Posted by Jeff Short on March 3, 2022 · Leave a Comment
The Design of the Psalter: A Macrostructural Analysis by Peter C.W. Ho
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fantastic study on the final Masoretic Psalter. Ho does a good job interacting with the extant scholarship on the arrangement of the Psalms and his view is within the realm of the canonical view over against the form-critical view. I find some benefits from the form-critical views of the Psalms, but it leads to isolating individual psalms and the strict liturgical/cultic reading of Psalms in the second temple
sitz im leben ends up non-Messianic a lot of the time. On the more popular level, the result is the anemic view of Psalms as a hymnbook or devotional reading. The canonical view generally results in a more Messianic, theological, and eschatological reading of the Psalms.
The macrostructural aspects of Ho’s thesis is to view the Masoretic arrangement of the Psalms, with the superscriptions and selah’s, as more thematic in terms of theology and eschatology. He supports this thesis with analysis of individual psalms intertextually within different collections, i.e., Davidic, Korahite, and Asaphite collections, and the placement of those subgroups within the five books. Intertextual references and allusions along with structural elements such as alphabet acrostics, alphabet composition, and numeric nexus combine to support the arrangement of the psalms as a book, with flow, and beginning, middle, and end.
You don’t have to agree with all his conclusions to be benefited by his work. Ho obviously doesn’t think he’s written the final word in Psalm interpretation, and generally indicates some of his own guesswork, though informed guesswork, in the process. This is not the place to start on Psalms, though it is a place to see along the way. It may not be necessary to have read a lot of other Psalms scholarship, but I did find it helpful to have read many of the other works and authors he refers to in order to not hear only one side of the conversation. Also, this is a published version of the author’s PHD dissertation, so it reads academic, but I found it accessible and enjoyable.
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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 September 29, 2021 · Leave a Comment
How to Read Proverbs by Tremper Longman III
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is well done and helpful in what it sets out to do. The title is truth in advertising as this book helps orient the reader of the book of Proverbs. It is not a deep dive study of wisdom literature, but that wasn’t the intention of the author. Issues like the overall organization and structural and thematic unity of the book are only touched on enough to whet your appetite. Longman doesn’t deal with intertextuality per se, but he does have a chapter for interaction between Proverbs and Job and Ecclesiastes, and a later mention of the New Testament book of James. The book particularly shines in giving attention to the fact that you must take any individual sayings in light of the whole book.
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The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper
Why Is the Lord’s Supper So Important? by Aubrey Sequeira
