In this four part series, I look at the four sections in Matthew 1-2 and how Matthew utilizes Old Testament passages that are “fulfilled” in the life of the Young Messiah. Find the rest of the series here….
Jesus, Paul, and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N. T. Wright brings together the proceedings from the 2010 Wheaton Theology Conference, in which a group of scholars who also happen to be Wright’s friends were invited to deliver papers responding to some of the most important features of his work on Jesus and Paul. In distinction from other works responding to a biblical scholar, this book holds the unique features of 1) offering a theological response and 2) bringing the conversation to bear on the church, that is, the “people of God.” The book is divided into two parts, the first on historical Jesus research and the second on Pauline studies….
Ever since Martin Kähler’s 1892 publication (‘The so-called historical Jesus and the historic, biblical Christ’) a division between the ‘Jesus of history’ and the ‘Christ of faith’ has been a distinctive feature of both biblical studies and systematic theology. The gist of Kähler’s reading is that the Christ of faith, enshrined for us in the New Testament, is so colored by the theological faith commitments of Jesus’ early followers that the historical Jesus is hidden from plain sight.
In ‘This Jesus’ Markus Bockmuehl (MB), the Dean Ireland’s Professor at Keble College Oxford, seeks to demonstrate, “that it can be historically legitimate to see Jesus of Nazareth in organic and causal continuity with the faith of the early Church” (8)….
In 2012 I was in the Dominican Republic helping to rebuild a church when I got into a discussion about whether we really needed the Old Testament. I tried to defend the OT by arguing that the NT by itself would be like a childrens’ coloring book, with all the shapes drawn but with no color to fill in the pictures to get all the fullness of the biblical picture of God and his purposes. I also pointed out that many heresies likely would arise without the OT to guide us in our understanding of God. Well, John Goldingay has done away with a defensive strategy and he’s gone on the offense. He flips the common question of whether we need the OT on its head and asks: Do we really need the New Testament?…
You should buy this book and read it. I don’t suggest that because I agree with the basic premise of each chapter, but because I disagree with it. This book takes various historical-critical conclusions and determines whether they can be squared with Evangelical (or even orthodox) dogma. The tension between Evangelicalism and historical criticism tension is perhaps felt more in Old Testament studies, with dating conclusions in constant flux….
Congratulations to Luther Herche, winner of our book giveaway of His Mission: Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Crossway generously offered to provide one free copy (plus free shipping) to the winner of our giveaway, which we held in conjunction with our review of the new book. If you haven’t seen the book, it’s an excellent set of sermons focused on the person of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel that were preached at the 2013 TGC conference. You can find our review and links to buy the book here.
Three new titles were released by SBL Press this week, and they all look tantalizing.
The Didache: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle in Early Christianity (Early Christianity and Its Literature), ed. Draper and Jefford (SBL)
This is an edited volume with essays discussing liturgical and ritual constructions in the Didache, background studies, and the document’s relation to the Gospel of Matthew….
This new work is a truly pleasure to read and an excellent source of pastoral exposition and application of Luke’s Gospel. Contributors include John Piper on Luke 1-2, Colin Smith on the sermon at Nazareth (Luke 4:14-30), Crawford Loritts on Jesus’ power toward the afflicted (Luke 8:26-56), D. A. Carson on Jesus’ resolve to head toward Jerusalem (9:18-62), Kevin DeYoung on Jesus’ mission to save the lost (Luke 15:1-32), Steven Um on Jesus and money (16:1-15), Gary Millar on Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion (22:39-23:49), and Tim Keller on Jesus’ vindication in Luke 24….
Imagine that you are about to preach on the Sermon on the Mount. You have no interest in form or redaction criticism; you don’t care about Q. But you are also aware of the benefits of studies that compare Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount with Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, and you realize critical literary studies can be helpful for understanding the Sermon as a whole. You have a couple options available: Carson has published a book with a 110-page exposition of the Sermon, but there is little discussion of the critical research; it focuses on expositing the text. On the other hand, there is the ICC commentary by Davies and Allison on Matthew 1-7, which would contain all the critical data you need, but would probably not be much help with expositing the text as a coherent message from Jesus (not to mention its enormous length)….
Last week at SBL I attended a review session on Richard Hays’ new book, Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness. The reviewers included Marcus Bockmuehl, Marianne Thompson, and Francis Watson. The reviews were mostly positive, with most of the reviewers asking pretty tame (yet good) questions that either challenged small points of the book or gave slight push-back to Hays’ methodology. Hays in this work tried to do for the Gospels what he did for Paul, using his…