Jesus and the gospels Every year hundreds of books about Jesus appear in print, but not every year does one become a best-seller, as did 1977’s Jesus of Nazareth (Collins + World) by the late William Barclay. The book is based on the film of that title directed by Franco Zeffirelli and televised last Easter. More than 100,000 copies have been sold, and the sales are likely to continue, since NBC bought the rights to show the film during Holy Week for the next nine years. People who like big books with lots of sentimental pictures will love this one! As usual, Barclay writes interestingly, in non-technical language; but several of his other books on the story of Jesus are better—and considerably cheaper.
How does a historian look at the life and teachings of Jesus? Michael Grant attempts an answer in Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels (Scribners). The author of numerous historical studies intended for the educated lay reader. Grant seeks to steer a course between what he regards as the excessive skepticism of many critics and the adulation of believers in approaching the gospel materials. Although he does not argue that the Gospels are historically trustworthy in every detail, he makes it very clear that there is no reason to deny the fundamental features of the life and teaching of Jesus that are found there. Scholars and ordinary Christians alike will wish to challenge many details in this book, but no one will read it without being both entertained and intellectually stimulated.
A more substantial work is I. Howard Marshall’s I Believe in the Historical Jesus (Eerdmans). Although written for the general reader, the work is the product of decades of serious academic research. In contrast to Grant’s work, Marshall’s is not a historical study of Jesus, setting out what can be known about him, but rather a discussion of the issues raised during the centuries of academic gospel study and of the presuppositions necessary for writing a historical account of the life of Jesus. Marshall writes from within the evangelical faith. He never skirts the issues raised by modern critical scholarship, nor does he allow himself to make cheap apologetic points. I Believe in the Historical Jesus will be of special interest to students in theological seminaries and departments of religious studies, but it will be of value to many others also. Some of the same ground is covered in Quest for the Historical Jesus (Baker) by Fred H. Klooster, professor of systematic theology at Calvin Seminary.
Jesus in the First Three Gospels (Abingdon) is a simple account by Millar Burrows, a distinguished American biblical scholar who writes from within the traditional “liberal” perspective. Many orthodox Christians will find it hard to understand how the author can combine a deep personal commitment to Jesus with so many doubts about what have normally been considered basic doctrines of the Christian faith. A more orthodox approach is offered by Gerald O’Collins in What Are They Saying About Jesus? (Paulist) and The Calvary Christ (Westminster). O’Collins, a Jesuit scholar who teaches at the Gregorian University in Rome, writes about theology as though he really believes that it makes all the difference in the world, and in so doing he communicates something of the excitement of serious theology to his reader. Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ by Harold W. Hoehner (Zondervan) provides the Bible student with a helpful discussion of all the available information about the date of Christ’s birth, the beginning and length of his ministry, and the date of his crucifixion.
The most famous portion of the teaching of Jesus was the subject of two books, one by Fred L. Fisher and the other by John R. W. Stott. Fisher’s book. The Sermon on the Mount (Broadman), is a readable and straightforward exposition of Matthew 5–7 in terms that are relevant for everyday living. In Christian Counter-Culture: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (InterVarsity). Stott once again reveals himself to be a master expositor. The content was delivered first as lectures to students at Cambridge and other universities and then to the famous Keswick Convention: the written form is certain to find a wide and appreciative readership. A most creative and stimulating study of the characteristic feature of Jesus’ teaching is offered by Madeleine Boucher in The Mysterious Parable (Catholic Biblical Association). Boucher seeks to look at the parables from the point of view of the study of modern literature, and in doing so she challenges some of the fundamental assumptions of contemporary New Testament scholarship. Christ and Power (Fortress) by Martin Hengel is a lucidly written account of the biblical and historical data on the subject with a few brief hints for the church as it struggles to work out the implications of its faith in today’s society. Closely related is a new edition of Christ and the Powers (Herald Press) by Hendrik Berkhof.
The literary genre of the gospels is the subject of What Is a Gospel? (Fortress) by Charles Talbert. He contends, contrary to critical consensus, that the Synoptics are varieties of ancient biographies. Alternatively, Gilbert Bilezikian of Wheaton College finds notable similarities between Mark and classical tragedy in The Liberated Gospel (Baker).
A rather technical study entitled Community of the New Age: Studies in Mark’s Gospel (Westminster) by Howard C. Kee has been hailed as “perhaps the most important work done on the Gospel of Mark … in the past twenty years.” It will be of interest primarily to scholars. A recent addition to Fortress’s Proclamation Commentaries is Matthew by Jack D. Kingsbury, who previously wrote two more technical studies of that gospel. He focuses on the special theological emphases of Matthew, and the book will be of primary interest to preachers. The Images of Jesus (Winston) by Daniel O’Connor and Jacques Jimenez is a much more popularly oriented study of Matthew’s Gospel. Rather than tell the reader what the text says, it encourages him to dig out the meaning for himself. Two works that combine an exposition of the biblical text with a concern for “liberation theology” are Arturo Paoli’s Meditations on St. Luke (Orbis) and Jose Miranda’s Being and the Messiah: The Message of St. John (Orbis). Neither book is likely to be totally convincing to either scholars or others, but all readers will be stimulated to think more thoroughly about Scripture and its contemporary relevance. Jesus: Stranger From Heaven and Son of God (Scholars) by Marinus de Jonge offers an original approach to the theology of John’s Gospel. Jesus on Trial (John Knox) by A. E. Harvey is a study of Jesus’ trial and the events that led up to it, as recorded in the Fourth Gospel. While he doesn’t blaze any trails in Johannine studies, Harvey offers a very readable and illuminating study of “the court case that altered history.” A commendable series of nontechnical paperback commentaries based on the Jerusalem Bible was inaugurated by Doubleday with Invitation to Matthew by Donald Senior and Invitation to Luke by Robert K. Karris. Although the series is to be by Catholic authors, there is nothing in the first volumes, at least, to limit the usefulness for other denominations. The format is attractive, the comments are lucid and brief, and each section is concluded by a study question that helps the reader apply the passage to contemporary living. James M. Boice, the well-known radio Bible teacher and pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church, has published the third volume in his series on The Gospel of John (Zondervan). This one brings him to the end of chapter 12. Useful though the commentary is, one wonders whether it might not have been even more useful if it were shorter.
Erudite, devout, and critical—these all describe Raymond E. Brown’s large volume The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke (Doubleday). Following the pattern set in his influential two-volume commentary on John, Brown somehow manages to give the impression that orthodox Christian commitment is wholly compatible with the most radical views of New Testament criticism. The result will doubtless be unsatisfying to both right and left. Nevertheless, the work is a major achievement, deserving of interaction.
REFERENCE TOOLS The second of three volumes of The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Zondervan) edited by Colin Brown not only maintains but strengthens the high standard set by the earlier volume and the German original upon which it is based. Volume Two covers terms from “Gall” to “Present” (to which is appended an extremely valuable essay on eschatology). Here is the treasury of the Greek New Testament in easily accessible form for the benefit of all. If you would like to bring joy to a minister or seminarian, give him or her this indispensable (and expensive) tool.
More limited in scope but also useful is The Challenge of the Concordance (Attic) by Harold K. Moulton, a study of eighty-six New Testament words or word groups. The author has served as a missionary in India and as translations secretary for the British and Foreign Bible Society. The grandson of W. F. Moulton and the son of J. H. Moulton, two of the most distinguished Greek scholars of modern times, he is also an authority on the Greek New Testament. In this work, which grew out of his revision of the famous Moulton and Geden Concordance to the Greek Testament, he attempts to show the practical and devotional value of the careful study of words and their meaning. The New Testament Concept of Witness (Cambridge) by A. A. Trites is an exhaustive study of a concept that lies at the heart of the New Testament message.
The first strikingly new English-language concordance to the Bible to appear in many years is the Modern Concordance to the New Testament (Doubleday) edited by Michael Darton, which is designed to be used with any of six major translations but is based on the Greek text. In contrast to the nineteenth-century Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Darton’s Modern Concordance lists words thematically as well as verbally. This is not necessarily a substitute for either the standard English concordances edited by Young and Strong or the ordinary Greek concordances, but it certainly adds considerably to them and will no doubt be of great value to students. This, too, would be a gift to rejoice the heart of any minister or theological student! Ralph Earle continues his Word Meanings in the New Testament (Baker or Beacon Hill) with volume five, on Philippians through Philemon. This contains much of the same material to be found in a concordance but presents it by chapter and verse.
INTRODUCTION A book that is one of the most important for evangelicals to appear in a long, long time is New Testament Interpretation edited by I. Howard Marshall. It was released in Britain last year and is to be issued in North America this year by Eerdmans. Subtitled “Essays in Principles and Methods,” it is a symposium by scholars such as F. F. Bruce, Donald Guthrie, and R. T. France. Here is what the evangelical theological student has always desired: a discussion of such matters as the history of New Testament study: its presuppositions; questions of semantics and the history-of-religions approach; historical, source, form tradition, and redaction criticism; demythologizing and the “New Hermeneutic”; the authority and exposition of the New Testament. There is also a very useful bibliography. A much less satisfactory approach is taken by H. P. Hamann in A Popular Guide to New Testament Criticism (Concordia), “a conservative approach to the problem of biblical interpretation” that will scarcely convince the faithful, to say nothing of anyone else.
It has come as something of a shock to many to find the author of Honest to God, John A. T. Robinson, now writing in defense of the trustworthiness of the New Testament! In 1976 he published Redating the New Testament, in which he attempted to show that all of it was written before A.D. 70. Now we have Can We Trust the New Testament? (Eerdmans), which answers the question in the affirmative, though not in a way that would be satisfactory to most evangelicals. Specialists will be interested in The New Testament and Structuralism, essays on this latest of trends in academic New Testament study. The essays were translated from French and edited by Alfred M. Johnson, Jr., and published by Pickwick (5001 Baum Blvd., Pittsburgh, Pa. 17213).
A work bound to be discussed for a decade is Unity and Diversity in the New Testament (Westminster) by James D. G. Dunn, a prolific younger British scholar who is well known for his writings on the Holy Spirit. The accent in the book is definitely on diversity. Sample: “We can no longer doubt that there are many different expressions of Christianity within the NT.” “We must conclude, therefore, that there was no single normative form of Christianity in the first century.” “To recognize the canon of the NT is to affirm the diversity of Christianity.” The book provokes searching questions on its proposals but is sure to be regarded as a major contribution.
The New Testament Experience of Faith (Bethany Press) by Leander E. Keck is a popular introduction to the New Testament that sets the early Christian writings in the context of the geographical expansion of the faith during the first Christian century. The economic-class context is the focus of lectures on the Social Aspects of Early Christianity (Louisiana State University) by Abraham Malherbe.
Appearing for the first time in book form is The New Testament: An Introduction to its Literature and History (Banner of Truth) by the late renowned J. Gresham Machen.
THE TEXT The Identity of the New Testament Text (Nelson) by Wilbur N. Pickering is mentioned here as a warning to the unwary layperson who is unfamiliar with the subject. The author defends the kind of text translated in the King James over against the kind underlying almost every translation since that of John Nelson Darby, including such representative committee products as the New American Standard and the New International. Very few scholars, regardless of theology, agree with Pickering. Of course, as those who are familiar with the issue recognize, numbers are not the only consideration. But in this case there is good reason to stay with the overwhelming majority of scholars. Pickering’s book is a hodgepodge of logical and theological inconsistencies and reveals a grossly inadequate understanding of the intricacies of textual criticism. For a balanced critique see the four-page review in the December, 1977, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society by Richard Taylor. The reviewer has his Ph.D. in textual criticism from Bob Jones, where he taught for many years, and is of unsullied orthodoxy.
The Bible student who wishes to get a glimpse of what textual criticism is really all about could profitably turn to either of the following: The Early Versions of the New Testament (Oxford) by Bruce M. Metzger or The Textual History of the Letter to the Romans (Eerdmans) by Harry Gamble, Jr. Both demonstrate that textual criticism is a highly refined discipline. Gamble defends the literary unity of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.
PAUL Paul for a New Day (Fortress) is an exciting book in which Robin Scroggs attempts to trace what Paul says about justification, faith, the church, and ethics. But the New Testament scholar cannot be content to remain merely an objective observer of the biblical writings; he must proclaim their message to the church. A book that will appeal to the whole family is Paul (Harper & Row) by John Drane, which is attractively designed and includes numerous photographs and maps illustrating the life and ministry of the great apostle. Paul and Palestinian Judaism (Fortress) by E. P. Sanders is cut from a different cloth. Technical, ponderous—challenging, perhaps, but exceedingly heavy going even for the expert—and expensive, Sanders’s book challenges just about every assumption that a New Testament scholar might have on the subject.
Two works that deal with the controversial matter of Paul’s view of women are both written from a thoroughly evangelical theological position but come to quite different conclusions: Don Williams, The Apostle Paul and Women in the Church (BM1 [Box 7951. Van Nuys, Ca. 91409]) and George W. Knight III, The New Testament Teaching on the Role Relationship of Men and Women (Baker). Without gainsaying either the scholarship or Christian conviction evident in Knight’s study. I would say that Williams brings into the discussion passages that have been conveniently omitted from the traditional hierarchical approach and that he therefore arrives at a more fundamentally biblical position. However, two slender books cannot be said to settle the issue.
Reading Through Romans (Fortress) is a new book by C. K. Barrett, veteran exegete and commentator. Barrett is one of those all-too-rare scholars who wear their learning lightly to the great blessing of the Christian community. These twenty studies appeared originally in a denominational fortnightly in England. Barrett here covers Paul’s longest epistle in merely eighty-five pages. By contrast, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones devotes 363 pages to an exposition of four verses in The Christian Warfare (Baker), twenty-six lectures on Ephesians 6:10–13. Here we have the opportunity to compare two styles of Bible teaching, each having a place in the edification of the people of God. Romans: A Digest of Reformed Comment (Banner of Truth) by Geoffrey B. Wilson is an unusual commentary in which the author makes liberal use of quotations from other works. Like other recent Banner of Truth publications, the book is physically attractive and easy to read. And it is chock-full of eminently quotable quotes that the preacher will welcome.
REVELATION Pride of place among last year’s full-length commentaries on New Testament books must go to Robert Mounce’s The Book of Revelation (Eerdmans), a volume in the New International series. The product of many years of very fruitful study, it is easily the most thorough and scholarly commentary on the Apocalypse now available. The point of view represented is that of mild futurism, roughly comparable to that of George Ladd and G. R. Beasley-Murray.
Not a traditional commentary, but definitely worth reading is the famous lay-theologian Jacque Ellul’s exposition, Apocalypse (Seabury).
HEBREWS Major in size and scope is a new work by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Eerdmans). As in the rest of Hughes’s writings, the treatment is not only full, astute, and of the highest scholarly standards but also rich in theological insight.
FIRST PETER Two popular expositions are The Apostle Peter Speaks to Us Today (John Knox) by Holmes Rolston and First Peter: A Translation and Devotional Commentary (Word) by E. M. Blaiklock. The latter author brings to the text his years of experience as a professor of classics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. As in so many of Blaiklock’s other writings, the reader garners a rich harvest from the author’s full knowledge of the Greek language.
BACKGROUND The second volume in a very important history appeared, The Jewish People in the First Century (Fortress), edited by a team of Jewish and Christian scholars led by S. Safrai and M. Stern. Among the subjects treated are economic life in Palestine, the Jewish home and family, the calendar, the Temple, the synagogue, art and architecture, and education. This is an invaluable reference work that should be a part of any significant theological library. The Legacy of Zion (Baker), edited by Henry Moeller, is a collection of intertestamental Jewish texts that provide a background to New Testament study. The documents are very usefully indexed and cross-referenced. Israel in Revolution, 6–74 C. E. (Fortress) by David M. Rhodes is a political history based on the writings of Flavius Josephus. Rhodes provides the student with an introduction to the man, his work, and his times; the book should be very useful as a textbook.
A number of texts and studies of important Jewish writings of the intertestamental period were published in The Anchor Bible as Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah: The Additions (Doubleday) by Carey A. Moore. The volume is a very thorough and scholarly study of the eleven writings that were added to the canonical books of Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and are, therefore, a part of the Apocrypha. Critical histories of the research related to two important writings are The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Scholars) by H. Dixon Slinger-land and Studies on the Testament of Abraham (Scholars) edited by George W. E. Nickelsburg, Jr. A very important but outlandishly expensive work is The Books of Enoch (Oxford), edited by J. T. Milik, a comparison of the Aramaic fragments of this ancient writing (which is quoted in the Epistle of Jude) with the other texts and versions known previous to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Speaking of Qumran, The Dead Sea Scriptures: Third Edition (Doubleday), edited by Theodor Gaster, includes twenty-four more texts than the 1964 edition. A four-page addendum updates the comprehensive bibliography, The Dead Sea Scrolls (Scholars) by Joseph Fitzmyer.
Also of considerable interest to New Testament scholars is the long-awaited publication by Harper & Row of The Nag Hammadi Library, prepared by a team of scholars under the direction of James M. Robinson, after other scholars tarried needlessly following the discovery of a dozen Gnostic codices in Egypt in 1945. Most of those who examine the gospels of Thomas, Philip, the Egyptians, Mary, and other such writings will applaud the judgment of the early orthodox church in excluding them from the New Testament canon.
D. Bruce Lockerbie is chairman of the Fine Arts department at The Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York. This article is taken from his 1976 lectures on Christian Life and Thought, delivered at Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado.
