andygoodliff

Helen Paynter, God of Violence Yesterday, God of Love Today? (BRF, 2019)

 Helen Paynter, God of Violence Yesterday, God of Love Today? Wrestling Honestly with the Old Testament (BRF, 2019)

Helen Paynter is a Baptist minister and Old Testament scholar based at Bristol Baptist College. This is her second book. Her first, a version of her PhD, was Reduced Laughter, looking at how to read the books of 1 & 2 Kings. This second book, written for a broad audience, engages with the thorn of subjects violence in the Old Testament. It arrives at the same time as the work of the Centre for the Study of the Bible and Violence (CSBV) begins, of which Paynter is the Director. The book comes in two parts. The first establishes some 'foundations' — reading the Bible as God's word, how to read the Bible well and what is meant or encompassed by the word 'violence.' The chapter in reading the Bible well is especially helpful in offering some important lessons. The second half of the book seeks through 5 chapters to engage with the most serious of questions around the Old Testament and violence. 

These 5 chapters make a series of important points. When violence is described, it is not always (often?) being endorsed. An example is given in the story of Samson. Paynter provides a different way of reading the book of Judges that pays attention to how the book is narrated. When violence is implored, as is the case of a good number of Psalms, there is a cry for justice and handing over of that desire for vengeance to God. Violence against animals is not as wanton as might be supposed. Paynter offers some helpful readings of the story of the flood in Genesis 6-9 and the place of sacrifices within Israel's worship. The fourth and fifth chapters explore violence as divine judgement and violence as commanded (e.g. the herem passages in Joshua). These questions are more difficult to address, and Paynter acknowledges, that this is not her last word on them, but almost a first foray into these questions, in conversation with wider scholarship. She takes us carefully through the importance of justice, the meaning of the law of talion (eye for an eye), a reading of the death of Uzzah (2 Sam 6) and in the latter chapter the meaning of the word herem. 

A final chapter suggests that God's great plan in the Old Testament is shalom (peace) and we read it with trajectory in mind. 

This is an excellent book, which wears its scholarship lightly. Paynter has a great way of explaining and the book is an easy read, although exploring difficult questions. The book seeks as its subtitle suggests to 'wrestle honestly' with the violence found in the Old Testament. It doesn't have, and doesn't promise, a magic solution, but does show that a surface level reading will miss or overlook at more subtle ways the Bible describes and responds to violence. I look forward to future explorations that I'm sure will be forthcoming from Paynter and the CSBV that will continue to reach a broad audience. It is good to see Baptists engaging in these questions and for how Paynter is continuing the good track record Baptsits hve in Old Testament scholarship (Henry Wheeler Robinson, H. R. Rowley, Ron Clements,  Rex Mason, David Russell, Ernest Lucas, Deborah Rooke). 

20 Most Influential (Living) UK Biblical Scholars

1. Tom Wright - key texts: Christian Origins and the Question of God (4 Vol.), The Climax of the Covenant, Surprised By Hope

2. Richard Bauckham - God and the Eyewitnesses, God Crucified, The Climax of Prophecy, Gospel Women

3. Larry Hurtado - One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity

4. James Dunn - The Theology of Paul the Apostle, Christianity in the Making (2 Vol.), Unity and Diversity in the New Testament, The Parting of the Ways

5. Francis Watson - Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith, Paul, Judaism and the Gentiles: Beyond the New Perspective, Gospel Writing

6. John Barclay - Pauline Churches and Diaspora Jews, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora from Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE - 117 CE), Obeying the Truth and Paul and Gift (forthcoming)

7. Richard Burridge - What are the Gospels, Four Gospels, One Jesus?, Imitating Jesus

8. John Barton - Reading the Old Testament, Oracles of God, People of the Book? The Authority of the Bible in Christianity, The Old Testament: Canon, Literature and Theology

9. Christopher Rowlands - Christian Origins: The Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism, The Open Heaven

10. Walter Moberly - Old Testament Theology, The Bible, Theology and Faith, The Theology of the Book of Genesis

11. Morna Hooker - From Adam to Christ: Essays on Paul, Jesus and the Servant, Not Ashamed of the Gospel, The Signs of a Prophet, Continuity and Discontinuity

12. Markus Bockmuehl - Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study

13. Philip Esler - New Testament Theology, The First Christians in their Social Worlds 

14. I. Howard Marshall - New Testament Theology: One Gospel, Many Witnesses

15. Ronald Clements - The World of Ancient Israel, Wisdom in Theology, Old Testament Prophecy, Old Testament Theology: A Fresh Approach

16. David Clines - The Theme of the Pentateuch, Interested Parties: The Ideology of Writers and Readers of the Hebrew Bible, What does Eve do to Help? 

17. Judith Lieu - Neither Jew nor Greek: Constructing Early Christianity, Christianity Identity in the Jewish and Graceo-Roman World

18. John Rogerson - An Introduction to the Bible, A Theology of the Old Testament

19. David Horrell - Social-Scientific Approaches to New Testament Interpretation, An Introduction to the Study of Paul, Becoming Christian: Essays on 1 Peter and the Making of Christian Identity

20. Andrew Lincoln - Paradise Now and Not Yet, Truth on Trial, Born of a Virgin 

The Big Story (a guest post by Ashley Lovett)

[Ashley is a friend and fellow Baptist minister. The following was his attempt of telling the Bible's story on Bible Sunday a few weeks ago.]

The big story of the Bible starts with
God.
It starts with God speaking.
And God's first words in this story are,
'Let's have light',
and,
'Let's have sky, sea, land, trees, plants, whales, fish, birds, animals',
and finally,
'Let's have people, men and women, boys and girls'.
That's what God said.
And from his words everything was created. Big, small, powerful,
delicate, bright, beautiful,
diverse, wondrous,
and good, very good.

But sadly not for long.
Sadly all that God had created was spoiled.
And it was the people that he had made,
the people who were the last and best of all that he created,
it was the people that spoiled it.
God had made them for friendship.
But they thought they could do better than that.
Despite all that God had given them they wanted even more.
They wanted to be like God.
And so they broke God's only rule
and they broke God's heart.

The big story becomes a family story.
At the head of the family are Abraham and Sarah,
and their story,
and the story of his sons,
and their wives and children,
takes us back to God's original purpose:
friendship. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob enjoy the friendship of God...
most of the time.
As their friend,
God wants them to have a home,
a place of their own, a land,
where they will learn to live
as God's friends,
as friends together, where they will model to the world
what living as God's friends looks like.

But before they can move in they have to get there.
And getting there
turns out to be harder
and take longer
than Abraham or his family imagined.
For they are still like the people who broke God's heart.
Every step in the right direction
is followed by one that takes them the wrong way.
And they end up in the wrong place.
In Egypt...
as slaves.

The family story becomes a rescue story.
Through a man named Moses
God speaks to Egypt.
'Let my people go'.
At first Egypt refused and so God tried to persuade them.
He tried one thing after another until they got the message.
And it was a bitter message for Egypt, especially for Egypt's mothers, and fathers.

With Moses leading them
God's people are back on the road
to the home he had promised.
But before they can go there
God wants to restore their friendship.
And to help them remember
he writes down what it means.
For him and for them.
For him to be their God.
For them to be his people.
Ten important words.
Ten words of life.
Ten words...

The family story becomes a nation's story.
The people are home in the land God promised to Abraham.
But being a nation is tougher than being a family.
Especially if you're still like the people who broke God's heart.
Living in the land alongside one another is hard for them.
Living with suspicious neighbours is harder.
There are skirmishes.
With Edom, with Moab, with Philistia.
There are colourful characters – Deborah, Gideon, Samson –
and outrageous stories.
And it all ends with Samuel.
Samuel is the last because...

The nation's story is now the story of kings...
and prophets.
Saul is the first king,
he's impressive, but impatient.
David is next, only a boy,
but the boy who slew a giant.
He's not perfect,
in fact so far from it that we might wonder what God saw in him,
the answer was a heart that wanted to enjoy God's friendship more than anything.
Which was, we remember,
God's purpose all along.
And then there was Solomon.
Some say he was wise.
And some say it was his foolishness that broke the nation into two parts.

While the kings prospered the people didn't always do so well.
And often, even with David, God got forgotten.
The ten words didn't help.
The kings ignored them.
The people ignored them.
God's rules and God's heart were broken again and again.
Sometimes the people acted as God's friends.
Sometimes they didn't.
So God chose prophets, people like Elijah and Isaiah, Amos and Jeremiah,
and he sent them to speak,
to remind the people who they were,
to remind them about their friendship,
to warn them of the trouble they were making for themselves.
And of what was happening in the nations around...

The story of kings and prophets becomes a disaster story.
Assyria invades.
One part of the kingdom disappears.
Babylon invades.
The other part is gone.
The prophets say that God has judged his people.
The prophets say that God is no fool.
The prophets say that God's friendship cannot be abused or taken for granted.

Exile was a disaster worse than slavery in Egypt.
Now the people had really lost something.
God's gift of home, of land, of an identity,
had gone.
Some wondered if the story would end there.
But it didn't...
God brought the people back from exile,
back to their land,
and they rebuilt
their homes, their towns and cities,
but it wasn't the same.
Exile had changed things.
And God was silent, their world was wordless,
for 400 years. Until...

Jesus was born
in an obscure little place called Bethlehem.
He was the first son of a fairly ordinary peasant couple.
He was nobody,
and almost nobody noticed,
or cared,
when he was born.
And yet in this story he turns out to be...
the very author of the story itself.

The disaster story becomes the story of God's great surprise.
As he enters the story in the most unexpected way.
God becomes a baby...
a child...
a young man.
He makes friends.
He speaks about the way that friends of God will live.
He forgives those who have broken God's rules and broken God's heart.
What he says, what he does, everything about him, draws people to him.
They become friends with God again.
Hearts were changed.
Lives were changed. It was amazing....

It was …
never going to last.
Not among a people who still wanted to be like God.
Who still thought that their way was better than his.
Jesus made enemies and those enemies conspired to kill him.
Rome.
Pilate.
Priests.
Caiaphas.
People.
Friends.
Judas.
Together they betrayed, tortured, denied, abandoned,
crucified, mocked, and murdered
God.
Even though it was his story, his world, and they were his people.

For a moment the whole story collapsed
into one single life,
as all ambition, greed, jealousy, rage, bitterness,
all that spoils and destroys what God made
found itself undone on the cross
as Jesus died.
That end was also
the beginning
as three days later,
from the grave,
resurrection, a freed humanity.
'Goodness was stronger than evil
light was stronger than darkness
life was stronger than death.'*
And as Jesus drew
resurrection breath into his lungs
new life burst into the world
and friendship, true friendship,
became possible again,
possible for all people,
in God's story.

The big story of the Bible,
the story of a family,
that became a nation,
the story of kings and prophets,
the story of Egypt and Exile,
of rescue and disaster,
the story of friendship sought and lost and found again,
in Jesus,
because of Jesus,
through Jesus,
is now the story of the Church.

The story began again in Jerusalem,
began again at Pentecost,
when the Spirit of Jesus came to live in his friends,
and it spread across the known-world,
to Antioch in Syria,
to Galatia and Ephesus,
to Macedonia and Philippi,
to Crete, Cyprus and Rome.
And as the story spread,
and as the Church grew,
more and more people became God's friends
and started to live the way friends should.

The big story of the Bible,
the story of the Church,
is our story,
because Jesus makes it possible for us to enjoy God's friendship too.
He has written us in.
The Bible might have a last page
but God's story is still being told.
In our lives.
And through our words...

* Based on words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu

God's Story: Five Acts

Something I wrote for church back in 2010 built around Tom Wright's suggestion for the bible as a like a Shakespeare 5-act drama.

1 God
with a 5 Act story
Act 1 begins with nothing
and then Creation
the world, the universe and everything in it
light and dark, land and water, trees and grass, fruit and crops
tigers and ants, eagles and penguins
and last but by no means least
human beings – boys and girls, women and men

Act 2 begins with a call to go
To a couple ready for retirement
From Abraham and Sarah
Comes Isaac, then Jacob and Esau
And then a whole people Israel
Divided into 12
A people blessed by God
A people called to be a blessing
And from this people

After many years of Advent waiting
After many hopes longing for his arrival
Comes a new-born babe
And so Act 3 begins with Christmas joy
For a child is given
God has sent himself
Fully human, fully God
And named Jesus the love of God revealed
He is the storyteller, the healer, the master chef,
the prophet, the friend of sinners and the miracle maker
and this life finds it climax in a week
that begins with a donkey ride and a road covered with palm branches
later on the Thursday night friends gather for a late meal
followed by a Garden visit
and then arrest and trial
and the Friday sees Jesus hanging on a cross
A Saturday of grief and loss
is followed by an Easter Sunday surprise
an empty tomb and Jesus returned

40 days later Jesus ascends
returning to God
10 days later on Pentecost day
the Spirit arrives – with fire and wind and tongues
Act 3 is over, Act 4 begins
The church
Sent by Jesus
Empowered from on high
To share good news
to live the way of the cross
to look with hope for resurrection day

and so here we are
part of that church
part of that history
part of that people
blessed by God to be a blessing
following Jesus
filled with the Spirit
looking to when God
Father, Spirit, Son
is all in all
and then Act 5
this salvation story will find its end in God
and new creation

Interview with Simon Woodman and Helen Dare on Baptist Hermeneutics

Today saw my copy of The "Plainly Revealed" Word of God? Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice edited by Simon Woodman and Helen Dare (Mercer, 2011), 312pp arrive. The book is the result of a 2009 colloquium which saw a group of international Baptist theologians (plus two non-Baptists) gather to discuss and explore what Baptist hermeneutics might look like. This is a unique and important book which deserves wide reading. Get your copy now. Simon and Helen kindly answered a few questions I sent them:

Why a book on Baptist hermeneutics?

Baptists have always been proud to declare our reliance on and commitment to scripture. We love reading scripture, praying through scripture and discerning what God is saying to us. We encourage each other to read it regularly. We insist that public worship includes not only the reading aloud of scripture but also sustained reflection on it through a sermon. Many of us belong to Bible study groups in which we seek to apply God’s word to our daily lives. In addition, we have produced many biblical theologians, who have had major influence on academic and pastoral contexts.

It seemed strange to us, however, that there has been very little intentional reflection on the process by which we interpret scripture in the Baptist community. Do we just read straight off the page or is it more complex than this? What happens when we disagree over the meaning of a particular passage of scripture? Is there anything distinctive about the way in which our particular community reads the Bible? This is the task of ‘hermeneutics’. So we set ourselves the objective of addressing this; primarily thinking of the British context, but also helped by Baptist contributors from the USA and Eastern Europe and two British non Baptists. The book is the result of a colloquium held at the South Wales Baptist College in January 2009, when over three days we presented papers and discussed ‘Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice’.

What surprised you? Is there such thing as Baptist hermeneutics?

Although we were asking what we thought was an interesting question, which as far as we were aware had not been asked by anyone else, we had no idea whether anyone else would share our concerns. Many have questioned whether there can be such a thing as Baptist hermeneutics because of the diversity represented by Baptists, or because of a reluctance to impose sectarian labels which might further divide the wider church. It quickly became clear that there was a wide range of approaches to Baptist hermeneutics represented, even within the small group that met in 2009. Some reviewed specific instances of Baptists using the Bible. A second group sought to explore the way in which the Bible is used within local churches as communities of Baptists gather to read scripture together. A third group addressed theoretical issues and the final group considered how Baptists might negotiate interpretative diversity. There was, however, a surprising degree of consensus that this was an important issue and that Baptist hermeneutics was most definitely something that existed and demanded further consideration.

We were also a little surprised (not unpleasantly) by the responses of the non Baptist contributors to our project. Both were positive about what Baptists could offer the wider Christian tradition and we were collectively challenged by one who observed the reluctance of such a group to speak prophetically concerning the issues under discussion. So if Baptists are ever to make progress in issues that threaten to divide us, it is essential for us to be self aware with regard to how we read the Bible. This is not just a topic for academics, conferences and books: it is an everyday reality for all Baptists in local churches. The responsibility of those of us who have spent time considering this in detail is to communicate it clearly and accessibly to those with whom we share our Baptist convictions.

What might a Baptist approach to hermeneutics offer other traditions?

What unites us as Baptists reading scripture is the centrality of Christ as the ‘sole and absolute authority’ (as the BUGB Declaration of Principle has it) and a deep commitment to one another in our engagement with scripture. It would be undesirable to make normative statements about the way in which biblical texts should be read by Baptists: we may still disagree over the meaning of texts. We do however have a common heritage that unites us, and with which we might all identify. It is this that may be offered to the wider church for consideration and conversation, This ecumenical engagement may be mutually enriching as the process of considering Baptist hermeneutics continues. We hope that others can learn from us, but also that we will be open to hearing their critique of us.

Where might this conversation go next? Or, what are your hopes for the book?

We hope that the volume represents the start of a conversation within the Baptist family rather than the final word on Baptist hermeneutics. We hope that future reflection on Baptist hermeneutics will represent a wider demographic: despite our best efforts, we (in common with most academic theological conferences) found ourselves with an underrepresentation of women, ethnic diversity, and varied socio-economic backgrounds.

We believe that if we are to maintain loving relationships as we struggle with the challenges of a rapidly changing society, it is crucial for Baptists to devote time to thinking together about how we read scripture: the process is as important as any conclusions we may draw about particular passages. Therefore our greatest hope is that the conversation we have started will make a difference to the life of both local churches and the wider Union. It is as we gather in community to encounter God in scripture that we are shaped and formed. Therefore we shy away from this issue at our peril!

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.

Engaging with Burridge's Imitiating Jesus

I spent the afternoon at Keble college listening to four responses (Marcus Bockmuehl, Bernd Wannenwetsch, Chris Rowland and Nigel Biggar) in the presence of Richard Burridge to his 2007 book Imitating Jesus: An Inclusive Approach to New Testament Ethics. The book is driven, as Burridge acknowledged, by conflicts within the current anglican communion and pushes for an inclusive ethic, which wants to include all in the community of interpreting scripture - that is, it's arguing for a position where people actively listen to one another rather than staying entrenched positions, the elephants in room (his phrase) being women bishops and homosexuality.  The book is also an extended engagement with the other Richard, Hays, and his book The Moral Vision of the New Testament (1996).  Where perhaps Hays prioritizes Paul in his construction of New Testament ethics (his three focal images are very Pauline - cross, community and new creation), Burridge prioritizes the gospels and Jesus of Nazareth (his emphasis on love shaped by Jesus as the friend of sinners). In both cases I think it emerges that the titles of their books are misleading - so it should be the Moral vision of the pauline letters and Imitiating Jesus: an inclusive approach to gospel ethics.

Both Bockmuehl and Wannenwetsch wanted Burridge to define 'inclusive'. They were concerned he uses it with a clear critical definition, a thicker definition is needed. This is pertinent to Baptists in the UK who hold to the BU's Five Core Values, which include being an 'inclusive' community.  The danger, see Bockmuehl and Wannenwetsch, of Burridge's emphasis on inclusivity is we end up with a "PC" Jesus or one who fits or reflects very neatly the politics of New Labour.

I am wondering when we study the New Testament witness whether we end up with two ethics - a Pauline ethic which is inclusive, but with strict boundaries (a bounded set) and a Gospel ethics or Jesus ethics which is inclusive without the strict boundaries (a centred set)?  Burridge's description of the inclusive ethic he was putting forward sounded very much like that of centred set, where what matters is the direction you're moving in, towards Jesus, and not whether you've cross a boundary.

Tomorrow I'll be at Spurgeon's for a one-day conference with Richard Bauckham.

Interview with Richard Hays

Here's a link to an interview with the New Testament scholar Richard Hays. Good to hear this update on his latest research:

I know you are working on a ‘companion’ volume to your Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul dealing with echoes in the Gospels.  Can you say a bit about that project, who is publishing it, and when it is set to be available?  What other projects can we expect to be forthcoming from you?

Yes, that’s right.  I haven’t committed it to a publisher, but I’m deep into the manuscript.  If all goes well, I’ll finish it during 2010, and hope to see it in print by the end of 2011.  (But I’ve been saying for some time “I hope to finish it next year….”  I am, alas, a very slow writer.)  Broadly, the project will seek to argue that the more we attend to the OT echoes and allusions in the Gospels, the more clearly we are led to recognize what Richard Bauckham has called “a christology of  divine identity” in these narratives.  The Gospel stories link Jesus with actions and attributes that the OT ascribes exclusively to Israel’s God.  For a preview, see my essay “Can the Gospels Teach Us to Read the Old Testament?” in Pro Ecclesia 11 (2002): 402-18.  Beyond finishing that book, I haven’t tried to plan too far into the future.  Each day has trouble enough of its own.

The Word Leaps The Gap: essays in Honour of Richard B. Hays

There are not many New Testament scholars who could boast over 30 different top-notch contributers to their 6oth birthday festschrift. Richard Hays is one such person. This festschrift edited by former students includes essays from Stanley Hauerwas, N. T. Wright, J. D. G. Dunn, John Barclay, E. P. Sanders, Francis Watson, Douglas A. Campbell, Joel Green, Joel Marcus, Walter Moberly, Marianne Meye Thompson, Luke Timothy Johnson, C. Kavin Rowe, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Markus Bockmuehl, Ellen Davis and Leander Keck - a who's who of biblical scholarship. This is my major post-christmas purchase.

Richard Hays is a biblical scholar who has contributed three major books to New Testament studies. The first, a version of his doctoral dissertation: The Faith of Jesus Christ (1983, 2nd ed. 2002), which emphasised the narrative dimension of Paul's theology; the second, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (1989), which emphasise Paul's careful use of the Old Testament in his letters; the third, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (1996), is a widely praised New Testament ethics. Not many scholars have published three books which have changed the landscape in biblcal study.  A collection of his essays was published in 2005 under the title The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel's scripture, this collected a number of previously published essays together, and is a companion to Echoes of Scripture. Hays has also written commentaries on 1 Corinthians (1997) and Galatians (2000), and edited collections on The Art of Reading Scripture (2003) and Seeking the Identity of Jesus (2008). He is currently working on a book on the gospels that attempts to listen for the some of the Old Testament echoes.

Best commentary series?

New commentary series are popping up all over the place, to join the fast becoming classics. Do you buy a series or is best to pick and choose?

The Two Horizons New Testament Commentary
Series Editors: Joel B. Green, Max Turner

Seeking to bridge the existing gap between biblical studies and systematic theology, this distinctive series offers section-by-section exegesis of the New Testament texts in close conversation with theological concerns. Written by respected scholars, the THNTC volumes aim to help pastors, teachers, and students engage in deliberately theological interpretation of Scripture.

The New International Greek Testament Commentary
Series Editors: I. Howard Marshall, Donald A. Hagner

This commentary series is established on the presupposition that the theological character of the New Testament documents calls for exegesis that is sensitive to theological themes as well as to the details of the historical, linguistic, and textual context. Such thorough exegetical work lies at the heart of these volumes, which contain detailed verse-by-verse commentary preceded by general comments on each section and subsection of the text.

Hermeneia

The series is designed to be a critical and historical commentary to the Bible without arbitrary limits in size or scope. It will utilize the full range of philological and historical tools, including textual criticism (often slighted in modern commentaries), the methods of the history of tradition (including genre and prosodic analysis), and the history of religion.

Hermeneia is designed for the serious student of the Bible. It will make full use of ancient Semitic and classical languages; at the same time, English translations of all comparative materials—Greek, Latin, Canaanite, or Akkadian—will be supplied alongside the citation of the source in its original language. Insofar as possible, the aim is to provide the student or scholar with full critical discussion of each problem of interpretation and with the primary data upon which the discussion is based.

Interpretation
Series Editors: James L. Mays, Patrick D. miller, P. J. Achtemeier

Interpretation is a set of full-length, practical, and clearly written commentaries that helps teachers and preachers in their educational and homiletic work and lay persons in their study of the Bible. It bridges the gap between critical and expository commentaries and combines exciting biblical scholarship with illuminating textual expositions. Critically acclaimed and widely used in classrooms and for teaching and preaching in the church, Interpretation commentaries are written by recognized scholars with experience as teachers and/or preachers.

The Anchor Bible Commentary
General Editor: William Foxwell Albright (1891–1971), David Noel Freedman

THE ANCHOR YALE BIBLE is a fresh approach to the world's greatest classic. Its object is to make the Bible accessible to the modern reader; its method is to arrive at the meaning of biblical literature through exact translation and extended exposition, and to reconstruct the ancient setting of the biblical story, as well as the circumstances of its transcription and the characteristics of its transcribers.

It is a project of international and interfaith scope: Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from many countries contribute individual volumes. The project is not sponsored by any ecclesiastical organization and is not intended to reflect any particular theological doctrine. Prepared under our joint supervision, The Anchor Yale Bible commentaries are an effort to make available all the significant historical and linguistic knowledge which bears on the interpretation of the biblical record.

The Anchor Yale Bible commentaries are aimed at the general reader with no special formal training in biblical studies; yet these books are written with the most exacting standards of scholarship, reflecting the highest technical accomplishment. This project marks the beginning of a new era of co-operation among scholars in biblical research, thus forming a common body of knowledge to be shared by all.

Brazos Theological Commentary
General Editor: R. R. Reno

The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible is designed to serve the church--through aid in preaching, teaching, study groups, and so forth--and demonstrate the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible.

New Cambridge Biblical Commentary
Editors: Bill T. Arnold, James D. G. Dunn, Michael V. Fox, Robert P. Gordon, Judith Gundry-Volf, Ben Witherington III

The NCBC aims to elucidate the Hebrew and Christian scriptures for a wide range of intellectually curious individuals. Commentaries in the NCBC thus will be academically rigorous but will not assume the reader has a great deal of specialized theological knowledge or an impressive command of the Hebrew, Aramaic, or biblical Greek. Unlike the earlier CBC, however, the new series will take advantage of many of the rewards provided by scholarly research over the last three decades. While not mistaking trendiness for truth, volumes in the NCBC will make accessible and build upon many of the advances in theory and theology produced in universities and seminaries during the last thirty years. Utilizing recent gains in rhetorical criticism, social scientific study of the scriptures, narrative criticism and other developing disciplines, this series intends to provide a fresh look at biblical texts, taking advantage of the growing edges in Biblical Studies.

Word Biblical Commentary
General Editor: Bruce Metzger

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.