software’s prepublication program are 6 volumes of select works from Simon Kistemaker. The collection mostly contains items related to the Gospels but also includes an edited volume of hermeneutics essays and a survey of Calvinist history and thought.

The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Rainer Albertz and Jakob Wöhrle, eds., Between Cooperation and Hostility: Multiple Identities in Ancient Judaism and the Interaction with Foreign Powers, reviewed by Michael L. Satlow
• C. A. Strine, Sworn Enemies: The Divine Oath, the Book of Ezekiel, and the Polemics of Exile, reviewed by John T. Strong
• Heath A. Thomas, Jeremy Evans, and Paul Copan, eds., Holy War in the Bible: Christian Morality and an Old Testament Problem, reviewed by Guenther Haas
• Amram Tropper, Simeon the Righteous in Rabbinic Literature: A Legend Reinvented, reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

New Testament and Cognate Studies

The latest Bloomsbury Highlights notes the newly available volume 16 in the T&T Clark Jewish and Christian Texts Series. The volume is a revision of my 2011 dissertation at Southeastern Seminary and primarily explores paradigmatic, or presuppositional, aspects of the hermeneutics at play in Romans and some of the Qumran sectarian texts.

The latest issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society includes:

• Gregory Goswell, “Two Testaments in Parallel: The Influence of the Old Testament on the Structuring of the New Testament Canon”
• Michael A. Grisanti, “Recent Archaeological Discoveries that Lend Credence to the Historicity of the Scriptures”
• Vern S. Poythress, “Presuppositions and Harmonization: Luke 23:47 as a Test Case”
• Martin Pickup, “‘On The Third Day’: The Time Frame of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection”
• Andrew B. Spurgeon, “1 Timothy 2:13–15: Paul’s Retelling of Genesis 2:4–4:1”
• Eliezer Gonzalez, “Healing in the Pauline Epistles: Why the Silence?”
• Stanley E. Porter, “Not Only That (οὐ μόνον), But It Has Been Said Before: A Response to Verlyn Verbrugge, or Why Reading Previous Scholarship Can Avoid Scholarly Misunderstandings”
• Verlyn D. Verbrugge, “Response to Stanley E. Porter”

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Ulrich F. Berges, Isaiah: The Prophet and his Book, reviewed by Marvin A. Sweeney
• Daniel E. Fleming, The Legacy of Israel in Judah’s Bible: History, Politics, and the Reinscribing of Tradition, reviewed by Matthew Suriano
• Theresa V. Lafferty, The Prophetic Critique of the Priority of the Cult: A Study of Amos 5:21–24 and Isaiah 1:10–17, reviewed by Alphonso Groenewald
• Matthew Neujahr, Predicting the Past in the Ancient Near East: Mantic Historiography in Ancient Mesopotamia, Judah, and the Mediterranean World, reviewed by Gerhard Karner
• Georg A. Walser, Jeremiah: A Commentary based on Ieremias in Codex Vaticanus, reviewed by Michael Graves
• Walter Brueggemann, Truth Speaks to Power: The Countercultural Nature of Scripture, reviewed by Gerrie Snyman

New Testament and Cognate Studies

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• John J. Collins, Joel, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, reviewed by Bradford A. Anderson
• Avraham Faust, The Archaeology of Israelite Society in Iron Age II, reviewed by Aren M. Maeir
• Gary A. Long, Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Hebrew, reviewed by Perry J. Oakes
• Chad S. Spigel, Ancient Synagogue Seating Capacities: Methodology, Analysis and Limits, reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Scripture and Hermeneutics

The upcoming issue of the Journal of Biblical Literature is set to include the following:

• Mark F. Whitters, “Baruch as Ezra in 2 Baruch”
• Brian R. Doak, “Ezekiel’s Topography of the (Un-)Heroic Dead in Ezekiel 32:17–32”
• Ruth Sheridan, “Issues in the Translation of оἱ ̓Iоυαῖоι in the Fourth Gospel”
• Andrew T. Lincoln, “Luke and Jesus’ Conception: A Case of Double Paternity?”
• Daniel Frayer-Griggs, “Spittle, Clay, and Creation in John 9:6 and Some Dead Sea Scrolls”
• Timothy M. Willis, “The Curious Case of κυριε μоυ κυριε in 2 Kingdoms 7:18–29”
• Greg Goswell, “The Eschatology of Malachi after Zechariah 14”
• Bennie H. Reynolds, “The Expression המד דין in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Legacy of the Holiness School in Essene Legal Texts”
• T. C. Ham, “The Gentle Voice of God in Job 38”
• Andrew R. Davis, “The Literary Effect of Gender Discord in the Book of Ruth”
• Robert D. Holmstedt, “The Nexus between Textual Criticism and Linguistics: A Case Study from Leviticus”
• Naphtali S. Meshel, “Toward a Grammar of Sacrifice: Hierarchic Patterns in the Israelite Sacrificial System”
• David G. Horrell, Bradley Arnold, and Travis B. Williams, “Visuality, Vivid Description, and the Message of 1 Peter: The Significance of the Roaring Lion (1 Peter 5:8)”

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Yairah Amit, In Praise of Editing in the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays in Retrospect, reviewed by Richard G. Smith
• Athalya Brenner and Gale A. Yee, eds., Exodus and Deuteronomy, reviewed by Susanne Scholz
• Rahel Halabé, Hinneh: Biblical Hebrew the Practical Way, reviewed by John Engle
• Isaac Kalimi, New Perspectives on Ezra-Nehemiah: History and Historiography, Text, Literature, and Interpretation, reviewed by Andrew E. Steinmann
• Nathan MacDonald, Mark W. Elliott, and Grant Macaskill, eds., Genesis and Christian Theology, reviewed by Christopher B. Ansberry
• Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos, Reading Samuel: A Literary and Theological Commentary, reviewed by Klaus-Peter Adam

New Testament and Cognate Studies

The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Lawrence Boadt, Richard Clifford, and Daniel Harrington, eds., Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction, reviewed by Richard G. Smith
• David J. A. Clines and Ellen van Wolde, eds., A Critical Engagement: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of J. Cheryl Exum, reviewed by George Savran
• Walter Groß and Erasmus Gaß, Studien zum Richterbuch und seinen Völkernamen, reviewed by Trent C. Butler
• Todd R. Hanneken, The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees, reviewed by Robert Foster
• Jonathan Kearney, Rashi—Linguist Despite Himself: A Study of the Linguistic Dimension of Rabbi Solomon Yishaqi’s Commentary on Deuteronomy, reviewed by Siam Bhayro
• William E. Mierse, Temples and Sanctuaries from the Early Iron Age Levant: Recovery after Collapse, reviewed by Jonathan S. Greer
• Jacqueline S. du Toit, Textual Memory: Ancient Archives, Libraries and the Hebrew Bible, reviewed by Ingeborg Löwisch
• Yair Zakovitch, Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch, reviewed by Ronald Hendel

New Testament and Cognate Studies

[caption id=“attachment_2129” align=“alignright” width=“87”] Richard Bauckham[/caption]

In his 2006 Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Richard Bauckham suggests:

that we need to recover the sense in which the Gospels are testimony. This does not mean that they are testimony rather than history. It means that the kind of historiography they are is testimony. An irreducible feature of testimony as a form of human utterance is that it asks to be trusted. This does not mean that it asks to be trusted uncritically, but it does mean that testimony should not be treated as credible only to the extent that it can be independently verified. There can be good reasons for trusting or distrusting a witness, but these are precisely reasons for trusting or distrusting. Trusting testimony is not an irrational act of faith that leaves critical rationality aside; it is, on the contrary, the rationally appropriate way of responding to authentic testimony. . . . It is true that a powerful trend in the modern development of critical historical philosophy and method finds trusting testimony a stumbling-block in the way of the historian’s autonomous access to truth that she or he can verify independently. But it is also a rather neglected fact that all history, like all knowledge, relies on testimony. ( 5; italics original)

...

The latest issue of New Testament Studies includes:

• Helen K. Bond, “Dating the Death of Jesus: Memory and the Religious Imagination”
• John K. Goodrich, “Sold under Sin: Echoes of Exile in Romans 7.14–25”
• Timothy A. Brookins, “The (In)frequency of the Name ‘Erastus’ in Antiquity: A Literary, Papyrological, and Epigraphical Catalog”
• Daniel Frayer-Griggs, “Neither Proof Text nor Proverb: The Instrumental Sense of διά and the Soteriological Function of Fire in 1 Corinthians 3.15”
• Jonathan A. Linebaugh, “The Christo-Centrism of Faith in Christ: Martin Luther’s Reading of Galatians 2.16, 19–20”
• Thomas J. Kraus, " Hapax legomena: Definition eines terminus technicus und Signifikanz für eine pragmatisch orientierte Sprachanalyse"
• Karen L. King, “The Place of the Gospel of Philip in the Context of Early Christian Claims about Jesus’ Marital Status”
• Emily Gathergood, “Papyrus 32 (Titus) as a Multi-text Codex: A New Reconstruction”

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Dominique Barthélemy, Studies in the Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, reviewed by John Engle
• Paul L. Redditt, Zechariah 9–14, reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer
• Jon D. Levenson, Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, reviewed by Sara Koenig
• Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges, reviewed by Trent C. Butler

New Testament and Cognate Studies

[caption id=“attachment_4050” align=“alignright” width=“56”] WTS Books[/caption]

Through September 3, the Westminster Bookstore has select Ed Clowney resources available at half-off, including:

• How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments
• Preaching and Biblical Theology
• Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament(2nd ed)

As usual, the Bookstore has also included some related, free PDF or multimedia material on these books’ product pages.

According to Amazon,

Special pricing is available on select Kindle Fire tablets to Amazon Student members with an active Prime account (six months free or $39/year plan). Join Amazon Student or start your discounted Prime membership to take advantage of this discount. The promo codes below will become available 24 hours after activation of your account, through September 1. New members, don’t forget to check your .edu email and verify your account.

...

Recently, I noted that an English Standard Version audio Bible was freely available with registration at Bible.is. This version’s Old Testament is also still freely available in MP3 format on Amazon.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Version in 2011, Crossway released an edition of the English Standard Version’s Gospels illuminated by Makoto Fujimura ( cloth, leather). A short introduction to the project is available below (HT: Bryant Owens):

The J. Alan Groves Center has released version 4.18 for the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) and the Westminster Hebrew Morphology (WHM). According to the Center’s notice, this update includes:

41 sets of lemma changes, 85 sets of parsing changes, 16 textual changes with an associated change in bracket notes, the addition of the bracket note “]n” (which designates an unusual or unexpected form) to almost 100 words, 24 other changes to bracket notes, 5 other textual changes, and 5 changes to morphological slashes and/or word divisions. Changes to the text are to make the WHM and the WLC conform to the text of the Hebrew Bible found in the Leningrad Codex.

...

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Johann Cook and Arie van der Kooij, Law, Prophets, and Wisdom: On the Provenance of Translators and Their Books in the Septuagint Version, reviewed by Sean A. Adams
• C. L. Crouch, War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East: Military Violence in Light of Cosmology and History, reviewed by Tyler Mayfield
• Richard Hidary, Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud, reviewed by Kris Lindbeck
• Othmar Keel, Corpus der Stempelsiegel-Amulette aus Palästina/Israel: Von den Anfängen bis zur Perserzeit: Katalog Band IV: Von Tel Gamma bis Chirbet Husche, reviewed by Brent A. Strawn
• Sigmund Mowinckel, Religion and Cult: The Old Testament and the Phenomenology of Religion, reviewed by Nicole Ruane
• Jonathan Stökl, Prophecy in the Ancient Near East: A Philological and Sociological Comparison, reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

New Testament and Cognate Studies