The T & T Clark Blog

Author Interview: Graham I. Davies and Exodus 1-18 A Critical and Exegetical Commentary

 

Professor Graham I. Davies discusses the background and discoveries of his long-awaited commentary on the first twenty chapters of the second book of the Torah, in Exodus 1-18: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary Volumes I and II.

1. How do you think this commentary could be described - in just one sentence?
Exodus is the centre of the Pentateuch/Torah (perhaps even of the whole Hebrew Bible) and this is a detailed commentary which provides an up-to-date scholarly explanation of the Hebrew text, backed up by a full analysis of the extensive manuscript resources and an independent discussion of theories about the book’s sources and layers of editing.

2. What drew you to creating such an extensive commentary on Exodus?
The short answer is that I was lucky enough to be asked to do it! The Old Testament Editor at the time, Professor John Emerton, wished especially to commission commentaries to fill the gaps in the original ICC and Exodus was one of them. I suppose he knew from my doctoral work that I was interested in the Pentateuch, especially Exodus and the following books. He would also have known that I also had an interest in textual criticism, at that time the ancient translations of it like the Septuagint and the Targums, and this has always played an important part in ICC commentaries.

Author Interview: Joseph M. Henderson on Jeremiah Under the Shadow of Duhm

Professor Joseph M. Henderson unpacks the history, research and journey that became Jeremiah Under the Shadow of Duhm, a book that examines how the work of Bernhard Duhm has dominated Jeremiah scholarship and outlines ways forward that examine Jeremiah's dramatic style and narrative progression.

How do you think your book could be described – in just one sentence?

My book is a reconsideration of the foundational assumption of modern Jeremiah scholarship: that the poetic form of individual passages from the book indicate that they are authentic: that is, derived from the prophet and thus useful as evidence for reconstructing his life or thought.

 

What drew you to researching Jeremiah?

I found the book to be a profoundly moving work of literature. I was drawn in by the tragic story of Jeremiah, who had hoped to avert the judgment of his people, becoming an agent of their destruction and the greater tragedy that Jeremiah’s story reflects: the story of Yahweh bringing destruction on his beloved people.

Author Interview: David Nelson on Jüngel: A Guide for the Perplexed

 

R. David Nelson discusses his introduction to one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century, found in Jüngel: A Guide for the Perplexed, one of the latest publications in Bloomsbury's Guides for the Perplexed.

 

How do you think your book could be described – in just one sentence?

The book is an introduction to Eberhard Jüngel’s life, intellectual and theological formation, and major works.  

 

What drew you to researching Jüngel’s work?

I discovered Jüngel while a student in seminary, and immediately recognized the brilliance and originality of his theological contribution. But it was only a few years later and quite by accident that the possibility of pursuing a course of research on his thought presented itself. I met my doctoral supervisor, John Webster, for the first time in November of 2003, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. On the way to the conference, I hastily cobbled together a list of topics to present to John as possibilities for my dissertation. All but two of my ideas were on Karl Barth; one of the remainders was on Wolfhart Pannenberg, the other on Jüngel’s sacramental theology. During our meeting and much to my dismay, John swiftly passed over my various suggestions on Barth’s theology, and then declared that he was not interested in supervising work on Pannenberg. But he paused long and hard on the Jüngel idea. We agreed to give it a shot, and I departed for Aberdeen the next summer with the topic firmly in hand.

Author Interview: Nicholas Elder on The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative

 

 

 

Professor Nicholas Elder explains his research into media and modes of composition in antiquity, found in The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative, one of the latest publications in The Library of New Testament Studies.

1. How do you think your book could be described – in just one sentence?

This book is a comparison of two narratives, the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Aseneth, that are dissimilar by many counts but, as I argue, were of a similar antique media form.

2. What drew you to researching early Jewish and Christian Narrative?

I was drawn in by the rhetorical power that narrative generally, and early Jewish and Christian narrative particularly, possesses. As humans we think narratively. There is nothing like a good story, and both the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Aseneth are great stories.

Author Interview: Ray M. Lozano on The Proskynesis of Jesus in the New Testament

 

 

Professor Ray M. Lozano discusses his exploration of proskuneo and reverence towards Jesus in his new book, The Proskynesis of Jesus in the New Testament, one of the latest publications in The Library of New Testament Studies.

 

How would you describe the aim of this book?

Basically, the aim of my book is to carefully investigate the use of the Greek term proskuneo in the New Testament works Mark, Matthew, Luke-Acts, John, Hebrews, and Revelation in order to determine the kind of reverence or worship Jesus is depicted receiving in these works, whether it be in the milder sense of reverence shown to mere humans or in the stronger sense of worship shown to divine beings.

Author Interview: Jan Age Sigvartsen on Afterlife and Resurrection Beliefs

 

Dozent Jan Age Sigvartsen discusses his interest and research into the resurrection beliefs found in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha.

 

How would you describe the aim of these books? 

These books provide a balanced, comprehensive overview of the resurrection passages (an anthology) in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, and identify 18 different distinct and complete death and afterlife beliefs.  In addition to describing and discussing them, these books graphically chart these beliefs so the reader can quickly and easily see what these beliefs contain and compare them with other beliefs. They also consider the role and to what extent the books that later became the TaNaKh played in the formation of these afterlife beliefs. In a nutshell, they endeavor to understand what happened in the period between the TaNaKh that barely mentions personal resurrection beliefs, and when resurrection became a core belief in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity.

Editor Interview: Antonios Finitsis on Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible

 

Professor Antonios Finitsis describes the group research that delved into the multivalent importance of dress and clothing in the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible; resulting in Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible: “For All Her Household Are Clothed in Crimson”, one of the latest volumes in the acclaimed series The Library of Hebrew/Old Testament Studies.

 

1. How would you describe this book in one sentence?

It is a study of the articulation of power in the Hebrew Bible via Dress and clothing.

 

2. What drew you to amassing an anthology on dress and clothing?

Two primary reasons drew me. First, even though “Dress studies” is a field of inquiry with a long history in other disciplines such as history, sociology, anthropology, and sociology, it is relatively untouched by Hebrew Bible scholars. That —in itself— was an irresistible motivator that generated a lot of excitement among members of my research group. Second, recent approaches for the interpretation of Hebrew Bible, such as queer, iconographic, disability studies etc. have questioned dominant presuppositions of deriving meaning and have shed new light on age old texts. It is precisely this revolutionary potential of Dress studies that drew me to creating this anthology.

Editor Interview - Matthew R. Crawford and Nicholas J. Zola on The Gospel of Tatian: Exploring the Nature and Text of the Diatessaron

 

Professor Matthew R. Crawford and Professor Nicholas J. Zola discuss the exploration of whether Tatian’s Diatessaron was merely a “gospel harmony,” mechanically compiling canonical texts, or a gospel in its own right, designed to supplant its sources; in the edited collection The Gospel of Tatian, one of the latest volumes in The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries.

1. How would you describe this book in one or two sentences?

Christians were still writing Gospels in the second century when Tatian composed what we call the Diatessaron. This book situates Tatian’s “Gospel” within the broader context of Gospel writing and reception, specifically exploring its sources, its witnesses, and its relationship to the emerging fourfold Gospel.

Editor Interview - Jeremiah Cataldo on Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible

Professor Jeremiah W. Cataldo discusses the necessity of focusing on the neglected areas of Biblical memory, identity and community, in the edited collection Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible, one of the latest volumes in The Library of Hebrew/Old Testament Studies.

1. How would you describe this book in one sentence?

This volume analyses constructed memory and identity in the Bible through the lens of modern social-scientific method, and explores how social and political identities are imagined within collective memories and what that means for biblical interpretation.

Author Interview - Tucker Ferda on Jesus, the Gospels, and the Galilean Crisis

Dr. Tucker Ferda takes us through the discoveries he made during the creation of one of our most recently published Library of New Testament Studies works: Jesus, The Gospels and the Galilean Crisis.

 

1. How would you describe this book in one sentence?

This book explores how Jesus, his early followers, and later interpreters, made sense of the rejection of the Gospel, and it suggests that contemporary scholarship continues to repeat the conclusions of 19^th-century and earlier research in important and overlooked ways.

2. What drew you to this subject?

I am fascinated by both the reception history of the Gospels and the attempt to reconstruct Jesus as a figure in history. I am firmly convinced that these two projects go hand in hand such that, as Ricoeur once said, we cannot talk about the past until we talk about ourselves as beings shaped by the past. I also have interests in how Christian theology works in the valleys of disappointment, despair, and trauma. So I guess this book was a melding of all these things.