Jason Byassee  Psalms 101—150. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2018. Available at Baker By Jill Firth The Brazos Theological Commentary series seeks to “rehabilitate our exegetical imaginations” (xiv). The series is based on the Nicene tradition “in all its diversity and controversy” in the awareness that the “pedagogy of a doctrinally ruled reading of scripture characterizes the broad sweep of the Christian tradition” (xii). It encourages an ecumenical and post-critical approach. The commentators are thinkers in... Read more

I did an interview with Zondervan about why I teamed up with N.T. Wright to write The New Testament in its World, what makes our book distinctive, and how our textbook can make a difference: The idea of this book is very simple. There’s lots of New Testament introductions out there, and they’re like taco trucks on the highway. I looked on this highway, and I said to myself, “Where’s my taco truck?” More seriously: Every semester I work with students.... Read more

Bryan Blazosky The Law’s Universal Condemning and Enslaving Power: Reading Paul, the Old Testament, and Second Temple Jewish Literature BBRS; Philadelphia, PA: Eisenbrauns/University of Pennsylvania, 2019. Available at Eisenbrauns Bryan Blazosky (Adjunct Professor of New Testament at Bethlehem College and Seminary and Pastor of Richfield Bible Church in Richfield, Minnesota) wrote a very good PhD thesis at Ridley College on whether Paul thought that the Gentile world was obligated to obey the Torah or be held accountable by God on the... Read more

Marion Ann Taylor and Heather E. Weir (eds). Women in the Story of Jesus: The Gospels through the Eyes of Nineteenth-Century Female Interpreters. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016. Available at Eerdmans. By Jill Firth The history of Biblical interpretation, long dominated by men, is receiving new impetus through research into women biblical interpreters. A broad sweep of female interpreters are identified in an earlier volume edited by Marion Taylor with Agnes Choi, Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters: a Historical and Biographical... Read more

Check out the great book Poverty in the Early Church and Today: A Conversation edited by Steve Walton and Hannah Swithinbank (London: T&T Clark, 2019). It is thankfully available on-line as a PDF,  so it will be available to those who cannot afford the $115 price tag for the commercial copy (only available as an ebook on kindle as far as I can tell). Talk about a cast of all-stars writing on great topics. The TOC looks amazing: 1 Two Concepts of... Read more

Nancy Lammers Gross Women’s Voices and the Practice of Preaching Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017. Available at Eerdmans. By Jill Firth Are you a woman who has trouble with your voice in public speaking? Preaching voice too soft or too squeaky? Flat tone, lacking conviction, imagination, or modulation? Nervous giggles, or that awkward ascending inflection at the end of sentences? Nancy Lammers Gross argues that “the voice is a full-body, physical and musical instrument.” Women can lack confidence, or become disconnected... Read more

James R. Edwards Between the Swastika and the Sickle: The Life, Disappearance, and Execution of Ernst Lohmeyer Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2019. Available at Eerdmans. This is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year! I love reading the biographies of NT scholars, though some are boring, this one is certainly not! In 1979 I was leading a Berlin Fellowship team to Greifswald, the very city where Lohmeyer had disappeared. In the midst of a church meeting I... Read more

I had so much fun connecting with my old buddy Preston Sprinkle on his terrific podcast Theology in the Raw # 757 where we talk about all things related to New Testament scholarship, women’s ordination, Anglicanism, N.T. Wright, Jesus’ mission to the Gentiles, and American evangelicalism. Read more

Daniel Castelo and Robert W. Wall The Marks of Scripture: Rethinking the Nature of the Bible Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019 Available at Baker and Koorong By Laura Thierry “What is Scripture and what is its purpose?” Such are the two questions that sit at the heart of Daniel Castelo and Robert W. Wall’s stimulating volume, The Marks of Scripture: Rethinking the Nature of the Bible. Written against the backdrop of a Protestant scholarly world that has often split Biblical... Read more