The Latest Issue of the 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.

Peter Brown, The Ransom of the Soul: Afterlife and Wealth in Early Christianity

Reviewed by Maria E. Doerfler

Richard K. Emmerson, Apocalypse Illuminated: The Visual Exegesis of Revelation in Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts

Reviewed by Ian Boxall

Bryan D. Estelle, Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif

Reviewed by Brent A. Strawn

Zev Farber, Images of Joshua in the Bible and Their Reception

Reviewed by Jennifer M. Matheny

Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai: A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue

Reviewed by Mark W. Bartusch

E. Allen Jones III, John Frederick, John Anthony Dunne, Eric Lewellen, and Janghoon Park, eds., Ecclesia and Ethics: Moral Formation and the Church

Reviewed by H. H. Drake Williams III

Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, Volume 4: 24:1–28:31

Reviewed by James P. Sweeney

David L. Mathewson and Elodie Ballantine Emig, Intermediate Greek Grammar: Syntax for Students of the New Testament

Reviewed by Laurent Pinchard

Nils Neumann, Hören und Sehen: Die Rhetorik der Anschaulichkeit in den Gottesthron-Szenen der Johannesoffenbarung

Reviewed by Garrick Allen

Vaitusi Nofoaiga, A Samoan Reading of Discipleship in Matthew

Reviewed by Vien V. Nguyen

Carolyn Pressler, Numbers

Reviewed by Christian Frevel

Will N. Timmins, Romans 7 and Christian Identity: A Study of the ‘I’ in Its Literary Context

Reviewed by Nicholas A. Elder

Criticizing with Kindness

This is a good article to read and use especially in grading and book reviews. I have tried to do these suggestions but have often fallen short.

How to compose a successful critical commentary:

1. You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.
2. You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3. You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

How Theology Informs Our Teaching

Gil Mckee identifies three ways here.

Journal of Biblical Literature 138:1

Volume 138:1 of the Journal of Biblical Literature is now out. Here is a list of the articles with links to abstracts.

Presidential Address: Introduction
Gale A. Yee

The Souls of Biblical Folks and the Potential for Meaning
Brian K. Blount

“Misconstruction of the Sacred Page”: On Denmark Vesey’s Biblical Interpretations
Jeremy Schipper

The Verb *yahway
Anne Marie Kitz

Speaking Truth: The Uses of אָמְנָם, אָמְנָה, and אֻמְנָם
W. Randall Garr

The Monumentality of the Sinaitic Decalogue: Reading Exodus 20 in Light of Northwest Semitic Monument-Making Practices
Timothy Hogue

Interpreting Esther from the Inside Out: Hermeneutical Implications of the Chiastic Structure of the Book of Esther
Anthony J. Tomasino

בית ישראל in Ezekiel: Identity Construction and the Exilic Period
Jean-Philippe Delorme

The Book That Changed: Narratives of Ezran Authorship as Late Antique Biblical Criticism
Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg

Thy Will Be Done: Jesus’s Passion in the Lord’s Prayer
James N. Neumann

Luke 1:49 and the Form of Isaiah in Luke: An Overlooked Allusion and the Problem of an Assumed LXX Text
Kai Akagi

“Who Is My Neighbor?” Recontextualizing Luke’s Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37)
Mark A. Proctor

More Evidence Pertaining to “Their Females” in Romans 1:26
David J. Murphy

Second Issue of THink

The second issue of THink, the magazine produced by Tyndale House is free for viewing or downloading here. I am most interested in Peter Williams' article, "Reading the Psalms in Hebrew" but the other articles look interesting too.

Does the Old Testament Alienate the Disabled?

John Piper addresses the issue here. His answer is not exhaustive but I think it is helpful.

Three Horizons of Old Testament Prophecy

Christianity Today has an article here by Christopher J. H. Wright on what he identifies as the three horizons of Old Testament prophecy.