Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of the Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews that may be of interest to those interested in Bible exposition include:

Roland Boer
Rescuing the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6394
Reviewed by D. A. Carson

April D. DeConick
The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6163
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

John H. Elliott
1 Peter: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6653
Reviewed by Pheme Perkins

Jane DeRose Evans
The Coins and the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Economy of Palestine
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6191
Reviewed by Mark R. Fairchild

Albert V. Garcilazo
The Corinthian Dissenters and the Stoics
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6209
Reviewed by Stephan Joubert

Suzanne Watts Henderson
Christology and Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5298
Reviewed by W. R. Telford

Helen Leneman
The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5996
Reviewed by Elisabeth Birnbaum

Paul L. Maier, trans.
Eusebius: The Church History
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5993
Reviewed by Sabrina Inowlocki

Pheme Perkins
Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6212
Reviewed by Peter J. Judge

Alfred Rahlfs; Detlef Fraenkel, ed.
Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments: Bd. I, 1: Die Überlieferung bis zum VIII. Jahrhundert
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5959
Reviewed by Johann Cook

Wayne G. Rollins and D. Andrew Kille, eds.
Psychological Insight into the Bible: Texts and Readings
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6005
Reviewed by E. H. Scheffler

Deborah W. Rooke, ed.
A Question of Sex? Gender and Difference in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6356
Reviewed by Athalya Brenner

Phillip Sigal
The Halakhah of Jesus of Nazareth according to the Gospel of Matthew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6145
Reviewed by Roland Deines
Reviewed by Dorothy Jean Weaver

Johann Anselm Steiger and Ulrich Heinen, eds.
Isaaks Opferung (Gen 22) in den Konfessionen und Medien der frühen Neuzeit
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5672
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Jan G. van der Watt
An Introduction to the Johannine Gospel and Letters
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6445
Reviewed by Tom Thatcher

Tentative Program for the 2008 National Evangelical Theological Society Meeting is Up

A Tentative program for the 2008 national Evangelical Theological Society meeting is now up. You can view it here.

I am scheduled to deliver a paper on Wednesday entitled, "Good, Bad, or Ugly: Canonical and Extra-Canonical Portraits of Balaam."

Top Five Commentaries on Joshua

Ligonier Ministries has a list and discussion of their top five commentaries on Joshua. I would not place Davis at #1 and I would include L. D. Hawk (Berit Olam) in the top 5. I would also include Madvig (EBC) ato the runner-up list. In any case, the top five they have listed are:

1. Dale Ralph Davis -- Joshua: No Falling Words (Focus on the Bible, 2000).
2. Richard S. Hess -- Joshua (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1996).
3. David M. Howard -- Joshua (New American Commentary, 1998).
4. Marten Woudstra -- The Book of Joshua (New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1981).
5. Trent C. Butler -- Joshua (Word Biblical Commentary, 1983).

Codex Sinaiticus to be Made Available on Online

One of the most important biblical manuscripts, Codex Sinaiticus will be made available online starting tomorrow. You can read about it here.

Top Five Commentaries on Deuteronomy

Ligonier Ministries has a list and discussion of their top five commentaries on Deuteronomy. I would place Merrill and Weinfeld commentary in the top five replacing Thompson and Currid. I would also include Miller (Interpretation) and von Rad (OTL) to the runner-up list. In any case, the top five they have listed are:

1. Peter C. Craigie -- The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1976).
2. J.G. McConville -- Deuteronomy (Apollos Old Testament Commentary, 2002).
3. J.A. Thompson -- Deuteronomy (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1974).
4. John D. Currid -- Deuteronomy (EP Study Commentary, 2006).
5. Jeffrey H. Tigay -- Deuteronomy (JPS Torah Commentary, 1996).

Felt-Needs Ministry

For an interesting critique of felt-needs ministry see this article at the Out of Ur blog.

Leen Ritmeyer on Stones from Hezekiah's Time-Continued

Leen Ritmeyer has a follow up to a recent post that I reported on here concerning some stones that he identified that he believes belong to the time of Hezekiah. The follow up is here.

Bible Teaching or Preaching Christ?

Michael Jensen has broached the topic of biblical teaching versus Christ preaching. On his blog he writes,

I was speaking with a prominent English conservative evangelical not so long ago, and we were talking about preaching. He had a gripe: the phrase 'bible teaching' (and the idea of 'bible churches', too). It has crept into the evangelical vocabulary to describe what used to be called 'preaching'. A church is great, we will say, because 'the bible teaching is excellent'. But, he said, the vocab change is significant: it represents a shift to a more cognitive, flat and explanatory style of discourse. The hearers will not be exhorted or edified so much as 'taught'. What's more, and perhaps more seriously, we talk less of preaching Christ, but of teaching the Bible. A subtle but significant difference perhaps?

While I can certainly appreciate the distinction being offered here, I am not sure that the distinctions are as sharp as some see it. Biblical teaching and preaching Christ are friends not adversaries. Good preaching has an element of teaching and good teaching will have some elements of exhortation which epitomizes of good preaching. Furthermore, I would posit that the assertion above that "it represents a shift to a more cognitive, flat and explanatory style of discourse. The hearers will not be exhorted or edified so much as 'taught'. What's more, and perhaps more seriously, we talk less of preaching Christ, but of teaching the Bible," is simply incorrect. First, if hearers are neither ehorted nor edified than you can call it someting, but you simply cannot call it Bible teaching. This appears to me to be a strawman. Second, there is nothing wrong with "cognitive" or "explanatory." Concerning the former, did not the Lord teach that we are to Love God with our mind (Matt 22:37). Concerning the latter, the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles as recorded in Scripture was often explanatory. Indeed there are more recorded occasions of Jesus teaching than preaching in the Gospels. Even when Jesus is in the synagogue he is more often described as teaching than preaching. Third, I think that it also a bit of a strawman to draw a distinction between "preaching Christ" and "teaching the Bible." Although it is possible to preach the Bible as if Christ were not present, most Christian preachers and teachers worth their salt do not do so. To properly teach the Bible is to teach Christ and to preach Christ is to teach the Scriptures of which he is the center, focus, and end.

Forthcoming Volume on the Book of Acts

Michael Bird has noted that there is a soon to be published book on Acts about reading Acts from a second century perspective. I m not sure how well this premise is going to work since I am fairly confident that Acts was written in the first century.