2017.12.27 | Carmelo Giuseppe Conticello (ed.), La Théologie Byzantine et sa tradition I/1 (VIe-VIIe siècles) (Corpus Christianorum; Turnhout: Brepols, 2015). IV+805pp.
Reviewed by Mark W. Elliott, University of St Andrews.
We are told at the outset of this large and handsome volume that theology will be understood more widely than just doctrinal issues to include political theology. (It might even include law.)
2017.11.23 | Eva Mroczek, The Jewish Literary Imagination in Antiquity. New York, NY/Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780190279837
Reviewed by Jeremiah Coogan, University of Notre Dame.
Before the categories of “book” and “Bible” dominated the literary imagination, Mroczek asks, “What did this literary world seem like to Second Temple writers?” (4). How did the creators and users of literary artifacts organize and conceptualize writing? We note that this literary world of Second Temple Judaism is explicitly textual; Mroczek avoids the temptation to see orality as the only alternative to our familiar models of textuality: she explores literary modes that are “deeply, self-consciously textual, but shaped differently from our own” (5). Read the rest of this entry »
2017.09.18 | Dieter T. Roth. The Text of Marcion’s Gospel. New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents 49. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2015. ISBN: 9789004245204.
Reviewed by Jordan Almanzar, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen.
Dieter T. Roth has taken up the ambitious task of reconstructing the Gospel portion of Marcion’s “bible”. His objective is not a new one, as the first attempts to reassemble Marcion’s text are generally traced to the 18th century (Roth, 8). [Roth credits J.S. Semler as the first scholar to attempt a resemblance of Marcion’s text, however, he also mentions Richard Simon’s work from nearly a century earlier.] Even so, scholars have long awaited a book such as the one Dieter T. Roth has produced.Its value lies chiefly in the intentionally convenient layout, which is the result of Roth’s patient classification and arrangement of material. Therefore, the book can be immediately used and appreciated by anyone interested in Marcion’s Gospel. Most of the work is an explanation of the difficulties of the task along with details on the methods employed to do so; however, readers can begin using it as a reference tool at the outset.
2017.07.17 | Troels Engberg-Pedersen (ed.). From Stoicism to Platonism: The Development of Philosophy, 100BCE–100 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. ISBN: 9781107166196.
Reviewed by Eric Covington, Howard Payne University.
From Stoicism to Platonism: The Development of Philosophy, 100BCE–100CE, edited by Troels Engberg-Pedersen, contains papers that emerged from a conference held in August 2014 at the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen. The tome brings together a veritable “Who’s Who” of researchers in the area of ancient philosophy in the first-century BCE and CE world in order to examine, as the title suggests, the interaction between Stoicism and Platonism during the period of 100BCE–100 CE. The combined effect of the collected essays is to challenge the oft-repeated characterization of this philosophical period as a time of “eclecticism.” This work nuances this designation and provides further clarity concerning the different types of philosophical interaction during the period and the broad philosophical development during the time that eventually led to the dominance of imperial Platonism by the second century (p. 10). Read the rest of this entry »
2017.01.03 | Patrick Andrist, Paul Canart, Marilena Maniaci. La syntaxe du codex: Essai de codicologie structurale. Bibliologia 34; Turnhout: Brepols, 2013. ISBN: 9782503543932.
Review by Dan Batovici, KU Leuven.
This book, a collaborative project based on the extensive previous work in the field of the three authors, is an attempt to produce a comprehensive and coherent typology for describing complex codices. While the most obvious aim of this book is to offer an extensive tool for manuscript cataloguing, it is also meant and will likely prove quite useful in all connected fields. Indeed, there are well known difficulties in describing complex manuscripts in biblical studies as well—for instance the generalised use of the ever-ambiguous ‘miscellany’ term—where a plus of specificity as well as descriptions up to date with technical codicological terminology would be welcome. Read the rest of this entry »
2016.03.04 | Peter Brown. The Ransom of the Soul: Afterlife and Wealth in Early Western Christianity (Cambridge, MA/London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2015). Pp. 262. Hardcover. ISBN: 9780674967588.
Review by Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski, King’s College London.
Many thanks to HUP for providing the review copy.
Peter Brown does not need any introduction as a prominent scholar and historian of the late antiquity. His previous books on, for example, Augustine of Hippo and early Christian views on sexuality and renunciation, are now regarded as classics. Brown’s recent study, as he states (p. Xi), continues the approach from his previous important volume: “Through the Eyes of a Needle”: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350 – 550 AD (Princeton University Press, 2012). However the current collection of lectures adds a new dimension to the discussion. It raises the question: what will happen to our souls when we die? Brown as historian offers insightful comments on the development of the notion of purgatory in the Western theological tradition. Read the rest of this entry »
2016.01.02 | Stephen O. Presley. The Intertextual Reception of Genesis 1–3 in Irenaeus of Lyons (The Bible in Ancient Christianity; Leiden: Brill, 2015). Hardback. 267 pages + 34 pages bibliography & indices.
Review by Eric Covington, University of St Andrews.
Many thanks to Brill Publishers for providing a MyBook paperback inspection copy.
In The Intertextual Reception of Genesis 1–3 in Irenaeus of Lyons, Stephen O. Presley examines every reference to Gen 1–3 in Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies, abbreviated hereafter as Haer.) to demonstrate how Irenaeus interprets Genesis’ protological narratives within an intertextual network spanning the entire biblical canon.
Presley argues that Irenaeus’ intertextual exegesis is an outworking of his particular view of scriptural consonance informed by his doctrine of revelation and creation. Read the rest of this entry »
2015.10.18 | Erin Evans. The Books of Jeu and the Pistis Sophia as Handbooks to Eternity: Exploring the Gnostic Mysteries to the Ineffable. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 89. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Review by Paul Linjamaa, Lund University.
Many thanks to Brill for providing a review copy.
This is a much needed book. After the Nag Hammadi-texts became available for the broader scholarly public – after many years of preservation work, editing and legal quarrels – much effort has been devoted to tracing the different Christian stances found in the large corpus. However, there have been surprisingly few studies on the very interesting Coptic “Gnostic” texts found before the Nag Hammadi discoveries. Considering the amount of attention the different Nag Hammadi-texts have received and considering the many similarities to the texts in the Bruce and Askew codex (found long before the Nag Hammadi), this is indeed surprising. Read the rest of this entry »
2015.07.16 | Elvira Martín-Contreras, Lorena Miralles-Maciá. The Text of the Hebrew Bible: From the Rabbis to the Masoretes. JAJSup 13. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014.
Review by Pieter B. Hartog, KU Leuven.
Many thanks to Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht for providing a review copy.
The development of the text of the Hebrew Bible has enjoyed a renewed interest in recent years. But whilst studies on the text of Scripture in the Second Temple period abound,[1] the period subsequent to it tends to be ignored. The reasons for this neglect are easy to see. The period between the Rabbis and the Masoretes is traditionally considered a “dark age” in the history of the biblical text. What is more, this era is commonly taken as one in which a single textual tradition (the Masoretic Text or MT) was dominant – in contrast to earlier eras, where textual fluidity and pluriformity prevailed.[2] Read the rest of this entry »
2015.06.15 | Moisés Silva, ed. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. 5 vols.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014.
Review article by Christoph Heilig, University of Zurich.
Many thanks to Zondervan for providing a review copy.
From a German perspective, the publication of the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (5 vols.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014) is undoubtedly an interesting event. After all, this five volume work, edited by Moisés Silva, is called the “second edition” of the dictionary formerly known as New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (ed. Colin Brown; 4 vols.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975-1978), which is in turn based on the German Theologisches Begriffslexikon zum Neuen Testament (ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard; Wuppertal: Brockhaus, 1967-1971). Read the rest of this entry »
Biblical and Early Christian Studies 