Bibliography

This week in the blogosphere:

• James McGrath helpfully notes that John Byron, Associate Professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary, is now blogging at The Biblical World.
• Sadly, Gerald Hawthorne passes away (HT: John Byron).
• Helen Bond discusses the composition of the Sanhedrin in first-century Palestine.
• Trevor provides a good summary of a variety of different ways to add records to Zotero.
• Happy Dissertating suggests priming the writing pump as necessary via 750 Words. Based on what the site provides, it looks like a fully private blog could also be used in much the same way, but particularly for those who would prefer not to need to ensure for themselves that all their privacy settings are correct or who might enjoy some of the other features that 750 Words offers, the site may be worth a look.
• Pat McCullough begins a bibliography of resources about the application of Social Identity Theory to biblical studies and invites suggestions for additions.

The mid-year issue of Themelios is now available, and it includes:

• Carl Trueman, “Minority Report: Not in the Public Interest”
• Fred G. Zaspel, “B. B. Warfield on Creation and Evolution”
• Denny Burk, “Why Evangelicals Should Ignore Brian McLaren: How the New Testament Requires Evangelicals to Render a Judgement on the Moral Status of Homosexuality”
• Stephen Dempster, “A Member of the Family or a Stranger? A Review Article of Jeffrey J. Niehaus, Ancient Near Eastern Themes in Biblical Theology”
• William Edgar, “Parallels, Real or Imagined? A Review Article of Jeffrey J. Niehaus, Ancient Near Eastern Themes in Biblical Theology”
• Jeffrey J. Niehaus, “How to Write—and How Not to Write—a Review: An Appreciative Response to Reviews of Ancient Near Eastern Themes in Biblical Theology by Dempster and Edgar”
• D. A. Carson, “Pastoral Pensées: Motivations to Appeal to in Our Hearers When We Preach for Conversion”
• Book Reviews

[caption id=“attachment_2049” align=“alignright” width=“100” caption=“D. A. Carson and Douglas Moo”] [/caption]

Thanks to the kind folks at Zondervan, I just received the second edition of D. A. Carson and Douglas Moo’s Introduction to the New Testament for use this fall. I had used the first edition (co-authored also with Leon Morris) when I took my initial New Testament Introduction course, so I will be interested (finally—this second edition has been available since 2005) to see firsthand what revisions have been made.

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

• Steven L. Bridge, Getting the Old Testament: What It Meant to Them, What It Means for Us, reviewed by Robert Wallace
• Robert R. Cargill, Qumran through (Real) Time: A Virtual Reconstruction of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, reviewed by Eibert Tigchelaar
• Greg Schmidt Goering, Wisdom’s Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel, reviewed by Ibolya Balla
• Bernd Janowski, Bernhard Greiner, and Hermann Lichtenberger, eds., Opfere deinen Sohn! Das ‘Isaak-Opfer’ in Judentum, Christentum und Islam, reviewed by Paul Sanders
• Edith Lubetski and Meir Lubetski, eds., The Book of Esther: A Classified Bibliography, reviewed by Mayer I. Gruber
• Nathan MacDonald, What Did the Ancient Israelites Eat? Diet in Biblical Times, reviewed by Raz Kletter
• Mark S. Smith and Wayne T. Pitard, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Volume 2: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU/CAT 1.3–1.4, reviewed by Frank H. Polak
• Roger E. Van Harn and Brent A. Strawn, Psalms for Preaching and Worship: A Lectionary Commentary, reviewed by Hallvard Hagelia

New Testament and Cognate Fields

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This week in the blogosphere:

• Baker acquires Hendrickson’s academic arm (HT: Nijay Gupta and Rod Decker).
• Larry Hurtado rightfully lauds and recommends careful attention to Harry Gable’s Books and Readers in the Early Church.
• Cynthia Nielsen continues her discussion of interconnections between Joerg Rieger and Frederick Douglass with a post about duality in identity construction.
• Michael Halcomb has a new website specifically dedicated to Getting (Theological) Languages.
• Kirk Lowery returns to the biblioblogosphere after a hiatus for the development of the Groves Center as an independent research unit. I had the privilege of doing an Aramaic and a Hebrew Bible text-linguistics seminar under Kirk and am again looking forward to seeing what shows up on his “scratchpad.”
• Happy Dissertating suggests PhD2Published as a potentially valuable resource for new PhD graduates in humanities disciplines.
• James McGrath spots several video recordings of presentations at this past year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
• Michael Bird starts reading a recent biography of Ernst Käsemann and reproduces several, brief quotations from Käsemann that are, as one might expect, particularly insightful.
• Todd Bolen reports a recent spectrometric analysis that suggests a Jerusalem origin for a newly discovered cuneiform tablet.
• Ken Schenck discusses the reading of biblical literature as Christian scripture.
• Brian LePort discusses the relationship between scripture and tradition in view of the Trinitarian-Oneness debate. On this relationship, our Writing Center director at Southeastern recently brought to my attention F. F. Bruce’s edited volume, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. I have yet really to peruse it, and the book is scarcely findable in print at this point. Still, it does look like a very interesting volume, and much of it is available through Google Books.
• Google and Verizon propose, regarding Net Neutrality,“that ‘wireline broadband providers [sh]ould not be able to discriminate against or prioritize lawful Internet content, applications or services in a way that causes harm to users or competition’, but broadband providers [sh]ould be able to offer ‘additional, differentiated online services’.”
• Chris Brady shares some of his conclusions from his recent International Organization for Targumic Studies presentation about Boaz in Targum Ruth.

This year’s second issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research arrived in the mail yesterday and includes the following:

• Brian Gault, “An Admonition against ‘Rousing Love’: The Meaning of the Enigmatic Refrain in Song of Songs,” 161–84
• William Wilder, “The Use (or Abuse) of Power in High Places: Gifts Given and Received in Isaiah, Psalm 68, and Ephesians 4:8,” 185–200
• Gerald Peterman, “Plural You: On the Use and Abuse of the Second Person,” 201–14
• Craig Keener, “Spirit Possession as a Cross-cultural Experience,” 215–36
• Joshua Jipp and Michael Thate, “Dating Thomas: Logion 53 as a Test Case for Dating the Gospel of Thomas within an Early Christian Trajectory,” 237–56
• Book reviews, 257–307

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Paul Barnett, Finding the Historical Christ: After Jesus, Volume 3, reviewed by Matthew Recla
• David W. Chapman, Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion, reviewed by John T. Carroll
• Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, reviewed by James W. Aageson
• Edna Johnson, A Semantic and Structural Analysis of Ephesians, reviewed by Timothy Gombis
• Brigitte Kahl, Galatians Re-imagined: Reading with the Eyes of the Vanquished, reviewed by Vernon K. Robbins

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

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[caption id=“attachment_5648” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Elizabeth Mburu”] [/caption]

Due out in a little less than one month is the revised version Elizabeth Mburu’s PhD thesis, Qumran and the Origins of Johannine Language and Symbolism. In the book, Mburu

sets out to demonstrate that the sectarian Qumran document The Rule of the Community, provides linguistic clues which illuminate our understanding of how the author of the Fourth Gospel used truth terminology and expected it to be understood.

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Christian Book Distributors is offering their 22-volume collection of Calvin’s commentaries for $99.99 (retail: $1200.00) with a bonus copy of Calvin’s Institutes. Also, starting November 1, CBD will offer a 14-volume set of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for $99.99 (retail: $995.00). Even after accounting for shipping costs, the 90%+ discount offered on these sets’ retail prices still leaves them as strikingly good bargains.

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According to Google’s blog, the National Library of the Netherlands will soon start making over 160,000 public-domain volumes available through Google Books. Works targeted for digitization “constitute nearly the library’s entire collection of out-of-copyright books, written during the 18th and 19th centuries.” Among the authors whose works this post explicitly notes as being included within this group is Abraham Kuyper (at least via a direct link to his Wikipedia page), the Dutch Reformed theologian, philosopher, and politician.

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Today, the following arrived from the kind folks at Baker for use this fall:

[caption id=“attachment_5710” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Craig Blomberg”] [/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_5709” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Darrell Bock”] [/caption]

Being in the classroom (whether virtual or physical) is always enjoyable, and I am certainly looking forward to meeting and interacting with everyone there again this fall.

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Willis Barnstone, The Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas, reviewed by Sean Kealy
• James G. Crossley, Jesus in an Age of Terror: Scholarly Projects for a New American Century, reviewed by William Arnal
• Richard A. Horsley, Wisdom and Spiritual Transcendence at Corinth: Studies in First Corinthians, reviewed by L. L. Welborn
• Jerome H. Neyrey, The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective, reviewed by Steven Hunt

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Kenneth E. Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal: Luke 15 through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants, reviewed by Robert O’Toole
• Brendan Byrne, A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel, reviewed by Sean Kealy
• Stanley E. Porter and Mark J. Boda, eds., Translating the New Testament: Text, Translation, Theology, reviewed by Douglas Moo

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

• Elizabeth Boase, The Fulfilment of Doom? The Dialogic Interaction between the Book of Lamentations and the Pre-exilic/Early Exilic Prophetic Literature, reviewed by Charles Miller
• Jo Carruthers, Esther through the Centuries, reviewed by Linda Day and reviewed by Timothy Laniak
• Mark K. George, Israel’s Tabernacle as Social Space, reviewed by Gert Prinsloo
• John Oswalt, The Bible among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature?, reviewed by Claude Mariottini
• Tessa Rajak, Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible and the Ancient Jewish Diaspora, reviewed by Christopher Beetham

Hermeneutics

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Thanks to wonderful readers and the excellent folks at the Westminster Bookstore, the following arrived at our door this past week:

[caption id=“attachment_5466” align=“alignleft” width=“100” caption=“Kurt Aland”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_5467” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“William Holladay”] [/caption] [caption id=“attachment_5468” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Warren Trenchard”][/caption][caption id=“attachment_5464” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Miles Van Pelt and Gary Pratico”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_5465” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Ronald Williams”] [/caption]

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (Twentieth Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction), reviewed by Richard Valantasis
• Kate Cooper and Julia Hillner, eds., Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage in Early Christian Rome, 300–900, reviewed by Ilaria Ramelli
• April D. DeConick, The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation: With a Commentary and New English Translation of the Complete Gospel , reviewed by Stephen Patterson
• David A. deSilva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, reviewed by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
• Terence L. Donaldson, Judaism and the Gentiles: Jewish Patterns of Universalism (to 135 CE) , reviewed by Joshua Schwartz
• Michael Philip Penn, Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church,reviewed by Candida Moss
• Stanley E. Porter, ed., Paul: Jew, Greek, and Roman, reviewed by Christoph Stenschke
• Turid Karlsen Seim and Jorunn Økland, eds., Metamorphoses: Resurrection, Body and Transformative Practices in Early Christianity , reviewed by V. Henry Nguyen
• Magnus Zetterholm, Approaches to Paul: A Student’s Guide to Recent Scholarship, reviewed by Nijay Gupta

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• François Bovon, L’Evangile selon saint Luc 19,28–24,53, reviewed by Richard I. Pervo
• Jean-Marie van Cangh, Les sources Judaïques du nouveau testament: Recueil d’essais, reviewed by Peter Tomson
• Pamela Eisenbaum, Paul Was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle, reviewed by Yung Suk Kim
• Lee Martin McDonald, Forgotten Scriptures: The Selection and Rejection of Early Religious Writings, reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton
• Paul Middleton, Angus Paddison, and Karen Wenell, eds., Paul, Grace and Freedom: Essays in Honour of John K. Riches, reviewed by Michael J. Lakey
• Mogens Müller, The Expression ‘Son of Man’ and the Development of Christology: A History of Interpretation, reviewed by Rollin Kearns
• C. Kavin Rowe, World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age, reviewed by V. Henry Nguyen
• Alexander Tsutserov, Glory, Grace, and Truth: Ratification of the Sinaitic Covenant according to the Gospel of John, reviewed by Christopher W. Skinner

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

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A revised edition of James VanderKam’s excellent introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls is making its way to retailers. This new edition “retains the format, style, and aims of the first edition, and the same wider audience is envisaged” ( xii). Consequently, this edition includes five primary categories of changes ( xii–xiii):

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• John Fleter Tipei, The Laying on of Hands in the New Testament: Its Significance, Techniques, and Effects, reviewed by Everett Ferguson
• Chris A. Vlachos, The Law and the Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Edenic Background of the Catalytic Operation of the Law in Paul, reviewed by James M. Howard
• Magnus Zetterholm, Approaches to Paul: A Student’s Guide to Recent Scholarship, reviewed by David G. Horrell

Hermeneutics

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Michael F. Bird, Introducing Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message, reviewed by Tony Costa
• Delbert Burkett, The Unity and Plurality of Q (Rethinking the Gospel Sources, Volume 2), reviewed by Tobias Hagerland
• Greg Carey, Sinners: Jesus and His Earliest Followers, reviewed by Burgert De Wet
• Andrie Du Toit, edited by Cilliers Breytenbach and David S. Du Toit, Focusing on Paul: Persuasion and Theological Design in Romans and Galatians, reviewed by Sheila E. McGinn
• Carole R. Fontaine, With Eyes of Flesh: The Bible, Gender and Human Rights, reviewed by Robin Gallaher Branch
• J. R. Daniel Kirk, Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God, reviewed by Jens Herzer
• Kenneth L. Schenck, Cosmology and Eschatology in Hebrews: The Settings of the Sacrifice, reviewed by Thomas Kraus
• Gerhard Sellin, Der Brief an die Epheser, reviewed by Angela Standhartinger
• Edna Ullmann-Margalit, Out of the Cave: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Dead Sea Scrolls Research, reviewed by Samuel Thomas

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

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This morning, Logos Bible Software announced an agreement with Baker Books that will soon allow Logos to bring “hundreds” of Baker titles into pre-publication. According to Logos’s normal procedure, once available on the Pre-Pub page, production will begin on a given title once a sufficient number of people have ordered that title at the Pre-Pub price. Some of the new Baker titles already available on the Pre-Pub page include:

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Jonathan Knight, Christian Origins, reviewed by Markus Oehler
• Kasper Bro Larsen, Recognizing the Stranger: Recognition Scenes in the Gospel of John, reviewed by Dorothy Lee
• Ramsay MacMullen, The Second Church: Popular Christianity A.D. 200–400, reviewed by Charles Bobertz
• John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (Volume 4: Law and Love), reviewed by Susan Graham
• Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter, eds., New Testament Greek Papyri and Parchments: New Editions: Texts and Plates, reviewed by Thomas Kraus
• Loren Stuckenbruck, 1 Enoch 91–108, reviewed by Archie T. Wright
• Jerry L. Sumney, Colossians: A Commentary, reviewed by Angela Standhartinger

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Fields

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Amy Donaldson’s dissertation on Explicit References to New Testament Variant Readings among Greek and Latin Church Fathers is now available in PDF format through Notre Dame’s thesis and dissertation database. According to the abstract,

In his introduction to New Testament textual criticism, Eberhard Nestle stated a desideratum, later repeated by Bruce Metzger, for a collection, arranged according to time and locality, of all passages in which the church fathers appeal to New Testament manuscript evidence. Nestle began this project with a list of references; Metzger continued the work by examining the explicit references to variants by Origen and Jerome and expanding Nestle’s list. This dissertation picks up where Metzger left off, expanding and evaluating the list. The purpose is to contribute to patristics and New Testament textual criticism in two ways: first, by providing a helpful catalogue of patristic texts that refer to variant readings; and second, by analyzing the collected data with a focus on the text-critical criteria used by the fathers.

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[caption id=“attachment_4657” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Natalio Marcos and Wilfred Watson”] [/caption] The second edition of Natalio Marcos and Wilfred Watson’s Septuagint in Context: Introduction to the Greek Version of the Bible is now available in a somewhat more cost effective paperback from the Society of Biblical Literature. According to Brill, who has previously published the hardback edition,

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Roger S. Bagnall, Early Christian Books in Egypt, reviewed by Larry Hurtado
• Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds., The Ways That Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, reviewed by Chad Spigel
• James H. Charlesworth, The Earliest Christian Hymnbook: The Odes of Solomon, reviewed by Michael Lattke
• Robert Goldenberg, The Origins of Judaism: From Canaan to the Rise of Islam, reviewed by Lester L. Grabbe
• Michael J. Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology, reviewed by Sigurd Grindheim
• Larry R. Helyer, The Witness of Jesus, Paul and John: An Exploration in Biblical Theology, reviewed by Petrus Grabe
• James Allen Hewett, New Testament Greek: A Beginning and Intermediate Grammar, reviewed by Laurence Vance
• Konrad Huber and Boris Repschinski, eds., Im Geist und in der Wahrheit: Studien zum Johannesevangelium und zur Offenbarung des Johannes sowie andere Beiträge. Festschrift für Martin Hasitschka SJ zum 65. Geburtstag, reviewed by Michael Labahn
• Adam Kamesar, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Philo, reviewed by Torrey Seland
• Robert Kugler and Patrick Hartin, An Introduction to the Bible, reviewed by Pieter Venter
• Hermann von Lips, Timotheus und Titus: Unterwegs für Paulus, reviewed by Korinna Zamfir
• Eduard Lohse, Das Urchristentum: Ein Rückblick auf die Anfänge, reviewed by Markus Oehler
• Stuart L. Love, Jesus and Marginal Women: The Gospel of Matthew in Social-Scientific Perspective, reviewed by Esther A. de Boer
• Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, reviewed by Christopher Beetham
• Osvaldo Padilla, The Speeches of Outsiders in Acts: Poetics, Theology and Historiography, reviewed by Deborah Thompson Prince
• Chantal Reynier, Saint Paul sur les routes du monde romain: Infrastructures, logistique, itinéraires, reviewed by Michel Gourgues
• Tom Thatcher, Greater than Caesar: Christology and Empire in the Fourth Gospel, reviewed by Benjamin Reynolds
• Fabian Udoh, ed., Redefining First-Century Jewish and Christian Identities: Essays in Honor of Ed Parish Sanders, reviewed by Joshua Schwartz
• Tor Vegge, Paulus und das antike Schulwesen: Schule und Bildung des Paulus, reviewed by Jens Herzer
• N. T. Wright, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, reviewed by V. George Shillington

Hermeneutics and Cognate Fields

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The winter issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society arrived in the mail today and includes the following:

New Testament

• Al Wolters, “ΑΥΘΕΝΤΗΣ and Its Cognates in Biblical Greek” 719–29
• Nicholas Lunn, “Jesus, the Ark, and the Day of Atonement: Intertextual Echoes in John 19:38–20:18” 731–46
• David Huttar, “Did Paul Call Andronicus an Apostle in Romans 16:7?” 747–78
• Joseph Hellerman, “ΜΟΡΦΗ ΘΕΟΥ as a Signifier of Social Status in Philippians 2:6” 779–97

Jewish Scripture

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The latest, New Year’s Eve, reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Fields

• Christopher A. Beetham, Echoes of Scripture in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians, reviewed by Maarten J. J. Menken
• Craig L. Blomberg and Mariam J. Kamell, James, reviewed by Wesley Wachob
• Renate Banschbach Eggen, Gleichnis, Allegorie, Metapher: Zur Theorie und Praxis der Gleichnisauslegung, reviewed by John S. Kloppenborg
• Gabriella Gelardini, “Verhärtet eure Herzen nicht”: Der Hebräer, eine Synagogenhomilie zu Tischa be-Aw, reviewed by Carl Mosser
• François Genuyt, L’Épître aux Romains: L’instauration du sujet-Lecture sémiotique, reviewed by Jean-Paul Michaud
• Christopher Gilbert, A Complete Introduction to the Bible, reviewed by Dirk G. van der Merwe
• Judith Hartenstein, Charakterisierung im Dialog: Maria Magdalena, Petrus, Thomas und die Mutter Jesu im Johannesevangelium im Kontext anderer frühchristlicher Darstellungen, reviewed by Ismo Dunderberg
• Adam Kamesar, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Philo, reviewed by Gregory Sterling
• Patricia Walters, The Assumed Authorial Unity of Luke and Acts: A Reassessment of the Evidence, reviewed by Joel B. Green and Richard I. Pervo

Hermeneutics and Translation

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The latest, Christmas Eve, reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Studies

• Margaret P. Aymer, First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass Reads James, reviewed by Wesley Wachob
• Michael F. Bird and James G. Crossley, How Did Christianity Begin? A Believer and Non-believer Examine the Evidence, reviewed by Leif Vaage
• John Byron, Recent Research on Paul and Slavery, reviewed by Lars Kierspel
• Carl P. Cosaert, The Text of the Gospels in Clement of Alexandria, reviewed by Michael Bird
• Jesús Luzarraga, El Evangelio de Juan en las versiones siríacas, reviewed by Ilaria L. E. Ramelli
• James F. McGrath, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, reviewed by Lori Baron

Hermeneutics and Cognate Fields

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Greg Goswell has the latest article in the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, “Early Readers of the Gospels: The Kephalaia and Titloi of Codex Alexandrinus.” Goswell observes that “there is substantial variation among the codices [Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and Sinaiticus] with regard to where [chapter] divisions are placed” (135) and argues that

A survey of the kephalaia in the four Gospels [of Alexandrinus] indicates that their placement is not haphazard but reflects an evaluation of the flow of the narratives and shows insight into the meaning of the story. Some breaks are close together, but others are widely separated. There are considerable differences in the length of the sections, reflecting a perception of the nature of the text by those responsible for the sectioning. Even a glance at the headings assigned to the kephalaia reveal the large element of commonality between the four Gospels (e.g. the headings of Mt. A6, Mk A4 and Lk. A12 that all read ‘Concerning the leper’), but they also bring to light, at times, what is distinctive about particular Gospels (e.g. the differing themes of the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke). . . . The function of a textual break in separating or joining material has at times provided . . . exegetical insights. One clear trend within all four Gospels is the highlighting of the element of the miraculous in the ministry of Jesus and (the reverse side of this) the downplaying of his teaching. The headings usually focus on the fact of controversy between Jesus and the religious leaders rather than what issues were controverted. The lack of attention given to dominical passion predictions and the paucity of divisions within the passion narrative itself suggest that there is little focus upon the suffering and atoning death of Jesus. Instead the divisions in the passion narratives reflect a homiletical tradition (or liturgical usage) in which there is a moralistic focus on positive and negative ethical examples (172–74).

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

New Testament and Cognate Studies

• Susan R. Garrett, No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus, reviewed by Tobias Nicklas
• Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Our Mother Saint Paul, reviewed by Pamela Eisenbaum
• James M. Howard, Paul, the Community, and Progressive Sanctification: An Exploration into Community-Based Transformation within Pauline Theology, reviewed by Ron Clark
• Jeremy F. Hultin, The Ethics of Obscene Speech in Early Christianity and Its Environment, reviewed by Stephan Witetschek
• Christine E. Joynes, ed., Perspectives on the Passion: Encountering the Bible through the Arts, reviewed by Christopher Rowland
• Steve Mason, Josephus, Judea, and Christian Origins: Methods and Categories, reviewed by Sean Freyne
• Tim Newton, The Forgotten Gospels: Life and Teachings of Jesus Supplementary to the New Testament: A New Translation, reviewed by Thomas Bergholz
• Maria-Zoe Petropoulou, Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200, reviewed by Adele Reinhartz
• John F. A. Sawyer, A Concise Dictionary of the Bible and Its Reception, reviewed by C. L. Seow
• Gerhard H. Visscher, Romans 4 and the New Perspective on Paul: Faith Embraces the Promise, reviewed by Don Garlington
• Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm, Preaching the Gospel of Mark: Proclaiming the Power of God, reviewed by Antipas L. Harris

Jewish Scripture and Cognate Studies

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