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Archive for the ‘NT reception history’ Category


Ethnicity and Inclusion

In Eerdmans, ethnicity, history of interpretation, inclusion, Jonathan Rowlands, NT reception history, Reception history on December 5, 2022 at 3:00 pm
Book cover

2022.12.11 | David G. Horrell. Ethnicity and Inclusion: Religion, Race, and Whiteness in Constructions of Jewish and Christian Identities. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020. 

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College

In Ethnicity and Inclusion, Horrell examines the ways in which the contested categories of ethnicity, race, and religion coalesce in and arise from conceptions of the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity. Seeking to focus “on the log in my own eye rather than the specks in others’ eyes” (pp. 2–3), Horrell brings these issues into conversation with the implicit whiteness (another contested term) of contemporary biblical scholarship. In so doing, he not only upturns claims about Judaism and early Christianity, but also offers sobering critique of NT studies itself. Horrell articulates the need to re-examine conceptions of race, ethnicity, religion, and identity in antiquity, as well as the ways in which these categories are apprehended in contemporary scholarship. 

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To Recover What Has Been Lost

In Brill, Dale C. Allison Jr., Daniel Frayer-Griggs, Eschatology, Gospels, Intertextuality, Jonathan Rowlands, Nathan C. Johnson, NT reception history, Reception history, Tucker S. Ferda on June 11, 2021 at 3:00 pm

2021.6.13 | Tucker S. Ferda, Daniel Frayer-Griggs, and Nathan C. Johnson (eds). “To Recover What Has Been Lost”: Essays on Eschatology, Intertextuality, and Reception History in Honor of Dale C. Allison Jr. Supplements to Novum Testamentum 183; Leiden: Brill, 2021. ISBN: 978-90-04-44350-1.

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College.

The essays collected in this Festschrift are grouped into one of the three areas mentioned in the volume’s subtitle. As the helpful introduction from the editors notes, these are three areas that have each occupied a significant place in the writings of Dale C. Allison Jr. 

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The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers

In De Gruyter, Jennifer R. STRAWBRIDGE, Jonathon Lookadoo, NT reception history, Paul, Reception history, Uncategorized on July 11, 2016 at 10:20 pm

strawbridge

2016.07.13 | Jennifer R. Strawbridge. The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers. SBR 5. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015. pp. vii + 309. ISBN: 978-3-11-043770-6.

Review by Jonathon Lookadoo, University of Otago

Many thanks to Walter de Gruyter for providing a review copy.

Amid the increasing popularity of reception histories in Humanities scholarship and particularly in early Christian studies, Jennifer Strawbridge has added a unique and timely study of the way in which Paul’s letters were received in the ante-Nicene period. A two-fold emphasis frames the book, which began as an Oxford DPhil thesis supervised by Christopher Rowland and Teresa Morgan. First, the book investigates the way in which early Christian authors used Pauline letters. Second, the volume considers how the interpretation of Paul’s letters may illuminate their role in early Christian formation. Read the rest of this entry »


The Text of the Apostolos in Athanasius of Alexandria

In Early Christianity, Gerald J. DONKER, Justin A. Mihoc, New Testament, NT reception history, Patristics, Society of Biblical Literature on November 1, 2012 at 10:22 pm

2012.11.15 | Gerald J. Donker, The Text of the Apostolos in Athanasius of Alexandria. The New Testament in the Greek Fathers 8. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Litertature, 2011. XVIII + 372 pp. Paperback. ISBN: 9781589835504.

Reviewed by Justin A. Mihoc, Durham University, UK.

This review was published by RBL 10/2012 | ©2012 by the Society for Biblical Literature; reposted here by permission.

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The present monograph represents the latest addition to the groundbreaking New Testament in the Greek Fathers series of the Society of Biblical Literature. This long awaited volume, the 8th of the aforementioned series, comes out about three years after the 9th and is developed from the author’s doctoral dissertation defended at Macquarie University (Sydney) in 2009.

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Francis B. Watson, “Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective”

In Durham, Early Christianity, Francis B. WATSON, Gospels, Justin A. Mihoc, NT reception history, SEMINAR REPORTS on January 17, 2012 at 8:13 pm

This is a report on a book preview by Prof Francis Watson, Professor of New Testament Exegesis at Durham University, at the New Testament Research Seminar, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, 12th of December 2011. The list of forthcoming papers in the NT Research Seminars at Durham University can be found here. 

The second book preview in the series inaugurated by Prof John Barclay at the beginning of November (2011) here, at Durham University, was the forthcoming monograph by Prof Francis Watson. His approach towards Gospel studies focuses on the reception and interpretation of the canonical texts, without neglecting the non-canonical gospels. In Prof Watson’s words, the phenomenon of reception is almost a universal precondition of the historical knowledge in general. History of the impact that one writing or figure had in history, or Wirkungsgeschichte as Gadamer puts it, is not a uniquely theological concept, but has specific particularities within the Christian context. And reception is not only reconstruction. Read the rest of this entry »


Ascension Theology

In Ascension, Bloomsbury, Douglas FARROW, Justin A. Mihoc, Luke-Acts, NT reception history, NT Theology, Patristics, Reception history on October 23, 2011 at 9:53 am

2011.10.08 | Douglas Farrow, Ascension Theology, London: T&T Clark, 2011. Pp. xiv + 177. ISBN: 9780567353573 (Paperback), £ 16.99.

Reviewed by Justin A. Mihoc, Durham University.

RBECS would like to thank T&T Clark and Continuum Publishing for kindly providing us with a review copy. You can find RBECS on facebook, here.

Those interested in the interpretation of the Ascension of Jesus will certainly be acquainted with Prof Douglas Farrow’s Ascension and Ecclesia, a substantial monograph that attempted to offer an overview of the meaning and implications of the Ascension event and doctrine. Read the rest of this entry »


Author’s response to RBECS’ reviews on Augustine’s Text of John. Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts

In Augustine, Cornelia Linde, Dan Batovici, H. A. G. HOUGHTON, John, NT reception history, Oxford University Press, Patristics, Textual Criticism on January 24, 2011 at 6:30 pm

2011.01.04 | H. A. G. Houghton. Augustine’s Text of John. Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts. Oxford: OUP, 2008. (13.8×21.6), 424 p. ISBN 978-0-19-954592-6. Hardback.

This is Hugh Houghton’s response in the review-session dedicated to his Augustine’s Text of John, at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2010, (session 1630). The two reviews, signed by Cornelia Linde and Dan Batovici are available here and here.

First of all, I’d like to thank Cornelia and Dan for the time they’ve spent preparing for this session and for their very detailed and careful reviews: it has been a real pleasure to hear such constructive engagement with the text. Read the rest of this entry »


The Legacy of John: Second Century Reception of the Fourth Gospel

In Brill, Charles E. HILL, Dan Batovici, John, New Testament, NT reception history, Second century, Tuomas RASIMUS on January 17, 2011 at 8:37 am

2011.01.02 | Tuomas Rasimus, ed. The Legacy of John: Second Century Reception of the Fourth Gospel. Supplements to Novum Testamentum 132. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2010. Pp. xi + 406. ISBN: 9789004176331. Hardback

Reviewed by Dan Batovici, University of St Andrews.

The book is a fine collection of twelve essays on several second-century texts and their relation to the Fourth Gospel. The editor mentions in the very dense introduction the need to ‘abandon the old division between “orthodox” and “heterodox” forms of Christianity as misleading and anachronistic.’

It is commendable, indeed, to seek for the early reception of John beyond such a distinction, and this fresh view stands well in a context in which the two most recent major contributions on the early reception of John tend to focus on either the “orthodox” or the “heterodox” reception. Read the rest of this entry »


Augustine’s Text of John. Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts (ii)

In Augustine, Cornelia Linde, H. A. G. HOUGHTON, John, NT reception history, Oxford University Press, Textual Criticism on January 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm

2011.01.01 | H. A. G. Houghton. Augustine’s Text of John. Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts. Oxford: OUP, 2008. (13.8×21.6), 424 p. ISBN 978-0-19-954592-6. Hardback.

Reviewed by J. Cornelia Linde, University College London.

J. Cornelia Linde signs the second review presented in the review-session dedicated to Hugh Houghton’s Augustine’s Text of John at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2010, (session 1630).

The author’s response is available here. The other review is available here.

Thanks to Oxford University Press for the review copies.

Hugh Houghton’s Augustine’s Text of John was published by Oxford University Press in 2008. The book is set out to be a preparative study for the new edition of the Vetus Latina versions of the Gospel of John. Read the rest of this entry »


Augustine’s Text of John. Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts (i)

In Augustine, Dan Batovici, H. A. G. HOUGHTON, John, NT reception history, Oxford University Press, Textual Criticism on October 22, 2010 at 8:15 pm

2010.10.04 | H. A. G. Houghton. Augustine’s Text of John. Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts. Oxford: OUP, 2008. 424 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-954592-6. Hardback.

Reviewed by Dan Batovici, University of St Andrews.

This is one of the two reviews presented in the review-session dedicated to Hugh Houghton’s Augustine’s Text of John at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2010, (session 1630). The second review is available here, and the author’s response here.

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