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Metaphors in the Narrative of Ephesians 2:11–22

In Brill, Ephesians, Ephesus, Kai Akagi, Metaphor, Narratology, Oscar E. Jiménez on November 30, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Cover of book: White background with three circles containing manuscript fragments

2023.11.08 | Oscar E. Jiménez. Metaphors in the Narrative of Ephesians 2:11–22: Motion towards Maximal Proximity and Higher Status. Linguistic Biblical Studies 20. Leiden: Brill, 2022. pp. xiii + 221.

Review by Kai Akagi, Rikkyo University.

Oscar E. Jiménez’s Metaphors in the Narrative of Ephesians 2:11–22: Motion towards Maximal Proximity and Higher Status is the published version of Jiménez’s PhD thesis completed at London School of Theology. The volume provides a reading of Ephesians 2:11–22, approaching this text from the two perspectives included in the volume’s title: metaphors and narrative. Specifically, Jiménez employs conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) to analyze and articulate the significance and function of metaphors in the text. At the same time, he approaches the text as a “narrative” consisting of a “drama” in three acts such that each part of Ephesians 2:11–22 may be considered as part of a progression integrally related to the other parts of the text.

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Trauma Theory, Trauma Story

In Ezekiel, Sarah Emanuel, Sébastien Doane, Trauma theory on October 13, 2023 at 3:46 pm

2023.10.07 | Sarah Emanuel, Trauma Theory, Trauma Story; A Narration of Biblical Studies and the World of Trauma, Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation, Leiden, Brill, 2021.

Review by Sébastien Doane, Université Laval.

In her work titled Trauma Theory, Trauma Story: A Narration of Biblical Studies and the World of Trauma, Sarah Emanuel, an Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University and a member of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Hermeneutics of Trauma and Biblical Literature unit, offers an original and insightful examination of trauma theory within the context of biblical studies. This book follows her previous publication, Humor, Resistance, and Jewish Cultural Persistence in the Book of Revelation: Roasting Rome, released by Cambridge University Press in 2019.

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Christ: The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings Vols. 3 and 4

In Cambridge University Press, Christology, Patristics, Shawn J. Wilhite on September 6, 2023 at 9:16 pm

2023.09.07 | Mark DelCogliano, ed. Christ: Through the Nestorian Controversy. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xlvii + 778. ISBN: 978-1-107-06213-9. [Hardback].

Mark DelCogliano, ed. Christ: Chalcedon and Beyond. Vol. 4 of The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xlii + 666. ISBN: 978-1-316-51114-5. [Hardback].

Review by Shawn J. Wilhite, California Baptist University

I do not envy any editor or author writing a holistic account of Trinitarian or Christological theology in the early centuries of Christian thought. It seems impossible to keep in tension each figure, nuance, development of thought, and all the lines of argumentation. The editors say, “An anthology on the vast topic of ‘Christ’ is a fool’s errand” (p. xx). I can only imagine the conversations among the editors, several lists of possible texts to consider, the amount of paper in the “wastebasket” with notes, or even the list of texts that did not “make the cut.” An anthology of Christology became too large for a single volume, so the editors commissioned two volumes: “Though physically separate, the two volumes (i.e., vols. 3 and 4) belong together and are intended to be used together. In fact, together they encapsulate the editor’s vision for the study of Christology in the formative centuries of Christianity” (p. xx). So, before anything further is stated, Andrew Radde-Gallwitz, Mark DelCogliano, Ellen Muehlberger, and Bradley K. Storin ought to be commended for undertaking such a daunting task and for the lasting quality of such an anthology, and especially DelCogliano as the lead editor for volumes 3 and 4.

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Markan Typology

In Bloomsbury, Gospel of Mark, Intertextuality, Jonathan Rivett Robinson, Kendall A. Davis, Typology on June 27, 2023 at 7:13 pm

2023.06.06 | Jonathan Rivett Robinson. Markan Typology: Miracle, Scripture and Christology in Mark 4:35–6:45. LNTS 678. London: T&T Clark, 2023.

Review by Kendall A. Davis, University of Edinburgh.

In his recently revised dissertation, Jonathan Rivett Robinson explores the use of typology in several miracle passages in Mark’s Gospel. Robinson’s study contributes to the study of intertextuality in the Gospels by focusing on typology as a particular dynamic of intertextual discourse. He also seeks to contribute to discussions of divine Christology in Mark’s Gospel, engaging in dialogue with Richard Bauckham, Richard Hays, and Daniel Kirk. 

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Contesting Languages

In 1 Corinthians, Ekaputra Tupamahu, Heteroglossia, Isaac T. Soon, Oxford University Press, Paul, Spiritual Gifts on March 10, 2023 at 3:00 pm

2023.02.05 | Ekaputra Tupamahu. Contesting Languages: Heteroglossia and the Politics of Language in the Early Church. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023. 

Review by Isaac T. Soon, Crandall University, Moncton, NB.

The author begins the book with three subjects that experience struggle at the site of language: Medea, the Corinthian community, and Tupamahau himself. From its first pages, the reader becomes fully aware that this book is not only a critique of Paul’s handling of a multilingual community in Corinth but of the way that dominant languages, such as English (not least in the study of the New Testament), function as colonizing and suppressive forces. Tupamahu’s book is carefully written, and—more than any other academic monograph I have read in a long while—the distinct voice of the author comes across in its pages. The self-aware inclusion of first-person narratives detail the formation of the study and personal experiences that have shaped the research question and approach provides a refreshing frame for receiving Tupamahu’s work. At times, he even leaves expressions in German (e.g., p. 84) or in Greek untranslated to remind the reader of the way language (and its unintelligibility) can be othering for the person who is not proficient in it. Language is a political struggle, and Tupamahu’s book invites readers to learn about its dynamics in Corinth and to experience it themselves through his study itself. 

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The Shema in John’s Gospel

In Christology, Gospel of John, John, Lori A. Baron, Mohr Siebeck, R. B. Jamieson, Shema on February 24, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Cover of book

2023.02.04 | Lori A. Baron. The Shema in John’s Gospel. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe, 574. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022.

Review by R. B. Jamieson, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, DC.

What causes John’s Gospel to stand out when set against the backdrops of the Synoptic Gospels, the whole New Testament, and early Judaism? In The Shema in John’s Gospel, a revision of the author’s PhD thesis submitted to Duke University in 2015, Lori A. Baron argues that one key factor is John’s unique development of the theology and ethics of the Shema.

After a brief introduction, the book surveys the role of the Shema in Deuteronomy (Ch. 2), the rest of the Hebrew Bible (Ch. 3), Second Temple literature (Ch. 4), the New Testament minus John (Ch. 5), and, finally, the Gospel of John, first considering chapters 5, 8, and 10 (Ch. 6), then the Farewell Discourse (Ch. 7). A brief conclusion considers the Shema’s role in John’s account of the crucifixion, John’s oft-alleged “anti-Judaism,” and the Johannine prologue. 

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Philosophy at the Festival

In Brill, Byron MacDougall, Festivals, Gregory of Nazianzus, Patristics, Robert G. T. Edwards on February 9, 2023 at 11:31 am

2023.02.03 | Byron MacDougall, Philosophy at the Festival: The Festal Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus and the Classical Tradition. Mnemosyne Supplements 461; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2022.

Review by Robert G. T. Edwards; University of Göttingen.

Gregory of Nazianzus’ seven Festal Orations, preached at Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost during his short-lived episcopacy in Constantinople from 379 to 381, have received minimal scholarly attention, especially compared to Gregory’s more famous Theological Orations. However, as Byron MacDougall shows, the disparity between the fame of the Theological and the Festal Orations is a decidedly modern and western phenomenon: Gregory’s festal sermons were hugely influential in the Byzantine world already in the fifth century. This book is not a general study of these orations, but focuses on a single aspect of them, namely how Gregory “performed philosophy at the festival.” This phrase, repeated in various iterations throughout the book, refers to Gregory’s participation in a longstanding Greek tradition in which philosophical—especially Platonic—speculation (theōria) was closely associated with festival-going. From classical antiquity until late antiquity, there was every expectation among the learned (pepaideumenoi) that the festival should include spectacles both corporeal (games, shows, races) and intellectual (philosophical discussions and orations). And Gregory’s orations, delivered at newly instituted Christian festivals, unquestionably played to these expectations. Through six chapters, MacDougall highlights in lucid prose Gregory’s participation in this long tradition of philosophizing at festivals.

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Hebrews’ Cosmogonic Presuppositions

In Benjamin Rojas Yauri, cosmology, Hebrews, Jewish Backgrounds, Judson D. Greene, Wipf and Stock on January 23, 2023 at 6:03 pm
cover of book being reviewed

2023.01.02 | Benjamin Rojas Yauri. Hebrews’ Cosmogonic Presuppositions: Its First-Century Philosophical Context. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2022.

Review by Judson D. Greene, Cambridge University.

In this revised version of his PhD dissertation at Stellenbosch University under the supervision of Jeremy Punt, Benjamin Rojas Yauri endeavors to answer the question, “What are the relationships between Hebrews’ cosmogonic presuppositions and its first-century philosophical context?” (7). “Cosmogonic” means related to the origin of the universe (p. 1, n. 4) and a “presupposition” is “a thought tacitly assumed beforehand at the beginning of a line of argument,” which he states means the same thing as “beliefs” (p. 234, n. 2). In answer to his question, Rojas Yauri advances the thesis, “there is no relationship of dependence in presuppositions but only in the usage of some general vocabulary” (p. 266).

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What John Knew and What John Wrote

In Elizabeth Corsar, Fortress Press, Gospel of John, John, Lexington Books, Synoptic Gospels, Synoptic theories, Wendy E. S. North on January 6, 2023 at 3:00 pm

2023.01.01 | Wendy E. S. North, What John Knew and What John Wrote: A Study in John and the Synoptics (Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2020).

Review by Elizabeth Corsar; St Padarn’s Institute, Cardiff.

In her monograph, what John knew and what John wrote, North successfully puts forward a positive case for John’s use of the Synoptic Gospels, and her innovative study makes a significant contribution to this perennial New Testament question. Moreover, as the pendulum continues to swing ever more so toward the notion that John was dependent on the work of his Synoptic contemporaries for the composition of his own gospel, North’s timely monograph serves as an important study within this trend. 

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