Zondervan has recently completed two full-color, five-volume reference works, and they look superb.

1. Revised Bible Encyclopedia

Merrill C. Tenney, ed. Moisés Silva, revision editor. The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible. Revised ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. 5,616 pp. $279.99 retail.

Tenney edited the first edition in 1975: the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. “The present revised edition,” edited by Moisés Silva, a first-class biblical scholar, “seeks to preserve the original contributions as much as possible while at the same time updating the material to serve a new generation” (p. v).

Some features:

• over 250 international contributors
• over 7,500 articles on the Bible’s history, literature, and theology
• nearly 2,000 colorful maps, illustrations, charts, and graphs

The introduction explains what’s new:

• “Hundreds of brief new articles have been added.”
• “Some twenty new in-depth articles have been commissioned, including ‘Apologetics’ (William Edgar), ‘Cartography, Biblical’ (Barry J. Beitzel), ‘Ebla’ (Richard S. Hess), ‘Deuteronomic History’ (J. Alan Groves), ‘Ethics in the Old Testament’ (Alexander Cheung), ‘God, Biblical Doctrine of’ (John M. Frame), ‘Land, Theology of’ (Carl G. Rasmussen), ‘Pseudonymity’ (Stanley Porter), ‘Type, Typology’ (Grant R. Osborne), ‘Union with Christ’ (Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.), ‘Warrior, Divine’ (Tremper Longman III), ‘Wars, Jewish’ (J. Julius Scott, Jr.).”
• “Various existing articles have been totally rewritten (e.g., ‘Greek Language,’ ‘Septuagint’).”
• “Others have received substantive updating, such as ‘Archaeology’ (Richard S. Hess), ‘Biblical Criticism’ (Grant R. Osborne), ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ (Martin G. Abegg, Jr.), ‘Versions of the Bible, English’ (Mark L. Strauss).”
• “All other articles have been carefully reviewed and, when necessary, corrected; frequently, new material has been added alerting the reader to developments in the field.”
• “Special effort has been expended to make bibliographic references more current. Many hundreds of new titles have been included, with emphasis on publications from 1990 through 2007.”
• “All biblical quotations, unless otherwise noted, come from the NIV.”
• “A special effort has been made to bring about greater consistency among the articles” in both format (e.g., “a standard outline system”) and content. ”Except in the case of articles that bear a new signature, all differences between the original and revised editions of this work are the responsibility of the revising editor.”

The target audience for this encyclopedia is wide: families, pastors, teachers, and students, both libraries and individual study.

2. OT Backgrounds Commentary

John H. Walton, ed. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. 2,928 pp. $249.95 retail.

Walton’s OT set is the counterpart to Clint Arnold’s NT set:

Clinton E. Arnold, ed. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: New Testament. 4 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. 1,924 pp. $159.95 retail.

Some features of the OT set:

• thirty international authors
• commentary on the entire OT in light of archeology, history, geography, and manners and customs
• over 2,000 photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams, and charts
• 12,000 endnotes

The target audience for this set is also wide. It’s definitely geared more for laypeople than Bible scholars.

Here are the books (in the order listed in the series) and commentators:

1. Genesis: John H. Walton
2. Exodus: Bruce Wells
3. Leviticus: Roy E. Gane
4. Numbers: R. Dennis Cole
5. Deuteronomy: Eugene E. Carpenter
6. Joshua: Richard S. Hess
7. Judges: Daniel I. Block
8. Ruth: Dale W. Manor
9. 1 Samuel: V. Philips Long
10. 2 Samuel: V. Philips Long
11. 1 Kings: John Monson
12. 2 Kings: Iain Provan
13. 1 Chronicles: Simon Sherwin
14. 2 Chronicles: Frederick J. Mabie
15. Ezra and Nehemiah: Edwin M. Yamauchi
16. Esther: Anthony Tomasino
17. Isaiah: David W. Baker
18. Jeremiah: Steven Voth
19. Lamentations: Paul W. Ferris Jr.
20. Ezekiel: Daniel Bodi
21. Daniel: Ernest C. Lucas
22. Hosea: J. Glen Taylor
23. Joel: Mark W. Chavalas
24. Amos: Philip S. Johnston
25. Obadiah: Alan R. Millard
26. Jonah: John H. Walton
27. Micah: Daniel M. Master
28. Nahum: Alan R. Millard
29. Habakkuk: Victor H. Matthews
30. Zephaniah: Mark W. Chavalas
31. Haggai: Kenneth G. Hoglund
32. Zechariah: Kenneth G. Hoglund and John H. Walton
33. Malachi: Andrew E. Hill
34. Job: Izak Cornelius
35. Psalms: John W. Hilber
36. Proverbs: Tremper Longman III
37. Ecclesiastes: Duane Garrett
38. Song of Songs: Duane Garrett

It’s available online.

Check it out here.

I’m looking forward especially to this one:

I’ve just spent some time examining an outstanding book hot off Zondervan’s press:

Gary M. Burge, Lynn H. Cohick, and Gene L. Green. The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament Within Its Cultural Contexts. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. 480 pp.

Introduction

1. overview of the book and authors (Note that all three authors are NT professors at Wheaton College and Graduate School.)
2. 10-page PDF of the front matter and chapter 1
3. video interview with all three authors
4. blog interview with Gary Burge

Endorsements

1. Craig L. Blomberg, PhD, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary: “. . . one of the best introductions and surveys in recent times. Remarkably attractive in its layout, with color pictures, color pictures, charts, diagrams and sidebars galore . . . If it’s backgrounds you want to highlight in a one-semester introduction to the New Testament, this is the text to assign.”
2. Darrell L. Bock, Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary: “The New Testament in Antiquity is a beautifully done, carefully presented, evangelically sensitive work to introduce the New Testament. I have longed for a text like this. There is richness on virtually every page. Read, savor, learn.”
3. Craig S. Keener, Professor of New Testament, Palmer Seminary of Eastern University: “Complete with an extraordinary array of visual illustrations, this book covers important topics needed for an introductory text in New Testament in a way that is both understandable and well-informed. It emphasizes many details that help students discover the biblical text in new ways they would rarely get on their own.”
4. Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University: “For years I have searched in vain for a book that would introduce students to the New Testament—with clear outlines, graphic images, historical contexts, timelines, maps, and bibliographies. My search is over; this is that book.”

Initial Evaluation

While flipping through every page and dipping in here and there, I noticed a few relatively minor disappointments (e.g., the bibliography on p. 122 lists the first rather than the second edition of Craig Blomberg’s The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, and the book lacks an author index), but overall, I agree with the above scholars. My text for New Testament introduction in college was Robert G. Gromacki’s New Testament Survey (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974). I sure wish that it would have been this one!

Last Sunday morning my pastor, Mike Bullmore, included a bulletin insert with twenty-six book recommendations and brief comments. I’ve published it here with Mike’s kind permission, and I’ve updated it in several ways:

1. combined it into one list: The bulletin insert has two sides. One recommends old standards: “If you are relatively new to CrossWay, these resources are selected with you in mind as they represent values that are foundational and particularly dear to us.” I’ve placed an asterisk (*) by these books. The other side highlights new additions to the CrossWay bookstore.
2. added ten more books from a similar, previous bulletin insert: Again, I’ve placed an asterisk (*) by books under the category “Old Standards.”
3. added bibliographic information (e.g., author, subtitles, publisher, year)
4. added book covers
5. arranged the books in alphabetical order
6. added some comments in brackets Continue Reading »

Last night Jenni and I finished reading Paul Maier’s The Flames of Rome. It is outstanding! It is a bit more explicit than Maier’s Pontius Pilate (sometimes uncomfortably so, e.g., re Nero’s depravity), but overall, it is a fine tool to engage one’s mind with first-century Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian history in a way that is virtually impossible by reading only encyclopedia-type summaries of the day. Bravo!

I would not be surprised if both of these books become required reading for NT classes I may teach in the future. They’re that useful.

Related: “Pontius Pilate”: A Documentary Novel by Paul Maier

While addressing the question “Ought We to Pray to the Holy Spirit?”, Graham Cole notes that there are three “ways to spoil the gospel” (p. 64):

1. addition
2. subtraction
3. disproportion (“by a lack of due weight in theological emphasis, by giving an element in it either too much or too little accent”)

Here’s the context (from Graham Cole, Engaging with the Holy Spirit: Real Questions, Practical Answers [Wheaton: Crossway, 2007], 64):

To pray to the Spirit is not wrong theologically, but if that practice displaces prayer to the Father in the name of the Son in reliance upon the Spirit, then there may be another sort of problem that emerges. The problem is that of disproportion. There are many ways to spoil the gospel. [1] One such way is by addition: Christ plus Mosaic circumcision as the gospel for the Gentiles. Galatians addresses this error. [2] The gospel may be spoiled by subtraction. Christ is divine but not human. The recently publicized Gnostic Gospel of Judas appears to take this road. Jesus is depicted as saying to Judas: “You will be greater than all the others, Judas. You will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” This error subtracts human nature from Christ and turns him into only a seeming human. This docetic error was the problem facing the original readers of John’s first letter (1 John 4:1-3). [3] But the gospel may also be spoiled by a lack of due weight in theological emphasis, by giving an element in it either too much or too little accent. A biblical truth may be weighted in a way that skews our thinking about God and the gospel. Arguably, to make prayer to the Holy Spirit the principal practice in Christian praying would be such an error. The Holy Spirit may be prayed to. He is God. But the Holy Spirit is not to be prayed to in such a way as to mask the mediatorship of Christ and our location in Christ as members of his body. For to pray to the Father in the name of the Son in reliance upon the Spirit is to rehearse the very structure of the gospel . . . .

It would be wise to ask yourself (and others who know you!), “Am I spoiling the gospel by disproportion? Is there an area that I am failing to give due weight in theological emphasis by giving an element in it either too much or too little accent?”

My Leather TruTone Classic Black ESV Study Bible arrived last Tuesday, but I had just left campus for a week so I didn’t get it until I returned to Deerfield this morning. I’m planning to read it in time to submit a review of it by March 1, 2009 for the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. For now I think one word sums up my initial reaction: wow.

Related:

• hardcover
• website
• videos
• endorsements
• interviews

I’m planning to write my second dissertation on the use of the OT in a passage in Romans, so I am particularly grateful that Zondervan is publishing this volume:

Kenneth Berding and Jonathan Lunde, eds. Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Counterpoints. Ed. Stanley N. Gundry. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008 (coming November 1, 2008). 256 pp. (More info available here.)

Structure

(The table of contents and an excerpt from chapter 1 is available as a 10-page PDF.) Continue Reading »

Last night my wife and I finished reading a historical novel together (Maier calls this genre the “documentary novel”):

Paul L. Maier [Wikipedia], Pontius Pilate (Doubleday, 1968; Kregel, 1990), 372 pp.

The book is outstanding! It is engagingly written from Pontius Pilate’s vantage point, starting with Pilate’s political life in Rome and appointment as prefect in Judea (AD 26) and continuing through the murder of Jesus (33 by Maier’s calculation, which is feasible though many scholars prefer 30), death of Tiberius (37), assassination of Caligula (41), and beginning of the reign of Claudius (41-54). The overall plot and every proper name used in the book is historically accurate, and Maier fills in this factual skeleton with colorful fictional details. It reconstructs many events described in the Gospels and Acts from the viewpoint of an educated, unbelieving Roman prefect.

God used this book to engage our minds even more with the Greco-Roman and Jewish history of NT times in a way that has helped us understand the NT better. It also has deepened our understanding of why Paul calls the gospel offensive foolishness to non-Christians (1 Corinthians 1). Praise God for a historically rooted faith and historically reliable revelation.

Next up: A historical novel during the reign of Nero (AD 54-68):

Paul L. Maier, The Flames of Rome (Doubleday, 1981; Kregel, 1991), 444 pp.

HT: JT

Yesterday I read a fascinating book set to release on September 30:

John Mark Reynolds and Roger Overton, eds. The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ. With a foreword by Hugh Hewitt. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. 254 pp.

More info (the content online, endosements, etc.) are likely forthcoming on the Crossway site. In the mean time, here are a few highlights: Continue Reading »

I typically consult The SBL Handbook of Style a couple of times each week to double-check various format and style issues. I was just delighted to learn that the entire book is available for free online as a PDF!

Update: The SBL site now says, “You must login to download The SBL Handbook of Style.”

The latest post on “Addenda & Errata” (a blog by IVP editors) is hilarious: “Top Ten Things to Say on Returning Home with Conference Book Plunder.” (I already shared the article with my wife, so I won’t be able to use any of these excuses—except for #3—after returning home from ETS and SBL in San Diego!)

Thanks to Rob Bradshaw for making available the following book as a free PDF:

Morris, Leon. Apocalyptic. 2d ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972. 105 pp.

Rick Phillips shares informative, witty thoughts on his recent trip to the annual Christian Booksellers Association.

Last night I finished reading an excellent resource: John Glynn, Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical Studies and Theological Resources (10th ed.; revised and updated; with a foreword by Darrell L. Bock; Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 380 pp. (See also Glynn’s website, which includes a couple reviews of his book.) Glynn’s Survey is a superb source for tracking what works are available for biblical studies. Glynn is a bit thin on evaluation (Other than occasional interjections, about the extent of his evaluations is bolding his most recommended resources.), and nearly everyone will have some quibbles with his judgments. The book, however, is primarily a compilation of resources, not a commentary on resources. It it not, therefore, in the same category as, say, D. A. Carson’s New Testament Commentary Survey. Glynn lists the options for biblical studies in general, but Carson analyzes specific NT commentaries. Glynn devotes only one chapter (pp. 145-201) to NT commentaries, but Carson’s whole book is devoted to it. I’m grateful for Glynn’s useful tool.

New book release from Crossway:

Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis, ed. Bock and Fanning.

TOC here. I’ve been waiting for this one. Looks great.