Pitts on Lukan Authorship of Hebrews

Michael Bird has a nice interview with Andrew W. Pitts who is a coauthor of a forthcoming with Joshua F. Walker entitled "The Authorship of Hebrews: A Further Development in the Luke-Paul Relationship" which will be included in forthcoming in book Paul's Social Relations, ed. Stanley Porter (Leiden: Brill, 2010). According to Pitts, "The evidence we examine suggests that Hebrews likely represents a Pauline speech, probably originally delivered in a Diaspora synagogue, that Luke documented in some way during their travels together and which Luke later published as an independent speech to be circulated among house churches in the Jewish-Christian Diaspora." Read the entire interview here.

Journal for the Study of the New Testament: March 2010; Vol. 32, No. 3

Table of Contents:

Guardians, not Taskmasters: The Cultural Resonances of Paul’s Metaphor in Galatians 4.1-2

John K. Goodrich

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2010;32 251-284
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/251

Immortal Glory and the Problem of Death in Romans 3.23

Ben C. Blackwell

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2010;32 285-308
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/285

With Homi Bhabha at the Jerusalem City Gates: A Postcolonial Reading of the ‘Triumphant’ Entry (Mark 11.1-11)

Hans Leander

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2010;32 309-335
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/309

Review Article: Seeking the Identity of Jesus

Richard Bauckham

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2010;32 337-346
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/337

Review Article: Seeking the Identity of Jesus

John K. Riches

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2010;32 347-362
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/347

Seeking the Identity of Jesus: A Rejoinder

Beverly Roberts Gaventa and Richard B. Hays

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2010;32 363-370
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/363

Preaching Christ From Ecclesiastes

I just noticed that Sidney Greidanus' book Preaching Christ From Ecclesiastes: Foundations for Expository Sermons is due out in May 2010. Should be interesting. If Eerdmans wants to send me a review copy I would greatly appreciate it!

"Was Jesus' Last Supper a Seder?"

See Jonathan Klawans article entitled "Was Jesus' Last Supper a Seder?" hosted at the Biblical Archaeology Review website here. Although I disagree with Klawans' conclusion that the Lord's Supper was not a Passover Seder, the article provides a decent overview of the issue. I would also suggest that readers take a look at Harold Hoehner's Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, pp. 76-90.

Varner on a New Perspective on Hebrews

See William Varner's post entitled "A New Perspective on Hebrews" here.

Interview With Gerald McDermott

See Trevin Wax's interview of Gerald McDermott, professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. His new book is The Great Theologians: A Brief Guide here. You can see his list of the eleven most influential theologians on Christian thought among other things.

Thiselton: The Living Paul

One book that I look forward to reading is Anthony Thiselton's The Living Paul. According to the publisher:

The apostle Paul has long had his admirers and revilers. And contemporary Christians often harbor private misgivings about this prominent apostle. Paul sounds harsh, intolerant, misogynistic, and his gospel surely misconstrues the message of Jesus. "How is it," they want to ask, "that some Christians can speak so fondly of Paul?"

Anthony Thiselton is an unabashed admirer of Paul, a student of his letters and a devotee of his gospel. Over a range of issues, Thiselton cleans the lens and sharpens the focus to give us snapshots of Paul's life, mission and thought. Whatever your level of knowledge and experience of Paul, you will find The Living Paul informative and interesting, nuanced and inspiring. A portrait of Paul rendered in the deft strokes of a master.

Rackham on the Fidelity of Luke

Richard Rackham suggests the following in his discussion of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1–29).

"We now come to a narrative which bears strong testimony to the fidelity of S. Luke. This is indeed incidentally confirmed by the relation of S. Paul to S. Barnabas: at Jerusalem, and in official records, Barnabas stands first (verses 12 and 25), but where S. Luke narrates, or gives his version of the record, he slips into the usual Paul and Barnabas (verse 22: cp. 2 and 35). But the chief evidence is afforded by the speeches. These are of course only brief notes of what was actually said, written out afterwards by S. Luke; and yet in these few verses the characteristic attitudes and phraseology of the speakers unconsciously assert themselves."

Richard Belward Rackham, The Acts of the Apostles: An Exposition (London: Methuen & Co., 1901), 247

While I am a believer in Luke’s fidelity, I am not sure I am convinced that order of names is all that determinative.

Oswalt Discussing The Bible Among the Myths

John Oswalt discussing his recent book The Bible Among the Myths.

The Authorship of 2 Peter

See this post on the authorship of 2 Peter. For what it is worth, I affirm the Petrine authorship of the epistle.

The Use of Psalms in Hebrews

See Bob MacDonald's post on the use of Psalms in Hebrews here.

Oswalt on the Bible and Myth

"It is all too easy to say that the Bible is myth because its adherents consider it true, or because it provides the central set of images and symbols for the Jewish and Christian religions, or because it ascribes to the divine the results of natural causation. Certainly the Bible does the first two, and if it is correctly understood, it does the latter as well. But that does not mean it is a myth. An elephant is not a table because it has four legs. The reason these equations between the two types of literature can be made is that they rest on definitions that fail to deal seriously with the characteristic thought patterns of the two."

John N. Oswalt, The Bible Among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 45.

Adela Yarbro Collins' Mark Commentary

I have been working through the Gospels recently and really looked forward to getting into Adela Yarbro Collins' Mark commentary. I have heard some good things about this work but unfortunately my other responsibilities have kept me from a thorough and appropriate review. So to least get something out I have decided to at least post the publishers description and some links

Collins, Adela Yarbro. Mark. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007.

Description:

Professor Adela Yarbro Collins brings to bear on the text of the first Gospel the latest historical-critical perspectives, providing a full treatment of such controversial issues as the relationship of canonical Mark to the "Secret Gospel of Mark" and the text of the Gospel, including its longer endings. She situates the Gospel, with its enigmatic portrait of the misunderstood Messiah, in the context of Jewish and Greco-Roman literature of the first century. Her comments draw on her profound knowledge of apocalyptic literature as well as on the traditions of popular biography in the Greco-Roman world to illuminate the overall literary form of the Gospel.

The commentary also introduces an impressive store of data on the language and style of Mark, illustrated from papyrological and epigraphical sources. Collins is in constructive dialogue with the wide range of scholarship on Mark that has been produced in the twentieth century. Her work will be foundational for Markan scholarship in the first half of the twenty-first century.

You can see more about the book here at Fortress Press or better yet see this link to Amazon and use the "look inside" feature.

Thanks to Fortress Press for the review commentary

The Standing Stone at Shechem

On an archeological note, see Ferrell Jenkins' post on how the standing stone at associated with the Baal-Berith temple at Shechem was saved from destruction.

Richard Bauckham's Homepage

Several bloggers have noted that Richard Bauckham has a new homepage. Among other things the site has unpublished lectures and essays available as pdfs. The unpublished lectures include:

Canonicity of the Gospels

Johannine Jessus & Synoptic Jesus

Orthodoxy in Christology

The Women & the Resurrection

James at the Centre

Losing & Finding Self

Surrounded by Truth

Jesus & the Renewal of Nature

Mission as Hermeneutic

The Pooh Community

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews that may be of interest from a Bible Exposition perspective include:

Peter Brown
The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity; Twentieth Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6853
Reviewed by Richard Valantasis

Kate Cooper and Julia Hillner, eds.
Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage in Early Christian Rome, 300-900
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6522
Reviewed by Ilaria Ramelli

April D. DeConick
The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation: With a Commentary and New English Translation of the Complete Gospel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5655
Reviewed by Stephen Patterson

David A. deSilva
Seeing Things John's Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7207
Reviewed by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

Terence L. Donaldson
Judaism and the Gentiles: Jewish Patterns of Universalism (to 135 CE)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7258
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Yonatan Kolatch
Masters of the Word: Traditional Jewish Bible Commentary from the Eleventh through the Thirteenth Centuries (vol. 2)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6572
Reviewed by Günter Stemberger

Michael Philip Penn
Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5116
Reviewed by Candida Moss

Stanley E. Porter, ed.
Paul: Jew, Greek, and Roman
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7328
Reviewed by Christoph Stenschke

Micah Ross, ed.
From the Banks of the Euphrates: Studies in Honor of Alice Louise Slotsky
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6741
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

Turid Karlsen Seim and Jorunn Økland, eds.
Metamorphoses: Resurrection, Body and Transformative Practices in Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7211
Reviewed by V. Henry Nguyen

Rivka Ulmer, ed.
Pesiqta Rabbati: A Synoptic Edition of Pesiqta Rabbati Based upon All Extant Manuscripts and the Editio Princeps
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7003
Reviewed by Peter Tomson

Jan de Waard, eds.
Biblia Hebraica Quinta: Proverbs
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7151
Reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton

Magnus Zetterholm
Approaches to Paul: A Student's Guide to Recent Scholarship
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7196
Reviewed by Nijay Gupta

Audio of Rodney Decker's Lecture Series on Hebrews

See here for free audio of lectures on the book of Hebrews presented by Rodney Decker at Central Baptist Seminary last month.

Seminary: Traditional Onsite vs. Distance Learning

Michael Patton has an interesting post on the advantages of the onsite seminary experience versus the online seminary experience here.

Job Commentary Online

Izak Cornelius' commentary on "Job" in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. It's available in its entirety through the end of the month here.

Emanuel Tov Online

See Emanuel Tov's website for access to free pdfs to some of his writings. Go to the site and click the publications tab.

HT: Daniel O. McClellan

When Does Debating Theology Become Wrong?

See this post asking and answering the question "When Does Debating Theology Become Wrong?

Preaching Humor for the Day

See Lionel Woods' "Top Ten Reasons Why The Sermon Should Remain Central To The Meeting" here.

Wordiness in Numbers 7

John Piper suggests some interesting implications for the intentional repetition and wordiness found in Numbers 7. Read it here.

The Decline of Vocational Evangelism

Trevin Wax has an interesting post on the decline of vocational evangelism.Read it here.

Two Pauls?

I recently submitted a book review to the Criswell Theological Review for a book entitled Paul, His Letters, and Acts. In the book the author Thomas Phillips tries to argue for two Pauls, the one in Paul’s epistles and the portrait of Paul in Acts. While such a case might be made, I think that Phillips would have done well to heed the following statement from David Peterson’s recent Acts commentary.

“Although there are many points of contact—and there is value in comparing the evidence of Acts with the letters where possible—Luke offers a different perspective on Paul's ministry. Some have taken this to mean that Luke was misinformed, or deliberately misleading, or presenting an ideal or legendary Paul. But it is important to remember the occasiona1 nature of Paul's letters, the limited scope of Luke’s description of Paul, and his own distinctive agenda in writing.”

David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2009), 19.