Every November sees the release of some of the most anticipated books, monographs, commentaries, and more in the field of Biblical studies, and this year was no different! Below I highlight a few that I would recommend picking up and adding to your 2017 reading list.
Published in November just in time for the annual Society of Biblical Literature meeting, this impressive festschrift weighs in at over 800 pages. Edited by Lois Dow, Craig Evans, and Andrew Pitts, The Language and Literature of the New Testament contains contributions from notable scholars on a wide variety of topics that Stan has written on during his career. Unfortunately, the price for this excellent work will put it out of the reach of most—I thankfully knew of its publication beforehand and was able to save my pennies!—but do ask your library to get a copy. If you do not live near a good theological library, ask your public library to ILL it for you. You may be surprised by what they can get for you.
Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ
Another title that was published in time for SBL was Cindy Westfall’s superb study, Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ. For a number of years, Cindy has been working on this study and it does not fail to disappoint in the least. Thoroughly exegetical, Cindy tackles all of the pertinent and controversial passages that surround this area of NT studies. Even if you have already been convinced of your position, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this excellent study. Who knows, you may even change your mind on a few issues.
Pillars in the History of Biblical Interpretation: 2 vols.
The last book(s) I recommend reading this year is the two volume work edited by Stanley Porter and Sean Adams. If you are familiar with the previous three volume masterpiece on the History of New Testament from William Baird (see my review on volume three here), you will find these two volumes to be a great compliment to Baird’s previous work.
Well, I do hope that you go and pick up some of these excellent new publications and give them a read in 2017.
Tolle lege!
One comment