Reviews of


Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

In Baker Academic, Douglas Huffman, Intertextuality, Kai Akagi, Luke-Acts, New Testament, Quotations on March 18, 2026 at 1:58 pm

2026.03.03 | Douglas S. Huffman. Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Forms, Features, Framings, and Functions. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024. pp. xix + 268. ISBN: 9781540966407.

Review by Kai Akagi, Rikkyo University.

The use of the Old Testament in the New Testament is studied within various frameworks, using various paradigms and methods, and for various research and educational purposes. New works on the topic continue to be produced rapidly. Douglas S. Huffman’s Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Forms, Features, Framings, and Functions provides an introductory educational resource for an evangelical audience that distills the complexity of certain areas within the study of the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. It does so by offering explanation, examples, and paradigms for understanding and organizing each of the areas of the New Testament use of the Old Testament that it considers. 

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Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Biblical Exegesis in His Catechetical Homilies

In Brill, Marius Portaru, Patristic exegesis, Patristics, Theodore of Mopsuestia on March 9, 2026 at 9:54 pm

2026.03.02 | Sofia Puchkova. Re-envisioning Theodore: Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Biblical Exegesis in His Catechetical Homilies. SVC 185. Brill, Leiden-Boston: 2024.

Review by Marius Portaru, Pontificium Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, Rome.

The present monograph addresses a gap in the scholarship on Theodore of Mopsuestia by examining his ‘invisible’ biblical exegesis in the Catechetical Homilies. While this topic was only briefly discussed in two previous studies by R. Greer and D. Keating (15), our monograph provides a comprehensive investigation: exploring the nature of Theodore’s exegesis, carefully identifying biblical quotations in the Catechetical Homilies (no less than 215 exegetical passages), comparing Theodore’s exegesis in his commentaries with that in the Homilies, and analysing Theodore’s connections with the pro-Nicene exegetical tradition, the Greco-Syrian liturgical tradition, John Chrysostom, and Origen. The outcome is a valuable contribution and an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand Theodore of Mopsuestia’s biblical exegesis in the Catechetical Homilies.

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The Fourth Synoptic Gospel

In Eerdmans, Gospel of John, John, Mark Goodacre, Synoptic Gospels, Synoptic theories on January 22, 2026 at 4:00 pm
Cover of book: The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

2026.01.01 | Mark Goodacre. The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Eerdmans, 2025. 191 pp.

Review by Ched Spellman, Cedarville University.

Goodacre advances a straightforward thesis: John’s Gospel was written with an awareness of the Synoptic Gospels. More specifically, Goodacre argues that the author of this Gospel “knew, used, presupposed, and transformed the Synoptics” (p. ix). For Goodacre, “the significant literary parallels between the Synoptic Gospels and John” represent good enough evidence to conclude that John was familiar with the final form of these texts. In other words, “the author of the Fourth Gospel did not use Synoptic-like traditions but the Synoptic Gospels themselves” (p. 17).

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