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.

Kengo Akiyama, The Love of Neighbour in Ancient Judaism: The Reception of Leviticus 19:18 in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Book of Jubilees, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament
Reviewed by James W. Watts

Amy Anderson and Wendy Widder, Textual Criticism of the Bible
Reviewed by Alan Taylor Farnes

Lindsey A. Askin, Scribal Culture in Ben Sira
Reviewed by Elisa Uusimäki

Koert van Bekkum, Gert Kwakkel, and Wolter H. Rose, eds., Biblical Hebrew in Context: Essays in Semitics and Old Testament Texts in Honour of Professor Jan P. Lettinga
Reviewed by Johannes F. Diehl

Athalya Brenner-Idan and Helen Efthimiadis-Keith, eds., A Feminist Companion to Tobit and Judith
Reviewed by Irene Nowell
 

Walter Brueggemann; Davis Hankins, ed., Tenacious Solidarity: Biblical Provocations on Race, Religion, Climate and the Economy
Reviewed by Marshall Johns

Theodore S. de Bruyn, David G. Hunter, and Stephen A. Cooper, Ambrosiaster’s Commentary on the Pauline Epistles: Romans
Reviewed by Adam Ployd

Zev I. Farber and Jacob L. Wright, eds., Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah
Reviewed by Aren Maier

David Hamidović, Encyclopédie des messianismes juifs dans l’Antiquité
Reviewed by Michaël Girardin

Samuel David Luzzatto; Daniel A. Klein, ed. and trans., Shadal on Exodus: Samuel David Luzzatto’s Interpretation of the Book of Shemot
Reviewed by Alan Cooper

Gregory S. MaGee, Portrait of an Apostle: A Case for Paul’s Authorship of Colossians and Ephesians
Reviewed by Craig A. Evans

Jürgen van Oorschot and Markus Witte, eds., The Origins of Yahwism
Reviewed by Anne Marie Kitz

Benjamin E. Reynolds and Gabriele Boccaccini, eds., Reading the Gospel of John’s Christology as Jewish Messianism: Royal, Prophetic, and Divine Messiahs
Reviewed by Chris Kugler

Alexandra Robinson, Jude on the Attack: A Comparative Analysis of the Epistle of Jude, Jewish Judgement Oracles, and Greco-Roman Invective
Reviewed by Travis B. Williams

Peter Stuhlmacher, Biblical Theology of the New Testament
Reviewed by Craig Blomberg

2019's Top Ten Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology

You can see a list with descriptions here. 

Here is another list from Christianity Today. 

Number two on the first list and number eight on CT's list was found by my friend Tim Lopez at Tel Shiloh. He was also the one who found the ceramic pomegranate in 2018.

The Master's Seminary Journal: Fall 2019

You can access the entire journal for free with this PDF. Here is a list of the articles.

Are the Canonical Gospels to Be Identified as a Genre of Greco-Roman Biography? The Early Church Fathers Say ‘No.’
F. David Farnell

Job’s Eschatological Hope: The Implications of Job’s Redeemer for Social Justice
Jamie Bissmeyer

And How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher? A Biblical Theology of Romans 9–11
Gregory H. Harris

A Dynamic Relationship: Christ, the Covenants, and Israel
Cory M. Marsh

Romans 7: An Old Covenant Struggle Seen through New Covenant Eyes
Jay Street

The Reformation’s “Macedonian Call” to Africa—the Long Way Around
David Beakley and Johann Odendaal 

Implication and Application in Exposition, Part 2: Principles for Contemporary Application
Carl A. Hargrove


HT: Alf Cengia

Merry Christmas!

Reading the Septuagint

William Ross has some helpful thoughts here.

Exodus, Ruth, and the Prophets

Victor Matthews notes some interesting parallels between the story of the Exodus, the story of Ruth, and the post-exilic return of Israel/Judah. These might be attributed to both sharing a well-worn literary plot line but consider the following.

"The story of Ruth can also be seen as a miniversion of the Exodus account and of the return from exile as envisioned in Isa 40, Jer 32, and Ezek 37. It contains these common elements:

1. Forced departure from the land due to famine (see Gen 12:10; 41:57–46:7)

2. Eventual return after the death of the old way of life and old leadership (Mahlon and sons); compare wilderness experience and Moses' death (Num 27:12-23; Deut 31:1–8; 34:1–9)

3. Restoration of legal rights to the land through struggle (aspects of the conquest narrative [Josh 1] as well as the struggle with the “adversaries” of Judah and Benjamin" described in Ezra 4) 4. Renewal of the covenant with messianic hope; tie to David (see Ezek 34:11–31; Isa 9:6–7; 11:1–5)."

Victor H. Matthews, Judges and Ruth, New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 212.