Posted by Jeff Short on March 7, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism by Ben C. Blackwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book compiles articles from several scholars going chapter by chapter through Paul’s letter to the Romans in light of the literature and historical context of second temple Judaism. The authors compare and contrast the letter with writings from the Qumran community and the Apocryphal books, etc. to see what influence they may have had on Paul’s thinking.
Overall it was a good read. The book is insightful at times and also conjecturing and speculative at others. I don’t agree with the views of some that we have to read Paul through this particular lens in order to rightly understand him. However, this setting was a part of his milieu and does inform our understanding of the socio-historical setting of the New Testament.
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Posted by Jeff Short on December 20, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship by John Piper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is a fantastic treatment of the task of preaching. Piper aims to bring together the rigors of exposition with the beauty of Christ’s Gospel from Genesis to Revelation. He gives careful attention to various texts throughout the Bible to show how every good promised to believers in Scripture is bought by Christ’s work on the cross, so the preaching of Christ from all Scripture is not some tacked on mask or afterthought. This book is helpful on a number of levels and will help you think about the aim of preaching and how that aim is accomplished through faithful exposition.
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Posted by Jeff Short on October 26, 2019 · Leave a Comment
The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God by George Eldon Ladd
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I disagreed with a lot in this book and came to realize the problem with it is a foundational hermeneutical issue. Ladd held to a re-interpretation of Old Testament texts by the New Testament, so later revelation changed the contextual meaning of prior revelation. Though he tried to maintain some sort of continuity of the kingdom from the Old to the New Testament, he ended up with a discontinuity in the nature of the kingdom as revealed in the Old and New Testaments.
He spiritualized and generalized the kingdom to where at times he made it synonymous with salvation, eternal life, etc. He conflated conceptions of the universal lordship of Christ and the mediatorial kingdom of men on the earth. He ended up with a supersession of Israel and reformulation of the people of God to the point that his vision for the restoration of Israel fell short of the promises/covenants made to the fathers, which necessarily included a geo-political, ethnic, and territorial kingdom with Jesus Christ on the throne of his father David in Jerusalem ruling over the twelve tribes united on the land promised to Abraham.
It was an interesting read historically, but I can’t recommend it as helpful.
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A Theology of Luke and Acts: God’s Promised Program, Realized for All Nations by Darrell L. Bock
The Bible Expositor’s Handbook, NT Edition: New Testament by Greg Harris
Book Review: Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism
Posted by Jeff Short on March 7, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism by Ben C. Blackwell
This book compiles articles from several scholars going chapter by chapter through Paul’s letter to the Romans in light of the literature and historical context of second temple Judaism. The authors compare and contrast the letter with writings from the Qumran community and the Apocryphal books, etc. to see what influence they may have had on Paul’s thinking.My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Overall it was a good read. The book is insightful at times and also conjecturing and speculative at others. I don’t agree with the views of some that we have to read Paul through this particular lens in order to rightly understand him. However, this setting was a part of his milieu and does inform our understanding of the socio-historical setting of the New Testament.
View all my reviews
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Filed under Reviews · Tagged with Commentary, New Testament, Paul, Reviews, Romans