Review of Davies Theology on the Run

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Jamie Davies, Theology on the Run: Apocalyptic Pastoral Theology in Paul’s Thessalonian Letters (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2025)

In this work, Davies has two main goals: to read 1–2 Thessalonians apocalyptically and to demonstrate how such a reading contributes to understanding St. Paul as an apocalyptic pastoral theologian then and now. 

His work is divided into four parts: an introduction, one section devoted to “Paul as an Apocalyptic Pastoral Theologian,” another devoted to “Apocalyptic Pastoral Theology in the Thessalonian Letters,” and a conclusion.  

In the introduction (“Introduction,” 1–14), Davies lays the groundwork for his reading and interpretation of 1–2 Thessalonians. He assumes that the apocalyptic urgency of the faith has been present in the movement since Jesus’s ministry, that Christianity is an “apocalyptic faith” from the beginning, that St. Paul composed both 1 and 2 Thessalonians (some scholars doubt that the apostle is responsible for 2 Thessalonians), and that apocalyptic is the center of St. Paul’s theology. Davies locates his work in scholarship, noting that it is the first in-depth study of apocalyptic theology in 1–2 Thessalonians (even though apocalyptic language abounds in the two epistles) and he lays out his goals of examining the apostle’s apocalyptic theology in its historical context and application for the Church today. 

Part 2 consists of two chapters that set the scene for Davies’s apocalyptic reading of 1–2 Thessalonians. The first chapter (“Paul as an Apocalyptic Theologian,” 17–40) introduces 1–2 Thessalonians and how these missives express St. Paul’s apocalyptic theology. Davies contends that the center of the apostle’s coherent theology is apocalyptic, which is understood best in three separate but interrelated strands of apocalyptic DNA: epistemology, eschatology, and cosmology. For the apostle, these strands express and disclose the true nature of reality and thus they are his apocalyptic metaphysics. Davies, then, goes on to introduce them. Epistemology is concerned with sources and modes of knowledge, which for St. Paul is the apocalypse or “unveiling” of God’s plan through Jesus the Messiah. Scholars have tended to understand the apostle’s eschatology in light of a Second Temple Jewish two age schema of the present (evil) age and the (blessed) age to come. Davies nuances this, noting that while St. Paul speaks of “the present age,” he tends to avoid “the age to come.” The reason he does this is because “the apocalypse of Jesus Christ does not merely inaugurate or advance the eschatological timeline but reshapes the notion of time itself . . . For Paul, it is no longer possible to speak simply of an ‘age to come,’ since what has happened is not merely the advance foretaste of another piece of marked-out time but the gift of God’s kind of time in ours in the incarnation of Jesus” (32). Concerning the final strand of St Paul’s apocalyptic DNA, cosmology, it has to do with the shape of the cosmos and the forces that are in it. Aside from his comment that there are three heavens (2 Corinthians 12:2), the apostle does not extrapolate much about the cosmos’s shape. He does, however, speak quite a bit about the forces in it: “Paul views the world as involved in cosmic warfare, invaded by the forces of evil and counter-invaded by the once and future incursion of Jesus . . . The essence of Paul’s apocalyptic cosmology is this: The power of the gospel and of God’s new age has invaded this present world, recapturing it from hostile powers, and so the Christian life is caught up in a cosmic conflict, the reality of which has been revealed in the gospel” (37–38).   

In the second chapter (“Paul as a Pastoral Theologian,” 41–68), Davies considers St. Paul’s application of his apocalyptic DNA to the situation in Thessalonica. The apostle composed these letters shortly after his expulsion from the city (see Acts 17:1–10) to address the suffering in the form of “harassment, oppression, or social ostracism (possibly involving sporadic physical violence) at the hands of the residents of Thessalonica” that his converts were experiencing (45). St. Paul’s response is to call his congregants to stand firm in the Lord (1 Thessalonians 3:8) and he ministers to them as infants and a nursing mother.

The second part of the book consists of Davies’s explication of St. Paul’s apocalyptic pastoral theology in 1–2 Thessalonians, which he divides into three chapters. In chapter 3 (“The Word of the Lord and Christian Formation: Paul’s Apocalyptic and Pastoral Epistemology,” 71–101), Davies explores St. Paul’s apocalyptic epistemology or the source by which he attained knowledge. In the process, he focuses on the apostle’s use of the phrase “the Word of the Lord” and the like in 1–2 Thessalonians, noting that it could mean the gospel message (1 Thessalonians 1:5), a prophetic oracle, or received tradition about Jesus. Davies contends that St. Paul’s knowledge of God is apocalyptic because it stems from God (1 Thessalonians 2:13), consists of his revelation through Jesus (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 4:5), and is not only a verbal message but a “speech-act” that creates and sustains the Christian community through the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Consequently, the “church is an apocalyptic, new creation community spoken into being by, daily shaped by, and bearing witness to the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a community of the word of revelation in its constitution, its formation, and its mission” (91). The apostle’s response, then, to the suffering of the Thessalonian Christians is to preach the word of the Lord “afresh” to them focusing on the gospel’s divine power (93). St. Paul’s apocalyptic theology speaks to us today amid our own problems by calling us back to its “revelatory character” (93), which is the heart of pastoral ministry: “The preaching of the word of God . . . powerfully remakes the ‘real world’ in which pastoral practices takes place” (94). This is clear in our culture’s desire to “self-actualize” or “self-realize.” For Paul, “Human identity and formation . . . cannot be self-made, constructed from the ground up, evaluated or measured according to the criteria of this world” (96). Rather, according to the apostle, “the very nature of identity and formation are driven by christological apocalyptic epistemology. Because human knowledge, including knowledge of ourselves, is established in and dependent upon divine revelation, human identity cannot be a matter of looking ‘within one-self,’ or to any natural law abstracted from that revelation” (98). 

Chapter 4 (“The Coming of the Lord and the Christian Life: Paul’s Apocalyptic and Pastoral Eschatology,” 103–66) probes St. Paul’s apocalyptic eschatology in 1–2 Thessalonians as well as its pastoral implications for the Thessalonian Church and Christians today. Davies begins by noting that one of the key eschatological passages in all St. Paul’s letters, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11, is pastorally minded and the apostle composed it to comfort the Thessalonian Christians who had lost loved ones (1 Thessalonians 4:13). He examines 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11, 2 Thessalonians 2:1–2, and the concept of the Parousia in the two letters. He notes that the imminence of the Parousia in 1 Thessalonians and the events that will precede it in 2 Thessalonians are typically explained by St. Paul pushing back the Second Coming to sometime in the distant future. In contrast, Davies argues that one should not reduce Jesus’s return to a “plot on a timeline.” Rather, it is “The Event that plots all others . . . Eschatology is thus concerned not really with the ‘end of a line’ but with the way in which God’s life is made present (hence παρουσία) to this world in Christ” (121). This affects how the apostle ministers to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 5:4–8, for example, he reminds his original audience that they are children of light or new creations who belong to the Day, which is the eschatological Day of the Lord that the Old Testament prophets predicted: “They are those who live in the light of the παρουσία, at the boundary between this world and the world to come, at the dawn of the Day that comes from on high, in a world interrupted and cut by the coming of Christ” (142–43). Davies, then, looks at how St. Paul’s apocalyptic pastoral theology speaks into grief, work, and sex. I will focus only on the first. The apostle’s pastoral advice for those who grieve the loss of loved ones is that they grieve but not as those who don’t have hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13, 18). He concludes that St. Paul’s goal “is not the elimination of grief (as a sign of weakness, say) but rather the elimination of hopeless grief and, thus, its eschatological transformation” (148). 

In chapter 5 (“The Triumph of the Lord and the Christian Struggle: Paul’s Apocalyptic and Pastoral Cosmology,” 167–209), Davies examines the third strand of St. Paul’s apocalyptic DNA, cosmology, in the Thessalonian letters. Recall that cosmology is about the shape of the cosmos and the dualistic conflict within it. It is this latter aspect of cosmology that Davies treats in this chapter: “The essence of Paul’s apocalyptic cosmology, interwoven with his epistemology and eschatology, is that the power of the gospel and of God’s new age has invaded this present world, and so the Christian life is caught up in a cosmic conflict, the reality of which has been revealed in the gospel” (169). In the Thessalonian correspondence, the enemy in this conflict is Satan, the tempter (1 Thessalonians 2:17–18; 3:5), and the Lawless one (2 Thessalonians 2:3–12), concluding that the latter is not a “coded reference to one particular Roman ruler but to invoke a broader apocalyptic cosmological trop of a satanically inspired blasphemous king who exalts himself at the ‘time of the end’” (177). Opposing these figures are the archangel Michael, who is the restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2:6–8), and the holy angels (1 Thessalonians 3:13). What is more, the Thessalonian Christians do not wage this war with human weapons and according to a human standard but with divine power mediated to them through St. Paul’s motherly care and self-giving love. One of the apostle’s pastoral methods in 1–2 Thessalonians is to name and identify these enemies and to proclaim God’s eschatological defeat of them, which will allow the Thessalonian congregants “to stand against them in the time that remains” (198). Moreover, St. Paul’s apocalyptic pastoral theology challenges the Church today to “avoid retreating into anthropology and existentialist therapeutic solutions and . . . [to] attend to circumscribing these with an apocalyptic cosmology, naming the complex powers that supervene on human existence and their role in the agonism of the Christian life” (199). For Davies, these complex powers may be the human structures and systems (202).   

In his conclusion (“Conclusion: Paul’s Apocalyptic Theology and Pastoral Ministry in the ‘Real World,’” 211–15), Davies asks, in light of St. Paul’s apocalyptic theology, what is the real world? He concludes that the apostle’s “apocalyptic theologizing teaches us that we must subject our claims of knowledge about the ‘real world’ to the revelation of Jesus Christ and to what God has disclosed about the cosmos and its future” (212). The result is that we cannot “think about the Christian life as if any part of this world remains unaffected by the revelation of Jesus” (213). In particular, St. Paul’s apocalyptic epistemology should cause us to rethink what is real: “Paul’s apocalyptic epistemology reminds us that our theological projects in this world are not about ‘relevance,’ nor are they one set of human truth claims among others, but are ever in the mode of response divine revelation from without—we are the ones who are addressed. And, in particular, it exposes the problems of one of the most dominant narratives of our age, that human life is a project of self-actualization” (213). The apostle’s apocalyptic eschatology “transforms what we know about history and the future” (213). Consequently, we live not only under the cross but also under the Second Coming. This should affect our Christian ethics in that they are not “according to this present age.” Rather, we should live “as signs of the world to come” (214). Finally, St. Paul’s apocalyptic cosmology “transforms how we understand life in this world.” We live amid conflict and must discern the powers at work in the world. We confront all anti-God powers “not with force but with the ‘news’ of the gospel” (214). 

This work is well written, well researched, nuanced, and (unlike some scholarly works!) practical. It is the fruit of years of detailed study of apocalypses and the Apocalyptic Paul. I, who interpret the apostle as an apocalyptic theologian, found myself in agreement with Davies in most of his major conclusions. In particular, aside from Ephesians 1:21; 2:7, I too am bothered by the lack of references in the Pauline corpus to “the coming age,” even though St. Paul refers to the “present age” quite a bit (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 1:20, 2:6, 8; 3:18; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 1:21; 2:2; 1 Timothy 6:17; 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 2:12). I appreciate his solution to the problem: it is about the type of time, God’s time. However, I am uncertain as to whether this is the case. Nevertheless, Davies’s work has stimulated my own thinking and for that I am appreciative! I highly recommend this work and you can pick it up from Baylor University Press directly by clicking here.

I am grateful to Baylor University Press for this gratis review copy, which in no way influenced my work.  

Review of Buster and Walton Daniel Chapters 1-6

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Aubrey E. Buster and John H. Walton, The Book of Daniel Chapters 1–6, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2025)

This work, which is the first of two, covers Buster’s and Walton’s introduction to Daniel and their comments on Daniel 1–6. Later this year, Eerdmans will release the second part, which covers their comments on Daniel 7–12.

Daniel Chapters 1–6 contains a lengthy introduction to Daniel (1–162), comments on Daniel 1:1–6:28 (163–774), an index of authors (775–88), an index of subjects (789–806), and an index of ancient sources, including the Bible (807–35).

The introduction is divided into thirteen sections with some initial introductory comments. In the latter, Buster and Walton inform the reader of their twofold framework for interpreting Daniel: their commitment to Scripture’s authority and the historical-critical method. Therefore, they conclude, “the strongest interpretation [of Daniel] is not the one that is most bound to tradition (whether ancient or modern), but the one that accounts for the most evidence in the strongest way possible” (2).  

Buster and Walton begin by discussing the text of Daniel (“The Text of Daniel,” 3–21) in its various witnesses—the Masoretic text (the Leningrad Codex), the Greek Old Testament versions (the Old Greek and Theodotion), and evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls—as well as the languages in which Daniel was composed (Hebrew in Daniel 1:1–2:4a; 8:1–12:13 and Aramaic in Daniel 2:4b–7:28) and other languages that influenced its composition, Akkadian, Persian, Greek, and Egyptian (3–21).

In the introduction’s second section (“Additions to Daniel,” 21–24), Buster and Walton address three additions to the Hebrew/Aramaic text found in the Old Greek and Theodotion textual traditions: the prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Jews, the story of Susanna, and the story of Bel and the Dragon. 

The third section (“Composition of Daniel,” 25–47) examines how Daniel was composed. Buster and Walton note that external evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QDanc) and 1 Maccabees (1:61) evince that the work was completed by the end of the second century BC. From internal evidence, they propose that Daniel was composed gradually over a process of many years, beginning in the sixth century BC with the court tales (Daniel 1–6) and continuing through the Persian and Hellenistic periods (Daniel 7–12). Therefore, they offer the following model of composition: 

  • Daniel, a historical personage, is exiled to Babylon where he served in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian governments.
  • Stories of his exploits and achievements began to be told among Jews (Daniel 1–6), thereby retaining authentic details of the time and place in which they occurred.
  • In the retelling of these stories, story tellers reshaped them.
  • Next, Daniel 7 was composed in Aramaic in the late fourth-to-early third century BC. 
  • Because Daniel 2:4b–7:28 is a coherent literary unit with the same language (Aramaic) and material (the four-kingdom scheme in Daniel 2 and 7, the miraculous deliverances in Daniel 3–6, and the critique of kings in Daniel 4–5), a version of Daniel with chapters 1–7 may have circulated at this time.
  • Daniel 8–12 was composed in Hebrew during Antiochus IV Epiphanes’s reign.
  • Finally, Daniel 7–12 was placed in Daniel’s mouth (45–46).

To this end, Buster and Walton conclude, “The book of Daniel is a result of a process that began in the Neo-Babylonian period among the Babylonian diaspora and that continued over four hundred years as storytellers, scribal scholars, and the ‘wise’ . . . reflected on and developed their understanding of exile and Israel’s future in light of the prophets” (47). 

Because of their view on the authorship of Daniel, at length they discuss pseudonymity and pseudepigraphy—essentially a writing attributed (falsely by modern standards) to an ancient personage—in the ancient Near East and the Hellenistic world and devote several pages to placing these phenomena in their ancient contexts. They propose that by ancient standards “we must acknowledge the possibility that the attribution to Daniel is not a claim of authorial identification but of rhetorical attribution. If this is the case, the attribution to Daniel functions similarly to the attribution of other vision texts to well-known past figures in contemporary Jewish literature: to highlight the divine source of revelation, to construct analogies between past and present crises in Israel’s communal life, to connect later texts to already existing traditions, and to reinvigorate past texts in a program of progressive revelation” (emphasis theirs, 55).

In the fourth section (“History of the Implied Setting of the Book: The Sixth Century BCE,” 55–70), Buster and Walton describe the history of the ancient Near East as it relates to the Babylonian backdrop of the book, the court tales, and examine some historical difficulties that one encounters such as the dating of the reigns of Jehoiakim and Nebuchadnezzar.  Daniel says that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem “in the third year of the kingdom of Jehoiakim, king of Judah” (Daniel 1:1), but Jeremiah relates that Nebuchadnezzar came to power in Babylon during “the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah” (Jeremiah 25:1). Concerning this issue, Buster and Walton conclude, “it might be better to consider the statement of Dan 1:1 as using conflation or, more specifically, [the ancient Near Eastern literary device of] telescoping,” which means that the verse refers to two separate events that have been conflated (62–63). 

The fifth section (“History of the Implied Audience,” 70–84) describes the history of Palestine from the beginning of the Hellenistic period to the mid-second century BC, the period the implied audience of Daniel 7–12 covers: “Regardless of one’s conclusion regarding composition, however, the implied audience of the visions is situated in the Hellenistic period” (71). Therefore, this part examines the rise of Alexander the Great, the division of his kingdom among his generals, the Seleucid rule of Palestine, the rise of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and the program of the Hellenization of Judaism by some prominent mid-second century BC Jews in Jerusalem. 

In the sixth and seventh sections (“Issues of the Cultural Background,” 84–92; “Hellenistic Polytheism, Religious Assimilation, and Tolerance,” 92–102), Buster and Walton discuss various cultural aspects, in particular what we would call religion, that were operative in the time periods that encompass Daniel’s background: Assyrio-Babylonian paganism, Zoroastrianism, Persian Zoroastrian dualism, Persian religious policy, Hellenistic paganism, its (in)tolerance of other cultic systems, Greek civic religion, and divine honors for humans.

The eighth part (“Genre of Daniel,” 102–32) explores the classification of Daniel (he is not a prophet, but a seer), the literary genre of the court tales, and Daniel as an apocalyptic work. In the latter section of this part, Buster and Walton delve into the genre of apocalyptic, its various backgrounds, its use in the Old Testament, how apocalyptic works differ from prophetic works, and some aspects of apocalyptic. 

In the ninth portion (“Historical Accuracy and the Book of Daniel,” 132–47), Buster and Walton discuss the ways in which Daniel accurately reflects the historical reality over the years in which it was composed: “The [authors of the work] are not fabricating events or people, but they are engaged in selecting, shaping, and focusing the narrative using the rhetorical devices available to them as common in the genre and time that they are writing” (132).  Consequently, one has to understand that Daniel telescopes—or compresses events on a timeline—events, rhetorically attributes words to the historical sixth century BC man Daniel, recontextualizes early material to address later events (such as the recontextualization of the four kingdom scheme in Daniel 2 in Daniel 7), conflates and thus attributes actions that one historical figure accomplishes to another, and describes past events through the prism of a future foretelling of them (vacticinium ex eventu). 

The tenth part (“Structure of the Book,” 148–54) describes the overall structure of Daniel—which places chapter 7 at the pivotal point—and is unified by the figure of Daniel and his friends. In the eleventh portion (“Intertextuality in Daniel,” 154–58), Buster and Walton note that Daniel refers implicitly and explicitly to other parts of Sacred Scripture by adopting the genre of court tales such as found in the story of Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 39–50), by allusions to Ezekiel and God’s heavenly throne, and by referencing other Old Testament books: Jeremiah 25; 29 in Daniel 9. The twelfth part (“Canonicity,” 158–59) probes the place of Daniel in the canon. Buster and Walton point out that portions of all twelve chapters are present among the Dead Sea Scrolls and that the work appears to have been deemed “trustworthy and authoritative” by the mid-second century BC. Therefore, “as long as there has been a canon, it appears that Daniel has been in it” (159). The real question, however, is not whether the work is canonical, but which one is canonical, as the Roman Catholic and Orthodox canons follow the Greek versions containing extra stories not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel, the version that Jews and Protestants have canonized. In the final section (“Theology,” 159–62), Buster and Walton explore some theological aspects of Daniel such as God’s presence with his people even as they are scattered among the Gentiles and his presence and activity throughout Israel’s history, which will culminate in establishment of God’s kingdom in the future.  

The rest of this volume contains a detailed, nuanced, contextualized, philological, and comprehensive engagement with the text(s) of Daniel. Buster and Walton pepper their work with excurses that allow the reader to go deeper into various aspects that are tangential, yet important, to the overall message of Daniel. For me, the great strengths of this volume are its interaction with primary ancient Near Eastern and Classical sources as well as the gamut of scholarship on Daniel, from those who hold to a sixth century BC dating of the book to those who place its composition in the mid-second century BC.

In short, this is a book that any exegete of Daniel, even one who not agree with their conclusions about authorship and composition as well as their exegesis of the text, will want in his or her library. Therefore, I highly recommend you picking up your own copy from Eerdmans forthwith. 

I am grateful to Eerdmans for the gratis copy of this work, which in no way affected my review of it.  

Review of T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls

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T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls, eds. George J. Brooke and Charlotte Hempel (London: T&T Clark, 2019; reprinted 2025)

The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of various manuscripts and documentary (i.e., texts not intended for official publication) papyri dating between the fourth century BC and the first century AD that have been discovered at sites around the Dead Sea. This work, which has been recently reprinted, serves as a companion to these ancient Jewish texts and, in the process, seeks to accomplish six objectives. 

First, the editors, Brooke and Hempel, want to provide an accessible introduction to the Scrolls and their ancient contexts to the reader. Second, they desire to educate the reader as to the history of research on these texts. Third, Brooke and Hempel wish to inform the reader about the current state of scholarship as it relates to research on the Scrolls. Fourth, they seek to demonstrate how these documents illuminate other aspects of Jewish antiquity such as scribal practices, the canon of Scripture, etc. Fifth, Brooke and Hempel have limited their editing to the ease of accessibility for the reader, thereby allowing the reader to perceive the diversity of opinions about the Scrolls and the site of Qumran in the various chapters. The achievement of this goal, however, means that the reader must pay attention to the individual scholars and their judgments about the texts and the site in question, as not all contributors hold the same opinions. Finally, the editors have placed a bibliography at the end of each contribution that the reader can consult for further research. 

To accomplish these ends, Brooke and Hempel have divided this companion into six parts with six appendices. The first part (for a list of these entries and for all entries in each part, see below) examines the background of the Scrolls and includes chapters on their discovery, the archaeology of the site of Qumran, an overview of the manuscripts among the Scrolls, a discussion of their acquisition and publication (which was and remains controversial), and the scholarly and popular reception of the Scrolls. 

The companion’s second part focuses on the ancient contexts of the Scrolls with articles on ethnicity in them, the sectarians who lived at Qumran in light of other similar groups in the Greco-Roman world, the regional context of the Dead Sea, the ancient Near Eastern context of Qumran, the Scrolls and ancient Judaism and Christianity, and the Scrolls in light of other ancient Jewish and non-Jewish literature.

The third portion concentrates on methods for interpreting the Scrolls with chapters on the physical characteristics of the manuscripts, various technologies used in their study, how to read and reconstruct a fragmented manuscript, the three languages in which these texts were composed: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, how critical biblical scholarship relates to the Scrolls and Qumran, the study of the Scrolls in light of the study of the ancient world, the Scrolls and historiography, social scientific approaches used to interpret the Scrolls, and Postmodern questions that the Scrolls raise.

The companion’s fourth part contains entries of various sizes on key texts or collections of texts among the Scrolls such as commentaries on Biblical books, the (in)famous Copper Scroll, hymns, and much more. The fifth portion explores various types of literature found in the Scrolls such as the rewriting of the Bible, texts that contain rules for life, poetry and hymns, calendars, liturgical texts, etc. The companion’s sixth part focuses on various issues and topics associated with the Scrolls such as the concept of revelation, divine beings, eschatology, messianism, purity, holiness, etc. 

Finally, the appendices provide helpful information for the reader: a timeline of events associated with the Scrolls, principal printed and electronic editions of them, major reference works and translations of the Scrolls, and the most essential introductions to these ancient texts. 

In short, the T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls is an excellent, well-conceived and executed introduction to the Scrolls in one accessible and affordable volume. Its great strength lies not only in the breadth and diversity of topics that the works covers but also in the diversity of scholars, there are over seventy contributors to the volume, who contributed chapters to it. Therefore, this companion is a must have for anyone conducting research on early Judaism or early Christianity and you can purchase it either from T&T Clark directly or Amazon!

Part 1: Background

  • 1. Discoveries by Hans Debel (7–16)
  • 2. Archaeology of Qumran by Dennis Mizzi (17–36)
  • 3. The Manuscript Collections: An Overview by Mladen Popović (37–50)
  • 4. Acquisition and Publication by Weston Fields and Herman Fields (51–58)
  • 5. Scholarly and Popular Reception by Matthew A. Collins (59–73) 

Part 2: Context

  • 6. Ethnicity: A Fresh Religious Context for the Scrolls by Robert Kugler (77–85)
  • 7. The Yahad in the Context of Hellenistic Group Formation by Benedikt Eckhardt (86–96)
  • 8. The Regional Context of the Dead Sea by Joan E. Taylor (97–108)
  • 9. Qumran and the Ancient Near East by Henryk Drawnel (109–18)
  • 10. Scrolls and Early Judaism by George J. Brooke (119–28)
  • 11. Scrolls and Early Christianity by Albert L. A. Hogeterp (129–38)
  • 12. Scrolls and Hellenistic Jewish Literature 
    • a. Philo by Joan E. Taylor (139–48)
    • b. Josephus by James McLaren (148–53)
    • c. Other Literature by Mattias Henze (153–55)
  • 13. Scrolls and Non-Jewish Hellenistic Literature by Jutta Loenhardt-Balzer (156–63)

Part 3: Methods

  • 14. Physicality of Manuscripts and Material Culture by Ingo Kottsieper (167–77)
  • 15. Scientific Technologies by Ingo Kottsieper (178–85)
  • 16. Reading and Reconstructing Manuscripts by Annette Steudel (186–91)
  • 17. Languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek by Holger Gzella (192–203)
  • 18. Biblical Scholarship and Qumran Studies by Reinhard G. Kratz (204–15)
  • 19. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Study of the Ancient World by Benjamin G. Wright III (216–27)
  • 20. Historiography by Philip R. Davies (228–236)
  • 21. Social Scientific Approaches
    • a. Sectarianism by David Chalcraft (237–41)
    • b. Sociolinguistics by Trine Bjørnung Hasselbalch (241–44)
    • c. Identity Theory by Lloyd K. Pietersen (244–45)
  • 22. Postmodern Questions and Sexuality Studies by Maxine Grossman (246–56)

Part 4: Key Texts

  • 23. Aramaic Job by David Shepherd (259–60)
  • 24. Aramaic Levi by Vered Hillel (261–63)
  • 25. Authoritative Scriptures: Torah and Related Texts by Katell Berthelot (264–68)
  • 26. Authoritative Scriptures: Prophets and Related Texts by Roman Vielhauer (269–72)
  • 27. Authoritative Scriptures: Writings and Related Texts by Ulrich Dahmen (273–79)
  • 28. Authoritative Scriptures: Other Texts by Kelley Coblentz Bautch and Jack Weinbender (280–85)
  • 29. Barkhi Nafshi by Daniel K. Falk (286–88)
  • 30. Bar Kokhba Letters by Lutz Doering (289–94)
  • 31. Beatitudes by Dorothy M. Peters (295–97)
  • 32. Berakhot by Daniel K. Falk (298–301)
  • 33. Commentaries on Genesis (4Q252–254) by George J. Brooke (302–3)
  • 34. Copper Scroll by Jesper Højenhaven (304–5)
  • 35. Damascus Document (D) by Liora Goldman (306–9)
  • 36. Genesis Apocryphon by Daniel A. Machiela (310–13)
  • 37. Hodayot (H) by Angela Kim Harkins (314–17)
  • 38. Instruction by Benjamin Wold (318–19)
  • 39. Messianic Apocalypse by Eric F. Mason (320–21)
  • 40. Milḥamah (M) by Brian Schultz (322–24)
  • 41. Miqṣat Ma´aśeh ha-Torah (MMT) by Hanne von Weissenberg (325–28)
  • 42. Mysteries by Samuel I. Thomas (329–31)
  • 43. New Jerusalem by Michael Langlois (332–34)
  • 44. Pesharim by Shani Tzoref (335–38)
  • 45. Rule of Blessings (Sb) by Judith H. Newman (339–40)
  • 46. Rule of the Congregation (Sa) by Corrado Martone (341–43)
  • 47. Serekh ha-Yahad (S) by Stephen Hultgren (344–46)
  • 48. Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice by Judith H. Newman (347–49)
  • 49. Son of God Text by Eric F. Mason (350–51)
  • 50. Tanḥumim by Jesper Høgenhaven (352–53)
  • 51. Temple Scroll by Joseph L. Angel (354–57)
  • 52. Testimonia by Eva Mroczek (358–61)
  • 53. Wiles of the Wicked Woman by Michael Lesley (362–64)
  • 54. Words of the Luminaries by Judith H. Newman (365–66)

Part 5: Types of Literature 

  • 55. Bible by Mika Pajunen (369–77)
  • 56. Parabiblical Texts/Rewritten Scripture by Molly M. Zahn (378–85)
  • 57. Exegesis and Interpretation by Michael Segal (386–94)
  • 58. Halakhah by Vered Noam (395–404)
  • 59. Rules by Charlotte Hempel (405–12)
  • 60. Poetry and Hymns by Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra (413–22)
  • 61. Liturgical Texts by Daniel K. Falk (423–34)
  • 62. Calendars by Helen R. Jacobus (435–48)
  • 63. Wisdom by Matthew Golf (449–56)
  • 64. Mystical Texts, Magic, and Divination by Gideon Bohak (457–66)

Part 6: Issues and Topics 

  • 65. Patriarchs and Aramaic Traditions by Ariel Feldman (469–80)
  • 66. Revelation by Hindy Najman and Nicole Hilton (481–89)
  • 67. God(s), Angels and Demons by Hanne von Weissenberg (490–95)
  • 68. Eschatologies and Messianisms by Kenneth E. Pomykala (496–504)
  • 69. Jerusalem and the Temple by Mila Ginsburskaya (505–12)
  • 70. Purity and Holiness by Cecilia Wassén (513–23)
  • 71. The Scribes of the Scrolls by Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar (524–32)
  • 72. Forms of Community by Alison Schofield (533–46)
  • 73. Daily Life by Cecilia Wassén (547–58)
  • 74. Ethics and Dualism by Marcus Tso (559–67)
  • 75. War and Violence by Alex P. Jasen (568–76)

Appendices

  • Appendix A: Timeline of Events (577–83)
  • Appendix B: Principal Printed Editions (584–87)
  • Appendix C: Electronic Editions (588–89)
  • Appendix D: Major Reference Works (590)
  • Appendix E: Translations (591)
  • Appendix F: Introductory Works (592–93)

Indices

  • Index of Ancient Sources (595–626)
  • Index of Modern Authors (627–39)
  • Subject Index (641–57)

Thanks to T&T Clark for the gratis copy of this work, which in no way influenced by review of it. 

Review of T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint (LXX)

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T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, ed. James K. Aitken (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015; Paperback, 2025)

This volume for specialists and non-specialists alike serves as an introduction to the Septuagint (LXX) in general and each individual LXX book in particular. Its goal is to provide the present state of knowledge of the LXX from thirty-six contributors from diverse perspectives in Septuagintal studies, especially from a younger generation of scholars, and to chart future paths of investigation in the subject area. 

It is arranged as follows: a “Preface” (ix–x), a list of “Abbreviations” (xi–xx), “List of Contributors” (xxi–xxvi), a “Glossary” (xxvii–xxx), an “Introduction” (1–12), an introduction to and discussion of all LXX books (13–567), and an “Index of Biblical References,” (568–92).

In the “Introduction,” Aitken provides a concise introduction to the LXX. In the process, he highlights that “no one Septuagint” existed in antiquity (1). He discusses: how the LXX came to be, its various translations, the provenance(s) of its translators, the importance of the LXX for the study of the Bible, the text and manuscripts of the LXX, editions and modern translations of the LXX, and finally tools for those who wish to learn more. 

For the most part, the remainder of the volume consists of a book-by-book survey of the LXX: “Genesis” (13–28), “Exodus” (29–42), “Leviticus” (43–57), “Numbers” (58–67), “Deuteronomy” (68–85), “Joshua” (86–101), “Judges” (102–17), “Ruth” (118–26), “1–2 Kingdoms (1–2 Samuel)” (127–46), “3–4 Kingdoms (1–2 Kings)” (147–66), “1–2 Chronicles” (167–77), “1 Esdras” (178–94), “2 Esdras” (195–202), “Esther and Additions to Esther” (203–21), “Judith” (222–36), “Tobit” (237–60), “1 Maccabees” (261–72), “2 Maccabees” (273–91), “3 Maccabees” (292–305), “4 Maccabees” (306–19), “Psalms” (320–34), “Prayer of Manasseh” (335–40), “Proverbs” (341–55), “Ecclesiastes” (356–69), “Canticles (Song of Songs)” (370–84), “Job” (385–400), “Wisdom of Solomon” (401–9), “Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)” (410–24), “Psalms of Solomon” (425–37), “The Minor Prophets” (438–55), “Isaiah” (456–68), “Jeremiah” (469–86), “Baruch” (487–99), “Lamentations” (500–19), “Epistle of Jeremiah” (520–27), “Ezekiel” (528–43), “Daniel” (544–54), and “The Additions to Daniel” (555–67). 

Each of these chapters is structured similarly. Its author begins by providing critical editions and translations of the book in question. Then, he or she discusses the following areas of Septuagintal research associated with it: the book’s (or books’) General Characteristics, Time and Place of Composition, Language, Translation and Composition, Key Text-Critical Issues, Ideology and Exegesis, and Reception History. The last portion of every chapter contains a helpful Bibliography for those who wish to learn more about the book (or books’) in question. 

To provide an example, I highlight the chapter on the Psalms, the most quoted LXX book by the authors of the New Testament. This chapter is by James Aitken who notes that the date for the Greek translation of the Psalter is unknown, but it appears to have occurred during the second century BC (320–23). He contends that one must not think of one edition of the Psalter in antiquity because the LXX (as well as one of the scrolls from Qumran) attest to an additional psalm, Psalm 151, which is no found in the Masoretic text that stands behind most modern Old Testament translations (321; for more on the Masoretic text, click here). The location whence the Greek Psalter was produced is uncertain. While some have suggested that it was translated in Palestine, linguistic evidence supports an Egyptian provenance (322–23). Some language of the LXX Psalms, especially the term used to describe God as “Deliverer” (ἀντιλήμπτωρ), seems to derive from the administrative realm of Ptolemaic Egypt and to reflect the common spoken language of the day (324). 

The translation of the Greek Psalter appears to be the work of a single translator who followed his Hebrew source text closely. There are some modifications, which are theological such as the translator tended to avoid acknowledging the existence of any other god than the One God of Israel. For example, the translator rendered the Hebrew of Psalm 8:6 [8:5 in our English translations], which reads, “You have made him [a son of man or a human] a little lower than the gods (אֱלֹהִים; elohim), as, “You made him a little lower than angels” (ἀγγέλους) (325). The ancient manuscripts of the Psalter attests to much diversity among them. One scroll from Qumran, 11QPsa, includes Psalm 151, like the LXX (for more on 11QPsa and Psalm 151, click here). However, the individual psalms of this scroll are arranged differently than in the Greek Psalter and even includes other non-canonical psalms. Other Psalm manuscripts from Qumran differ from the LXX Psalms and the Masoretic text of the Psalter. What is more, the headings of the psalms differ among the Masoretic text, the Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, and the LXX Psalms. Finally, Aitken goes on to discuss the various proposals about the exegetical character of the Greek Psalter and its reception among Second Temple Jews and early Christians (327–30).  

In short, the T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, especially in its new paperback edition, is an indispensable tool for anyone conducting research on the LXX. Its book-by-book approach with bibliographies for further reading makes it very efficient for research, especially for non-Septuagintal specialists. Therefore, I highly recommend that, if possible, this work becomes part of your library! 

I am grateful to T&T Clark Bloomsbury for this gratis copy, which in no way influenced by review.  

Review of UBS6 Greek New Testament

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The Greek New Testament, 6th rev. ed., eds. Hugh Houghton, Christos Karakolis, David Parker, Stephen Pisano, Holger Strutwolf, David Trobisch, and Klaus Wachtel (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2025)

This sixth revised edition of the Greek New Testament (NT) (UBS6) is for the United Bible Societies and thus for the use of translators and students of the Greek NT. Its text is identical to the forthcoming Nestle-Aland 29th edition and the main difference between the two editions is that the UBS6 has only variation units the editors have deemed “necessary” for the understanding, revising, and translating of the NT. The committee has revised the new volume from feedback of translators who used UBS5, from new textual discoveries, and from revisions to the editorial text of the NT in the newest and ongoing critical edition, the Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior (ECM) (for more on this project and how it relates to the UBS6, see my former post here). Since the ECM volumes published to date are on St. Mark’s Gospel (2021), the Acts of the Apostles (2017), the Catholic Epistles (2013), and Revelation (2024), the changes to the Greek editorial text of UBS6 relates to these books.  

This new edition witnesses six major alterations. First, the editors have revised the order of the NT books to reflect their sequence in Codex Vaticanius and Codex Alexandrinus (for more information, see my former post here). Thus, the UBS6 books are ordered as follows: the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Epistles (less Hebrews), the Pauline Corpus (with Hebrews after 2 Thessalonians), and Revelation. 

Second, after reviewing every variation unit in UBS5, the committee was convinced of the need to pay “greater attention” to the Byzantine tradition, including the Textus Receptus, which stands behind the translation of the King James Bible (VIII).[1]

Third, the editors have revised the presentation of witnesses in the textual apparatus in five ways. One, they have adopted numerical sigla for Greek manuscripts. Therefore, Codex Sinaiticus is no longer represented by the Hebrew letter א but by the number 01. Two, they no longer cite individual lectionaries. Three, the editors have updated early translations of the NT to reflect the most recent research. For example, the textual apparatus separates the Christian Palestinian Aramaic witnesses from the Syriac tradition and treats them as separate. Four, the editors have reduced the number of citations to early Church Fathers, especially those who did not compose in Greek. And, five, they have reduced the number of manuscripts of Pauline letters based on the textual analysis reflected in the series Text und Tertwert der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments. The result of these changes is that the textual apparatus is smaller, compact, and not as unwieldy as it was in the UBS5. If the reader wishes to explore more textual witnesses, he or she can access them in the printed volumes of the ECM.

Fourth, the committee has removed references to modern translations of the NT, the Discourse Segmentation apparatus, the Cross-Reference apparatus, the Index of Allusions and Parallels, and the List of Alternative Readings, all of which were features of UBS5. 

Fifth, the editors have rewritten the Introduction. And, finally, the committee has reexamined each variation unit redefining the confidence rating of each unit and sometimes changing it (In addition to the UBS6, one of the editors, Hugh Houghton, has prepared a new Textual Commentary on the UBS6. For more information, see my former post here).   

The UBS6 is divided into seven parts. In the first part, the “Preface” (VII–X), the committee details the abovementioned changes. The second, the “Introduction” (1*–51*), contains a discussion of the history and background of the Greek NT (1*–9*), the Editorial Text of the UBS6 (9*–12*), its Textual Apparatus (12*–22*), its List of Witnesses (22*–46*), its Biblical Abbreviations (47*), and a Select Bibliography (48*–51*).

The third portion, the “Text and Apparatus” (1–619), is the bulk the UBS6 and consists of the editorial text and variation units. In the fourth part, the “List of Textual Changes Between the Fifth and Sixth Editions” of the UBS (621–26), the committee has provided the list of textual changes from the UBS5 to UBS6. For example, the phrase “Son of God” no longer remains in brackets in Mark 1:1:

UBS5UBS6
Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ [υἱοῦ θεοῦ]Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦθεοῦ
“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah, [the Son of God]”“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God”

This change, however, does not mean that the editors believe υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ to be part of the earliest reconstruct-able text, for they give this variation unit a C rating, which means “The Committee is doubtful about this reconstruction of the text” (13*).

The fifth part of the UBS6, the “Index of Quotations” (627–33), consists of a list of Old Testament (OT) quotations in order of their appearance in the OT (627–30) and NT (630–33). In the sixth portion, “Principal Symbols and Abbreviations” (634–36), the editors have provided a legend for the various symbols and abbreviations found in UBS6 and like previous editions, they also have given the reader an indispensable insert with these data (as well as the Greek manuscripts cited in the Textual Apparatus). The last part of the UBS6, “Maps” (637–38), consists of two maps: one of the eastern Mediterranean world in the time that the NT was being composed and another of Palestine during the same time period.  

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the UBS6’s look has been altered from the UBS5 with cleaner, clearer, and crisper fonts on the cover and with the Greek text itself. 

This new edition of the UBS6 is a huge improvement from the UBS5 not only in appearance but also in content and layout. It is slender—the revision of the textual apparatus and the omissions of certain unnecessary features of the UBS5 has trimmed over two hundred pages of text—and it is well bound with a durable hard cover.

What is more, I praise the decision to rearrange the NT books to bring it in line with the Church’s Textual Tradition because it reminds readers that most of our interpretations have a long pedigree and that we stand on the shoulders of giant interpreters, the Church Fathers and Doctors. 

Granted, some scholars will no doubt find fault with some of the decisions, especially related to the re-rating of the variation units, but, all in all, the UBS6 editorial team has produced an excellent work that will benefit the people for whom they have prepared their editorial text: clergy, beginning students of the Greek NT, and translators of the NT: Bravo, editors! Therefore, buy a copy now, either from Hendrickson Publishers (which is cheaper!!!) or on Amazon.

I am grateful to Hendrickson Publishers for the advanced gratis copy of the UBS6, which is no way influenced by review it.

[1] For a discussion of the Textus Receptus, see https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/textus-receptus.