In the first half of May 2024, you can add Boyd Seevers, Warfare in the Old Testament: The Organization, Weapons, and Tactics of Ancient Near Eastern Armies (Kregel, 2013). Each section begins with a fictional story of a battle, told from the perspective of a soldier. For example, in chapter 1, Seever creates the narrative of Judah ben-Eliezer, a soldier about to participate in the attack on Jericho. In chapter 5, the story of Dagarat the Philistine introduces the reader to the Philistines as they engage King Saul. In chapter 9, we read about Chrysantes, a commander in the Median cavalry. These short stories are engaging and offer an insight into the content of the chapter. They are not the sort of thing one expects in a scholarly book, but Seevers intends them as a creative way to draw his readers into the topic at hand. This book is a good introduction for the layperson to how the military functioned in the Ancient Near East. While the text does use some technical terminology, it is written for the non-professional. Most Bible students will benefit from reading this book alongside Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Read my full review of the book here.
There are some really good discounts on other Kregel books as well.
Charles Wood, Sermon Outlines on the Book of Proverbs, $1.99
Warren Wiersbe, Classic Sermons on the Fruit of the Spirit, $3.99
David Howard, Interpreting the Historical Books: An Exegetical Handbook, $19.99
Jason S. DeRouchie; Oren R. Martin; Andrew David Naselli, 40 Questions about Biblical Theology, $7.99
Timothy C. Tennent. Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century, $9.99
Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 3, $11.99 (Reviewed here)
Preorder and Save: 40 Questions about Pentecostalism (40 Questions Series), $16.99 $9.99
I would wait a little while for the Howard Exegetical Handbook; it looks like they do not have it at the sale price yet. Allen Ross is a great commenter on Psalms, so don’t miss the chance to pick that one up for $7.99. The Forty Questions series is very good. I have reviewed several volumes (Miguel G. Echevarría and Benjamin P. Laird, 40 Questions about The Apostle Paul, or Mark Strauss, 40 Questions about Bible Translations).
The Publisher Spotlight in May is Lexham Press & Reformation Heritage. Now through May 31, save up to 40% on Lexham courses and other collections, including the 25-volume Original Languages Suite.
Introduction to the Gospels: Book & Course Bundle (14 vols.; 3 courses.)—40% off
Lexham Press Original Languages Suite (25 vols.)—40% off
Reformation Heritage Puritan Studies Collection (7 vols.)—40% off
The Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament (8 vols.)—40% off
These deals go away at the end of Apri 2024. So shop early, and shop often. All the links are Logos Affiliate links. If you are planning on buying Logos books, use this link and out Reading Acts.
I am always looking for volunteers to host upcoming Biblical Studies carnivals on your website. People are doing really good work on podcasts and YouTube. It would be great if someone did a carnival featuring some of the best academic podcasts.
What does a Carnival look like? Alert readers will notice that this month’s carnival focused on the Hebrew Bible and and New Testament blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels. If you are more interested in Theology and Church History, I would love to have you curate a list of the best posts in these categories. Here is the November 2023 Carnival. Contact me (email, plong42 @ gmail.com). You can follow me on Twitter and DM me if that is your style. I am on Threads @plong42; feel free to follow me there, too.
Dodson, Joseph R. and Mattie Mae Motl. Conquerors Not Captives: Reframing Romans 7 for the Christian Life. Lexham Press, 2024. xxi+175 pp.; Pb.; $16.99. Link to Lexham Press
Joseph R. Dodson is Craig L. Blomberg Endowed Chair of New Testament at Denver Seminary and an associate pastor at New Denver Church. He wrote this book with his daughter, Mattie Mae Motl, a graduate of Denver Seminary and a pastoral resident at Denver Community Church. This is a short, focused study of Romans 7:14–25, primarily on the identity of the wretched person in verse 24. There are many possible interpretations of this passage, and the verses usually occupy several pages in any Roman commentary. C. E. B. Cranfield’s ICC Commentary, for example, has a list of seven possible interpretations. Unfortunately, one interpretation consistently comes up in popular preaching: the wretched man is Paul talking about his own struggle in the Christian life.According to Dodson, this view is impossible based on reading the rest of Paul’s letters. In Romans, Paul argues that the Holy Spirit enables believers to overcome sin. Romans 8:27 seems clear: believers are “more than conquerors in Christ.” Any interpretation that understands the wretched man as referring to Paul himself clashes with the context of Romans 7:24. Dodson considers this view a “blunt and clumsy popular view that leads believers to think that they are impotent before sin and powerless to do good” (xviii). To read Romans 7:24 this way is a “flip it surrender to sin,” which sounds like Emily Dickinson: “The heart wants what it wants, or else it doesn’t care” (7). Unfortunately, this will lead to a learned helplessness in the Christian life. “A person persuaded she will always be defeated by sin likely will be. People rarely win battles they have are convinced they have already lost” (127). This “learned helplessness” completely ignores Romans 6 and Romans 8.
Dodson divides the possible interpretations of Romans 7:24 into two broad categories: the wretched man is not Paul (chapter 1), or the wretched man is Paul (chapter 2). He observes that Augustine, Luther, and Calvin thought that the wretched man somehow refers to Paul’s life. This does not mean that the wretched cry implies Paul was giving into sin or doing evil things. Chapter 8 covers several minority views on the identity of the wretched man (some of which are categories of Dodson’s broad categories).
To support the academic consensus view on Romans 7:24 that Paul is not talking about his own personal experience, Dodson walks through the context of Romans 5–8 (chapter 3), concluding that the context of Romans 6 and Romans 8 does not give any evidence. A believer is still enslaved to sin. He then provides an exegetical commentary on Romans 7:14–25 (chapter 4) and other relevant passages (chapter 5).
Chapters 6–7 deal with eight objections to the view that the wretched man is not Paul or referring to the Christian’s ongoing struggle with sin or their inevitable defeat by sin. The biggest problem is that Paul used “I” in this passage. Why did he use that pronoun if he was not talking about himself? Richard Longenecker, Dodson argues that there is a difference between the autobiographical I and the gnomic I. For example, in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, “If I speak…”. This is an example of a gnomic I since Paul is not specifically referring to himself (82). In Romans 7, Paul speaks about anyone living without God, not necessarily himself.
One of the more difficult objections to the wretched man not referring to Paul himself is the question, “What about my own experience?” Many Christians feel guilty because they do not live a moral life that they know they should. Every Christian struggles with sin in their life. Isn’t this what Paul is talking about in Romans 7:24? Dodson considers this objection, reading one’s own baggage into the text. Proper understanding of Romans 7:24 requires that we not imagine that Paul has had the same sort of experience that we have. To a certain extent, this is exactly why Augustine and Martin Luther thought the wretched man was the apostle Paul: they were reading their own struggle with sin into Paul’s statement.
Conclusion. Conquerors, Not Captives is a stimulating study of one particular issue in the book of Romans. But this is not an academic book for the sake of academics; Dodson has a pastoral heart, which frequently comes through in this book. Over dealing with an academic issue, Dodson wrote the book in a style that will be accessible to people who want to dig deeper into this important topic. Pastors should read this book carefully before preaching on Romans 7:24.
Addendum: I just ran across this article, which might interest some readers: Wong, Matthew. “A Defense of the ‘Mature Autobiographical Believer’ Interpretation Of The ‘Wretched Man’ In Romans 7:24 .” Journal of Dispensational Theology 26.72–73 (2022).
NB: I appreciate Lexham Press’s generous offer of a review copy of this book, but this did not influence my thoughts about the work.
Anderson, Gary A. That I May Dwell Among Them: Incarnation and Atonement in the Tabernacle Narrative. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2023. xvi+254 pp. Hb; $35.99. Link to Eerdmans
Gary Anderson in Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought at the University of Notre Dame. His previous books include Sin: A History (Yale University Press, 2010) and Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition (Yale University Press, 2013). Like his The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination (WJKP, 2001), That I May Dwell Among Them carefully examines a theme from the Old Testament that is related to later Christian theology. Rather than start with incarnation and atonement in the New Testament and then “salvage” the Tabernacle narrative, Anderson starts with the Old Testament text. He develops what the Tabernacle narrative says about God dwelling with his people and providing atonement before he moves forward to the New Testament and Christian theology. Throughout the book, Anderson is guided by Brevard Child’s canonical method, which enables him to see connections between Leviticus and the creation story (see, for example, the citation of Childs on page 161).
The Tabernacle narrative is tedious, repetitive, and difficult for many Christian readers to read. Aside from popular studies that overuse (and abuse) typology, most Christian readers ignore this section of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Anderson suggests this is unfortunate, especially since the gospel of John uses tabernacle language (Exodus 25) to describe the “word became flesh.” The purpose of the Word becoming flesh is to reveal God’s glory, a consistent theme with Exodus 40:34–35. Anderson’s book argues the Tabernacle revealed God’s glory and presence to Israel. The Tabernacle Narrative is a large section of the Pentateuch: Exodus is devoted to the building of the Tabernacle, Leviticus 1-10 to the service of the Tabernacle, and Numbers 1-10 to how the Tabernacle guided Israel to Canaan.
A chapter briefly overviewing the reception of the Tabernacle narrative Christian Bible sets the agenda for the book. On the theological level, how do we better understand the person of Jesus in the light of the Tabernacle? How can the sacrificial system shed light on Jesus’s sacrifice? He returns to these themes in the book’s final two chapters (on incarnation and atonement). To make these theological observations, Anderson provides a detailed study of the Tabernacle Narrative.
The second chapter is devoted to the inauguration of the Tabernacle. Anderson connects creation and the Garden of Eden to the Tabernacle, as is common in biblical theology today. However, he observes a similar “pattern of sevens” in the creation and Tabernacle Narrative. God speaks to create in Exodus 25–39. God speaks to Moses to do seven things leading up to the erection of the Tabernacle (Exodus 40). This pattern of sevens is seen again in the ordination of the priests (Leviticus 8). Exodus is focused on the structure of the Tabernacle, while Leviticus is focused on its altar and service. For this reason, Anderson suggests the temple Tabernacle narrative has two climaxes. In Exodus, the furniture and other implements are front and center. Leviticus describes the altar and the sacrifices.
Chapters 3 and 4 (Seeing God and Serving God) describe the divine presence in Numbers 4, and the tamid sacrifices in Exodus 29. Anderson carefully studies the Levitical families who cared for the tabernacle and its furniture. The Ark of the Covenant is the main sign of God’s presence, that God “really dwells in the Tabernacle” (59). Looking at the sacred things in the Tabernacle is similar to some aspects of seeing God. Although Anderson does not mention it, it is possible that the description of the Tabernacle in Exodus is a form of ekphrasis (a literary genre describing a static image, usually a piece of art). Both chapters include the Second Temple period reception of the Tabernacle Narrative. The theme of “seeing” is found in Jewish coinage from the Bar Kokhba Revolt depicting the temple (65–66). He introduces the tamid sacrifice by describing a carpet mosaic from a synagogue at Sepphoris depicting Aaron’s first sacrifice. In addition, he includes references to the Tabernacle and temple in the Dead Sea scrolls in Rabbinic literature. Anderson includes examples from post-biblical sources in both cases because they “build upon a foundation that is deeply biblical” (67).
Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the theophany in Leviticus 9. All four sons of Aaron commit errors, but Moses reprimands only two of them. Anderson sees a connection with creation theology here. He argues a “textual chasm” exists between Leviticus 8-9. Leviticus 8 lays out the offering details, and then Leviticus 9 begins the liturgical process (114). The priests begin to act on their own, but they immediately suffer their “first accident” (117). Leviticus 10 describes Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron who offered “strange fire” before the Lord, and fire came from the Lord and consumed them (Lev 10:1–2). There is no consensus on what exactly they did wrong. Anderson observes that this is much like Cain and Abel. As soon as creation is finished, there is a sacrifice, and God rejects a sacrifice.
Chapters 7 and 8 discuss the priestly narrative in the larger canonical setting. First, Anderson discusses the golden calf incident (Exodus 32). The golden calf story is likely from a different source and was inserted at this point for theological reasons. By venerating the golden calf, the people spurn the type of sanctuary described in the previous chapters of Exodus and its worship. Although Anderson does not state this, this is like Jeroboam, who rejected Solomon’s Temple and returned to worship of the golden calf (1 Kings 12:25-33). Anderson has a long citation from Karl Barth, which mentions Jeroboam (158), but his main interest is connecting this story to Genesis and original sin. The second larger canonical connection Anderson draws is to Genesis 22 in the binding of Isaac. He points out several potential allusions to Isaac’s binding in Moses’s intercession prayers, especially Exodus 32. Moses’s prayers always look back to the “unilateral and unconditional offer on God’s part to Abraham” (164). Using the Aramaic Levi document, Anderson grounds the tamid in the story of the binding of Isaac. He also references rabbinic literature and the mosaic at Sepphoris as other examples of Second Temple (and later) connections between the tamid and the binding of Isaac.
Conclusion. Anderson’s That I May Dwell Among Them is a rich study of the Tabernacle Narrative. By drawing canonical connections back to Genesis, he demonstrates the original creation story shapes this somewhat obscure material. By drawing canonical connections forward to the New Testament, he makes reasonable application of the Tabernacle narrative to theological issues such as incarnation and atonement.
NB: Thanks to Eerdmans for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not influence my thoughts regarding the work.
Burnett, D. Clint. Paul and Imperial Divine Honors: Christ, Caesar, and the Gospel. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2024. xxvii+332 pp. Hb; $49.99. Link to Eerdmans
In his Studying the New Testament through Inscriptions (Hendrickson Academic, 2020, reviewed here), Burnett hoped that “one day more New Testament students who use inscriptions in their interpretation of his documents and the historical reconstructions of early Christianity” (p. 165). Paul and Imperial Divine Honors is his first step toward reaching that goal.
Burnett describes an inscription from Gythium (modern Gytheio) in his nineteen-page introduction to the book. The inscription is the sacred law of Gythium and includes the fullest known portrait of an imperial festival ever discovered. This was an eight-day festival honoring five Julio-Claudians (Augustus, Tiberius, Augustus’s wife Livia, and two of Tiberius’s sons). The festival also honored a Roman general and two local benefactors. The festival included sacred process sessions and sacrifices on each day devoted to the various dedicatees. This is a grant of divine honors to certain Roman rulers by an individual city. Although this illustrates what an imperial festival may have looked like, Burnett is clear: this inscription does not describe every imperial festival, nor can it be used to describe the granting of imperial honors in every Roman city.
Burnett must define what he means by “divine honors” clearly. He avoids using the phrase “imperial cult” because it implies that there was some centralized form of worship. Instead, he focuses his attention on individual local grants of divine honors. To define these divine honors, he proposes studying the material culture in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth to demonstrate how each city gave divine honors differently. In doing so, Burnett demonstrates that there is no evidence that terms like kurios and soter were used as imperial titles, nor was euangelion in these inscriptions when Paul wrote his letters. But this does not mean Burnett is “an apologist in favor of imperial divine honors” (238). He wants to reconstruct early Christianity as accurately as possible. The divine honors granted by these cities are still arrogant and blasphemous, but it goes beyond the evidence to include kurios and soter among those honors.
This challenges the assumption among many New Testament scholars that when Paul uses language like kurios and soter he does so subversively, using “anti-imperial rhetoric.” Scholars as early as Deissmann (and more recently, N. T. Wright) assume all Divine imperial honors are the same. If a divine honor (such as kurios in Pergamum, referring to Trajan, for example) is found elsewhere, it is often assumed to apply in other Roman cities, such as Philippi or Corinth. In his commentary on Romans and Paul and the Faithfulness of God, Wright states that kurios and euangelion echo imperial rhetoric. Wright suggests, “Caesar is guilty of giving himself divine.” Burnette points out that the earliest evidence for this comes from A.D. 67 in Greece, after Paul’s death. Aside from Caligula, there was no Julio-Claudian demand for divine honors, and several specifically declined those honors when offered while they were still alive. This includes Nero, who did not want to divine honors while he lived. Burnett concludes, “Most Julio-Claudians tried to curb such honors for themselves from communities under their dominion while they were still alive” (233). Therefore, Cesar was never guilty of giving himself divine honors. With respect to the title kurios as a divine honor, Burnett concludes “There is no evidence that the city [of Thessalonica] hailed any Julio-Claudian, dead or alive, by that epithet, even though Thessalonica called Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Claudius gods after their deaths, and Livia a goddess during her lifetime” (147).
Burnett aims to create a localized, contextual profile of divine honors, using inscriptions, coins, archaeology, and literary sources when available. Each chapter briefly sketches how New Testament scholars describe imperial honors in their commentaries. For example, Karl Donfried considers inscriptions and other evidence to argue that some terms Paul uses have a political connotation. This includes words like basileia (βασιλεία, kingdom; 2:12), parousia (παρουσία, coming, 4:15), and apantēsis (ἀπάντησις , meeting; 4:17). Burnett is used that this generalizing approach to divine honors is inadequate and problematic. Evidence from first-century Thessalonica does not support the idea that parousia and apantēsis are technical terms for a royal imperial visit (109).
For Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth, Burnett catalogs the divine honors granted by the local government for each of the Julio-Claudians. This includes inscriptions, coins, and archaeology (usually statues portraying the emperor as a god). Each chapter includes a list of imperial cult officials known from inscriptions and the location of the imperial divine honors (when known). Following this data, he suggests how the imperial divine honors surveyed in the chapter shed light on Paul’s letter to that city. Terms like kurios, parousia, and apantēsis were not used in imperial honors, and euangelion was not a technical imperial term. Nevertheless, he suggests that a study of divine honors indicates that Christians were mistreated by their non-Christian counterparts for more complex reasons than a “Christ-versus-Caesar paradigm (148). 1 Thessalonians 1:6-9 states that Christians faced “much affliction” because they have turned away from idols and were eagerly awaiting the return of the Lord.
Burnett knows that these conclusions differ from those of other Pauline interpreters who see Paul using subversive, anti-imperial rhetoric in Romans 13. However, this does not mean Paul was pro-empire. How could Paul, who clearly abhors any sort of idolatry, ask Christians in Rome to submit to those who celebrate imperial divine honors? For Burnett, the answer lies in Paul’s apocalyptic theology (236). This Jewish perspective is most clearly presented in Daniel. In Daniel 6, for example, the emperor demands a divine honor: to receive prayer from the entire Empire. Daniel refuses, and he faces execution in the lion’s den. Burnett makes a startling observation: “Nowhere in the story does Daniel accuse Darius of blasphemy because he desired divine honors for himself” (237). Daniel was able to maintain his devotion to the god of Israel, all the while serving an empire that demanded divine honors for itself. How is this possible? For Paul, the Empire is under the cosmic power of sin. Like Daniel, Paul considers the rulers of this age to have already been defeated. Although Burnett does not mention 3 Maccabees or 4 Maccabees, these apocryphal books also illustrate similar attitudes toward blasphemous rulers.
The book includes a fifty-four-page appendix of inscriptions mentioned in the book, including the Greek and Latin transcriptions and English translations. Burnett provides provenance and date with the source in the inscription collections. This is extremely helpful for scholars looking to read the evidence directly. The book is richly illustrated with black-and-white photographs of coins, inscriptions, and other archaeological evidence.
Conclusion. Burnett certainly achieves his goal of providing a database of inscriptions for three Greek cities that are important for interpreting Paul’s letters to Philippi, Thessalonians, and Corinth. His challenge to popular writing on Paul’s relationship with the Roman Empire should convince most to abandon generalizing comments about imperial divine honors or the imperial cult. This correction is helpful. However, he has limited his study to Julio-Claudians from the years that Paul wrote. His conclusions may look different for later divine honors in another location, such as Asia Minor, rather than Greece. However, his point is clear: evidence from the late century Ephesus or Pergamum should not be used to interpret Philippians, Thessalonians, or Corinthians.
In the first half of May 2024, you can add Boyd Seevers, Warfare in the Old Testament: The Organization, Weapons, and Tactics of Ancient Near Eastern Armies (Kregel, 2013). Each section begins with a fictional story of a battle, told from the perspective of a soldier. For example, in chapter 1, Seever creates the narrative of Judah ben-Eliezer, a soldier about to participate in the attack on Jericho. In chapter 5, the story of Dagarat the Philistine introduces the reader to the Philistines as they engage King Saul. In chapter 9, we read about Chrysantes, a commander in the Median cavalry. These short stories are engaging and offer an insight into the content of the chapter. They are not the sort of thing one expects in a scholarly book, but Seevers intends them as a creative way to draw his readers into the topic at hand. This book is a good introduction for the layperson to how the military functioned in the Ancient Near East. While the text does use some technical terminology, it is written for the non-professional. Most Bible students will benefit from reading this book alongside Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Read my full review of the book here.
