2024.10.07 | Ryan D. Collman. The Apostle to the Foreskin: Circumcision in the Letters of Paul. BZNW 259. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2023.
Review article by Paul T. Sloan, Houston Christian University.
“Foreskin” stretches across Paul’s letters as a part of various discourses concerning proper Law-keeping and the relation of Jews and gentiles to one another, to Abraham, and to God. The topic of circumcision naturally cuts across the same arguments. Often scholars only survey the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these topics, but Ryan Collman has provided a detailed study on the related passages. While Pauline scholars have routinely claimed that Paul “redefined” or “spiritualized” circumcision such that physical circumcision of Jews is made “redundant and obsolete” (p. 6) and that “the circumcision” as a usual metonymy for Jews is instead employed by Paul to refer to the Jew/gentile Christian community, Collman argues that Paul “held none of these views about circumcision” (p. 6). Instead, Paul “upholds the practice and value of circumcision for Jews. He does not redefine it, replace it, declare its irrelevance, or expand its application to non-Jews – metaphorically or otherwise” (p. 6). Collman’s work has much to commend it, and I find much of it persuasive, including, significantly, his overall thesis regarding Paul’s upholding of the practice of circumcision for Jews and the notion that Paul does not redefine it, replace it, or apply it to non-Jews. Disagreements, especially on matters as complex as Paul’s letters, are of course inevitable, though I am eager to clarify that any enumerated below are offered in overall appreciation of Collman’s well-argued and important thesis, which deserves a wide readership.
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Biblical and Early Christian Studies 
Nicholas J. Moore
Hebrews: A Different Priest and a New Commentary
In Albert VANHOYE, commentary, Convivium, Hebrews, New Testament, Nicholas J. Moore, Paulist Press, review article on February 10, 2016 at 12:00 am2016.02.03 | Albert Vanhoye. A Different Priest: The Epistle to the Hebrews. Translated by Leo Arnold. Rhetorica Semitica. Miami, FL: Convivium, 2011. Paperback. 450 pp. ISBN 9781934996201.
Albert Vanhoye. The Letter to the Hebrews: A New Commentary. Translated by Leo Arnold. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2015. Paperback. V + 266 pp. ISBN 9780809149285.
Review article by Nicholas Moore.
Many thanks to Convivium Press and Paulist Press for providing review copies.
1. Introduction
“He who walks with the wise grows wise.” These two books, freshly written and translated, offer to a new audience a distillation of over six decades of reflection, research, and teaching on the Letter to the Hebrews. Albert Vanhoye SJ, a former Rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute and former President of SNTS who was made cardinal in 2006, is without any doubt one of the most significant French biblical scholars of the twentieth century. Read the rest of this entry »