Reviews of

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The New Testament Canon in Contemporary Research.

In Benjamin Laird, Brill, Canon, Ched Spellman, Stanley E. Porter, Transmission history on September 1, 2026 at 8:37 pm

2026.09.07 | Stanley Porter and Benjamin P. Laird, eds. The New Testament Canon in Contemporary Research. Leiden: Brill, 2026. 656 pp., $185.00. 

Review by Ched Spellman, Cedarville University

Stanley E. Porter and Benjamin P. Laird’s edited volume, The New Testament Canon in Contemporary Research, provides a wide-ranging examination of the historical formation, content, and reception of the New Testament canon. Bringing together twenty-three essays from scholars representing several different perspectives, the volume is organized around three major areas: the formation of the canon, the components of the canon, and the witnesses to the canon. 

The first part considers the forces that contributed to canon formation, including inspiration, apostolicity, catholicity, the rule of faith, Gnosticism, Marcion, theological controversy, and ecclesiastical decisions. It also addresses the disputed chronology of canon formation, including competing arguments concerning when a recognizable core emerged and when the twenty-seven book New Testament became established.

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Early Christian Epistolarity

In Brill, Early Christianity, Epistolography, Jonathon Lookadoo, Judith LIEU, Matthijs den Dulk on August 10, 2026 at 5:54 pm

2026.08.06 | Judith M. Lieu and Matthijs den Dulk. Early Christian Epistolarity. Critical Approaches to Christianity 5. Leiden: Brill, 2026. Pp. x + 380. ISBN: 9789004746145.

Review by Jonathon Lookadoo, Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Judith Lieu, Lady Margaret’s Professor Emerita at the University of Cambridge, delivered the Radboud Prestige Lectures at the University of Nijmegen in 2022. The volume under review contains the revised version of those lectures and follows the format of prior publications in the series by making available not only the lectures but also a collection of essays interacting with her work. This volume unfolds with an introduction by Matthijs den Dulk (chapter 1), in which he provides context for the volume. This is followed by Lieu’s three revised lectures (chapters 2–4), nine essays interacting with her work (chapters 5–13), and an epilogue in which Lieu responds to her interlocutors (chapter 14). Indexes of ancient sources and subjects round out the volume. Since Lieu’s lectures form the heart of the book, this review will highlight her work and interact with other contributions more sparingly.

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Early Christian Widows

In Aogu Suzuki, Bloomsbury, Book of Acts, Luke-Acts, NT social setting, Widows, Yurong Zhao on May 1, 2026 at 10:15 am

2026.05.05 | Yurong Zhao. Early Christian Widows and their Social-economic Situation, Support, and Contribution to the Church. Library of New Testament Studies 687. London: T&T Clark, 2025. pp. xvii + 242. ISBN: 9780567721365.

Review by Aogu Suzuki, University of St Andrews.

Wayne Meeks, in his The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (1983), stated: “To write social history, it is necessary … to discern the texture of life in particular times and particular places. After that, the task of a social historian of early Christianity is to describe the life of the ordinary Christian within that environment.” The last four decades of New Testament scholarship have benefited from an increasing number of illuminating granular works attempting to clarify particulars of the early Christian milieu, and Yurong Zhao’s Early Christian Widows and their Social-economic Situation, Support, and Contribution to the Church is a welcome addition within this current. While the marginalized in general have garnered much discussion, Zhao argues that “the social-economic situation of widows in the early church, their means of support, and their role in the church have not been sufficiently studied” (p. 1). A published version of her doctoral dissertation completed in Durham under John Barclay, this monograph synthesizes social-economic data with the analysis of early Christian literature in order to provide a nuanced understanding of widows in the early church.

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