Bauckham on Jesus and the Eyewitnesses

Friday was spent listening to Richard Bauckham give a summary of his widely praised book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Eerdmans, 2006) - it won the 2009 Michael Ramesy prize.  I know I'm late to the party and although I've twice taken the book out of the library, I've never actually got round to reading it, so it was great to hear Richard summarize it. First of all Bauckham is a fantastic commentator - Bauckham is a model for every scholar, some equally at home in new testament and systematic theology and able to communicate well.  Second I found his argument for the gospels based on eyewitness testimony very convincing. The only weakness I see is the case for Matthew is not as strong as the other three gospels, which he admitted.

My next step is to read some of the various reviews, to see what others have made of the book. I also want to read his collection of essays on John, The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple. In the long term, Bauckham is signed up to write 2 commentaries on John - one in the Two Horizons series and one in the NIGTC series.

Reviews can be found in The Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 6.2 (2008); Journal for the Study of the New Testament 31.2 (December 2008); Walter Moberly in Reviews in Religion and Theology 15.2 (March 2008).

The afternoon was a paper on the Bible and the place of beings in creation. Another good paper, lots of good points made, but nothing really unique. For more on this Bauckham has a book due out in May, Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Communtiy of Creation (DLT).

Spurgeon's should be contragulated on organising the day and should be encouraged to organise more in the future - 1 or 2 a year would be great. Find a book which has made an impact and get them in - I can think of a number already. I hope the other Baptist colleges might follow suit.

Comments

[Terry]

There's another conference schedule for 17 September, Andy: Voices from the Margins. Speakers will be Stuart Murray Williams and Roy Searle.