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.

Edwin K. Broadhead, ed., Let the Reader Understand: Essays in Honor of Elizabeth Struthers Malbon
Reviewed by Robert L. Foster

Jack R. Davidson, Still Letting My People Go: An Analysis of Eli Washington Caruther’s Manuscript against American Slavery and Its Universal Application of Exodus 10:3
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

Adam W. Day, Jesus, the Isaianic Servant: Quotations and Allusions in the Gospel of John
Reviewed by Daniel J. Brendsel

Gerhard Karner, Frank Ueberschaer, and Burkard M. Zapff, eds., Texts and Contexts of the Book of Sirach/Texte und Kontexte des Sirachbuches
Reviewed by Johann Cook

Laura Suzanne Lieber, Jewish Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity: Translations and Commentaries
Reviewed by Steven Fine

Carolin Neuber, ed., Der immer neue Exodus: Aneignungen und Transformationen des Exodusmotivs
Reviewed by Claudia D. Bergmann

Judith Newman, Before the Bible: The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism
Reviewed by Carol A. Newsom

Nicholas Perrin, Jesus the Priest
Reviewed by Chris Kugler

David T. Runia and Gregory E. Sterling, eds., Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, Volume XXIX (2017)
Reviewed by Tyler Smith

Marcus Sigismund, Martin Karrer, and Ulrich Schmid, eds., Studien zum Text der Apokalypse
Reviewed by David H. Warren

Laura A. Smit and Stephen E. Fowl, Judges and Ruth
Reviewed by Victor H. Matthews

Coins, Politics, and History

Christopher Howgego makes the following comment about Grecian coins but the same would apply to biblical period coinage as well.

"Coins cannot compare with literary sources in revealing the complexity of intentions and shifting sands of allegiance which make up political life, but they do have several advantages for the historian. First, in periods of autocracy they generally present the official line, and hence provide an important supplement to an often meagre body of surviving official literature and monuments. Second, while literary sources may illuminate brilliantly short periods or episodes, coins offer a much more continuous chronological and geographical coverage. Third, for many periods we may be confident that we have a comparatively complete knowledge of the typology of the coins, in sharp contrast to the low and uneven survival rate of literary sources. Finally, coins are a strictly contemporary source, lacking the disadvantages (and advantages) of the element of retrospect characteristic, for example, of historical writing."

Christopher Howgego, Ancient History from Coins (London: Routledge, 1995), 62.

The Beatitudes

If you are preaching or teaching from the Beatitudes in Matthew or Luke you might want to take a look at these links provided by Christianity Today.

The Foundations of an Effective Sermon

David Allen shares seven of them here. I generally agree but would differ a bit in how the content is divided and presented. For example, I hold that illustration is subset of explanation and application is part of exposition.

Christian Distance Education Models

Melissa Travis has a nice discussion and evaluation of three different Christian Distance Education models here.

HT: VT Clark

Preaching for the First Time

Tim Challies has some really good advice here.

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.

Melanie Baffes, Love, Loss, and Abjection: The Journey of New Birth in the Gospel of John
Reviewed by Douglas Estes

Jamie A. Banister, The God of Thunder and War in Micah, Habakkuk, and Zechariah
Reviewed by Bob Becking

Mark J. Boda, The Heartbeat of Old Testament Theology: Three Creedal Expressions
Reviewed by Ryan P. Bonfiglio

Rick Brannan, The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation
Reviewed by H. H. Drake Williams III

James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah
Reviewed by LarsOlov Eriksson

Philip R. Davies, The Bible for the Curious: A Brief Encounter
Reviewed by John T. Strong

Ronald Hendel and Jan Joosten, How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study
Reviewed by Richard Friedman

Joshua W. Jipp, Reading Acts
Reviewed by Renee Dutter Miller

Gregory R. Lanier, Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel
Reviewed by Bart B. Bruehler

Roland Meynet, Le fait synoptique reconsidéré
Reviewed by Alex Damn

William E. W. Robinson, Metaphor, Morality, and the Spirit in Romans 8:1–17
Reviewed by William Horst

Teodozja I. Rzeuska, Chronological Overview of Pottery from Asyut: A Contribution to the History of Gebel Asyut al-Gharbi
Reviewed by John Coleman Darnell