Canter Bridge

Because it stands in the shadow of Fishbane’s monumental Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel, this little book is not so well known twenty-five years after its publication. That’s a pity, for it exhibits the art of Fishbane’s literarily sensitive readings of key biblical texts to a readership that will not labor through the massive methodological and typological argument of the larger work. If Biblical Interpretation is a four-movement symphony for full orchestra and a price tag to match, Text and Texture is a savory lunchtime string trio in the sun, offered gratis to passersby.

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As an example of classical biblical scholarship on a topic of ongoing concern for pastoral care, there is no better exemplar than this revised 1994 PhD dissertation, helpfully reprinted in affordable paperback in 1998. The author serves as the senior minister of Boston’s Park Street Church and as Ranked Adjunct Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. (more…)

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Ironically, the great Palestinian-American humanist scholar Edward Said wrote this essentially inaccurate book as a bold and pained cri du coeur two decades before the events of September 11th and the fresh entanglement by the West in the Middle East would render obvious its stature as required reading. One must not attempt to understand our world from the West without a careful listening to the late author’s cry. (more…)

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R. Reed Lessing has written a sleeper.

His Concordia Seminary doctoral dissertation starts off reading like a cross between confessional screed and a too conventional presentation of biblical form criticism. Before long, however, the careful reader finds himself immersed in a compelling interpretation of one of the book of Isaiah’s most difficult `oracles against the nations’. Lessing understands the difficult text of Isaiah 23 not as a fairly inadequate redactional stitching together of disparate sources, but rather of an intentionally ironic piece of prophetic satire that uses the incalculable power of irony to bring low one of the eighth century’s (!) most potent economic powers. (more…)

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Though the Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series does not exemplify cachet among biblical scholars, this little gem gives its parent reasons for pride. It is one of those studies in biblical theology that challenge biblical piety to reexamine its literary sources. In particular, Gowan finds that the Old Testament takes very seriously the modern-sounding fear of man becoming a god. The biblical version of such an apotheosis is spelled out with special reference to pagan nations and developed by way of the mythological imagery that associates itself with them (‘Prologue: When man becomes God’, pp. 1-6). (more…)

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When I mentioned to my friend Carver Yu that I was reading this book, he scrunched up his face in the way that only a man who knows the field well can do and commented, `Well, of course, that book contains a fair bit of metaphysical speculation.’

Precisely. (more…)

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Like Jacob wrestling with the nocturnal angel, the reader will be repaid by a tenacious reading of Martin Hengel’s highly compacted rehearsal of the Greek Bible’s origins and use by Jews and Christians. (more…)

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Picture a handsome leather-bound volume with a column of attractively-set Hebrew text on the right side of each page and a superb English translation in very readable typeset on the left side. This is what you get in the two leather-bound versions of the 1999 Hebrew-English Bible published by the Jewish Publication Society. I own the large version for reading at home and a handly but vision-challenging small version for the road. I travel a lot and it goes with me on many of those trips. (more…)

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The 27th edition of the Greek New Testament text in a critical edition is one of two standard presentations of the Greek text used by scholars. The other is published by the United Bible Societies. Think of them as Windows and Macintosh. Both do the same job and do it well, but they use different techniques to achieve their goals. Publishing New Testament scholars use both critical editions. (more…)

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In the field of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies, ‘BHS‘ carries a well-deserved resonance, much like ‘Mercedes’ or ‘Beamer’ does among enthusiasts of quality cars that are within the mainstream. (more…)

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