Temple Literature Research Articles

“Any Outsider Who Encroaches Will Be Put to Death”: Numbers 18:7 and its Interpretation in Second Temple Literature

Abstract In its biblical context, the injunction stipulating that “the outsider who encroaches shall be put to death” seems to apply to any non-priest or non-Levite who tries to participate in the tabernacle services. This interpretation seems to have been adopted during the Second Temple period, as attested to by the Temple Scroll (11QTa). There is no source that states that an unauthorized entrant to the temple is subject to capital punishment, except for a gentile: Philo and Josephus write that a gentile who enters the temple court is subject to the death penalty. Several scholars propose that this punishment derives from a reinterpretation of the biblical injunction, and it seems that this interpretation originated during the Hasmonean rebellion. The claim that Herod innovated the injunction subjecting a gentile who ascended beyond the balustrade to death is difficult to accept.

Rhetorical and Strategic Meaning of “Envy” (φθόνος) in Josephus. Examples of Korah and John of Gischala

The aim of this article is to analyse the theme of envy and its complexity in Josephus’ works in rhetorical and strategic sense rather than just as a literary topos. The paper focuses on two cases motivated by envy: Korah’s rebellion against Moses and the conflict between Josephus and John of Gischala. In these two cases, both the characteristics of envious persons and the richest descriptions of their sinister activities appear. The idea of Korah’s envy was not based on the Bible or the Second Temple literature or traditions but on Josephus’ own experiences from the period of his short-term command in Galilee (December 66 — July 67) when he was in conflict with envious John of Gischala. Thanks to this procedure, he was able to create the self-apologetic impression that his fate and that of Moses were intertwined because they had opponents with similar characteristics who were motivated by the same vice. Moreover, Josephus in both narratives follows the specific sequence according to which the envy leads to a “plot” (ἐπιβουλή), then to “false accusations” (διαβολή) and finally to a “sedition” (στάσις). He strategically used the theme of envy for his own apology to condemn his enemy, John of Gischala. The envy he felt disclosed the character of a person who was worse than Josephus in terms of personality traits. Josephus instead appears before the readers as a stoic sage who is free from weakness such as envy. At the same time the author draws attention to his own well-deserved success, thus the presence of envy becomes an indicator of his achievements. He conceals his own negative actions during his command in Galilee and tries to direct the audience’s attention to a specific arrangement of events that will lead to blaming his opponent.

Two Models for Pollution, Part A: From Leviticus to Late Second Temple Literature

Two Models for Pollution, Part A: From Leviticus to Late Second Temple Literature

The phallus in our stars: Sexual violence in the Animal Apocalypse

The Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85–90) provides some of the most vivid imagery in Second Temple literature. In reference to the descent of the Watchers allegorized as stars, the narrative invokes the simile “they let out their phalluses like stallions” three times. Beyond the simile’s allusion to the oracle in Ezek 23:20, the stallion phallus remains largely unexplored. Our investigation demonstrates the associations of stallions with “aggressive virility” and foreignness based on the Hebrew Bible and contemporary Hellenistic and early Jewish literature. Moreover, we show the Animal Apocalypse’s innovative emphasis on the violent nature of the sexual acts, a feature absent in Gen 6 and the Book of Watchers, and argue for the episode’s contextualization with other early Jewish texts in which sexual violence is present. By spotlighting the stallion-phallused stars with their foreign genitalia, the Animal Apocalypse highlights anxieties surrounding communal boundary crossing and its violent repercussions.

Formed from the Earth: Adam and Created Mortality in Second Temple Literature

This article analyzes Jewish writings normally placed in the period between about 200 b.c.e. and 200 c.e. that associate human mortality with the formation of Adam from the dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2.7). In particular, Ben Sira (16.30–17.1), the Thanksgiving Hymns of the Dead Sea Scrolls (5.32; 7.34; 9.17; 11.22, 24–25; 12.30; 20.27–34; 21.11–17, 25, 31–38; 22.12, 19; 23.13, 23, 26–27), Wisdom of Solomon (7.1–6), Philo’s On the Creation (134–35), and Second Enoch (30.8–10) all include material to this effect. The relevant passages generally give the impression that humans are susceptible to death due to the earthly constitution with which they were created, not because of a “fall” of Eden that had a corrupting effect on a previously pristine creation. A number of passages in the same texts have typically been understood to express the notion of a “fall” that introduced death to human existence (Sir 25.24; 1QH 4.27; Wis 2.23–24; Creation 151–52; 2 En 30.11–12, 16–18), but many such passages do not allude to the Edenic inception of human mortality as clearly as scholarship has generally assumed. Ultimately, the notion that humans were created mortal is a widespread and underappreciated motif within the Judaism of this period.

Review: Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature, by Carol A. Newsom

Review: <i>Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature</i>, by Carol A. Newsom

A "Great Day": The Context of a Johannine Expression (John 7:37; 19:31) in Second Temple Literature and Qumran (1QS 10.4; 4Q265 7 i.4)

The author of the Gospel of John twice identifies a day as "great" (John 7:37; 19:31). A survey of Second Temple and Qumran literature reveals four instances in which days are described as "great" in a liturgical context. The expression "great day" appears to function as a reference to a festival day, equivalent to the Late Biblical Hebrew "holy day" ([inline-graphic 01], Neh 10:32 MT) or the mishnaic "good day" ([inline-graphic 02]). This lends support to understanding John 7:37 as referring to the eighth day of Tabernacles/Sukkoth, and John 19:31 to a coincidence of the Sabbath and Passover on the day after the crucifixion.

Metaphor and the Portrayal of the Cause(s) of Sin and Evil in the Gospel of Matthew by Judith V. Stackr

Reviewed by: Metaphor and the Portrayal of the Cause(s) of Sin and Evil in the Gospel of Matthew by Judith V. Stackr J. R. C. Cousland judith v. stack, Metaphor and the Portrayal of the Cause(s) of Sin and Evil in the Gospel of Matthew (BIS 182; Leiden: Brill, 2020). Pp. x + 219. €105/ $126. Matthew's Gospel offers a rich harvest for those wishing to glean insights into how Jesus and the Gospel make use of metaphor, and Judith Stack's monograph on metaphors for sin and evil in Matthew offers a fruitful rumination on that topic. Her volume is particularly welcome because, despite the prominent role that metaphor assumes in the Gospel of Matthew, it has still not received the scholarly attention that it merits. Moreover, even though the book's ostensible focus is on metaphors for sin, S. engages with a surprising number of the features that characterize Jesus's (and Matthew's) distinctive voice. The volume opens with an introductory chapter devoted to defining metaphor, which is then followed by a selective but substantial assessment of how sin and evil are characterized in various Second Temple texts, including 1 Enoch, Jubilees, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Sirach, and selected passages from Qumran. She concludes that these writings cumulatively offer "a wide variety of perspectives and metaphors for understanding and portraying the source or sources of sin in humans" (p. 103). The second half of the book addresses the metaphors associated with sin and evil in Matthew. S. begins with a brief review of the earlier monographs by Benno Przybylski (Righteousness in Matthew and His World of Thought [SNTSMS 41; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980]) and Roger Mohrlang (Matthew and Paul: A Comparison of Ethical Perspectives [SNTSMS 48; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980]), [End Page 511] before moving to an exegesis of the terminology associated with sin (the hamart- root, planaō, skandalizō, and skandalon). S. determines that hamartia and hamartanō adhere to the conventional usage of the LXX and further notes that hamartia's metaphorical sense of "missing the mark" is absent here: instead of being unintentional, the word(s) connote a deliberate act. By contrast, planaō and skandalizō tend to signify instances where sin is not deliberate or where the source of sin lies outside the sinner. Somewhat controversially, S. affirms that, when individuals reject Jesus, it is Jesus who is the cause of their stumbling. Stack then embarks on an examination of the various metaphors relating to the causes of sin. They involve (1) body parts (e.g., "If your right hand causes you to sin …" [5:30]); (2) metaphors of illness ("those who are well have no need of a physician" [9:12]); and (3) the heart ("adultery … in his heart" [5:28]). These three groups of metaphors describe increasing levels of sin at work within individuals—moving from a sinful body part working against the whole, to a morbid state of sin in the body, to a sinful heart, connoting the person as a whole, especially in relation to their decision-making faculties. The following chapter considers genetic and familial metaphors for sin, which include metaphors of (1) trees and fruit ("every sound tree bears good fruit" [7:17]); (2) animals ("brood of vipers" [12:34]); and (3) family ("an evil and adulterous generation" [12:39; 16:4]). S. sees these various metaphors as expressive of the ontological dualism of good and evil—a feature that is prominent also in Second Temple literature. The final chapter deals with satanic activity, which provides the Gospel's most explicit etiology for sin in the interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares. Based on these assessments, S. concludes that sin and evil in Matthew are expressed in terms of metaphor. The wide-ranging metaphors exhibit "a diversity that spans a spectrum from those that indicate essentially external causes to those that … [are] inherent to who the person is" (p. 201). This diversity, moreover, is consistent with the wealth of images to be found in the Second Temple literature examined in the first half of the book. For those interested in metaphor, S.'s initial chapter provides a helpful treatment of the question...

Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature by Carol A. Newsom

Reviewed by: Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature by Carol A. Newsom Davida Charney Carol A. Newsom. Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 130. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019. 382 pp. ISBN 978-3-16-157723-9. In Rhetoric and Hermeneutics, Carol A. Newsom has collected eighteen of her essays that appeared between 1989 and 2016 and one previously unpublished essay. Unlike many volumes of this sort, the whole greatly exceeds the sum of its parts. Apart from its usefulness as a survey to scholars and students, the book advances Newsom’s scholarly agenda. Newsom works with texts circulating in and around Jerusalem during the late Second Temple period. This was a time of intellectual ferment: proto-gnostic sects proliferated; established religious practices were being challenged, defended, and modified. Newsom argues persuasively that these groups were led by sophisticated readers and rhetors. The leaders grasped that the Hebrew Bible, still undergoing canonization, is polyphonic and intertextual. Further, the texts that they created deployed polyphony, enargeia, and other rhetorical techniques to shape communal identity, attract adherents, and help individuals cope with the precarity of their status. These arguments are advanced in each of the book’s four topical sections. First are six essays that explain and apply Newsom’s methods of rhetorical criticism. Second are four essays illustrating how the Qumran community—responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls—shaped communal and individual identity. Third are three essays that lay out an ethno-psychological model for mapping conceptions of self and agency across cultures. The essays apply the model to the Hebrew Bible and a variety of Second Temple texts. Last are six reception studies that examine how narratives of the period are taken up and transformed both in antiquity and in modern times. Newsom, a chaired emerita professor of theology at Emory University, has published on so many aspects of Second Temple literature over her career that she has plenty of essays on method, theory, and application to choose from. As a result, even without additional commentary, the sections build coherent arguments. Each section opens with introductory issues of [End Page 322] theory, method, and scope and develops with close textual analysis and suggestive implications. The first section on methods reveals what Newsom means by rhetorical criticism and what theorists she relies on most. Like many biblical scholars, her immediate rhetorical touchstone is George Kennedy. But he does not inspire her to read widely in the Greco-Roman tradition. She is not concerned to trace possible cross-influences during the Hellenistic period. Instead Newsom turns to Bakhtin and Burke and the more literary strand of twentieth-century rhetorical criticism. For Newsom, rhetorical strategies in scripture reflect the identities and ontologies of their compositors and shape those of readers and writers to come. Accordingly, this section accomplishes two tasks for Newsom. First, the section launches Newsom’s larger claims that Second Temple communities deployed rhetorical strategies to shape individual and communal identities with case studies of Job (chapter 2), Proverbs 1—9 (chapter 3), Jewish apocalyptic texts (chapter 5), and texts from Qumran (chapter 6). Second, for biblicists new to rhetorical approaches, it introduces concepts and methods of rhetorical criticism, including Bakhtinian polyphony and dialogism (chapters 1 and 3), genre studies (chapters 2 and 4), and a variety of basic rhetorical concepts (chapters 5 and 6) such as epideictics, arrangement, enargeia, and kairos, though she doesn’t always employ these terms. While displaying nuanced rhetorical sensibilities, Newsom would clearly benefit from additional reading in rhetorical scholarship, particularly Carolyn Miller’s classic “Genre as Social Action”1 and William FitzGerald’s Spiritual Modalities for its use of Burke’s religious terministic screen to draw Burkean implications for prayer and religious practice.2 In Section Two, Newsom argues that the Qumran community—a break-away Jewish sect that deliberately positioned itself against the practices in the Second Temple—was “intentional and explicit in the formation of the subjectivity of its members” (159). First, she argues that the Dead Sea Scrolls served as a library for the community (chapter 7), based...

Reading for Resonance

Abstract This article offers a hermeneutic approach attentive to the tangled idiomatic and literary interconnections among biblical texts and other Second Temple literature. It focuses on the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll and their prepositions; the divine presence is ‘upon’ the temple and ‘in the midst’ of the people. This prepositional rhetoric engages recurrences and interconnections within and beyond the Hebrew Bible. It thus evokes multiple interlocking resonances and offers a window onto concepts of temple presence across biblical texts and traditions.

The Genesis of Good and Evil: The Fall(out) and Original Sin in the Bible

The Genesis of Good and Evil: The Fall(out) and Original Sin in the Bible

The Traces of Early Halakhot in the “Hava Amina” of the Sages in Second Temple Literature and the Ethiopian Halakhah

Abstract This essay seeks to add a further layer to the discussion of associations between ancient Halakhah and that of Beta Israel by examining correlations between halakhic traditions that were preserved among Ethiopian Jewish communities and the Hava Amina mentioned by the Sages. It demonstrates that opinions espoused by the sages’ opponents can be identified within the Hava Amina of the Talmudic discussion. The discussion presents three examples: The use of fire on Shabbat, Kosher slaughtering by someone other than a priest, and the status of an unborn child. The article concludes that the sages were familiar with ancient halakhic traditions parallel to those of the Ethiopian Halakhah, rejected these traditions from the accepted Halakhah, yet preserved traces of them in the Hava Amina of the Talmudic give and take.

A 360-Day Administrative Year in Ancient Israel: Judahite Portable Calendars and the Flood Account

AbstractAdministrators in ancient Judah used schematic 30-day months and a 360-day year alongside other annual frameworks. This year was never practiced as a “calendar” for any cultic or administrative purpose, but rather served as a convenient framework for long-term planning, as well as for literary accounts that were not anchored to a concrete calendar year. Examples for such a usage are attested here from Mesopotamian texts. Material evidence for the 360-day year in Judah comes forth from a series of small perforated bone plaques from various sites in Iron Age Judah. One such item was recently unearthed in the city of David. These objects can reasonably be understood as reflecting a schematic 360-day year, serving as desk calendars for Judahite administrators. Several priestly pentateuchal texts are best understood against this background, such as the dating of some festivals and most notably the dates in the Flood narrative (Gen 7–8). The original dating system is best represented in LXX Gen 7:11, while the reading of MT is a late modification, inserted later, when calendar debates took a central place in the religious discourse. MT is thus a link in a chain of later reworking of this narrative in Second Temple literature. The 360-day year is thus a unique case where material culture dovetails with literary evidence, and may shed light on the material culture of priestly sources. This insight is significant for future studies of biblical time reckoning.

How Did Esau Die? On Jewish–Gentile Relations in Pseudepigrapha and Rabbinic Literature

Abstract The Bible is silent regarding the death of Esau, Jacob’s brother, but Second Temple and rabbinic literature filled the lacuna. Although similar in their basic narrative, these versions differ in significant details, most notably the circumstances of and the person responsible for Esau’s death. This paper examines the extent to which these accounts not only present different views of the fraternal relationship but also reflect divergent attitudes towards Jewish relations with the non-Jewish world that are dictated by the time and place of their authorship. Reflecting its diasporan setting, the version in the Babylonian Talmud, it is shown, employs a particularly complex tactic of message encryption.

Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition, and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature, written by Carol A. Newsom

Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition, and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature, written by Carol A. Newsom

Jubilee Debt Cancellation and Luke’s Gospel

Abstract This study questions the argument that references to debt in Luke’s gospel (particularly Luke 6:34–36; 7:36–50; 11:2–4; and 16:1–9) should be viewed in relation to the biblical Jubilee. After a survey of Jubilee debt cancellation in the Old Testament and Second Temple literature, it is concluded that debt cancellation and the Jubilee were usually understood to be separate concepts. It is then argued that this is consistent with how debt texts in Luke’s gospel are presented; there are no words or syntactical patterns which suggest reliance on Jubilee traditions. Finally, it is argued that the concept of debt in Luke’s gospel served a variety of purposes, none of which need to be viewed in reference to the Jubilee.

Israel’s Identity, Fall, and Destiny in the Book of Jubilees

Second Temple Jewish literature is a helpful resource for illuminating the hermeneutical interface between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The present article seeks to contribute to our knowledge of Second Temple literature by exploring the book of Jubilees, an interpretative retelling of the Pentateuchal narrative. Our specific focus is on Jubilees’ understanding of Israel’s identity, fall, and destiny, which are three important themes that are expounded in both the Old and the New Testaments. The book of Jubilees displays the following features in its conceptualization of Israel’s identity, fall, and destiny. First, Jubilees describes Israel as the true successors of Adam, who embodied the glorious creational vision of priestly humanity and retained it even after his sin. Adam is described as the first priest of Israel who kept the ritual regulations in the Mosaic law, and the people of Israel are presented as Adam’s true priestly descendants. Not all of the Jewish people belong to Israel, and only those Jews who remain faithful to the Mosaic law, obeying particularly the priestly regulations that mark Israel as distinct from Gentiles constitute the true priestly line descending from Adam. Second, concerning Israel’s fall, Jubilees emphasizes Israel’s violation of the Mosaic law, especially the regulations that mark Israel’s priestly identity, as the paradigmatic case of sin, which is exemplified in the story of the fall of Watchers in Genesis 6. Jubilees identifies corrupt human heart and demonic power as the two causes of human sins that are also operative also in Israel, inclining Israel to forfeit their priestly identity. While the people of Israel are provided with some protection from demonic power, they are still vulnerable to demonic influence. Third, concerning Israel’s destiny, the people of Israel do not enjoy the privilege of either disembodied immortality or bodily resurrection because God’s creational intention for humanity was longevity rather than immortality. The result of Adam and Israel’s fall was therefore not mortality itself but shortened lifespan and premature physical destruction that now characterize human life in the present world. Only those Jews who keep the Mosaic law and retain their priestly identity will be restored from this shortened span and premature violent death through eschatological vindication and heavenly ascension.

Methodology in the Use of the Old Testament in the New: Context and Criteria

Methodology in the Use of the Old Testament in the New: Context and Criteria

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use: Qumran

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT UseQumran Christopher T. Begg and Fred W. Guyette Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary 2442. [Message of 4QInstruction] Jonathan Ben-Dov, "Family relations and the Economic-metaphysical message of Instruction," JSP 30 (2, 2020) 87-100. Much of the sapiential treatise Instruction (=4QInstruction) can be read as a systematic attempt to support one basic ideological principle: Each person has a divinely assigned share, and every interaction that requires mixing that share with other agents is a breach of the metaphysical order. This idea was first formulated with regard to Instruction by Menahem Kister. In the present article, I apply this notion to the prologue (preserved in 4Q416 1) and to the sections on family relations (parents, wife) in 4Q416. These latter cases explore the financial relations within a family and align them with the overall principle of Instruction. The various sections highlight the person's spirit as a commodity, intertwined with the life and capital of that person. The literary focus is on the phenomenology of the spirit, as it shifts during various transactions. The biblical allusions in these sections are explained along the same line of argument. [Published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 2443. [The Calendar and MMT] Jonathan Ben-Dov, "The Calendar and 4QMMT," Interpreting and Living God's Law at Qumran, 105-16 [see #2632]. 4Q394 3a-4 1-3 preserves the end of a calendrical list. The same kind of list is known from 4Q326, 4Q327, and 4Q324d as well. The fragments known as 4Q394 1-2 are not part of 4Q394. They should be designated by their earlier siglum 4Q327, in accordance with the original view of J. T. Milik and J. Strugnell. 4Q327 and 4Q394 were, however, apparently written by the same scribe. The scribe of 4Q394 decided to reproduce a calendrical list before the halakhic section of MMT in 4Q394. The list had been previously copied by the scribe in question [End Page 896] in the scroll 4Q327, but when he came to use the list as a preface to MMT, he adapted the list's graphic format in order to bring it into conformity with the prose layout of MMT. The scribe decided to copy the calendrical list as part of 4Q394 presumably because he considered the calendar to be a significant factor in defining the community's sectarian identity and a legitimation of its schism from the wider Judaism of the day—both topics that are central to the argument set out in MMT. In my view, the calendrical list was not, however, an integral part of MMT. [Adapted from author's conclusion, p. 116—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 2444. [Demons and the Divine Order in Jubilees and the DSS] Miryam T. Brand, "Demons and Dominion: Forcing Demons into the Divine Order in Jubilees and the Dead Sea Scrolls," From Scrolls to Traditions, 18-37 [see #2543]. K. van der Toorn has pointed out that ancient Mesopotamian religion presupposed the existence of both malevolent evil spirits and a beneficent divine realm. How though were these two realities thought to relate to each other? In a myth like Atrahasis, the evil spirit Lamaštu/Pašittu, the scourge of pregnant women and young children, is integrated into the divine cosmic order as an agent of the gods in keeping human population growth in check. By contrast, in Mesopotamian exorcistic texts, evil spirits are envisaged as anarchic free agents against which those afflicted can only appeal for a divine intervention on their behalf by means of prescribed prayers and rituals. In her article, B. notes that a similar bifurcation with regard to the understanding of the relationship between evil spirits and God's benevolence—both of which are accepted as existential givens—can be observed in Second Temple literature, the DSS corpus in particular. In such texts as the Book of Jubilees, the Damascus Document, and the Community Rule, the evil spirts, led by such figures as Mastema and Belial, can only act with God's leave and in accordance with the limits set by him. By contrast, in the apotropaic...

Tom Wright and The Search For Truth: A Theological Evaluation by Tom Holland

Reviewed by: Tom Wright and The Search For Truth: A Theological Evaluation by Tom Holland Adam Z. Wright tom holland, Tom Wright and The Search For Truth: A Theological Evaluation (London: Apiary, 2017). Pp. 495. $39.95. In this book, Holland draws attention to a number of perceived fallacies in the work of Tom Wright. The book is divided into thirteen chapters each of which focuses on a particular theological issue: the contributions of Wright; Saul and his political identity; Paul and his theological identity; Paul and his intellectual identity; Paul’s use of Hellenistic language and imagery; Paul’s use of Second Temple literature; Paul’s understanding of christology; Paul’s doctrine of atonement; Wright’s doctrine of justification; Paul’s doctrine of justification; justification in Romans and Galatians; justification in Paul’s other letters; and Wright’s theological method. Each chapter ranges from thirty to seventy pages and contains several subsections. It is clear from the earliest pages that H. deeply respects N. T. Wright’s contributions to the field of NT studies. This is demonstrated in his summary of Wright’s entrance into the field, going so far as to state that “much of what W has written has been excellent” and that he has done much to help “Christians to see the importance of the OT for interpreting the NT” (p. 34). This sets the tone for much of what follows, and it is clear that this work is more a respectful clash of ideas than a clash of characters. The strengths of the book are many. The book treats a large number of topics and discusses each in great detail. H. does a good job of choosing the most prevalent issues from within Wright’s large corpus of material and masterfully dismantles many of the logical fallacies therein. One of the more interesting examples can be found in the second and third chapters, in which H. discusses Wright’s opinion that Paul was a zealot. He carefully [End Page 145] dismantles this claim by going into great detail about a more fundamental premise in Paul’s writing, namely, his reliance on a doctrine of suffering and servanthood. Another positive aspect of this book is the very lengthy treatment (approximately sixty pages) of the doctrine of justification. In it, H. carefully examines the Pauline texts on the subject and argues, contra Wright, that Paul understands justification to include the gentiles and not simply individual Jews. There are a number of weaknesses in this book, however, and the first relates to type-setting. The spacing for page numbers––especially in chap. 7––is compressed, making it difficult to read the numbers correctly. This issue also appears in the table of contents: see the title for chap. 7 (p. 25). This is a very odd typesetting mistake to encounter since it seems very easy to fix. The second weakness lies in the content, in particular H.’s treatment of Hellenistic influences in the writing of the NT. It becomes quite clear in the first three chapters that H. wants to “liberate” the NT from any Hellenistic influence whatsoever. For example, H. states, “[O]nce the idea of Greek control is removed, previously unrecognized Old Testament theological themes break out of the New Testament text” (p. 61). It is not obvious, then, how a Hellenistic influence was not present considering, to start, that Paul was speaking and writing in the Greek language. I think this is a potentially damaging position to take, and one that is not explained thoroughly enough. A third weakness concerns H.’s linguistic analysis, which stems from my second critique. H. correctly asserts that a word’s context should determine how that word is understood (p. 63). He then notes that the Hebrew word ‘ebed is used in a variety of contexts and must therefore have a number of distinct connotations. This is juxtaposed with the words pais and doulos, which, H. argues, are used arbitrarily in the translation from Hebrew into Greek in the LXX. This arbitrariness has thus led to a number of interpretive issues for both NT writers and later interpreters of the NT. The problem that H. faces by adopting this...