Book-Notices

The 28th edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, including the critical apparatus, is now available on Logos Bible Software’s prepublication program. For Peter Williams’ review of the edition earlier this week, see here.

As Anthony Le Donne and Michael Bird have already noted, N. T. Wright’s much-anticipated fourth volume in the Christian Origins and the Question of God Series, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, has now become three installments. Besides the series’ first three volumes, all three installments of the new fourth part are now available for pre-order via Logos Bible Software. The three individual installments’ contents are outlined there as follows:

Wright explores Paul’s worldview and theology in light of Second Temple Judaism [ Paul and the Faithfulness of God]. He also summarizes and explains all the key areas of debate in contemporary Pauline studies [ Paul and His Recent Interpreters]. The final part of this three-volume work [ Pauline Perspectives: Essays on Paul 1978–2012] brings together N. T. Wright’s most important and influential articles on Paul over the last 30 years.

...

Crossway has recently released The Kingdom of God, co-edited by Christopher Morgan of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, and Robert Peterson, of Covenant Theological Seminary. According to Crossway’s description:

The kingdom of God is a very large biblical category indeed. Accordingly, a comprehensive understanding of the kingdom would illuminate many aspects of theology. With this in mind, Bruce Waltke, Robert Yarbrough, Gerald Bray, Clinton Arnold, Gregg Allison, Stephen Nichols, and Anthony Bradley have collaborated to articulate a full view of the kingdom of God across multiple disciplines. One of the most important books on the kingdom since G. E. Ladd, this volume offers a robust theology and is corroborated by the very series in which it stands. Fourth in the noted Theology in Community series, The Kingdom of God establishes the significance of the kingdom from the perspectives of biblical theology, systematic theology, history, pastoral application, missiology, and cultural analysis.

...

Today, the Pope’s new book on the Gospels’ infancy narratives goes on sale. The volume is the third of a three-part series. The two earlier volumes have respectively discussed the narratives from Jesus’ baptism to his transfiguration (2007) and the final entrance into Jerusalem to the resurrection (2011). The present volume:

focuses exclusively on the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life as a child. The root of these stories is the experience of hope found in the birth of Jesus and the affirmations of surrender and service embodied in his parents, Joseph and Mary. This is a story of longing and seeking, as demonstrated by the Magi searching for the redemption offered by the birth of a new king. It is a story of sacrifice and trusting completely in the wisdom of God as seen in the faith of Simeon, the just and devout man of Jerusalem, when he is in the presence of the Christ child. Ultimately, Jesus’ life and message is a story for today, one that speaks to the restlessness of the human heart searching for the sole truth which alone leads to profound joy. ( Amazon)

...

The folks at Zondervan sponsored this year’s Institute for Biblical Research meeting reception. In addition to the deserts there, they very kindly provided attending members with a copy of the recent (2012) Counterpoints volume on Paul, edited by Michael Bird. According to the publisher’s description:

The apostle Paul was a vital force in the development of Christianity. Paul’s historical and religious context affects the theological interpretation of Paul’s writings, no small issue in the whole of Christian theology.

...

Ben Dunson and I were at Westminster together for a bit before his Durham days, and it’s wonderful to see that this volume is now available. For those who want to take a look at the original thesis, Durham has it archived here.

One of our recent MLitt graduates through the Christian Institute for the Study of Liberal Arts, Joe Puckett, completed his thesis earlier this year, and it has now come to press with Wipf and Stock under the title, The Apologetics of Joy: A Case for the Existence of God from C. S. Lewis’s Argument from Desire. The title should soon also be available through other booksellers.

From the publisher:

New out earlier this year was Graeme Goldsworthy’s Christ-Centered Biblical Theology: Hermeneutical Foundations and Principles (InterVarsity). On the volume’s product page, the folks at the Westminster Bookstore have made available a PDF containing the volume’s first chapter, “Biblical Theology: Lame Duck or Eagles’ Wings?” (19–37).

Emmanuel Tov has made available the full text of his 2009 monograph Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert in two PDF files in the “Publications” section of his website. Excepting certain “minute changes,” these files are substantially identical to the printed versions.

HT: Doretha Burrows

The 28th edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament is set to be available around the end of the year. The new edition features a revised and more user-friendly critical apparatus, readings for Papyrii 117–127, somewhat more than 30 changes to the main text, and additional checking of scriptural cross references (HT: Brian Davidson).

Logos Bible Software now has a Herman Ridderbos Collection available for order on their pre-publication program and a John Huss Collection open for bidding on their community pricing program. According to the respective product pages:

Herman Ridderbos Collection

Herman Ridderbos is considered one of the twentieth century’s most influential New Testament theologians. His works emphasized Heilsgeschichte, the progressive history of God’s saving acts, which views Jesus Christ as central in redemption. Ridderbos’ redemptive-historical approach to the Scriptures catapulted a new wave in New Testament study, furthering our understanding of Pauline and biblical theology.

...

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

In the second volume to be released in Zondervan’s Biblical Theology of the New Testament series, Darrell Bock takes up Luke and Acts. On the text’s product page, the Westminster Bookstore has assembled a 5-part playlist of YouTube interviews from Zondervan about the volume.

Courtesy of Baylor University Press and the Stone-Campbell Journal, Richard Bauckham’s Living with Other Creatures: Green Exegesis and Theology (2011). According to the publisher’s description:

The Bible and Christian tradition have, at best, offered an ambiguous word in response to Earth’s environmental difficulties. At worst, a complex, often one-sided history of interpretation has left the Bible’s voice silent. Aiming to bridge these gaps, Richard Bauckham mines scripture and theology, discovering a firm command for Christians to care for all of God’s creation and then discusses the generations of theologians who have sought to live out this biblical mandate. Going beyond Old Testament human dominion, Living with Other Creatures consults scripture in its entirety and includes Jesus’ perspectives on creation, novel approaches to reading the gospels, and some of the most well-known “ecologists” throughout Christian history. The result is an innovative and enriching treatise that reminds readers of Gods whole creation—and humanity’s place within it.

...

[caption id=“” align=“alignright” width=“80”] Colin Kruse[/caption]

In recognition of the release of Colin Kruse’s Romans volume in the Pillar New Testament Commentary, the Westminster Bookstore is running several sales, including:

• An extra 10% off any two or more individual Pillar volumes
• 40% off Kruse’s Romans volume
• 50% off the currently 14-volume Pillar series as a whole

Kruse’s new volume replaces Leon Morris’s 1988 Pillar series commentary on Romans. According to the publisher’s description:

Thanks to the folks at Zondervan, Michael Horton’s For Calvinism and Roger Olson’s Against Calvinism came in yesterday’s mail, as the volumes are doing for a number of others too. According to the publisher,

Regarding For Calvinism:

The system of theology known as Calvinism has been immensely influential for the past five hundred years, but it is often encountered negatively as a fatalistic belief system that confines human freedom and renders human action and choice irrelevant. Taking us beyond the caricatures, Michael Horton invites us to explore the teachings of Calvinism, also commonly known as Reformed theology, by showing us how it is biblical and God-centered, leading us to live our lives for the glory of God.

...

A new collection of online Loeb Classical Library volumes is now available (HT: Charles Jones).

This new collection provides locally-hosted PDFs that can be downloaded without completing a CAPTCHA field.

The page also provides a link to a single ZIP file (3.2 GB) that contains all the individual LCL volume PDFs available on the page.

From Nijay Gupta,

The time is soon-coming for the release of the long-anticipated Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures edited by Bauckham, Davila, and Panayotov (Eerdmans, Nov 2012). . . .

At more than 800 pages (in 2 volumes), it will certainly be substantive. The attempt was made by the editors to collect non-canonical texts that pre-date the rise of Islam. (underlining for original italics)

...

[caption id=“” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Gerald Bray”] [/caption]

Fresh off the presses at Crossway this past month is Gerald Bray’s God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology. According to the publisher,

While there is no substitute for personal, faithful, and careful Bible reading and prayer, the Bible’s vast size and diversity can make distilling its truth a daunting task. Thus most Christians benefit from supplemental resources to help learn and apply what Scripture teaches. . . .

...

Through the end of the day tomorrow, Kindle with Special Offers users or Kindle users who have turned on the Special Offers feature are able to take advantage of a promotion that Amazon is running to “Buy one of 50 biography and history titles for $1.” A list of eligible titles is available here. Among the eligible titles of particular interest here are:

• Simon Baker, Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
• Samuel Kramer, The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character
• Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
• N. K. Sandars, trans., The Epic of Gilgamesh
• John Sherrill, The Hiding Place

Further offer details are available here; the promotional price appears only after checkout on the order confirmation.

[caption id=“attachment_9094” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Craig Keener”] [/caption]

Ever helpful, the folks at the Westminster Bookstore have made available a PDF sample from Craig Keener’s Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts(2 vols.; Baker, 2011) on the book’s product page. The sample contains the work’s table of contents, introduction, and first chapter.

For Keener’s recent interview about the work with Christian Book Distributors, see here.

[caption id=“” align=“alignright” width=“75” caption=“Image via Wikipedia”] [/caption]

Google Books has available a full-text PDF of August Hahn’s Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der Apostolisch-katholischen Kirche(Breslau: Grass und Barth, 1842).

The folks at Logos Bible Software have started a monthly free book giveaway for 2012. This month’s title is volume 6 from their collection of the Works of John Owen.

[caption id=“” align=“alignright” width=“85” caption=“Peter Flint, John Duhaime, and Kyung Baek”] [/caption]

Newly available from the Society of Biblical Literature is Celebrating the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Canadian Collection, edited by Peter Flint, John Duhaime, and Kyung Baek:

This volume celebrates the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, their contents, the community that wrote and preserved them, and new scientific issues that arise from Scrolls studies. The essays, in four sections, explore the origins and text of scripture, the interpretation of scripture in Second Temple Judaism, the identity and practices of the movement associated with Qumran and the Scrolls, and the extensive contributions of Canadian projects and scholarship.

...

[caption id=“attachment_8056” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“D. A. Carson and Douglas Moo, ed. Andrew Naselli”] [/caption]

A while back, the kind folks at Zondervan forwarded a survey about their Textbook Plus website, and in return for some feedback there, D. A. Carson and Douglas Moo, Introducing the New Testament, edited by Andrew Naselli (2010), arrived in yesterday’s mail. The text is “a condensation of [the] longer and more detailed . . . An Introduction to the New Testament(D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo [2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005]) ( 7).

The latest publications from the Society of Biblical Literature include:

• Yitzhaq Feder, Blood Expiation in Hittite and Biblical Ritual: Origins, Context, and Meaning
• Itamar Singer, The Calm before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the End of the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant
• Alan Lenzi, ed., Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction

Logos releases a new collection for medieval historical theology, which includes:

• Aidan Nichols, Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to His Life, Work, and Invluence and
• Lawrence Cunningham, Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel of Life.

For more information, please see the product page.

Christian Book Distributors now has Hendrickson’s facsimile edition of Codex Sinaiticus on sale for $499.00. For more information, see the the product page.

[caption id=“attachment_7519” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Craig Blomberg with Jennifer Markley”] [/caption]

In Saturday’s mail arrived Craig Blomberg’s Handbook of New Testament Exegesis, with Jennifer Markley (Baker, 2010), which I’ll be reviewing this summer for the Stone-Campbell Journal. The text is just over 300 pages, and the back cover includes recommendations from Thomas Schreiner, Jeannine Brown, Grant Osborne, and Mark Strauss. At first brush, this introductory text also includes some discussions that should push its readers in a more technical direction. So, I’ll certainly be interested in working through the book in detail in the coming weeks.

Zondervan has recently added the following volumes to the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series:

• Grant Osborne, Matthew;
• Thomas Schreiner, Galatians; and
• Chilton Arnold, Ephesians.

According to Zondervan,

Written by notable evangelical scholars, each volume in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series treats the literary context and structure of the passage in the original Greek. The series consistently provides the main point, an exegetical outline, verse-by-verse commentary, and theology in application in each section of every commentary.

...

[caption id=“attachment_6620” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Anthony Thiselton”] [/caption]Anthony Thiselton’s volume on the Thessalonian correspondence is the latest in the Blackwell Bible Commentaries series and is due to be released this December. A sample chapter is, however, available from the product page on the publisher’s website, and other previews are also available from Google and Amazon. As a whole, the Blackwell series is devoted primarily to reception-historical commentary, and for each pericope in the Thessalonian letters, Thiselton’s commentary divides this task among: