Posted by Jeff Short on October 15, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Jesus and the Last Supper by Brant Pitre
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Interesting read. The book is a scholarly work but reads fairly well. The author engages thoroughly with other scholars, which can be good. However, it wears thin taking scholars seriously who’ve found much agreement in modern times that Jesus existed and was likely a Jew. It feels at times that too much weight is given to second temple Judaism literature along with early Jewish literature outside of Scripture. He does deal with the biblical data and does a good job confirming the Last Supper was indeed the Passover meal and resolves well the supposed contradictions between John and the Synoptics. Could’ve used broader biblical harmonization, particularly in the implications of eschatology.
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Posted by Jeff Short on May 26, 2021 · Leave a Comment
The Lord’s Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes by Thomas R. Schreiner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is a compilation with each chapter written by a different author. The book varies a little from chapter to chapter, but the editors did a good job pulling it all together. The book looks at the communion supper from exegetical, theological, historical, and practical viewpoints. I didn’t agree with all the conclusions by the various authors, and even they didn’t all agree everywhere. The book also did a good job as far as identifying the major contentions and attempting answers from the author’s point of view. Some of the history sections seemed to drag on a little, but the summaries and conclusions at the end were helpful.
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Posted by Jeff Short on January 7, 2021 · Leave a Comment
This Do in Remembrance of Me by Arie Elshout
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book is a Dutch reformed treatment of the Lord’s supper. It’s a blend of introspective, puritanic pietism and expositions of confessions, catechisms, and liturgies of men more so than Scripture. There were some surprising statements here and there, like something about Christ as prophet, priest, and king and how we can receive him as one now and the others later. The Lord’s supper was pushed as a sacrament that confers grace to the partakers. Elshout made a reference to Hebrews 4:16, but slipped “the Lord’s table” in there where “the throne of grace” is, making that quite a different statement. I’m afraid the heavy introspectionist approach has the net effect of making the Lord’s supper more about self-examination than the sacrificial death of Christ. It has some good, but there are better books on the subject.
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Posted by Jeff Short on December 30, 2020 · Leave a Comment
The Purposes of the Lord’s Supper by Peter Masters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a clear and concise treatment of the Lord’s Supper. Masters focuses on the central meaning of the Supper. I would sand some points here and there, but found it helpful. I especially appreciate how he focused on the broken body and shed blood of Jesus and didn’t try to artificially enhance the solemnity of the Supper by adding extraneous rules that seem good to man.
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