John Goldingay Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone London: SPCK, 2015. Available at Amazon.com By Felicity Clyft It is a bold claim to say that a book can be ‘for everyone’. From a literary point of view we might wonder if this is even possible. What would such a book look like? John Goldingay’s Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2015) is a good attempt. In his study, tailored for individual reading, Goldingay manages to offer a guide that, in... Read more

I have belatedly just become aware of the Illuminations commentary series edited by C.S. Seow with Loren Stuckenbruck, Scott Jones, and Judith Newman, published by Eerdmans. So far only C.S. Seow on Job 1-21 is out, but some capable scholars are lined up and it looks like it could be a good series. Here’s the NT suite: Matthew Warren Carter Brite Divinity School Mark Susanne Watts Henderson Queens University of Charlotte Luke-Acts David Aune University of Notre Dame John George Parsenios... Read more

Joe Valenti offers a nice review of Mending a Fractured Church (edited by M. Bird and B. Rosner, published by Lexham Press). The authors of these short essays do an excellent job of presenting their topics with clarity and brevity – showing from Scripture the goal of Christian unity, but also underscoring the fact that there is very little room for disagreement on issues that are central to the gospel. While the authors unanimously affirm that there is some room... Read more

In my forthcoming book Anomalous Jew: Paul among Jews, Greeks, and Romans (Eerdmans), I have a chapter on Paul and apocalyptic interpretation. Wish I had access to these books when I was writing it: Just saw this coming out from T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, wish I had access to it a year ago!   A vibrant and growing field of discussion in contemporary New Testament studies is the question of ‘apocalyptic’ thought in Paul. What is often lacking in this discussion, however, is... Read more

Great article by James Mumford on “A Truly Liberal Society Would Tolerate the Anglican Church’s Views on Sexuality,” in The Spectator: Back in 2013 advocates for same-sex marriage argued that the church’s beliefs about sexuality shouldn’t be imposed on the rest of society. That makes sense. But now the church is being told it shouldn’t hold those beliefs at all. We’ve heard on repeat this week the charge that Welby ‘misreads history’. The Anglican communion’s doctrines are archaic, out-dated, irrelevant to... Read more

University of Western Sydney has a great advertisement featuring the story of Deng Thiak, a Sudanese child soldier, now refugee lawyer. Read more

Robert H. Gundry Peter — False Disciple and Apostate according to Saint Matthew Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015. Available at Amazon.com. By Chris Porter In this short work Robert Gundry advances an intriguing hypothesis that the Matthean Gospel presents the Apostle Peter as a ‘False Disciple and Apostate.’ This proposal runs counter to the generally accepted grain with Matthew’s Gospel commonly judged as ‘more or less favorable toward Peter,’ as Gundry acknowledges (2). Here Gundry carefully argues for a position... Read more

Over the Christmas and New Year’s break I began reading for pleasure, and to expand my knowledge, the recent biography on Augustus by Adrian Goldsworthy: Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. It is well written; and while Ancient historians will be in a much better position to judge Goldsworthy’s scholarship, the work open up a fresh understand of such a powerful figure. Along with Augustus there is the cast of characters surrounding his story: Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Cicero, Pompey,... Read more

The other day I was reading through an old article by M. Eugene Boring on Markan Christology, and came across this quote: The explicit use of God-language for Jesus by later NT authors and the classical creeds is in continuity with the Christology already present in Mark. To state the matter somewhat provocatively: John, Nicea, and Chalcedon understood and developed Mark’s Christology in a more profound sense than was done by either Matthew or Luke. Chalcedon may perhaps be understood... Read more

In this post, I engage with Josh’s final chapter in his recent book Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology: “King and Justice: God’s Righteousness and the Righteous King in Romans.” Interacting with Josh’s carefully argued and evidenced-filled chapters has been rigorously instructive and thoroughly enjoyable. I want to thank Josh again for taking the time to read my posts and provide responses. Both our academic semesters (he at TEDS and I at NPU) have begun again, so it is a good... Read more