Biblical Interpretation in Early Christian Gospels: The Gospel of Mark

This volume, the third in a projected five-volume set (four on the canonical Gospels and a fifth on extracanonical Gospels), focuses on the use of the Jewish Scriptures in the Gospel of Luke (with one essay on the Acts of the Apostles). The volume consists of an introductory essay followed by eleven articles exploring a variety of issues related to the “function of embedded Scripture texts and their traditions in the narrative and socio-religious contexts of early Christian gospels” (vii): (1) Andrew E. Arterbury, “Zacchaeus: ‘A Son of Abraham’?”; (2) Craig A. Evans, “Luke’s Good Samaritan and the Chronicler’s Good Samaritans”; (3) Michael E. Fuller, “Isaiah 40.3–5 and Luke’s Understanding of the Wilderness of John the Baptist”; (4) Thomas R. Hatina, “The Voice of Northrop Frye Crying in the Wilderness: The Mythmaking Function of Isaiah 40.3 in Luke’s Association of the Baptist”; (5) Sandra Huebenthal, “Luke 24.13–35, Collective Memory, and Cultural Frames”; (6) Anthony Le Donne, “Greater Than Solomon: Orality, Mnemonics, and Scriptural Narrativization in Luke”; (7) Kenneth D. Litwak, “A Coat of Many Colors: The Role of the Scriptures of Israel in Luke 2”; (8) John Nolland, “ ‘The Times of the Nations’ and a Prophetic Pattern in Luke 21”; (9) Larry Perkins, “ ‘The Finger of God’: Lukan Irony and Old Testament Allusion as Narrative Strategy (Luke 11.20 and Exodus 8.19[LXX 8.15])”; (10) Gregory E. Sterling, “Luke as a Reader of the LXX”; (11) Frederick S. [Full Review]

Biblical Interpretation in Early Christian Gospels, Vol. 1: The Gospel of Mark Library of New Testament Studies 304 London: T&T Clark, 2006. Pp. xii + 204. Hardcover. $140.00. ISBN 0567080676. David du Toit Institut für Christentum und Antike Berlin, Germany In recent years a number of studies on the use of Scripture in the Gospel of Mark were published, among them an important study by Thomas Hatina (In Search of a Context: The Function of Scripture in Mark’s Narrative [JSNTSup 232; SSEJC 8; 2002]). In the wake of that study Hatina now has collected a number of essays on the same topic by a number of scholars, most of whom had previously written on the topic or on related issues. The volume constitutes the first volume of the five-volume Biblical Interpretation in the Early Christian Gospels, of which four volumes will be dedicated to the four canonical Gospels and a fifth to the use of Scripture in the extracanonical Gospels. The present volume comprises eleven essays by some well-known scholars such as Edwin Broadhead, Craig Evans, and Stanley Porter. The following thematic complexes are covered in the volume: (1) S. Porter compares authoritative citation in Mark’s Gospel and in ancient biography; (2) most of the essays treat the use of scripture in a particular Markan text: 1:1–15, especially 1:2–3 (T. Shepherd); 1:11 (T. Hatina); 6:1–44 (S. A. Cummins); 7:15 (J. Svartvik); 14:53–56 (E. Broadhead); 15:1–39 (D.L. Bock); (3) two essays treat the use of a specific text from Scripture in particular Markan texts: Hos 6:2 in the passion predictions of Mark 8:32–34 and its parallels by M. Proctor; the book of Zechariah in the Markan passion narrative by C. [Full Review]