The T & T Clark Blog

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: 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: 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.

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.