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Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews

In Cambridge University Press, Hebrews, Jonathan Rowlands, Madison N. Pierce, New Testament on February 13, 2022 at 9:48 pm

2022.02.01 | Madison N. Pierce. Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews: The Recontextualization of Spoken Quotations of Scripture. Society of New Testament Studies Monograph Series 178; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781108495417.

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College.

In this monograph, Pierce argues that “the author of Hebrews uses divine discourse—the speech of God—in Hebrews to develop his characterization of God and by extension his broader argument … [such that] these speeches are crucial to his argumentation.” (2). This argument is made primarily with reference to the author’s use of ‘prosopological exegesis’ of Jewish Scriptures. This technique “interprets texts by assigning ‘faces’ (πρόσωπα), or characters, to ambiguous or unspecified personal (or personified) entities represented in the text in question … for clarity of understanding” (4). Following a discussion about prosopological exegesis in antiquity (6-20) and techniques for identifying its use (20-22), Pierce introduces the particular use of this technique in Hebrews, culminating in an overview of previous treatments of divine speech in Hebrews (28-33).

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Son, Sacrifice, and Great Shepherd

In David M. Moffitt, Eric F. MASON, Hebrews, Madison N. Pierce, Mohr Siebeck, New Testament on February 5, 2021 at 3:00 pm

2021.2.5 | David M. Moffitt and Eric F. Mason, eds. Son, Sacrifice, and Great Shepherd: Studies on the Epistle to the Hebrews.WUNT II 510. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020. ISBN 978-3-16-159190-7.

Review by Madison N. Pierce, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Reviews of edited collections are often marred by the cliché that “the quality of the essays varies.” This is of course a truism, but usually, it is a subtle way for a reviewer to signal that some essays are rather poor—detracting from an otherwise reasonably good collection. Son, Sacrifice, and Great Shepherd is an excellent collection with only very good and great essays. Moffitt and Mason have assembled an impressive team of contributors—chosen from among presenters at the International Meeting for SBL from 2011–2013—and each has made a useful contribution to the study of Hebrews.

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Psalm 110 and the Logic of Hebrews

In Bloomsbury, Jared COMPTON, Madison N. Pierce, Messianism, Scripture on August 24, 2016 at 2:00 pm

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2016.08.16 | Jared Compton. Psalm 110 and the Logic of Hebrews. London: T&T Clark, 2015.

Review by Madison N. Pierce, Durham University.

Many thanks to T&T Clark for providing a review copy.

Psalm 110 and the Logic of Hebrews is the revised version of Jared Compton’s doctoral dissertation completed under the supervision of D. A. Carson at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2013. As he notes in his first introductory chapter, Compton considers the intersection of the epistle’s use of Scripture and its structure key to understanding the “logic” of the text as a whole. Psalm 110 is, in his estimation, the consistent thread that ties Hebrews together, and so he proposes that its use in Hebrews be analyzed as a means to trace the author’s argument. Compton then summarizes prior literature in terms of four “starting points” for his study (p. 7). Read the rest of this entry »


The Birth of the Trinity

In Christology, Early Christianity, Madison N. Pierce, Matthew W. BATES, New Testament, Oxford University Press, Pneumatology on October 17, 2015 at 3:19 pm

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2015.10.20 | Matthew W. Bates. The Birth of the Trinity: Jesus, God, and Spirit in New Testament and Early Christian Interpretations of the Old Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 256. Hardcover. ISBN 9780198729563.

Review by Madison N. Pierce, Durham University.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

While in previous decades it has been imprudent to speak of the “Trinity” prior to the fourth century, a number of recent works have set aside the stigma to re-examine the extent to which the NT is Trinitarian. Implicit in those studies is the question: What did the fourth century glean from the first? For Matthew W. Bates in The Birth of the Trinity, one of the most significant contributions is an explanation of the exegetical method termed “prosopological exegesis” (PE). This method re-interprets Jewish Scripture by identifying an otherwise ambiguous or unspecified participant in the text, a prosopon or character. This monograph draws upon Bates’ previously published thesis, The Hermeneutics of Apostolic Proclamation (Baylor University Press, 2013). Read the rest of this entry »