Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member.

John J. Collins
The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11304
Reviewed by Marvin A. Sweeney

Nina Henrichs-Tarasenkova
Luke’s Christology of Divine Identity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11013
Reviewed by James F. McGrath

Hannelore Jauss
Der liebebedürftige Gott und die gottbedürftige Liebe des Menschen: Ursprung und Funktion der Rede von der Liebe des Menschen zu Gott als alttestamtentlicher Beitrag zur Gotteslehre
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10702
Reviewed by Michael S. Moore

Karl Allen Kuhn
The Kingdom according to Luke and Acts: A Social, Literary, and Theological Introduction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10274
Reviewed by Frank E. Dicken

R. Reed Lessing
Isaiah 56–66
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10352
Reviewed by Dominic S. Irudayaraj

Rüdiger Liwak; Markus Witte and Dagmar Pruin, eds.
Israel in der altorientalischen Welt: Gesammelte Studien zur Kultur- und Religionsgeschichte des antiken Israel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9517
Reviewed by Jeremy M. Hutton

Matthew R. Malcolm
Paul and the Rhetoric of Reversal in 1 Corinthians: The Impact of Paul’s Gospel on His Macro-Rhetoric
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10216
Reviewed by Timothy J. Christian

Bruce J. Malina and John J. Pilch
Social-Science Commentary on the Deutero-Pauline Letters
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9558
Reviewed by Maria Karyakina
Reviewed by Korinna Zamfir

Julia M. O’Brien
Micah
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10990
Reviewed by Bob Becking

Moo on James' and Paul's Use of Genesis 15:6

I think Doug Moo’s explanation of the difference between James’ and Paul’s use of Genesis 15:6 to be helpful.

To borrow a metaphor from the world of photography, Paul uses a telephoto lens to isolate the inherent meaning of the verse whereas James looks at the verse through a wide-angle lens, viewing it in the larger landscape of the Abraham narrative. Paul cites the verse to highlight the adequacy of faith in and of itself to justify a person before God. The faith Abraham exercises here comes before his circumcision (Gn 17) and before his famous “work” of obedience (Gn 22). As so often, Paul gives fuller meaning to the terms of the original text, especially in his strongly forensic interpretation of righteousness. But his application of the text, I have argued, is legitimate, since Gn 15:6 teaches that Abraham’s faith was considered by God as meeting the entirety of his obligation before God. James gives us no reason to think that he ignores or changes the meaning of the text. But he insists that the faith of which Gn 15:6 speaks is, in the larger story of Genesis, a faith that expresses itself in works of obedience and that these works are also to be included in the “entirety of the obligation” that Abraham owes to God.

Douglas Moo, “Genesis 15:6 in the New Testament,” in From Creation to New Creation: Biblical Theology and Exegesis, ed. Daniel M. Gurtner and Benjamin L. Gladd (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2013), 162.

Observe Repetition. Observe Repetition

I appreciate the words below from Dale Ralph Davis. I often tell my students that the biblical authors did not have emoticons so one has to read especially carefully and closely. One basic way is to observe repetition.

"Biblical writers did not have the luxury of using bold, italicized, or underlined type as our computer-driven generation does. They had to make their emphases in different ways. Repetition was one means that they used as a substitute for underscoring." 

The Word Became Fresh: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2006), 22.

Watson on Matthew's Gospel

“Matthew’s gospel bears witness to a Jewish Jesus whose person and work are shaped by his people’s history as interpreted in the scriptural record. The gospel was placed first in the canonical collection because its early readers were convinced by its fundamental claim: salvation has come to the world in the person of a Jew.”

Francis Watson, The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2016), 49.

Five Pointers on Using Humor in Preaching

Peter Mead has five pointers on using humor in preaching here.

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member.

M. Eugene Boring
I and II Thessalonians: A Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10698
Reviewed by Matthew D. Jensen

Constantine R. Campbell
Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10420
Reviewed by Hennie Stander

Roy R. Jeal
Exploring Philemon: Freedom, Brotherhood, and Partnership in the New Society
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11020
Reviewed by Timothy Gombis
Reviewed by S. Matthew Solomon

Lori Khatchadourian
Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11239
Reviewed by Jason M. Silverman

John S. Kloppenborg and Alicia J. Batten, eds.
James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Early Jesus Traditions
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10214
Reviewed by Pheme Perkins

David McAuley
Paul’s Covert Use of Scripture: Intertextuality and Rhetorical Situation in Philippians 2:10–16
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10939
Reviewed by Isaac Blois

Young-Ho Park
Paul’s Ekklesia as a Civic Assembly: Understanding the People of God in Their Politico-Social World
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10503
Reviewed by Bradley J. Bitner

Alexander Prokhorov
The Isaianic Denkschrift and a Socio-cultural Crisis in Yehud: A Rereading of Isaiah 6:1–9:6[7]
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10581
Reviewed by Csaba Balogh

Stephen Richard Turley
The Ritualized Revelation of the Messianic Age: Washings and Meals in Galatians and 1 Corinthians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10727
Reviewed by Craig L. Blomberg

ETS Videos: Progressive Covenantalism and Progressive Dispensationalism

Videos of the three plenary sessions from the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Southwest Region of the Evangelical Theological Society are now available on Youtube. The theme was “Progressive Covenantalism and Progressive Dispensationalism” and the plenary speakers were Dr. Stephen Wellum and Dr. Craig Blaising.

Plenary Session 1 – Dr. Stephen Wellum, “Progressive Covenantalism”

Plenary Session 2 – Dr. Craig Blaising, “Progressive Dispensationalsim”

Panel Discussion – Drs. Wellum and Blaising