Review of Biblical Literature, 19 February 2008

The following new reviews have been added to the Review of Biblical Literature.

David E. Aune, ed.
Rereading Paul Together: Protestant and Catholic Perspectives on Justification
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5833
Reviewed by James D. G. Dunn
Reviewed by Philip F. Esler

John Goldingay
Psalms, Volume 1: Psalms 1-41
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5955
Reviewed by Philippus J. Botha

John Goldingay and David Payne
Isaiah 40-55: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary (2 vols.)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5951
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Sabrina Inowlocki
Eusebius and the Jewish Authors: His Citation Technique in an Apologetic Context
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5865
Reviewed by Elizabeth C. Penland

Giorgio Jossa
Jews or Christians? The Followers of Jesus in Search of Their Own Identity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6031
Reviewed by Michael F. Bird

John S. Kloppenborg
The Tenants in the Vineyard: Ideology, Economics, and Agrarian Conflict in Jewish Palestine
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5923
Reviewed by Richard L. Rohrbaugh

J. Ed Komoszewski and Robert M. Bowman Jr.
Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6092
Reviewed by D. A. Carson

Victor H. Matthews
101 Questions and Answers on the Prophets of Israel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6003
Reviewed by Hemchand Gossai

Andrei A. Orlov
From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in Slavonic Pseudepigrapha
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5909
Reviewed by Grant Macaskill

Maria-Luisa Rigato
Giovanni: L'enigma il Presbitero il culto il tempio la cristologia
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6170
Reviewed by Ilaria Ramelli

Bruce K. Waltke
A Commentary on Micah
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5829
Reviewed by Tiberius Rata

BibleWorks Classroom Tips # 11 & 12

The folks at BibleWorks continue to amaze with additional classroom tips.

Tip 1.11: Typing and Display of Hebrew
Searching, taking notes or developing assignments may call for typing in Hebrew. This Classroom Tip offers some tips for working with the Hebrew font and text display in BibleWorks.

Click here to read the entire tip.

Tip 1.12: Using the Graphical Search Engine
The Graphical Search Engine (GSE) is a powerful search engine that can perform many searches that cannot be done on the Command Line. In this Classroom Tip we will use the GSE to search for occurrences of the specific location in a clause of a postpositive word (GAR) in the Greek New Testament. How many times does GAR appear in the second and third position in the clause? Does it ever appear in the fourth position?

Click here to read the entire tip:

SBL International Meeting in Auckland: Paper Accepted

My paper proposal for the 2008 SBL International Meeting in Auckland has been accpeted for the Paul and Pauline Literature Programme Unit.

Let's hope I will be able to make it this year, as I missed last year's meeting in Vienna due to some personal reasons.

Review of Biblical Literature 13 February 2008

The following new reviews have been added to the Review of Biblical Literature. There are some very interesting NT books being reviewed.

Brian J. Abasciano
Paul's Use of the Old Testament in Romans 9.1-9: An Intertextual and Theological Exegesis
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5248
Reviewed by Thomas Gillespie

François Bovon
Luc le théologien
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6379
Reviewed by Claire Clivaz

Emmanuel Friedheim
Rabbinisme et Paganisme en Palestine romaine: Étude historique des Realia talmudiques (Ier-IVème siècles)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5691
Reviewed by Sabrina Inowlocki

Luke Timothy Johnson
Hebrews: A Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5445
Reviewed by Wolfgang Kraus

Melody Knowles, Esther Menn, John Pawlikowski, and Timothy Sandoval, eds.
Contesting Texts: Jews and Christians in Conversation about the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5843
Reviewed by Ithamar Gruenwald

Amy-Jill Levine, ed., with Maria Mayo Robbins
A Feminist Companion to the New Testament Apocrypha
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5408
Reviewed by James Elliott

Edmondo F. Lupieri; Maria Poggi Johnson and Adam Kamesar, trans.
A Commentary on the Apocalypse of John
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5885
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

George W. E. Nickelsburg
Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism and Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5904
Reviewed by Tony Costa

Stanley E. Porter, ed.
The Messiah in the Old and New Testaments
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5947
Reviewed by Michael F. Bird
Reviewed by James Hamilton Charlesworth

Thomas Römer
The So-Called Deuteronomistic History: A Sociological, Historical and Literary Introduction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5990
Reviewed by Ernst Axel Knauf

Hans-Christoph Schmitt
Arbeitsbuch zum Alten Testament: Grundzüge der Geschichte Israels und der alttestamentlichen Schriften
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5459
Reviewed by Christoph Levin

Leopard and Jeremiah 13:23

Just for some humour....

O Lord, may we learn to do good and not evil.

Two PhD/Post-doc Scholarships: Dominican Biblical Institute

The following announcement came through the BNTS:

Dominican Biblical Institute, Limerick

In association with the Dept of Theology and Religious Studies,

Mary Immaculate College,

University of Limerick

Two PhD/Post-doc Scholarships

Project on Christian Origins

On Tracking the Development of 1 Corinthians, the Gospels and Acts

and thereby Contributing to Clarifying

the Synoptic Problem and the Quest for History

2008: Second stage of the Project--in conjunction with an auxiliary project on Genesis' use of Homer

The Dominican Biblical Institute (DBI), Limerick, Ireland, is seeking applicants for two scholarships which will be awarded to suitably qualified candidates for three years, beginning in the Autumn/Fall semester, 2008.

The scholarships are intended primarily for those working towards a PhD, but may exceptionally be adapted for post-doctoral candidates. They are to work in particular areas that fall within the scope of the Projects named above and of which details are given below. The PhD for successful work will be given by the Dominican Biblical Institute, accredited by Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick (MIC/UL). The awarding body is the University of Limerick.

The amount of the scholarship is EURO 15,600 per year plus fee waiver, for three years of full-time study. It will require beneficiaries to participate actively in the overall research project of the DBI and to make occasional academic contributions to the work of the Institute. The terms and conditions of the award are adapted from Mary Immaculate College, UL. In line with the ethos of the Institute as a whole, participants will be encouraged to interact with the surrounding community in Limerick and the west of Ireland.

Applicants should send a CV, two academic references, and a statement outlining their academic interests and their reasons for wishing, first, to undertake one of four PhD topics outlined below and, secondly, to participate in the overall project of which it is a part,to:

The Secretary,

Dominican Biblical Institute,

Upper Cecil St.,

Limerick, Ireland.

For further information or informal discussion, contact Dr. ThomasBrodie,

Email: thomasbrodie@eircom.net;

tel. 353 (0)61 - 490 605.

Closing date for applications is Saturday 10th May, 2007, or as long as is necessary to find suitable candidates. The Institute may decide to interview candidates as part of the selection process. The selection will be made by the DBI Academic Council, following consultation with the Awards Council.

Outline of Main Project

The project of which the PhD research will form a part concerns tracking the sources and compositional methods of the New Testament writers, and thus clarifying the literary development of the gospels, Acts, and epistles. Emphasis on literary composition does not exclude other aspects of research, but it recognizes that at this stage in New Testament studies the literary aspect provides a pivotal opportunity. Furthermore, and crucially, clarification of sources and composition will greatly facilitate investigation of other aspects, especially history, sociology and above all theology.

This project does not come out of a vacuum. It builds on a literary movement that, despite its occasional difficulties, has been gathering momentum for over thirty years. The terminology of this movement varies between Jewish, Greco-Roman and modern--and the terminology itself needs clarification--but, with new awareness of ancient writing methods, and with increasingly reliable criteria for detecting the use of sources, it is now possible, as never before, to trace how New Testament writers refashioned older sources, especially the older scriptures.

It is also becoming possible as never before to trace whether or how the New Testament writers used one another, whether, for instance John used the other gospels, or, as has sometimes been suggested, Luke used 1 Corinthians (and other epistles). And it is possible too, within the context of this overall project, to contribute to solving the Synoptic Problem.

The project focuses primarily on the gospels and Acts but some account is also taken of the epistles, and particular attention will be given to examining the sources, composition and nature of Christianity's oldest extensive document--1 Corinthians. This attention to 1 Corinthians will include a conference that builds on the experience of the 2005 Limerick international conference that produced The Intertextuality of the Epistles. Explorations of Theory and Practice, eds. T. L. Brodie, D. R. MacDonald, S. E. Porter (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2006).

Apart from scholarly presentations and conference papers, the project will also be responsible for publishing an accessible book on the role of the New Testament within the development of civilization, literature and theology, and on the role of Jesus in personal spirituality, in the churches, and among world religions.

The principal overseer is Dr Thomas Brodie, who is responsible for the overall management of the project and who, along with Dr. Jesse Rogers, Senior Lecturer in Scripture at Mary Immaculate College, Univ. of Limerick, will supervisor the PhD research projects. Visiting scholars will also give support. Occasional expertise and input will be available from an Academic Advisory Board: Calum Carmichael (Cornell University), Paul Elbert (Church of God Theological Seminary), Wilfrid Harrington (Priory Institute, Dublin), Damien Nelis (University of Geneva), Carol Newsom (Emory University), Stanley Porter (McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON), Carol Stockhausen (Marquette University).

Those engaged in the project, including the persons appointed to the scholarship, will be expected to collaborate and to work as a team. There will be regular project meetings and occasional research seminars--particularly to give support.

While all four areas can contribute to a single project, each area is also capable, to a significant degree, of standing alone, and so the outcome in one does not determine the outcome in others. Among the four areas, each applicant may designate a first, second and third choice. Within the broad parameters of an area, a student may wish, as work progresses, to focus the research on an aspect sufficiently specific so as to produce a dissertation within the allotted time.

Dissertation areas

The four dissertations will focus on the Gospels and Acts--though as an exception a scholarship may be awarded for work on 1 Corinthians. The four basic areas are:

1. PROTO-LUKE.

The Septuagint, the Elijah-Elisha Narrative, and the Testing of the Theory of Early Luke ("Semitic" Luke, or "Proto-Luke") Since the 1890s diverse evidence has indicated that Luke or Luke-Acts once existed in a shorter form--a form sometimes referred to as "Proto-Luke"--and if that form could be identified it would provide a crucial missing link in the history of the gospels' development. For decades the evidence seemed inconclusive and the existence of Proto-Luke was correspondingly vague. However, the situation has begun to change:

* Increasing clarity concerning Luke's imitation of the Septuagint, especially of the Elijah-Elisha narrative, has made it easier to trace his context and methods

*The sharpening of criteria for detecting direct literary dependence has facilitated the distinguishing of sources and levels within Luke-Acts

*Recent detection of clear structures in several biblical texts, including Luke-Acts, has added a further element by which to detect levels within Luke-Acts.

The challenge for the recipient of the scholarship will be to make a fresh critical assessment of (part of) the evidence for Proto-Luke and to move the investigation to a new level.

2. The Making of Mark. The Role of the Elijah-Elisha Narrative and of Elijah/Elisha-related Texts

Despite considerable progress in Markan studies--for instance, concerning a certain priority, social aspects, and literary and theological sophistication--a central puzzle has remained regarding the origin and nature of much of Mark's content, his narrative. (Form criticism clarified key features of individual passages, but not their origin and overall nature, particularly whether, despite the forms' roots in orality, the texts themselves were literary in origin). However--even while the genuine insights of form criticism were proving vague and incomplete--recent decades have clarified Mark's kinship with known texts, Greco-Roman, Christian, and Jewish, particularly the older scriptures and subsequent scripture-based writings. The second scholarship will focus on the contribution of these latter texts--the older scriptures and subsequent scripture-based writings--to Mark's narrative. Particular attention will be given to the Elijah-Elijah narrative--a text reflected in Mark's beginning, middle and end--and to Luke's use of that narrative.

3. The Making of Matthew and the Role of Elijah-related Luke

Given widespread agreement that Matthew used Mark, it is necessary to examine whether Matthew also used some of the scripture texts reflected in Mark--the Septuagint, the Elijah-Elisha narrative and also some of the Lukan passages that reflect the Elijah-Elisha narrative. This investigation will also address in some way both the ancient tradition that Matthew arranged sayings (logia) and the modern hypothesis of a sayings source (Q) shared by Matthew and Luke. One episode of the hypothetical Q source--the account of the centurion's servant--may provide an opportunity to test the relationship betweenMatthew, (Proto-)Luke and John.

4. Luke, Matthew and the Making of Canonical Luke-Acts

The essence of this dissertation is to clarify whether Luke-Acts, apart from using Mark, also used Matthew. The idea of Luke's use of Matthew is not new, but the issue has become stalemated for lack of credible context and criteria. The challenge for the applicant will be to clarify the context, to assess recent research on criteria, and to apply the criteria rigorously to the case in question.

In asking whether Luke actually used Matthew the thesis will also need to engage in some way the larger issue of the formation of Luke-Acts as a whole, including the questions of the Synoptic Problem, and Luke's possible relationship to other sources, including John.

Auxiliary Project: Genesis' Use of Homer

An auxiliary project concerns the formation of the Primary History (Genesis-Kings). This will focus initially on Genesis--on Genesis' use of the major prophets, and on Genesis' use of Homer. Applications are welcomed for scholarships promoting such research work on Genesis.

Congratulations: Another PhD in the Faculty

From left: Rev Dr Ezra Kok, Rev Dr Philip Siew and myself, extending our congratulations to Rev Dr Tan Jin Huat

Heartiest congratulations to Rev Dr Tan Jin Huat, our Academic Dean. We have just received news that Jin Huat has passed his PhD from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, UK.

We are very glad to have another Doctor added to the faculty of STM. We believe a celebration dinner is in order (and of course paid by Jin Huat)!

N T Wright on Heaven

The recent interview by Time is reproduced below.

Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop
By DAVID VAN BIEMA Thursday, Feb. 07, 2008

N.T. "Tom" Wright is one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought. As Bishop of Durham, he is the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England and a major player in the strife-riven global Anglican Communion; as a much-read theologian and Biblical scholar he has taught at Cambridge and is a hero to conservative Christians worldwide for his 2003 book The Resurrection of the Son of God, which argued forcefully for a literal interpretation of that event.

It therefore comes as a something of a shock that Wright doesn't believe in heaven — at least, not in the way that millions of Christians understand the term. In his new book, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne), Wright quotes a children's book by California first lady Maria Shriver called What's Heaven, which describes it as "a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk... If you're good throughout your life, then you get to go [there]... When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you heaven to be with him." That, says Wright is a good example of "what not to say." The Biblical truth, he continues, "is very, very different."

Wright, 58, talked by phone with TIME's David Van Biema.

TIME: At one point you call the common view of heaven a "distortion and serious diminution of Christian hope."

Wright: It really is. I've often heard people say, "I'm going to heaven soon, and I won't need this stupid body there, thank goodness.' That's a very damaging distortion, all the more so for being unintentional.

TIME: How so? It seems like a typical sentiment.

Wright: There are several important respects in which it's unsupported by the New Testament. First, the timing. In the Bible we are told that you die, and enter an intermediate state. St. Paul is very clear that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead already, but that nobody else has yet. Secondly, our physical state. The New Testament says that when Christ does return, the dead will experience a whole new life: not just our soul, but our bodies. And finally, the location. At no point do the resurrection narratives in the four Gospels say, "Jesus has been raised, therefore we are all going to heaven." It says that Christ is coming here, to join together the heavens and the Earth in an act of new creation.

TIME: Is there anything more in the Bible about the period between death and the resurrection of the dead?

Wright: We know that we will be with God and with Christ, resting and being refreshed. Paul writes that it will be conscious, but compared with being bodily alive, it will be like being asleep. The Wisdom of Solomon, a Jewish text from about the same time as Jesus, says "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God," and that seems like a poetic way to put the Christian understanding, as well.

TIME: But it's not where the real action is, so to speak?

Wright: No. Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I've called the life after life after death — in the ultimate resurrection into the new heavens and the new Earth. Jesus' resurrection marks the beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon his return. Part of this will be the resurrection of all the dead, who will "awake," be embodied and participate in the renewal. John Polkinghorne, a physicist and a priest, has put it this way: "God will download our software onto his hardware until the time he gives us new hardware to run the software again for ourselves." That gets to two things nicely: that the period after death is a period when we are in God's presence but not active in our own bodies, and also that the more important transformation will be when we are again embodied and administering Christ's kingdom.

TIME: That is rather different from the common understanding. Did some Biblical verse contribute to our confusion?

Wright: There is Luke 23, where Jesus says to the good thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." But in Luke, we know first of all that Christ himself will not be resurrected for three days, so "paradise" cannot be a resurrection. It has to be an intermediate state. And chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, where there is a vision of worship in heaven that people imagine describes our worship at the end of time. In fact it's describing the worship that's going on right now. If you read the book through, you see that at the end we don't have a description of heaven, but, as I said, of the new heavens and the new earth joined together.

TIME: Why, then, have we misread those verses?

Wright: It has, originally, to do with the translation of Jewish ideas into Greek. The New Testament is deeply, deeply Jewish, and the Jews had for some time been intuiting a final, physical resurrection. They believed that the world of space and time and matter is messed up, but remains basically good, and God will eventually sort it out and put it right again. Belief in that goodness is absolutely essential to Christianity, both theologically and morally. But Greek-speaking Christians influenced by Plato saw our cosmos as shabby and misshapen and full of lies, and the idea was not to make it right, but to escape it and leave behind our material bodies. The church at its best has always come back toward the Hebrew view, but there have been times when the Greek view was very influential.

TIME: Can you give some historical examples?

Wright: Two obvious ones are Dante's great poetry, which sets up a Heaven, Purgatory and Hell immediately after death, and Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine chapel, which portrays heaven and hell as equal and opposite last destinations. Both had enormous influence on Western culture, so much so that many Christians think that is Christianity.

TIME: But it's not.

Wright: Never at any point do the Gospels or Paul say Jesus has been raised, therefore we are we are all going to heaven. They all say, Jesus is raised, therefore the new creation has begun, and we have a job to do.

TIME: That sounds a lot like... work.

Wright: It's more exciting than hanging around listening to nice music. In Revelation and Paul's letters we are told that God's people will actually be running the new world on God's behalf. The idea of our participation in the new creation goes back to Genesis, when humans are supposed to be running the Garden and looking after the animals. If you transpose that all the way through, it's a picture like the one that you get at the end of Revelation.

TIME: And it ties in to what you've written about this all having a moral dimension.

Wright: Both that, and the idea of bodily resurrection that people deny when they talk about their "souls going to Heaven." If people think "my physical body doesn't matter very much," then who cares what I do with it? And if people think that our world, our cosmos, doesn't matter much, who cares what we do with that? Much of "traditional" Christianity gives the impression that God has these rather arbitrary rules about how you have to behave, and if you disobey them you go to hell, rather than to heaven. What the New Testament really says is God wants you to be a renewed human being helping him to renew his creation, and his resurrection was the opening bell. And when he returns to fulfil the plan, you won't be going up there to him, he'll be coming down here.

TIME: That's very different from, say, the vision put out in the Left Behind books.

Wright: Yes. If there's going to be an Armageddon, and we'll all be in heaven already or raptured up just in time, it really doesn't matter if you have acid rain or greenhouse gases prior to that. Or, for that matter, whether you bombed civilians in Iraq. All that really matters is saving souls for that disembodied heaven.

TIME: Has anyone you've talked to expressed disappointment at the loss of the old view?

Wright: Yes, you might get disappointment in the case where somebody has recently gone through the death of somebody they love and they are wanting simply to be with them. And I'd say that's understandable. But the end of Revelation describes a marvelous human participation in God's plan. And in almost all cases, when I've explained this to people, there's a sense of excitement and a sense of, "Why haven't we been told this before?"

T & T Clark's Request for Biblical Guides for the Perplexed

A few days ago, the T & T Clark Blog posted a request for ideas for Biblical Guides for the Perplexed. I think this is timely, as I have often been asked by my first year students whether there is a guide where the discussion is comprehensive enough and yet accessible to them on issues like the New Perspective on Paul; the historical Jesus; etc. I often find it hard to recommend 1 book that sufficiently addresses these particular issues at some depth and yet not too overwhelming for these students. At the moment, the IVP Dictionaries of Jesus of the Gospel, Paul and His Letters, Latter NT Development and NT Background are one of my few reliable helps!

So here is my wish list:

• Use of the OT in the NT


• Mission in the OT


• Mission in the NT


• Jewish background to the NT


• Greco-Roman background to the NT


• Feminist Approach to Biblical Studies


• Social-Scientific Approach to Biblical Studies


• Narrative Approach to Biblical Studies


• Post-Colonial Approach to Biblical Studies


• Miracles of Jesus


• Sermon on the Mount


• Parables of Jesus


• Synoptic gospels


• Jesus and Paul


• New Perspective on Paul


• History of Interpretation of Romans; Corinthian Correspondence, Revelation, etc


• Paul and his Interpreters


• Septuagint


• Paul and his Sufferings


• Paul and his Theology

I think I better stop somewhere...

Armour of God Pyjamas!

I have just come across this website selling the Armour of God pyjamas. Currently, online orders are only available in the US.

Hmm...wonder when will this pyjamas be made available in Malaysia? It sure makes me wish I am a kid again - perhaps I could have less nightmares!

Wonder what's next? Armour of God bed linens & quilts? Any creative mind out there?