Book Review – exegetical.tools

Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 2nd Ed. (A Review)

November 7, 2023

Published in 1993, the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (DPL1) has become an indispensable resource for all things Pauline. It appeared during the peak of the so-called “New Perspective of Paul” debate, a debate inaugurated by E.P. Sanders’ Paul and Palestinian Judaism, now a landmark study on first-century Judaism. It is no exaggeration to posit that Sanders, along with James Dunn and N.T. Wright initiated a major shift in Christian theology and its relationship with second temple Judaism. The…

Review Published on Calaway’s Sabbath and Sanctuary

November 4, 2014

Todd Scacewater

My review has been published on Jared Calaway’s The Sabbath and the Sanctuary: Access to God in the Letter to the Hebrews and its Priestly Context (WUNT II). For the full text, click here. Calaway’s published dissertation was an interesting read, especially given his exploration of the similarities between Hebrews and Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Such a connection warranted a full study in itself, given the heavenly tabernacle scene in the Qumran document. I was less impressed by his reading of Hebrews,…

Review Published on Ounsworth’s “Joshua Typology in NT”

October 10, 2014

Todd Scacewater

My review of Richard Ounsworth’s published dissertation (WUNT II series) has been published in WTJ 76.1. For the full PDF, click here. I enjoyed reading this work and found it a helpful addition to studies on typology in the NT. Contrary to the implication of its name, the book only treats three sections in Hebrews and looks at the relationship between Joshua and Jesus (whose Greek name is the same). He relates the spatial relationship of entering the land with the relationship…

Review Published on DaSilva’s “The Apocrypha”

October 1, 2014

Todd Scacewater

My review on David DaSilva’s new work, The Apocrypha, has been published in Westminster Theological Journal 76. I’m attaching the PDF here for the full text. This work is part of a new series, Core Biblical Studies, that provides succinct introductions to topics in biblical studies. There is another volume on the Dead Sea Scrolls that looks good as well. With Second Temple Judaism all the rage in biblical studies nowadays, these introductions will surely be helpful for professors introducing their students to…

Discourse Analysis (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics), by Gillian Brown and George Yule

November 8, 2013

Todd Scacewater

Brown and Yule survey the work done thus far on discourse analysis and the various components of what have been included in such work. They deal both with written and with oral texts, sometimes more with oral in order to see language-in-use more effectively. They appreciate the work done by Chomsky and other structural linguists to analyze grammar…

Review: Introduction to Discourse Analysis by Gee

November 5, 2013

Todd Scacewater

Gee, James Paul, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. 224 pp. This work provides a methodology for doing discourse analysis in terms of critically analyzing the use of language as saying, doing, and being (3). The author utilizes speech act theory as well as later Wittgenstein’s “language game” theory. Language games have rules that produce winners and losers; winners receive “social goods,” which are “anything some people in a society want and value”…

Review: Analyzing Discourse by Dooley & Levinsohn

November 2, 2013

Todd Scacewater

This work is brief and introductory, with most chapters spanning only 4-10 pages. It covers various concepts utilized in discourse analysis and uses language that is, for the most part, accessible for most readers. Chapters 1-4 cover respectively the four different dimensions of a text: (1) number of speakers (monologue or dialogue)….