Fine commentaries are the “meat and drink” of those who study, teach, and preach the Bible. It is a great satisfaction, therefore, to have commentaries on two letters of Paul that have been prominent in the history of the church—Romans and Galatians—as two major books of 1979. C.E.B. Cranfield’s second volume of A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (T. & T. Clark) makes his work without question the commentary on Romans (the first volume appeared in 1975). Cranfield’s readable discussions provide thorough and learned comments on Romans 9–16. As an example of Cranfield’s interpretations, he translates 9:5b “… Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever, Amen”; 11:26a is a reference to the eschatological restoration of the nation of Israel as a whole to God; the “authorities” in 13:1 probably refer simply to the civil authorities; and 16:7 refers to a woman apostle, Junia, a fact “… to which the Church as a whole has not yet paid sufficient attention” (p. 789). Cranfield’s commentary closes with two excellent essays, the first on Paul’s purposes in writing Romans, the second a fine topical summary of the theology of Romans.
The latest volume in the Hermeneia commentary series is Hans Dieter Betz’s Galatians (Fortress). Although the format of the series is imposing, what is provided is an abundance of primary and secondary material for the study of this early letter of Paul. Betz tends to favor the so-called North Galatian destination theory and is noncommittal on the date (somewhere between A.D. 50 to 55). He sees the opponents of Paul as Jewish-Christian missionaries whose gospel would have been like Paul’s except that they demanded obedience to the Torah and acceptance of circumcision. Betz considers Galatians to be an example of the genre of apologetic letter and gives an outline of the whole letter of more than 400 points. The commentary contains a brief analysis of each section and a general verse-by-verse interpretation that is buttressed by hundreds of footnotes and numerous excurses and appendices. Betz’s commentary is a model of the detailed, technical commentary that discusses virtually every nuance of the text.
The year 1979 saw the publication of two very important items for the study of the New Testament Greek text. The long-awaited twenty-sixth edition of the E. Nestle-K. Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (Deutsche Bibelstiftung; available from the American Bible Society) appeared. It presents the same excellent text found in the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (third edition), but its textual apparatus of variant readings and various marginal notes and tables should make it the preferred edition of the New Testament for all who have studied Greek.
A second edition of Walter Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (University of Chicago; also distributed by Zondervan) was prepared by F. W. Gingrich and F. W. Danker, two men who deserve a special tribute for their labor of love. This edition of Bauer’s fifth German edition, completed in 1958 shortly before his death, expands Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich significantly, especially by adding bibliography and references to Greek papyri. This lexicon (Bauer-Gingrich-Danker) will remain the authority for word-meanings in the New Testament for many years. Of course, the lexicon can be challenged; for example, compare the entry of Junia with what Cranfield says correctly in his commentary on Romans 16:7.
In addition to technical items, the church also needs good popular commentaries, too. Robert Mounce’s What Are We Waiting For? (David C. Cook), a brief, clear commentary on Revelation, is both an excellent popular commentary and an example of how to produce one. Each chapter of Revelation is explained paragraph-by-paragraph with study questions provided for each chapter. This commentary is based on Mounce’s own 1977 The Book of Revelation, which is a detailed, technical commentary.
Among the many books on Jesus and the Gospels published in 1979, two deserve special mention. John Drane’s Jesus and the Four Gospels (Harper & Row) provides a superb survey of Jesus and the Gospels in less than 200 pages, accompanied by numerous black and white photographs and various charts. Drane covers the historical context of Jesus’ time, the life and teachings of Jesus, and the nature of the Gospels. The chapters “Who Was Jesus?,” “Why Did Jesus Die?,” “The Resurrection,” and “Are the Gospels True?” are especially helpful. Drane, as shown in his 1976 Paul, has a fine ability to present the results of biblical scholarship in a clear and interesting manner. He sweeps no issues under the rug, and with integrity and patience explains the historical and theological issues one meets in the study of the Gospels and Jesus. He provides a good and brief case for the authenticity and reliability of the gospel tradition as well as for the resurrection of Jesus as a real, historical event.
Ben F. Meyer’s The Aims of Jesus (SCM) may prove to be the most weighty New Testament book of 1979. Meyer’s book has two sections, the first of which deals with hermeneutical issues relative to the study of the Gospels and the historical Jesus. This section is a searching, telling critique, conversant with New Testament studies, philosophy, and theology, and of undue historical skepticism relating to the subject. While fairly difficult reading, it is one of the better treatments of the relationship between history and faith in the study of the life of Jesus. The second section is Meyer’s attempt to recover the aims of Jesus. In touch with modern philosophical and hermeneutical concerns about intentionality, Meyer undertakes a study of the Gospels and concludes that probably Jesus anticipated a violent death from the start of his ministry, conceived of it in sacrificial terms, accepted it willingly, and understood it to be crucial to the eschatological and inclusive restoration of Israel. This is a powerful statement about the aims of Jesus coming from careful scholarship outside the traditional evangelical framework.
A question of constant intrigue and difficulty is the chronology of Paul’s life and letters. Although not the last word on the subject, Robert Jewett’s A Chronology of Paul’s Life (Fortress) may be the best word to date. While Jewett’s negative views on the historical value of the Acts (especially Acts 11:27–30) somewhat skew his overall results, his book nevertheless is an outstanding collection of all the primary source data and the various interpretations of it in the history of scholarship.
One of the major study tools of 1979 is Clinton Morrison’s An Analytical Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament (Westminster). This is a superbly executed and beautifully published concordance, clearly the best available for an English language New Testament. The concordance is designed for English readers who do not know Greek, but in the Strong-Young concordance tradition it gives the Greek word(s) behind every English translation. An Index-Lexicon, which has all the Greek words arranged alphabetically by transliteration, then shows how each Greek word is variously translated within the RSV. The concordance also shows clearly when the RSV has contextual translations (an English word with no specific Greek word at that point), and paraphrasing translations, and when it does not translate a Greek term present in the text. The concordance is of considerable value in Bible study, whether or not one regularly uses the RSV.
An engaging “tract for the times” is found in Patrick Henry’s New Directions in New Testament Study (Westminster). The book, which is a very readable survey of nearly all aspects of New Testament study today, provides either an introductory or refresher “course” on the current topics, conclusions, and moods in New Testament studies. The book is also an appeal to maintain rigorous thinking in the study of the New Testament, but at the same time to claim the New Testament as the book of the church and, as such, is a deeply felt appeal for theological rapprochement within contemporary American Christianity. The book emphasizes the diversity which the texts of the New Testament canon display. In some contexts I have referred to Henry’s book as a “poor man’s” James Dunn (Unity and Diversity in the New Testament, 1977), because Henry makes some of the same points, but in a briefer, simpler, and less costly format.
Emil Schürer’s The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175BC–AD135) has been recognized throughout this century as the standard work on the Jewish background and context of early Christianity. A “new Schürer” is being produced under the direction of Matthew Black, Fergus Millar, and Geza Vermes. The first volume appeared in 1973 and now the second volume has appeared (T. & T. Clark). This is clearly a reference work, the second volume containing over 600 pages of detailed information. Nevertheless, it is the most recent and authoritative information on subjects crucial to the New Testament: the cultural setting; political institutions, including the Sanhedrin; the priesthood and temple worship; Pharisees, Sadducees; synagogues; messianism; and Qumran.
One might not expect a collection of scholarly essays to be included among the most important books of the year—something even more certain when the title is A Wandering Aramean: Collected Aramaic Essays (Scholars Press). However, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, a leading Roman Catholic New Testament scholar, provides some vital, even dramatic, information. Fitzmyer’s scholarly life has been devoted to the study of Aramaic, a “cousin” language to Hebrew and the daily language of Jesus and his earliest disciples. Not all of the essays are of equal value to the general reader, since they deal with many aspects of the Aramaic language and texts, many of which have come from the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls. Three of the essays, however, bear significantly on New Testament Christology. Fitzmyer concludes that the pre-New Testament use of “Son of Man” does not yet provide any clear evidence for the phrase as a title for an expected figure or as linguistic substitute for “I.” Fitzmyer also concludes, against a significant and influential stream of scholarship in our century, that the titles “Son of God” and “Lord” most likely had their origins in Palestinian Aramaic-speaking Jewish Christianity (and not in a Hellenistic pagan environment). The importance of this data, cautiously but clearly assessed by Fitzmyer, for the so-called myth of God Incarnate debate can hardly be overstressed. Many of the arguments of the proponents of this position flounder on this evidence.
In connection with the subject of Christology, attention should certainly be drawn to Edward Schillebeeckx’s Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (Seabury Press). Although this book technically falls into the field of theology, it deals so extensively with the New Testament to warrant mention here. Further, recent events within the Roman Catholic Church, especially the Vatican’s “discussions” with Schillebeeckx, give this major study on Christology additional interest. It is impossible to summarize or categorize this massive book here (over 750 pages). It should be observed that Schillebeeckx is attempting to “hear” the New Testament texts about Jesus somewhat apart from the tradition of dogma. He thus finds great importance in the intimate connection between Jesus’ person and God’s act of salvation (sometimes called “functional” Christology) and in the presentation of Jesus as a genuine human person through whom God is known. Those among us who see ourselves as biblically-grounded theologians will find Schillebeeckx’s book a challenge worth the effort.
GENERAL NEW TESTAMENT Two brief New Testament surveys were published: A. E. Harvey’s Something Overheard: An Invitation to the New Testament (John Knox) and Ladell J. Futch’s Learning the New Testament (Judson). John R. Bodo’s A Gallery of New Testament Rogues (Westminster) consists of brief character studies.
Four more substantial books on general New Testament issues may be noted. Hendrikus Boers’s What Is New Testament Theology? (Fortress) is an excellent book discussing method in the New Testament theology by giving a selective history of the discipline. One of Boers’s last statements in the book is an important “admission”: “The question how … the New Testament could be normative for the present continues to motivate most, if not all, New Testament scholarship even though it has become fashionable to deny that it is so.” Daniel J. Harrington’s Interpreting the New Testament: A Practical Guide (Michael Glazier) is a very good introductory survey to various methods and issues of historical exegesis. This book would make a good text for New Testament exegetical method courses. William Barclay’s Great Themes of the New Testament (Westminster) is a collection of six studies previously published. Another prolific author, F. F. Bruce, who is certainly the “dean” of evangelical New Testament scholars, has written The Time is Fulfilled: Five Aspects of the Fulfilment of the Old Testament in the New (Eerdmans). Bruce again has written a book we should not neglect.
Three volumes of collected essays of interest to scholars, which contain many fine studies, are: Ernest Best and R. M. Wilson, Text and Interpretation: Studies in the New Testament Presented to Matthew Black (Cambridge): Robert A. Guelich, Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology: Essays in Honor of George E. Ladd (Eerdmans); and Bernard Orchard, and Thomas R. W. Longstaff, J. J. Griesbach: Synoptic and Text-Critical Studies 1776–1976 (Cambridge). The essays for George Ladd deserve special mention. Ladd is a leading American evangelical New Testament scholar. This volume contains essays by many prominent evangelical scholars; some could be read with pleasure and profit by nonscholars.
Leonard Swidler’s Biblical Affirmations of Women (Westminster) is a massive catalog of biblical and postbiblical Jewish references to women and feminine imagery. This volume should be helpful for discussion of this topic.
The 1888 “classic” of Hermann Gunkel, The Influence of the Holy Spirit: The Popular View of the Apostolic Age and The Teaching of the Apostle Paul (Fortress) appeared in English for the first time and will be of special interest to those who follow the history of doctrine. Although Roberta Hestenes’s and Lois Curley’s Women and the Ministries of Christ (Fuller Seminary) is not strictly speaking a New Testament book, the collection of papers given at the second national conference of the Evangelical Women’s Caucus contains many New Testament studies. I especially recommend Leon Morris’s “The Ministry of Women.” Other books on New Testament themes included: Julio de Santa Ana, Good News to the Poor (Orbis); Ronald J. Sider, Christ and Violence (Herald); Peter De Jong and Donald R. Wilson, Husband & Wife: The Sexes in Scripture and Society (Zondervan); and James A. Fischer, God Said: Let There Be Woman—A Study of Biblical Women (Alba House).
New translations of the New Testament continue to appear and the debate over the textual basis of the New Testament goes on. D. A. Carson’s The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism (Baker) should be widely read within the evangelical community. It communicates important information and a sound perspective in a nonthreatening way. Perhaps the most interesting new translation is Richard Lattimore’s The Four Gospels and the Revelation (Farrar, Straus, Giroux). Lattimore is known for his numerous translations of classical Greek texts (his translation of Revelation appeared in 1962). Others included Ben Campbell Johnson’s Matthew and Mark: A Relational Paraphrase (Word) and The New King James Bible: New Testament (Nelson). Wayne Walden’s Guide to Bible Translations (Livingbooks, 764 Congress St., Duxbury, Mass. 02332) is a helpful but incomplete annotated list of translations, mostly from the twentieth century.
A great and competent help for readers of the Greek New Testament is found in Max Zerwick’s and Mary Grosvenor’s A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, Vol. II: Epistles-Apocalypse (Biblical Institute Press, Rome); Volume I appeared in 1974. This provides vocabulary and identifies verb forms and various grammatical constructions. It is the best of such guides. If your Greek needs refurbishing, try the helpful workbook by Marvin R. Wilson, A Guide for the Study of the First Letter of John in the Greek New Testament (Baker).
COMMENTARIES Many other commentaries were published in 1979, in addition to those of Cranfield, Betz, and Mounce already noted. The Liberty Bible Commentary on the New Testament (Nelson), edited by Jerry Falwell, was written by 11 faculty members in the Liberty Baptist Schools of Lynchburg, Virginia. It describes itself as “distinctively Baptist, aggressively Fundamental, historically evangelical and eschatologically premillennial.”
A new Roman Catholic series of New Testament commentaries was launched by publisher Michael Glazier. Edited by Wilfrid Harrington and Donald Senior, it is entitled New Testament Message: A Biblical Theological Commentary. The aim of the series is to bring the best of biblical scholarship to people in the church who desire to strengthen their faith. Five of the planned twenty-two volumes appeared in 1979: Wilfrid Harrington, Mark; James McPolin, John; Robert J. Karris, The Pastoral Epistles; Adela Yarbo Collins, The Apocalypse; and an introductory volume to be noted later. These are well-written, and often helpful despite their brevity.
A very few other brief commentaries on individual synoptic Gospels appeared: Robert E. Obach and Albert Kirk, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Paulist); Howard F. Vos, Matthew: A Study Guide Commentary (Zondervan); Willard M. Swartley, Mark: The Way for All Nations (Herald); and Michael Wilcock, The Savior of the World: The Message of Luke’s Gospel (InterVarsity).
Several more commentaries on the Gospel of John were published. James Boice completed his five-volume The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary (Zondervan); volume 5 covers John 18–21. Pheme Perkins’s The Gospel According to St. John: A Theological Commentary (Franciscan Herald) incorporates a considerable amount of background material and awareness of current scholarship in a genuinely popular commentary. Dr. George Vanderlip’s John: The Gospel of Life (Judson) adds a good popular book on John to this author’s publications. Veteran Southern Baptist scholar Ray Summers produced Behold the Lamb: An Exposition of the Theological Themes in the Gospel of John (Broadman). Deeper Into John’s Gospel (Harper & Row) by Arthur F. Sueltz may also be noted.
The most important item on Acts was the reprinting of F. J. Foakes Jackson’s and Kirsopp Lake’s five-volume (1920–1933) The Beginnings of Christianity; Part I, The Acts of the Apostles (Baker). Anthony L. Ash’s The Acts of the Apostles, Part I: 1:1–12:25 (Sweet) is a brief and popular work with some fine words in the introduction on the historical value and purpose of Acts. Two sermonic commentaries by well-known preachers may be mentioned: Donald Grey Barnhouse’s Acts: An Expositional Commentary (Zondervan), prepared by Herbert H. Ehrenstein; and W. A. Criswell’s Acts: An Exposition, Volume I, Chapters 1–8 (Zondervan). Although not a commentary, Jacques Dupont’s The Salvation of the Gentiles: Studies in the Acts of the Apostles (Paulist) is a very helpful collection of his essays in the study of Acts.
Several popular commentaries on Pauline epistles appeared in 1979.I would select four for special mention, besides the work by Robert J. Karris on the pastoral epistles already noted. John A. T. Robinson, well-known recently for his rather “conservative” books, Can We Trust the New Testament? (1977) and Redating the New Testament (1976), has provided us with Wrestling With Romans (Westminster). Carl Holladay’s The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians (Sweet) is an especially fine popular commentary. Robert H. Mounce’s Pass It On (Regal) on the pastoral epistles is another good popular commentary.
Especially welcome is an American edition of F. F. Bruce’s 1970 The Epistles of John: Introduction, Exposition and Notes (Eerdmans). Although not as detailed as I. H. Marshall’s commentary of a year ago on the Johannine epistles, Bruce’s work is an excellent guide, presenting considerable data in a brief and interesting way. Attention may also be called to D. Edmond Hiebert’s The Epistle of James (Moody). John H. Elliott’s I Peter: Estrangement and Community (Franciscan Herald) is a fine study of this epistle.
Two commentaries on Revelation have already been noted—those of Robert Mounce and A. Y. Collins. Five others appeared, all worthy of mention. Harry R. Boer’s The Book of Revelation (Eerdmans) is a useful, popular treatment. J. P. M. Sweet’s Revelation (Westminster) in the “Pelican Commentaries” series and Homer Hailey’s Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (Baker) are more substantial works, each of which can be profitably consulted. Both provide fairly extensive introductory sections on the background and interpretation of Revelation. In this connection the reprint of Isbon T. Beckwith’s 1919 The Apocalypse of John (Baker) with its helpful introduction of over 400 pages should be noted. Gilles Quispel’s The Secret Book of Revelation (McGraw-Hill) is a lavish book (the “Secret” is borrowed from a late medieval German title page for Revelation). In addition to Quispel’s informational notes and interpretive essays, the book contains some 400 illustrations, many in full color, depicting from Western art the themes and symbols of Revelation. Quispel, drawing on his expertise in the fields of gnosticism and Jewish mysticism, stresses a symbolic interpretation of Revelation, often drawing on the work of Carl G. Jung. There is more of value here than one might expect. As a supplement to the commentaries one might enjoy Otto F. A. Meinardus’s St. John of Patmos and the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse (Caratzas Brothers), an illustrated archaeological-travel guidebook.
JESUS AND THE GOSPELS There was a flood of books on Jesus and the four Gospels in 1979. For the study of this material it is good to have a new (fourth) edition of Burton H. Throckmorton’s Gospel Parallels: A Synopsis of the First Three Gospels (Nelson). This is the best inexpensive Gospel synopsis available.
Apart from Drane’s book mentioned earlier, several popular books on the life of Jesus came out. Of these, Lucas Grollenberg’s Jesus (Westminster) may be the most helpful.
Appreciation can be expressed for two books that deal directly with the issues of the historical character of the Gospel tradition and the fact of four different Gospels. Birger Gerhardsson’s The Origins of the Gospel Traditions (Fortress) is a brief (less than 100 pages) statement of the position he articulated in two important books in the 1960s. Stanley B. Marrow’s The Words of Jesus in Our Gospels: A Catholic Response to Fundamentalism (Paulist), although aimed at a Roman Catholic audience, is a simple, clear presentation of basic issues in Gospel study. A very technical book for scholars in this area is Erhardt Güttgemann’s Candid Questions Concerning Gospel Form Criticism: A Methodological Sketch of the Fundamental Problematics of Form and Redaction Criticism (Pickwick).
Various studies on the teaching of Jesus were also published. T. W. Manson’s helpful commentary of 1937 on Jesus’ words in Matthew and Luke, The Sayings of Jesus (Eerdmans), had its first American publication. A helpful book for study and research is Warren S. Kissinger’s The Parables of Jesus: A History of Interpretation and Bibliography (Scarecrow), which gives a 250-page chronological history of parable interpretation and nearly 200 pages of bibliography on the study of the parables. More technical and in dialogue with recent parable study is Mary Ann Tolbert’s Perspectives on the Parables: An Approach to Multiple Interpretations (Fortress). Two rather technical Gospel studies are Robert Hamerton-Kelley’s God the Father: Theology and Patriarchy in The Teaching of Jesus (Fortress) and Arland J. Hultgren’s Jesus and His Adversaries: The Form and Function of the Conflict Stories in the Synoptic Tradition (Augsburg).
Several books appeared that deal with the study of a particular Gospel. The most engaging of these books was written by a professor from Union Seminary in New York on the Gospel of John. Both Raymond E. Brown’s The Community of the Beloved Disciple (Paulist), and J. Louis Martyn’s The Gospel of John in Christian History (Paulist) attempt reconstructions of the history of the Johannine community. Brown’s book is the more helpful of the two and would make provocative, profitable reading for serious students. Also very helpful is Robert T. Karris’s What Are They Saying About Luke and Acts? A Theology of the Faithful God (Paulist), which provides a well-informed but moving essay on the theology of Luke’s two volumes.
Other more advanced studies in the Gospels include: John P. Meier, The Vision of Matthew: Christ, Church, and Morality in the First Gospel (Paulist): Werner H. Kelber. Mark’s Story of Jesus (Fortress): John C. Meagher, Clumsy Construction In Mark’s Gospel: A Critique of Form and Redaktionsgeschichte (Edwin Mellen); and A. J. Mattill, Luke and the Last Things: A Perspective for the Understanding of Lukan Thought (Western North Carolina). These last two books promote theses that are not likely to win much approval. Studies geared more toward spiritual reflection include Thomas H. Olbricht, The Power To Be: The Life-Style of Jesus from Mark’s Gospel (Sweet): Joseph G. Donders, Jesus, the Way: Reflections on the Gospel of Luke (Orbis), written in poetic format; and José Comblin, Sent from the Father: Meditations on the Fourth Gospel (Orbis). A devotional book based on Luke-Acts by one of America’s foremost evangelical New Testament scholars is Merrill C. Tenney’s Roads A Christian Must Travel (Tyndale).
PAUL AND OTHERS Apart from the commentaries, relatively few books on Paul were published in 1979. Leander E. Keck’s Paul and His Letters (Fortress) is a very helpful summary of Paul, based, however, on only the seven undisputed letters of Paul, excluding II Thessalonians, Colossians, Ephesians, and the pastoral Epistles under the headings: “the quest for the historical Paul”; “the gospel Paul preached”; and “what Paul fought for.” A more popular life of Paul is Lucas Grollenberg’s Paul (Westminster). Three books by Otto F. A. Meinardus provide interesting, illustrated, archaeological guidebooks to the places Paul visited: St. Paul in Greece; St. Paul in Ephesus and the Cities of Galatia and Cyprus; and St. Paul’s Last Journey (all Caratzas Brothers).
Ralph Earle’s fourth volume of his Word Meanings in the New Testament (Baker) provides nontechnical word studies on numerous terms in I and II Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians. Two brief and popular but well-informed studies on Pauline ethics appeared: Victor Paul Furnish’s The Moral Teaching of Paul (Abingdon) and Peter Richardson’s Paul’s Ethic of Freedom (Westminster). Although organized quite differently, each has a chapter on Paul’s view of women. On the whole, I prefer the general approach of Richardson’s book. A rather technical and convincing, yet interesting study of Pauline theology, is George Howard’s Paul: Crisis in Galatia—A Study in Early Christian Theology (Cambridge University Press).
JUDAISM: EARLY CHURCH I believe it is especially beneficial in understanding Christian beginnings to read about early Jewish-Christian relations, realizing that the church began as a movement within Judaism. Two new books that explore Jewish-Christian relations in the New Testament are John Koenig’s Jews and Christians in Dialogue: New Testament Foundations (Westminster) and Antisemitismand the Foundations of Christianity (Paulist), edited by Alan T. Davies. An excellent but specialized study of one area is Wayne A. Meeks’s and Robert L. Wilken’s Jews and Christians in Antioch in the First Four Centuries of the Common Era (Scholars Press). An important reprint, with a new preface by the author, is Jakob Jocz’s 1949 (revised 1954) The Jewish People and Jesus Christ: The Relationship between Church and Synagogue (Baker).
In addition to Schürer’s book on the Jewish background to the New Testament previously mentioned, a brief, popular book on “intertestamental” Judaism is provided by H. L. Ellison, From Babylon to Bethlehem: The People of God from the Exile to the Messiah (John Knox). This would be a good place to begin for those who have not read in this area. Although limited in scope, Hershel Shanks’s Judaism in Stone: The Archaeology of Ancient Synagogues (Harper & Row/Biblical Archaeology Society) is a beautiful and fascinating book. Synagogues, of course, were significant in the teaching ministries of Jesus and Paul. Very fine technical books on Judaism include the late Samuel Sandmel’s Philo of Alexandria: An Introduction (Oxford University Press), a very readable book on a prolific Jewish author from the first century A.D.; David Winston’s The Wisdom of Solomon: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Doubleday) in the Anchor Bible series, which treats in depth a Jewish apocryphal work that is important for the conceptual background of the New Testament: and Messianism in the Talmudic Era (Ktav), edited by Leo Landman, which is a collection of 27 reprinted essays on Jewish messianic beliefs.
A few books were published in the area of early church studies related to the New Testament. Kenneth A. Strand’s The Early Christian Sabbath: Selected Essays and a Source Collection (Ann Arbor Publishers, P.O. Box 388, Worthington, Ohio 43085) represents the fine scholarship of the Seventh-day Adventists on the issue. A book already causing controversy on both sides of the Atlantic, Elaine Pagels’s The Gnostic Gospels (Random House) discusses the implications of the Nag Hammadi Coptic gnostic texts for early church history and doctrine. Pagels, an expert on the Nag Hammadi texts, makes some inferences that will need a critical response. The Nag Hammadi library contains over 50 texts on which some commentaries have already been written, with many more certain to follow. Bentley Layton, one of the Coptic experts of our day, has produced the latest: The Gnostic Treatise on Resurrection from Nag Hammadi (Scholars Press). This is an important text in the early history of the discussion on the resurrection of believers that was started by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.
Carl F. H. Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, is lecturer at large for World Vision International. An author of many books, he lives in Arlington, Virginia.
