Well it’s Friday, it’s the end of my spring break and I haven’t posted in far too long. I’ve been too busy to contribute but Shane’s been doing some great posts to keep you all busy here at the Reformed Reader. I thought I’d just give a list of some volumes I’ve been reading in my time off this past week (at least when not learning Syriac flashcards) and make a comment about each.
Brevard Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible.
I finally started reading Childs BT because of how helpful I’ve found his Introduction to the Old Testament As Scripture, and because I enjoy reading Phil’s blog so much. I decided it was time to purchase and start in on Childs’ constructive work on the subject of canonical criticism. I really can’t offer any quotes from here because it is just simply too rich to nibble at. I’ll need to devote sustained blog-interaction to the volume, something I just don’t have time to do right now.
B. Estelle, J. Fesko, D. VanDrunen, eds., The Law is Not of Faith: Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant.
I was truly blown away by Byron Curtis’ contribution. This is a top rate piece of scholarship. Not only does Curtis draw in his more general expertise on the prophets, he has offered a complex study in linguistics, inner-biblical exegesis, and dogmatics in defending the following translation of Hosea 6:7: “Like [their ancestor] Adam, they broke the covenant; Like [the residents of the town of] Adam, they double-crossed me there” (pg. 207). If you want to know how he got here, you’ll have to get your own copy!
Marvin A. Sweeney, Reading the Hebrew Bible After the Shoah.
This is an interesting volume, dealing with how the biblical writers wrestled with God apparent absence in times of trouble. As a Jewish biblical scholar, he has a unique perspective on how similar questions of divine absence are asked by Jewish theologians post-Shoah [Holocaust].
Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible.
A collection of essays by Ulrich, dealing with what the biblical scrolls found at Qumran tell us about the variety of text-types attested for the books of the OT (only 1 of which is the MT). He offers some very erudite observations of how organic the canonization process of the OT really was.
Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel.
Two leading archaeologists contribute essays dealing with what archaeology can tell us about a number of phases of Israelite history. While both avoid the extremes of maximalism and minimalism, both write from different sides of the ‘centrist’ position. Reading the summaries by editor, Brian B. Schmidt, is a great way to quickly peruse this volume.
James VanderKam and Peter Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity.
I’ll be doing a popular-level lecture in a few weeks on the relevance of the Dead Sea Scrolls in contemporary OT studies, so I’ve been skimming through some books describing the Qumran finds. So far, this volume has been my favorite overview, touching on the relevant issues for canon formation (like Ulrich), text criticism of the OT, and matters of whether the scrolls relate the the NT in the way that headlines often claim. This is an outstanding, user friendly overview. Its receipt of the Biblical Archaeology Society’s “Best Book of the Year” award comes as no surprise.
Michael S. Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology.
This final installment of Horton’s four-part series is superb. I’ve only read a couple of chapters, but heard most of it in lecture form during my doctrine of the church course with Horton back at WSCAL. Chapter 3, “A Liberating Captivity: The Word as Canon” is a very interesting discussion of the importance of the preached word for the church. The relationship between orality and textuality really comes into play here.
I haven’t been able to read some other new books by Frank Moore Cross, Kenton Sparks, Daniel Sivan, and D.N. Freedman, F.I. Anderson & A.D. Forbes. Those will just have to wait until summer. Now to dive into another exciting quarter!
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Andrew
Sounds like some interesting reading!