Ridley Hall, Cambridge

Resources: Biblical Studies Bulletin 28

Issue 28: June 2003

Books in Brief

Stephen R Holmes, Listening to the Past (Carlisle: Paternoster and Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002); ISBN 0-8010-2642-3. The attempt to struggle free from past tradition is a perennial temptation of the Church. In biblical studies, it has often been recommended under the banner of sola Scriptura, or as a way of trying to 'let the text speak for itself'. Listening to the Past shows well how all such efforts are foolish as well doomed to failure.

Stephen Holmes, of King's College London, has gathered some of his essays in historical theology to exemplify and to encourage in others a positive and receptive attitude to tradition. This is scholarly work of a high order, yet thoroughly readable. Among other things, we are offered Anselm on the atonement, Jonathan Edwards on the freedom of the will, Barth on election, and Coleridge on theology and politics. At every turn Holmes shows a disciplined respect for past writers that is all too rare in a theological climate often obsessed with originality. Of particular interest to readers of the Bulletin will be the first essay: 'Why Can't We Just Read the Bible? The Place of Tradition in Theology'. Perhaps every Bible teacher needs to face that question more often - when God has given us these sacred texts, just why do we need to listen to the wisdom of the ages as well? In answering that question, we could do with many more books of this quality.

Jeremy Begbie, Professor at the University of St Andrews and Lecturer at Ridley Hall

Gerald H Wilson, The NIV Application Commentary: Psalms Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003); ISBN 0-310-20635-9. Some may feel that the NIV shows signs of dating, but the work of this book is far from dated - indeed, I found it refreshing.

As a commentary, it deals with scholarly issues but in an accessible, relevant way. That's just what I - teaching Old Testament to people of varying academic background - wish for in more OT writing! For example, explanations of poetry begin with explaining English poetry before moving on to how Hebrew poetry works. Unfortunately the accessible style is not, however, complemented by brevity in this volume. With a spine almost three inches wide (and covering just under half of the Psalter), it is only likely to be lifted from the shelf by the highly motivated devotee. A serious scholar might find it patronising.

In a comprehensive introduction, Wilson covers an impressive range of issues: historical-critical insights (he himself allows for an 800 year period over which the psalms were composed), form criticism, literary and poetic features, the psalm headings/ascriptions and the overall shape of the Psalter. When it comes to discussing each of the psalms in turn, Wilson encourages a proper understanding of their corporate liturgical origins in the temple, before focusing on their individual devotional use in Christian circles. His method follows a threefold pattern that is a feature of all the volumes in the NIV Application Commentary series: 'original meaning', 'bridging contexts' and 'contemporary significance'. Wilson does a good job of dealing with these somewhat artificial categories, the second of which proved the most interesting. He offers some fascinating insights which will be valuable to anyone wanting to discover how scholarship on the psalms might bear upon their use in Christian worship today.

Jo Bailey Wells, Lecturer in Old Testament, Ridley Hall

N T Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (London: SPCK, 2003); ISBN 0-281-05550-5. Tom's latest book is predictably readable, engaging, orthodox and worth its price (high, but you get 800+ pages). Full reviews have already appeared in Church Times and CEN, and no doubt many more will appear in scholarly journals. Much of the book looks at what people in the ancient world believed (and did not believe) about resurrection; it blows big holes in claims that the first Christians thought of Jesus' resurrection only as 'spiritual' and not also corporeal. This is a robust, learned contribution to apologetics and theology, as well as an important investigation of ancient beliefs about death and the possibility of life afterwards. Plus, like Gordon Fee's God's Empowering Presence we get a bit of commentary on every biblical text on the subject.

Douglas J Moo, Encountering the Book of Romans (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002); ISBN 0-8010-2546-X. The author of the NICNT volume on Romans, Moo is a conservative evangelical writing this textbook for American undergraduate classes in institutions such as Wheaton College, where he teaches. He acknowledges the existence of new perspective readings of Paul and acknowledges the force of a few of its arguments, but his own interpretation remains largely controlled by reformation theology and categories. Full of charts, outlines, illustrations, summaries and teaching objectives, this book will help teachers who want a quick summary of major interpretative options from a Reformed viewpoint. I confess that I was saddened that Moo's readers might mistakenly conclude that the new perspective had now been seen and dispensed with.

Harold W Hoehner, Ephesians. An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002); ISBN 0-8010-2614-8. A lifetime career in the writing, this massive commentary focuses on the nuts and bolts of Greek exegesis, with lots of close grammatical observations, and fulsome bibliography. Hoehner is a conservative evangelical and a world class scholar; he has read everything out there on Ephesians, and offers probably the best defence of Pauline authorship that one can find. Translators, scholars and students with a good grasp of Greek will find the book helpful.

Letters to the Editor

David Parry, who trains Readers in the Diocese of Derby, writes:

I too would like to add my belated thanks for your booklet, The New Perspective on Paul. It has helped in two areas of my interests:

I teach a number of topics to the Reader's in training in the Diocese of Derby and have tried to outline succinctly the new perspectives on Paul as part of my teaching on Paul. I have been able to recommend your booklet as a thorough and balanced summary. I am working with the Centre for Christian Studies on an MA in Christian Jewish relations and have had to wrestle with this topic along side the wider issues of 'anti-Semitism' in the NT. Again your notes have helped as well as your bibliography.

My biggest concern about the moves towards pluralism and in particular the 'two covenant' theology is the effect it has had on the re-reading of the NT to highlight and reject [often in vociferous tones] any passages which smack of anti-Semitism, and the denial of the need to evangelise Jewish friends in particular.

Thanks! I share your concern about the way a 'two covenant' theology can be used to suppress sharing the wonderful news of Christ with the Jews, and about the marginalization of some NT texts as 'anti-Semitic' (or more commonly now 'anti-Jewish'), when those texts were originally written by Jewish Christians and represent inter-Jewish criticisms, just as the prophets of old critiqued the people of God.

The real issue is what we do with these texts today, sometimes in contrast to what the church has historically done with them. Rather than using them to justify oppression of the Jews (either actively as in the past, or passively by withholding the message of Jesus), I think we need to be pro-active in showing just how Jewish early Christianity was, and how valuable we still view our Jewish roots to be. That opens up ways for significant dialogue with Jews. But we must not be afraid to be robust in our defence of NT faith, or be cowed by arguments based on the Holocaust. Ultimately I believe Jews will respect us far more (as Muslims do) if we humbly commend a biblical faith with compassion, rather than compromising it out of fear of offending people.

Christopher Bull from Redhill in Surrey gets the prize for observing the time warp implied by our last issue; the cover date (2002) was only an attempt to soothe readers who feel the world is changing too fast. In addition to sending a heap of biblical jokes (some of which may appear in future issues of BSB when I get more desperate than usual), he also observes:

The 'light bulb' jokes included in BSB 27...were strangely familiar. Most of them were previously published in the book compiled by J. John & Mark Stibbe, A Bucket of Surprises (London: Monarch Books, 2002) pp. 107-109.

Thanks. BSB never stoops to originality, especially in the humour department. However, I was genuinely ignorant of the Bucket book. Sources for lightbulb jokes are legion.

Tricia Shuler, a Ridley student, writes:

Thank you for the latest copy of BSB. I was interested to learn what 'WWJD' really stands for; I had always thought it stood for 'We Want Jack Daniels'. I must admit as to some puzzlement as to why so many clergy were advertising this particular brand though.

Indeed, especially given a clergy stipend!

Inspired by the extremes of a seminar, Dr Alastair Campbell offers us the following exercise in a subversive reading of scripture. It's entitled (after G K Chesterton), 'Fools! For I also had my hour...':

I am struck by the possibilities of donkey-centred readings of the Scriptures. The donkey of course is a classic symbol of oppression, as Isaiah makes clear: The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger. But the Balaam story shows how it is donkeys rather than human beings who are the true bearers of the Word. This will lead us naturally to a re-evaluation of the Palm Sunday story whereby it is the donkey who receives the Hosannas of the crowd as it carries the oppressive Jesus into Jerusalem. This will, with justice, be known as Assinine Hermeneutics.

Comments on Commentaries

An assessment of commentaries and other works on books of the Bible to keep you up to date with what will help in preaching and teaching in the local church.

OT: Jeremiah

Jeremiah is at the same time the prophet whose spiritual experience and biography seem to be most accessible to us and the one whose book has been, according to much modern scholarship, most transformed by a different editorial theology and the needs of a later (exilic) readership. These distinct characteristics place a heavy demand on commentators and most lean more to one direction or the other. There is no shortage of choice!

The late Robert Carroll's 'OT Guide' (Sheffield, 1989) is a good way into the modern discussion, even if one rejects his sceptical conclusions. His own approach, more fully set out in his commentary (OTL, 1986), is to focus on the first readers of the book in the Babylonian exile and ask what they in their situation of crisis would have made of it rather than what it can tell us about Jeremiah himself (not very much according to Carroll!). At the other end of the scale is the old book (not strictly a commentary) of John Skinner, Prophecy and Religion (Cambridge, 1926), which treats the whole book as the spiritual biography of Jeremiah. More recent commentaries which also take a strongly historical approach, though with more attention to the political context, are John Bright (Anchor Bible, 1965), J A Thompson (NICOT, 1980), P C Craigie and others (Word, 2 vols, 1991, 1995), and on a smaller scale R K Harrison (TOTC, 1973). William Holladay's very large Hermeneia commentary (2 vols, 1986, 1989) is similar and full of useful detail, but the overall approach is somewhat skewed by his theories about the coherent structure ('architecture') of the book and the chronology of Jeremiah's utterances.

In between are those which acknowledge the poetry of the book (or most of it) as giving us direct access to Jeremiah's own words but see the prose sermons and narratives as in varying degrees refracting his teachings and experiences through a 'deuteronomistic' lens. Here belong Ernest Nicholson's succinct commentary on the NEB (CUP, 2 vols, 1973, 1975), Ronald Clements's very readable and theological exposition in the Interpretation series (John Knox, 1988) and William McKane's ICC (T. & T. Clark, 2 vols, 1986, 1996) which, if too dense for most readers, provides the fullest analysis of the Hebrew text and its problems that is available. Douglas Jones's NCB (Harper Collins, 1992) also belongs here and comes closest to my idea of the best medium-sized commentary for general use, with its detailed explanation of particular words and phrases and its sensible treatment of larger issues.

The 'rhetorical criticism' of Jack Lundbom (Anchor Bible, so far only ch. 1-20, 1999) and the 'synchronic' focus on the final form of the text of Kathleen O'Connor in the one-volume Oxford Bible Commentary (ed. John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001) offer examples of different kinds of 'literary' approach to the book.

The preacher who is looking for immediately usable material that is based on sound scholarship will find it in Robert Davidson's Daily Study Bible (Saint Andrew Press, 2 vols, 1983, 1985) and in Walter Brueggemann's attractively titled volumes in the ITC (Eerdmans),'To Pluck Up, To Tear Down (1988) and To Build, To Plant (1991). Of special interest, though again not strictly a commentary, is Philip King's Jeremiah: An Archaeological Companion (Westminster/JKP, 1993), which provides many vivid illustrations of the themes and images of Jeremiah's message.

Graham Davies, Professor of Old Testament Studies, Cambridge University

Humour, etc

Despite the pleas of readers, here are yet more theological light bulb jokes...

1. How many missionaries does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one. But he/she has to write a prayer letter about it afterwards.

2. How many Amish does it take to change a light bulb?

What's a light bulb?

3. How many Nazarenes does it take to change a light bulb?

One woman to replace the bulb while five men review church lighting policy.

4. How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?

We read that we are to so fear and love God that we cannot by our own effort or understanding comprehend the replacement of an electromagnetic photon source. It is, rather by faith, not by our efforts (effected toward the failed worldly incandescence), that we truly see, and that our own works cannot fully justify us in the presence of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Of course, the room is still dark.

Paul Ganney, computer guru at Hull Royal Infirmary, fine bass player and husband of Ridley Hall's own Rachel Ganney, adds the following:

5. How many Spirit-filled evangelists does it take to change a light bulb?

Three. One to pray, and two to catch it when it falls.

6. How many youth leaders does it take to change a light bulb?

Eleven. One to hide the ladder, and ten to form a human pyramid.

7. How many church administrators does it take to change a light bulb?

Let me get back to you on that one...

Finally, Maf Cavill writes:

8. How many free church elders does it take to change a light bulb?

None. Responsibility for fabric rests with the body of deacons.

Grove Biblical Series

This month's booklet is B 28 How to Read the Book of Revelation by Grove editor and my wife's boss, Ian Paul. Ian's doctoral research on the book of Revelation and his experience teaching in his parish and for his diocese have helped prepare him to write what we expect to be a very useful resource for those puzzled by the last book of the Bible.

Individual titles in the Biblical Series are available direct from Grove Books at £2.50 each. Annual subscription (4 books) costs £8.50, a saving of 15%. Call, fax, email sales@grovebooks.co.uk  or visit http://www.grovebooks.co.uk  to order.