The Narnia 3 Book Review Blog

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Walter C. Kaiser and Duane A. Garrett with Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History and Culture. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005. Cloth xxvii + 2306pp $49.95.

One of the more anticipated new works to appear recently was the Archaeological Study Bible by Zondervan Publishers. There was a significant amount of pre-publication publicity (more than any new book in several years by this reviewer’s observation) and clearly a significant budget had been allocated for both the production and presentation of this new study Bible.

When this work was released there was much to actually be excited about. The layout of the book is excellent. This study Bible is perhaps one of the finest productions from a publishing point of view that has been produced to date. The publisher has managed to print high quality color pictures on thin “Bible” type paper. The attention to “eye appeal” in the detail is excellent. The only negative in the layout is the use of the “red letter” format in the Gospels (and elsewhere) for the words of Jesus. This now quaint formatting does not read well on the parchment effect and color of the pages (and it continues to neglect that many men, like this reviewer, are color blind to one degree or another which makes the “red” lettering often even more difficult to decipher). To keep the size of the Bible from expanding even more than it did the publisher also opted for a very small font size in the Biblical text which does also affect the readability.

There is a very useful subject index to the call out articles and (perhaps less useful) abbreviated concordance, a glossary of archaeological and historical terms. The book comes with an interactive CD which is functional, but perhaps limited by the publishers use of their in-house software systems rather than an industry standard like Libronix for Windows or Accordance for Macintosh.

The illustrations are well conceived and useful. The photography of artifacts and small scenes is one of the highlights of the work. As noted in the front matter of the book, TMS graduated Todd Bolen, who teaches at The Master’s College IBEX extension campus in Israel and operates his own ministry (www.bibleplaces.com) is one of the contributors of photographs.
The main purpose of this study Bible are the notations to the text. In general, the “call outs” (specialized articles on particular themes or subjects) are useful and flow with the overall purposes of the work. The call outs are categorized under a few different headings, such as “Ancient Peoples, Lands, and Rulers;” “The Reliability of the Bible;” “Cultural and Historical Notes,” etc. Many of the call outs very helpfully add notes to see other call outs on related subjects. There are also smaller call outs called “Ancient Voices” where quotations from other Ancient Near Eastern texts are included in the Old Testament (e.g. 2 Chron 26, p. 651). The New Testament has fewer of the “Ancient Voice” call outs (e.g. Aristotle on Logos, for John 1, p. 1720). Most of the time those texts are useful in either illustration or as a comparative; occasionally though they appear to be simply filler material.

The strong point of the “call outs” is also unfortunately one of significant weaknesses of the book. The placement and verse attachment of some of the call outs is, to put it bluntly, extremely odd. A few examples of this will suffice. The call out for the city of “Sepphoris” is, for reasons that are entirely mysterious, placed under Mark 6. The text for the call out then begins by stating, “The city of Sepphoris (modern Zippori) is mentioned nowhere in the Bible” (1638). How this call out will assist the reader in understanding Mark 6 more precisely is not stated. At Psalm 107 a call out on “Ancient Texts and Artifacts” has an excellent picture and description of the Gezer Calendar (discovered in 1908). However, while attached to Psalm 107, the articles gives no indication as to import this discovery might have in the understanding or interpretation of this Psalm.

At Luke 8 under the rubric of “The Reliability of the Bible” the call out is entitled “The Synoptic Problem and ‘Q.’” This placement is entirely random and even more oddly is illustrated with a picture of an Armenian text of one of the Gospels (ca. 1435), with no explanation as to what this graphic has to do with the article. While the call out is general useful in terms of information it doesn’t take a definitive stand, even on the existence of “Q.” The call out seems to simply have been “dropped in” in a place in where there was nothing else of archaeological or cultural note worthy of discussion.

This is a general issue with this book. The call out articles begin with a Scripture text where the article has been placed which often has little or nothing to do with the article itself or is not the most significant text in regards to that subject. Or, the call out is appropriate for the Biblical book it is found in, but then terribly misplaced; such as the call out “Who Wrote Revelation” (2060) which is attached to Revelation 10.

The greatest problem with the “study Bible” approach to this material is that there are long stretches of Scripture where there is, archaeologically-speaking, little or nothing to say. On many pages rather non-descript notations are made about one or two verses that have nothing to do with archaeology or geography (whether physical or cultural) but are notes one might rather find in any useful study Bible. Sometimes the editors clear desire to stay “prophecy neutral” in their opinions, hurts the overall work. For example in Ezekiel 40-42 the description of the Temple there receives no illustrative help; which could have included at least a diagram or better some comparative information to the size and dimensions of Solomon’s Temple or the Second Temple and even Herod’s enlargement of that Temple. What the reader is given is a minimal set of rather self-evident notations.

While this work is clearly a publishing achievement (as illustrated by its recent Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Publishing Association), one can’t help wondering how many people will actually want to buy a 2300 page, four plus pound study Bible? It is a study Bible that centers itself on a discipline that witnesses regular change in both the amount of material and the interpretation of that material. Since the book was released (a little less than 2 years ago) there have been several significant archaeological discoveries and issues that have rendered material in the book either obsolete or entirely erroneous (e.g. The Tomb of Herod at the Herodium was recently discovered and is being excavated; vis a vis the call out on Herod, p. 1627). The James Ossuary, the discovery of the correct location for the Pool of Siloam (contra, p. 1739), are also examples of a fluid discipline. One of the sayings in archaeological work is that “in archaeology absolute truth is good for about five years.” Without a plan for reprinting and updating the text, this work is already half way through that time frame and will only become less valuable as time progresses.

In short, this work is a spectacular achievement in terms of the mechanics of publishing. The written notes are by and large helpful in terms of information, but not always helpful in assisting to interpret a passage. It suffers from an attempt to do far too much in terms of content and takes a specialized subject which really does not lend itself well to a “study Bible” format. Some might find it to be useful; but there are other specialized works in Biblical archaeology that will serve the student and layman with greater satisfaction.

by Robert Backhouse, Tim Dowley (ed). The Kregel Pictorial Guide to: The Temple (1996), 32pp $9.99 (paper).

In Biblical studies the typical tools (Bible dictionaries, commentaries, and other reference works) are indispensable for any serious student. They are full of detailed information and factual material and bibliographic sources that are essential for a thorough understanding of a particular passage or theological concept.

However, many of the reference tools are often inadequately illustrated with visually orientated material. This is understandable, since the creation of excellent graphics and printing in full color adds a considerable expense to the overall cost of a book; costs which are already quite high in some cases. However, excellence in graphic design can really put a book over the top. The cliche, "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true. With this series of Guides, the editor, Tim Dowley and Kregel Publications fill a gap in Bible teaching tools with excellence of concept and presentation.

Dowley had been in the forefront of providing high quality illustrated works, mainly in church history, for many years. His Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s, 1978) in many ways was the prototype for the well illustrated and innovative formatting. That particular work was about 20 years ahead of its time, but Dowley has seen his concepts become standards with many publishers.

These Guides are larger sized (8x10), of high quality paper, and are mainly charts, graphs and pictures and artist recreations. All of the illustrations are exceptionally well done. While the Guides are dominated by illustrations, there is some explanatory text and explanations. The Guide on The Story of the Bible, is particularly useful detailing the history of Bible translation, including early alphabets and the process for creating papyrus. The Guide for The Temple has excellent artist reconstructions of the Solomon’s Temple and the enlarged Temple complex of Herod along with details of the various Temple rituals. One lack is any depiction of the post-Babylonian Captivity Temple of Ezra and Nehemiah's era.

These little volumes (32 pages each) will serve as excellent supplements for any student of the Bible or church history. They would work well as references in a Sunday school or home Bible study setting. Even though they are short the editor included a helpful topical index in each volume. A CD product that made the charts and artwork available for sermon illustrations or use in the classroom would also be a welcomed addition to the series.

These Guides are well done and they are a series that should continue to expand for some time. Other Guides on Church History (two volumes) and The Christian Heritage in England, The Tabernacle, The Bible, and Everyday Life in Bible Times, are also available and follow the same format. This series is accomplished with the excellence one expects from this editor and publisher and we highly recommend it for all students of the Bible.

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James D. G. Dunn. Christianity in the Making, Volume 1: Jesus Remembered. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing, 2003. Cloth xvii+1019pp. $55.00

In what promises to be one of the most significant series of works on the early Christianity and the early church of this or the previous generation, James D. G. Dunn has prepared a massive first installment of Christianity in the Making, ultimately planned as a three-volume work designed to chronicle, interpret and evaluate the first 120 years of Christianity.

Dunn, the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham in England, is the author of several significant works, including the commentary on Colossians and Philemon in the New International Greek Testament Commentary series, the two volume commentary on the Book of Romans in the Word Biblical Commentary series, The Theology of the Apostle Paul and Christology in the Making: Jesus and the Spirit. In recent years Dunn has also become a leading advocate and apologist with E. P. Sanders and N. T. Wright of the New Perspective on Paul position. Dunn is without question one of the leading Biblical scholars of the day exercising a great deal of influence within both evangelicalism and the larger sphere of Biblical studies in the more liberal tradition.

In evaluating a work such as this one must understand the foundational principles of the author as he approaches both the subject and subject matter. In addition to his New Perspective position (which we would expect to see fully fleshed out in the next volume in this series, cf. p. 6) particularly problematic, for the evangelical, is his view of Scripture. While affirming a “high” position for Scripture, he is not an inerrantist. He stated his position clearly in another work, where commenting on the historical reliability of the Synoptic Gospels, he stated:

We therefore can make the strong and confident affirmation that the Synoptic Gospels are a source of historical information about Jesus; the Evangelists were concerned with the historicity of what they remembered; in burden of proof terms we can start from the assumption that Synoptic tradition is a good witness to the historical Jesus unless proven otherwise (“The Historicity of the Synoptic Gospels,” in Crisis in Christology: Essays in Quest of Resolution, William D. Farmer, ed. [Livonia, MI: Dove Booksellers, 1995], 216).

In the present work, Dunn, in discussing the “sources” for his studies, he places high value on the Synoptics, but tends to follow critical view that the Gospel of John was more “theological” in its construct at the expense of factual information. He states, “In what follows, therefore, we shall certainly want to cal upon John’s Gospel as a source, but mostly as a secondary source to supplement or corroborate the testimony of the Synoptic tradition” (167). One wonders how the recent discovery of the Pool of Siloam (cf. John 9:7ff) and the affirmation of no less than James H. Charlesworth (whom Dunn cites frequently in this work) that, “Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit to illustrate a point. Now we have found the Pool of Siloam … exactly where John said it was. A gospel that was thought to be "pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history” (http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-siloam9aug09,1,3097577.story?coll=la-news-science accessed 8-9-2005).

One of Dunn’s goals in this work is to make a more thorough examination into the “oral tradition” that underlay the Gospel accounts (the canonical Gospels, the non-canonical gospels [e.g. The Gospel of Thomas], and the supposed gospel accounts [e.g. The Q Document]). He states,

The most distinctive feature of the present study will be the attempt to freshly assess the importance of the oral tradition of Jesus; mission and the suggestion that the Synoptic Gospels bear testimony to a pattern and technique of oral transmission which has ensured a greater stability and continuity in the Jesus tradition that has thus far been generally appreciated (6).

In this regard Dunn, offers the thesis that the traditional “literary dependence” model of the Synoptics, “is far too limited to explain the complexities of the Jesus tradition” (336). He affirms that he cannot offer “proof positive” of his thesis that the Synoptics find their foundational source material, not in written texts, but in the oral transmission of the material. But he also insightfully asks, “in dealing with Synoptic traditions, who can realistically hope for proof positive of any thesis?” (ibid). He requests that “the same judgment of plausibility which convinces most scholars of the priority of Mark and the existence of Q be exercised in relation to Synoptic texts where literary dependence is less obvious and is at least arguably less plausible” (ibid).

Dunn falls into the category of a “maximalist” that is the text of Scripture is regarded as largely reliable in terms of historical accuracy. As such Dunn both lambastes the recent tendencies in postmodern criticism of the Bible, stating, “To conceive the hermeneutical process as an infinitely regressive intertextuality is a counsel of despair which quickly reduces all meaningful communication to impossibility and all communication to a game of ‘trivial pursuit’” (121); and also conservatives, who he claim have a “lust for certainty which leads to fundamentalism’s absolutising of its own faith claims and dismissal of all others” (105). Still he affirms, “The meaning intended by means of and through the text is still a legitimate and viable goal for the NT exegete and interpreter” (122).

In this massive work Dunn has put together an impressive bibliography of over 50 pages, a Scripture (and other Ancient Writings) index (in which verses in which some exegesis or interpretation is offered are rendered in bold type), a subject and author index. The subject index is a little skimpy, only 7 pages, but with generally helpful access points. Evangelical and conservative scholars, while present in the bibliography, are a decided minority. Dunn has provided excellent footnotes and the breadth of research is impressive by any standard.

The first two parts so the book, comprising the first ten chapters, lay the foundation for Dunn’s work as he discusses both the background of the gospels themselves, but also chronicles and critically interacts with the research into the “Historical Jesus” in the last 100 years. Dunn clearly carries a two-edged sword, affirming much of what German rationalism, liberal scholarship, historical critics, Jesus Seminar, and the more recent movement towards sociological investigations of Jesus and the first century world (which he correctly notes is becoming the leading discipline in current Jesus and Gospel studies), but is also piercing in his critiques of the shortcomings, inadequacies and incongruities of these different methodologies. That he really only interacts and critiques those on the non-evangelical end of the spectrum is a significant weakness in this work. He never really engages evangelical or inerrantist scholars, even though he clearly departs from those positions at several junctures. In reading this work, one would never know that a significant body of literature on the Synoptics from an inerrantist position even existed.

The first ten chapters (336 pages) could easily be a stand-alone volume of immense value for the student of the New Testament and an introduction to Gospel studies and if the book stopped at this point it would be highly valued.

The remaining three parts of the book deal with an actual examination of the life of Christ. It is impossible in the space of a review to detail all of the aspects and lines of thought that Dunn presents. All of the major events of Christ’s life are dealt with, both historically and more thoroughly as they inter-relate into a meaningful whole, or what Dunn refers to as “the Jesus tradition.” Some observations on the major features, commonly viewed as the “flashpoints” in the discussions between conservative and liberal (or inerrantist and non-inerrantist) Biblical scholars; (1) the Virgin Birth; (2) Miracles, (3) the Resurrection, and (4) the Deity of Christ; however, can be made.

On the Virgin Birth, or “the virginal conception” as he puts it (345), Dunn spends relatively little time (339-48). He presents the material, but never either specifically affirms or denies the reality Virgin Birth. He concludes that the Gospel accounts affirm the “core conviction that Jesus was born of God’s Spirit in a special way” (348). On the miracles of Jesus, while he ridicules some “explanations” of the miracle accounts by anti-supernaturalist theologians (31), in places he seems to merely report the miracle accounts as part of the text and “Jesus tradition” without really offering a personal affirmation. He does make the strong presentation that Jesus’ healing and exorcism ministry was widely attested, even outside of the NT text (670-96). With regards to the resurrection, while he affirms the resurrection (879) and presents the textual data and proposed explanations for the resurrection accounts, he nonetheless states, “In short, ‘the resurrection of Jesus’ is not so much a criterion of faith as a paradigm for hope” (ibid). Finally, in regards to the deity of Christ, no specific affirmation of that doctrine is to be found in this volume.

In brief, it is not so much what Dunn affirms or denies in his presentation so much as what he fails to specifically or forceful affirm (Is Jesus God, the Second Person of the Trinity? Was He born of a Virgin? Did He perform miracles? Did He rise on the third day and bodily ascend into Heaven in the witness of the disciples?). The reality of these doctrines are foundational to Biblical Christianity.

This work is must reading for any student of the New Testament and many of the author’s insights, evaluations, and critical interaction are presented in a manner second to none of similar works currently in print. That he affirms and desires to defend the reliability of the Synoptics and the Biblical text in general is also laudable. However, while he may decry the “lust for certainty” of inerrantists, the author has, in many places, has reduced the essential doctrines of Biblical Christianity to mere “probabilities,” which is wholly unsatisfying to those who “would see Jesus.”

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Horseley, Richard A. Galilee: History, Politics, People. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995. viii + 357pp. (cloth), $27.95.

The author, professor of Religion and Classics at the University of Massachusetts, has produced a work of significant research dealing with the socio-political and economic forces at work in the region of Galilee during the New Testament era. The work seeks to fill a void the author detects in studies of the region. He states, ?renewed pursuit of the historical Jesus, critical studies of rabbinic literature, and intensified archaeological explorations have led to revived interest in Galilee? (1), and that ?previous understandings of Galilee were ill-prepared for this sudden revival of interest and information?(ibid.).

However, the reader who has any regard an evangelical view of the Bible will be significantly disappointed in both the methodology and results of the authors? efforts. The author takes an extreme ?minimalist? view of Scripture in relation to historical data. He introduces his historical methodology by informing the reader that, ?I will generally avoid using the Gospels as sources for life in Galilee. The use of synoptic of Johannine Gospel traditions as historical source for Galilee is just as problematic for using them as sources for the historical Jesus? (14). He also flies in the face of an enormous corpus of even secular literature when he states, ?Luke [the gospel of], of course seems the least trustworthy; he often writes patterns from elsewhere in the Hellenistic-Roman world into the scenes set in Galilee? (ibid.), or to put it plainly, he feels that Luke simply creates episodes and places them into a Galilee settings for ?effect.? Whereas he gives almost no credibility to Scriptural accounts, great importance is laid on rabbinic literature and he details an amazing list of its benefits in his study (14-15).

While the author presents a great deal of material in a clearly well researched and well-documented work, it seems that his goal is more often than not to discredit every conclusion about Galilee that previous scholars had reached. His chief target is Sean Freyne and his classic work Galilee, from Alexander the Great to Hadrian, 323 B.C.E. to 135 C.E. : a study of Second Temple Judaism (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1980). Of the more than two dozen times Freyne?s work is cited the author always disagrees with him, often in a disparaging manner (e.g. 294fn; 300fn). He also is critical of the archaeological work of Eric and Carol Meyers and James F. Strange, especially their Excavations at Ancient Meiron, Upper Galilee, Israel: 1971-72, 1974-75, 1977 (Cambridge, MA: ASOR, 1981), cautioning his readers to use their work with a ?critical eye? (296fn). However, he deals with these authors only briefly in the endnotes, never directly in the text of the work. Their work, particularly their conclusions, are never really given a hearing or presented in what could be described as even-handed. Even the ground breaking work of Yohanan Aharoni (e.g., Galilean Survey: Israelite Settlements and the Pottery and The Settlement of the Israelite Tribes in Upper Galilee) receive no mention at all.

This work, while scholarly is too often a set of assertions by the author on one hand and the ?out of hand? dismissals of positions contrary to his own with little if any real interaction (e.g., his rejection of the historicity of the account of Yohanan ben Zakkai and Jamnia council in Galilee, pp. 94-99). This work is a thoroughly disappointing production that has little to commend it, beyond the bibliography and the collection of historical and background information. The reader is well advised to continue to refer to Sean Freyne for Galilee studies.

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McNutt, Paula. Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1999. xiv + 284 pp. (cloth), $24.95.

This work is in the Library of Ancient Israel series (Douglas A. Knight, ed.), and represents an excellent chronological presentation of the society of ancient Israel.

Following the standard archaeological periods (Bronze Age, Iron Age, Babylonians period, etc.) the author, professor of Religious Studies at Canisius College in New York, brings together Biblical, archaeological and extra-biblical data to describe the ?social history.? By ?social History? the author has sought to ?instead of concentrating predominately on national events, leading individuals, political institutions, and ?high culture?? to rather emphasize the ?broader and more basic issues such as social organization, conditions in cities and villages, life stages, environmental contexts, power distribution according to class and status, and social stability and instability? (ix). It is a presentation of a ?micro? view rather than the standard ?macro? view of solciety inAncient Israel.

The author has an stimulating discussion of ?sources? for this type of study, and a good part of that discussion is reserved for the status of the Scripture as an accurate and reliable source of information. The author clearly rejects inspiration and inerrancy and views the Old Testament as a work which was ?collected and edited? over a period of time (5) and posits that the ?portion of the Bible we tend to refer to as ?historical?... probably reached its final form in the context of the Jewish religious community sometime after the fall of Judah to the Babylonians? (5). However, the author also is critical of the ?minimalist? view that rejects the Bible out of hand as a source document (9). While she feigns to take a position on the controversy (ibid.), she clearly adopts a position that the information contained in the Biblical text can only rise to a level of epistemological reliability when it is confirmed with ?extra-biblical evidence.?

That being said, the author takes a decidedly problematic position in her reconstruction of the ?Origins of Ancient Israel.? Here she posits that Israel really begins to form in Iron Age I (1200-1000 BC) not in what is normally called the ?Patriarchal Age? or Middle Bronze (2000-1550 BC). Her opinion is that the ?so-called patriarchal/ancestral period is a literary construct, not a period in the actual history of the ancient world. The same is the case for the ?exodus? and the ?wilderness period,? and more and more widely for the ?period of the judges??(42). She arrives at this conclusion because there is ?no extra-biblical evidence that has established any historical correlations with the biblical texts? (ibid.). In presenting her arguments she often falls into a fallacy of the ?sweeping generalization? with her repeated use of such phrases as ?it is now widely agreed? (42), ?it is now generally recognized? (40, 41) providing little support and virtually no contrary conservative opinion.

In terms of format this work has excellent indexes and is well-documented, although it is devoid of references to works by conservative scholars. The type font is a bit light and hard on the eyes. The lack of any maps, charts, illustrations or photographs, is also a negative feature.

Those criticisms notwithstanding, the book is a stimulating study and will prove enlightening to the discerning reader, as do the other works in this series. The emphasis on ?social history? is a needed one for backgrounds and exegetical thoroughness, although we might hope for a future work by an author who holds the Scripture in higher regard. The reader will certainly want to supplement their reading in this area with Edwin Yamuchi?s Peoples of the Old Testament Word (Baker, 1994).

Wolfgang Stegemann, Bruce J. Malina and Gerd Theissen (ed�s). The Social Setting of Jesus and the Gospels. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003, xv+404pp. $22.95 (paper).

Seeking to answer the question, �What can one, with the help of historically informed social-scientific models, know about the �historical� Jesus from the New Testament that cannot be know by other approaches?� (vii), this volume is the compilation of paper presented at the Fourth International Meeting of the Context Group in Tutzing, Germany in 1999.

This group is dedicated to interpreting the New Testament by means of historiography, utilizing social science research, once of course after they find a �suitable model� (p. 3) to facilitate such research. This group advocates a minimalist to radical minimalist approach to the text of Scripture. In fact their view of Scripture is simply assumed and never defended, the idea of an inspired and inerrant text from which propositional truth derived would be considered nonsensical. In fact this reviewer could not find a single instance where the word Scripture was even used and there is no mention of inspiration at any level.

This reviewer was struck at the beginning of the book by two things: (1) the distain for any approach to New Testament studies that affirms absolutes in terms of theological truth; and (2) the acrimony towards those who disagree with their affirmations. Once such example should suffice where Malina states:

For the most part, social-scientific research in New Testament studies has been concerned with interpreting written documents, not with the general storytelling of historians. In other words, its concerns have been exegetical, not historiographical . . . This is perhaps why, so far, there has been no �life� of the historical Jesus based on social-scientific interpretations . . .Nonetheless, what has been done with the social sciences is significant, much of it important enough to be plagiarized by John Dominic Crossan (4).

This is a technical work, not for the faint of heart. The authors assume conversance with various social-science constructs and they make no effort to explain their models at all, except as over against why their selected model is chosen over another competing model (p. 15). There is a great deal technical jargon from the social sciences, such as the so-called �forming� �storming� �norming� �performing� and �adjourning� phases of small group development that the authors ascribe to the ministry of Jesus (pp. 11-15). One author speaks of the �public self� the �private self� and the �in-group self� of Jesus (38) and states that if Jesus did think that He was the Messiah no one would have heard about it in His lifetime because to assert such �private self� beliefs would be a shameful practice (39).

Other chapters discuss �Jesus as Fatherless Child� (65-84); discusses Jesus� baptism by John and His walking on water in terms of �altered states of consciousness� models (108-111); demon possession is described as a �socially accepted way to deal with tensions, because it allowed those possessed to do and say what they could not do or say as a sane person (165). There is a chapter entitled �The Jesus Movement and Network Analysis� (301-32) where the travels of Jesus and His disciples are evaluated in terms of an �ego-centered network� (325).

All of this is simply what we might call the �Quest for the Historical Jesus� on steroids. It is the full-scale abandonment of the text of Scripture as inspired (or even a somewhat reliable source of historical information) and historical-grammatical hermeneutics as a viable methodology for interpreting and understanding the text. Paul�s warning that in the last days there would be those who are �always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth� (2 Tim 3:7) is the best summation possible for this thoroughly useless book.

Jonathan L. Reed. Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: A Re-examination of the Evidence. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2001. $17.00 (Paper) xvi + 253 pp.

The so-called �quest for the historical Jesus,� has been an ongoing process for over a century and in recent years has been re-energized by the work of the �Jesus Seminar� and related activities. These endeavors have centered mainly in the Synoptic Gospels and some extra-biblical material (e.g the Gospel of Thomas). Utilizing various and often conflicting and contradictory methodologies to examine the texts, the results of these efforts have been massive in terms of a body of literature, including most notably the manufacture of a �gospel� document entitled �Q� or, as the author of this work calls it, �Sayings Source Q.�

This work, by an archaeologist who, while wholeheartedly sympathetic to the endeavor, expresses dissatisfaction over the results of the quest by purely historical critical methodology. He details his concern and prejudices in the introductory chapter:

For the most part, biblical scholarship has been the domain of literary studies and text-centered. The text of the Bible was the primary object of study, and exegesis the chief goal. This near myopic focus on words, perhaps a remnant of Christian and particularly Protestant theology, rendered archaeology biblical studies� �handmaiden,� whose role was to assist exegesis or discover new written materials. (1)

The author�s concern is that Biblical studies have not been adequately informed by the work of archaeology and that discipline�s emphasis on detailing the �material culture� of a given era within a particular geographic region. The goal of this work is to bring archaeological data, particularly from the region of Galilee to bear on the subject of the �Historical Jesus� in an attempt to provide what the author apparently perceives as a lack of factual underpinnings to the foundation of these studies. Related to these studies he perceptively notes:

With rare exceptions, notably the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls or Nag Hammadi Library well over a generation ago, scholars working on Jesus and Galilee with literary evidence simply introduce new methods or innovative theories to analyze these texts. The collage of citations is re-shuffled or re-mixed, emphasizing some passage over others, while re-interpreting a few, perhaps in dialogue with other disciplines. (214)

The author is a professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of La Verne in California and is the Field Director of the Sepphoris Acropolis excavations. The overall work is well accomplished in terms of layout and logical progression. While the author indicated that this work would not be a �collection of archaeological artifacts� (xi), the volume is nonetheless adequately illustrated with diagrams, charts and some photographs. There is also a brief, but adequate subject index. There is a remarkably thorough bibliography (221-46), which is one of the strongest aspects of the work. The bibliography is so large that it might have been helpful for the author to make some categorical subdivisions within it. Also, in light of the author�s discussion of the road system and his insistence that no major roadway went through Capernaum (148-49) and the subsequent discussion of trade and commerce in Galilee, it seems strange that David A. Dorsey�s definitive work, The Roads and Highways of Ancient Israel (Johns Hopkins Press, 1991) is not referenced. The book is divided into three main sections: the first part dealing mainly with the cultural geography of Galilee, the second centering on two Galilean cities, Sepphoris and Capernaum; and the third the integration of the author�s archaeological conclusions to �Q� and the �Historical Jesus� quest.

In the chapter, �Jesus and Sepphoris Revisted,� (100-38) he details the issues related to this interesting, and in terms of secular history, significant city. Sepphoris was a leading city of Galilee, and under Herod Antipas has been the regional capital. Josephus called the city �the ornament of all Galilee� (Ant. 18.27). The issue of Sepphoris has always been, that despite Jesus� extensive ministry, obviously centered in Galilee, this city is never mentioned in the NT. This omission has long perplexed NT scholars who have insisted that the largely Greek speaking cosmopolitan center located only a few miles from Nazareth must play a large role in understanding the cultural background of Jesus� life and ministry. The author notes, �how Sepphoris affected Galilee, and how this impact is addressed in Jesus� teachings as recorded by his followers, is the principle concern� (114). However, in this reviewer�s opinion, this quest, like the quest for Q is ultimately doomed to irrelevance because of the author�s minimalistic approach to the text of Scripture even beyond the explicit rejection of inspiration and inerrancy.

In the view of the author the lack of mention (in this case of Sepphoris) in the text is a factual omission, an omission so significant, that the text cannot possibly be understood without being informed by some method of cultural and social reconstruction via the archaeological data. Of course when the text of Scripture is viewed as just another �source document� and not a thoroughly reliable one at that, such conclusions are to be expected. That the Biblical text is not exhaustive in terms of the history and events it covers is certainly without question and even admitted to by the Biblical writers themselves (John 20:31; 21:25). In the Old Testament era the famous battle of Qarqar (853 B. C.), where Ahab the well-known king of Israel, led a collation that defeated the then emerging Assyrian Empire, is an example of a famous and politically significant incident that receives no mention at all in the Biblical text. But these omissions do not contain material or information that is of primary importance in arriving at a proper exegesis of the text.

The same can be said for Jesus and Sepphoris, there was apparently no ministry or other issue of significance that the inspired writers were led to include. Did Jesus ever visit or minister in Sepphoris? While possibile, it is impossible to say with any certainty, since there are no verifiable records to verify or falsify the assertion. Even if He did and such could be objectively proven, it would have no real impact on Biblical studies or the interpretation of any of the Gospel accounts.

In chapter six the author endeavors to give a geographic location of �Q� in terms of its literary center and the influences of the surrounding culture on the writing itself. As an underlying assumption the author makes an interesting admission when he says,

The first assumption about the nature of Q is that it was a literary document written in Greek. Although the early sayings may well have been first articulated in Semetic, attempts to uncover a written Aramaic Vorlage behind Q have failed. Q, therefore, must be located in an area where are least some level of Greek literacy existed. (214-15).

The author then moves to postulate a Galilean locale for Q and in so doing recasts Jesus from Messiah and Savior to a socio-religious Galilean activist opposed to urbanization and economic policies of Herod Antipas.

In terms of the collection of information with interesting and in some cases perhaps illuminating parallels the author has done a service to the scholarly discussion. His comments as to the failure of the purely literary efforts to locate the �Historical Jesus� are incisive and in many ways damning to that process. However, he himself is following the same path those on the Jesus Seminar quest took. The former, as the author states, �simply introduce new methods or innovative theories to analyze these texts� (214). While in the later, the blending of social science theories from cultural geography, sociology and the like are brought into the interpretative process of archaeology, the author himself has simply created a �new method or innovative theory� to interpret the archaeological data. This is most clearly seen when he criticizes strict examination of the text in terms of its geographical data. �This strict empirical approach neglects the intricate blending between the literary and symbolic worlds and adds little to an understanding of the community�s perspective on the world� (172). His concept of keeping in mind the �distinctions between the �textual world,� �symbolic world,� and �concrete world�� in evaluating the textual and archaeological data is reminiscent of Origin�s �Threefold Sense of Scripture� now transposed into the archaeological method.

The author�s insight that the literary attempts to find the �Historical Jesus� have, for the most part, failed is certainly valid. His solution, however, to further subjugate the text of Scripture under another layer of interpretation from another ancillary discipline is certainly invalid and wholly unsatisfactory. If this book marks a trend to move further away from Scripture to prop up the superstructure of historical criticism it is a most unwanted trend, but one evangelicals will need to be wary of.

Mark W. Chavalas and K. Lawson Younger, Jr. (ed�s). Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative Explorations. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2002. 395 pp. (Paper), $29.99.

This book represents the collection of a series of papers presented at the annual meeting of the Near East Archaeological Society in 1995. The subject of that year was �Syro-Mesopotamia and the Bible.� The Near East Archaeological Society is an association of evangelicals whose members must affirm the twofold doctrinal statement:

� I believe that the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is the Word of God written, and therefore inerrant in the autographs.
� I believe in the unique Divine inspiration, integrity, and authority of the Bible.
The society is primarily concerned with the archaeological exploration and study of the lands of the Bible and holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the Evangelical Theological Society.

This work consists of 14 individual essays on themes of ancient Mesopotamian history and archaeology. These articles are not designed to be introductory; but rather, they require a level of familiarity with introductory literature and issues involved. The work contains an introduction in which the purpose of the work is detailed as �a description of certain aspects of that [Mesopotamian] civilization that may (or may not) help the reader place the Bible in its greater ancient Near Eastern context� (8). The editors anticipate questions as to the inclusion of material related to Ugarit, Alalakh and Elba with the notation that, �in this book we will take a very loose definition of Mesopotamia as encompassing some regions of Syria immediately west of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley that were obviously connected culturally to traditional Mesopotamia� (ibid). A helpful nine page listing of abbreviations, as well as a Scripture and Name index have been added. Each article contains a significant bibliography as the end. Two minor criticisms arise; one is the lack of a subject index and secondly, the complete lack of any maps, charts or other illustrations. The later would have been greatly helpful in several of the articles where even those with a good working knowledge of the people and places would have been well served by a visual anchor.

In terms of content there are two significant articles dealing with the identity and rule of several Assyrian kings, particularly Sargon, Pul, and Tiglath-Pileser by Steven W. Holloway (68-87) and K. Lawson Younger, Jr. (288-329). One, by the Edwin Yamauchi on the �Eastern Jewish Diaspora� (356-77), is especially significant as it relates to the issue of the continuation of the Jewish racial identity in the face of forced exile and often forced assimilation. Another significant article is that of the editor, Mark W. Chavalas on the subject of �Assyriology and Biblical Studies: A Century of Tension� (21-67) in which he details the care that needs to be taken in seeing (or creating) parallels between the Biblical texts and the various texts discovered in Syro-Mesopotamia (e.g. Mari, Nuzi, Ebla). David C. Deuel, former Associate Professor of Old Testament at The Master�s Seminary, contributed an article on his area of expertise related to the role and status of royal messengers in the Ancient Near East. Another significant article is that of Richard E. Averbeck on Sumer and the Bible (88-125), particularly as it relates to the parallels between the construction of the Solomonic Temple and temples in the Summerian culture.

All of the articles represent the best in evangelical scholarship in archaeology, Ancient Near East history and civilization and their proper relationship to Biblical studies. This work is highly recommended.

Kendall H. Easley. The Illustrated Guide to Biblical History. Nashville, Tennessee: Holman Reference, 2003. Cloth xiii + 306pp. $19.95

Since the publication of the Encountering series from Baker Books publishers seemingly have been tripping over themselves to produce high quality color, graphic and visually oriented Bible surveys and helps. This present volume represents a new series from Holman Publishers into that genre.

This work, as noted in the preface, uses the new Holman Christian Standard Bible (Holman, 2000) for Biblical text references and draws on the considerable graphic resources from the archives of The Biblical Illustrator, a regular periodical production of the Southern Baptist Convention. The work is designed to present a sweeping over view of Biblical History in the Old and New Testament era, what the author calls �metanarrative� (2). There is also an adequate overview of the inter-testamental period. He notes that �building the Kingdom� is the theme of the entire Bible (3).

The clear strength of this work is the highly detailed maps and charts (all in full color) and the excellent pictures throughout. The book is produced on high quality paper, and is remarkably low-priced (in fact this reviewer found that Amazon.com sells it for only $13.95 new in hardback). There are frequent uses of �sidebars� giving a paragraph or two of additional information on specific issues, individuals or groups. The text is brief, often too brief even for metanarrative. The totality of Biblical history is placed in a prologue which in only seven pages covers all of Genesis 1-11; six chapters, and an epilogue in which the author deals with Revelation 21-22 as summations of a sort of all of Biblical history; a sort of tying up all the loose ends.

The text itself is broadly evangelical and conservative in nature and generally avoids controversial issues. The author mentions creation options of �old earth� and �young earth� only in passing (4) and rather cavalierly gives the impression that it is an unimportant subject to the totality of what he calls the �Kingdom Story� (ibid). He does present an early dating for the Exodus (24) but without any real conviction or an explanation as to why this might be an important interpretative issue. He presents an A.D. 30 crucifixion (not this reviewers choice), but again without any mention of additional options (199ff) or the issues involved. The author presents a section on Revelation 20 and the millennial kingdom, but rather oddly consigns both the amilllennial and premillennial view as taking the passage (esp. 20:4-6, as he ignores entirely vs. 1-3 and the binding of Satan) as figurative (280). He presents a solution for the passage that he calls �promillenialism� in which no real chronological significance can be derived and is intended to present comfort for the readers of God�s victory (ibid).

In the introduction the author gives no mention as to his intended audience or a specific need that this work is designed to fill. It certainly can be recommended, despite the above-mentioned flaws, as a general overview of the Bible. This work would find it�s best use perhaps in a Sunday School setting. It is much too brief and anemic for a college-level text and certainly of no particular value at the seminary level.

Steve Mason. Josephus and the New Testament (2nd edition). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003. Paper, xviii + 318pp. $16.95.

One of the most important and interesting personalities in extra-biblical history of the New Testament era is that of Flavius Josephus (c.a. A.D.37-100). This work is a new and expanded edition of the author�s 1992 work under the same title. The author brings significant academic credentials to this undertaking. He is widely regarded as one of the leading Josephan scholars alive today and is the general editor of the multi-volume Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary (Brill, 2000-) a new English edition of the works of Josephus.

This new edition is well designed and includes a new series of charts and maps that are quite helpful in sorting out the various personalities and groups, particularly the House of Herod (151) and especially the Hasmonean Dynasty (201). He has written an overview and introduction that is lucid and detailed dealing with quite a complicated corpus of work from a singularly unique individual. As the author notes, �Although Josephus is widely known, he writings seem bewildering and impenetrable on a first approach� (297). This work is well indexed (particularly the index of Josephus� works cited) and provides excellent bibliographic references.

The author has several excellent sections, particularly his discussion of the relationship between Luke-Acts and Josephus (251-95). The author holds out the possibility that Luke used Jospehus as one of his sources for information, although of course this would put the writing of Luke-Acts into the era of A.D. 90. It is interesting that the author does not even consider that the converse is possibly true, that Josephus used Luke-Acts as a source. Other important sections are the discussions of Josephan references to New Testament personalities and his detailed discussion of the testimonian flavianum, the testimony of Josephus to the person of Christ (Ant. 18.63-64; pp. 225-36 in this text). His chapter on �Who�s Who in the New Testament World� (147-211) is also a thorough and well-conceived overview.

The major flaw in this work from an epistemological viewpoint is that the author regards the works of Josephus to be on an equal historical value and reliability as the Scriptures and seemingly he often seems to regard Josephus as perhaps even more reliable. This, of course, will be a distraction to those who are committed to an inspired and inerrant Scripture; however, that should not dissuade any serious student of the New Testament from acquiring and using this excellent introduction to great profit.

Frederick J. Murphy. Early Judaism: The Exile to the Time of Jesus. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002. xviii+474pp. $37.95 (cloth).

One of the welcome consequences resulting from the breaking of the scholastic monopoly on the Dead Sea Scrolls several years ago has been the resurgence of studies related to Judaism and Judaic influences on the New Testament world and text. The literature in this field has literally exploded in the last five years with at least a dozen notable works and many more of lesser notoriety.

The author of this present work is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Holy Cross and this work is a completely revised version of his 1991 The Religious World of Jesus: An Introduction to Second Temple Palestinian Judaism (Abington, 1991). Written to supply a text for his courses, the author has the purpose of to �balance the effort to appreciate Judaism for its own sake, on the one hand, and the desire to shed light on Jesus and the early Christians on the other� (p. xiii).

This work is an amazing resource of factual information, well written and structurally well conceived. There are helpful indexes and two helpful glossaries (of terms and of persons). There are several useful charts and the author often places boxes with explanatory information within the text. The chapters progress clearly and logically, covering the history of Israel in survey form from Abraham to the Babylonian captivity and then with a little more detail from the Restoration to the New Testament era. There are separate chapters dedicated to the subject of Apocalypticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the various Jewish sects, the Roman rule over Israel, the Jewish revolt and the interesting chapter, �Jewish Foundations of New Testament View of Christ.�

However, the potential of this book is never realized because of what this reviewer call the �conservative minimalist� view of Scripture of the author and his resultant misunderstanding of the text. By �conservative minimalist� this reviewer means one who take the text of Scripture as simply one of many texts to be examined to construct a theology or reconstruct a history of the Biblical world. Scripture is important, but no more or less important than other texts. The author makes this clear in his introduction:

The canon of Judaism or Christianity is that body of writings accepted as authoritative and normative. Belief and practice are measured and judged by these writings. By choosing to include some writings in the canon and exclude others from it, each religion has defined its contours. The normativity of the included texts is expressed through the notion that they are inspired��that is, that God is responsible for them in some way (p. 1).

He further states that, �When we limit our study to the canon of the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, certain viewpoints and prejudices are reinforced that are supported by the principles of selection that led to the formation of the canon in the first place� (p. 6-7). For the author the concept of canonization are purely a human effort to collect religious writings that support a groups preconceived ideas of how they wanted their theology and worldview to be formed. Inspiration becomes nothing more than a �label� placed on texts by groups to validate their views or manipulate followers into acquiescence. The biblical constructs of inspiration, inerrancy, authority, etc., are explicitly and implicitly denied throughout this book.

In the view of the author the New Testament distorts the Judaism of the era, calling the �treatment of Judaism is, on the whole, biased� (ibid). A key purpose of the author is to present a �more balanced portrait of Jewish society� (ibid) than one receives from simply �analyzing the apostle Paul or the Gospel of Mark.�

The author�s view of the Old Testament text does not attain to a high level either. He affirms his belief in the compilation JEP theory for the Pentateuch (22) and the Deuteronomistic History theory to the remainder of the historic books (23). The Old Testament, in his view, was the product of redactors and editors and the final version of the majority of the Old Testament books was not finalized until late in the Judean monarchy or after the Babylonian captivity through the Hasmonean era. As a result different sections of the Old Testament are contradictory to each other or express entirely different worldviews (26).

Theologically, the author misunderstands the entire concept of the sacrificial system stating that, �the basic idea of much of the Israelite sacrifice seems to have been that of a gift in thanksgiving for a favor or in hopes of getting God�s favor� (48). Prophecy is not predictive in any way, it is simply men writing words of encouragement to an oppressed people utilizing �literary fiction� (163) to display an illusion of prediction, strengthening the encouraging words. Most importantly Jesus is not the divine Second Person of the Trinity (407), He is simply a man on a mission to purify Judaism and speak out against the oppressors of His era, whose followers later ascribe to Him deity (349).

Stylistically the reader is struck by the fact that with all of the author�s rather dogmatic pronouncements about history, culture and the interpretation of Biblical and extra-biblical texts, there is not a single footnote or endnote to be found. There are only a few in-text citations in the entire book. At the end of each chapter there is a bibliography (which honestly would be much more useful if it had been collected as a whole), but no one is quoted and almost no references are given for additional study or to check up on the author�s work. This being the case it should come as no surprise that the bibliography is bereft of works from conservative or evangelical scholarship.

In the short space of this review it is impossible to list all of the interpretative and theological errors that are compiled herein. While the author often calls himself a Christian (xii) it is impossible to understand what he actually means by that, since he denies or modifies every cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. This is a book that is an excellent example of a genre of material coming forth from the failed and heretical �Historical Jesus� movement.