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.

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.

Author Interview: The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors: New Historical Reconstructions from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Classical Sources

For one of our recent publications, The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors: New Historical Reconstructions from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Classical Sources, Dr. Kenneth Atkinson reveals the inspiration and research behind his latest book.

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

 My book offers a bold new reconstruction of the vital historical period in Palestine from 152 to 63 B.C.E., when the Hasmonean family of Jewish rulers changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith.

2.What drew to you writing about this subject?

I discovered the remarkable story of the family of Jewish rulers known as the Hasmoneans (a.k.a. Maccabees) when I first read the writings of the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus (37 B.C.E.-ca. 98 C.E.). His accounts of how the Hasmoneans forged an independent state, maintained power, fought numerous enemies, and lost their independence to the Romans, is a gripping narrative with many Shakespearian qualities. Josephus’s chronicle of King Judah Aristobulus is perhaps the best example. It is reminiscent of Macbeth with its tales of matricide, sibling strife, and madness. Although Josephus’s descriptions of him and his ruthless brother, Alexander Jannaeus, make compelling reading, I was astonished at his sections about Queen Shelamzion Alexandra. The only legitimate female ruler in Jewish history and the sole woman named in the Dead Sea Scrolls, she emerged during a time of chaos to preserve her family’s kingdom and change her religion. Her reign is one of history’s most fascinating and least known stories. After reading Josephus’s books, I became so interested in the Hasmonean family that I decided someday to document their history in an academic publication accessible to scholars in a variety of disciplines, students, and interested laypersons. It ended up being a much greater project than I had anticipated.

My previous book, The History of the Hasmonean State: Josephus and Beyond (T and T Clark Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies, 23 [London: Bloomsbury T and T Clark, 2016]), used all extant data to reconstruct the history of the Hasmonean State as documented in Josephus’s works. This was the only book I had planned to publish about the Hasmoneans. However, while writing it, I discovered a vast quantity of unused literary, archaeological, and numismatic sources that document relations between the Hasmoneans and their neighbors, as well as how the family affected the Dead Sea Scrolls community. I also found that these ancient manuscripts discovered along the Dead Sea help us to understand Greek and Latin classical writings about this period. These works, moreover, contain a wealth of untapped resources for reconstructing previously unknown events in Hasmonean history. The Hasmoneans and their Neighbors uses this evidence to reveal how the Hasmonean family changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith. I am confident readers will find it a fascinating book.

3. How long have you been researching it? How did you come to study it?

This book has a rather long history that precedes my academic career. I first encountered the Hasmoneans during the Cold War when I spent four years as a soldier in the U.S. Army (1983-1987). Assigned to the former West Berlin, I transported classified documents through the Berlin Wall across the former East Germany and the Iron Curtain. Because of my military status, I was able to cross through Check Point Charlie—the border between East and West Berlin and the infamous “Berlin Wall”—to see the great historical and archaeological museums in the former Communist sector. I was particularly fascinated with the biblical artifacts there, which led me to visit many of the countries where archaeologists found them. My experiences in the army, coupled with my independent study and travels, stimulated my desire to pursue a career in academia specializing in the period of the Hasmonean state. Before I began my academic training, I wanted to see more in my quest to learn about the Hasmoneans and the ancient world first-hand.

After my military discharge (honorable I am happy to say!), I spent nearly three years traveling full-time to historical and archaeological sites in several Middle Eastern and European countries. Equipped only with a backpack, I retraced portions of Jesus’ travels, Paul’s journeys, Xenophon’s march of the ten thousand, Lucullus’ Armenian campaign, and Crusader routes—a good portion of them by foot! My journeys shaped nearly every chapter of The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors, especially my reconstructions of historical events based on my visits to numerous archaeological sites. This is perhaps most evident in chapter three, where I use my trip to the ancient kingdom of Commagene and neighboring regions to uncover new information about a possible Hasmonean campaign there. Upon my return home and throughout my graduate school education, I continued my studies of the Hasmoneans. Readers will find much new information throughout The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors that my varied life experiences allowed me to uncover. Like my previous book, it contains many original historical reconstructions not available anywhere else.

4. What does your book focus on that hasn’t been explored elsewhere?

The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors shows that Jewish sectarianism and messianism played greater roles in the Hasmonean state than indicated in the writings of Josephus. It also proposes that we cannot understand the history and theological beliefs of Jews during the period of the Hasmonean state without a close investigation of the histories of the Egyptian Ptolemaic and the Syrian Seleucid Empires, as well as the Roman Republic. By bringing together evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and classical sources, I offer a new reconstruction of this vital historical period when the Hasmoneans not only shaped Middle Eastern history, but transformed the classical world as well. The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors also contains many new reconstructions of classical history, including the most detailed examination of Pompey the Great’s assassination in light of Jewish sources. This section on his death reveals new information that explains the discrepancies in the classical accounts of this pivotal event that shaped Middle Eastern and Roman history, and which ended the Roman Republic. The Hasmoneans and Their Neighbors is a truly exciting story that will interest scholars from many fields, as well as anyone interested in learning about one of history’s most amazing, influential, and dysfunctional families.

 

Author Interview - Understanding Affections in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards: “The High Exercises of Divine Love”

In anticipation of Understanding Affections in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards: “The High Exercises of Divine Love”, Dr Ryan J. Martin goes into further detail on the creation of his monograph.

 

How would you describe your book in one sentence?

My book is a focused look at how Jonathan Edwards defined affections and other movements of the human soul, and how his understanding of human anthropology was incorporated into his theology as a whole. 

               

What drew to you writing about this subject?

I was already interested in affections as a category, and especially in the ways older Christians thought about them as a psychological phenomenon. It seems--even on the surface--that Christian thought on the soul's movements have shifted and morphed in recent times. I wanted to understand better some of the older models of thought on their own terms, rather than looking at them through the prism of contemporary categories and assumptions. Finally, the opportunity to study a master theological mind like that of Edwards was itself immensely appealing. 

 

How long have you been researching Jonathan Edwards? How did you come to study him?

During my Master of Divinity at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minnesota, U.S.A., I started reading Jonathan Edwards's Religious Affections, a classic work on Christian affection and devotion. I read just a couple of pages per day, early each morning before starting the day. I really didn't start studying Edwards's thought in earnest until after I began my Ph.D., however. I assumed that everything that could be written on Edwards had already been written, so I looked at my making any worthwhile contribution to Edwards's thought to be a fool's errand. Nevertheless, my doktorvater and friend, Kevin T. Bauder, pushed me to explore more deeply this area of Edwards's thought through the work of the scholar Thomas Dixon. Ken Minkema also encouraged me to continue my work in Edwards's affective thought. 

 

What does your book focus on that hasn’t been explored elsewhere?

I'd highlight especially three areas of development. My book emphasizes both the way Edwards thought about affections, especially in contrast with other movements of the soul. I pay special attention to Edwards's distinction between "affections" and "passions," showing how he maintained this distinction throughout his career as a pastor and theologian. A second focus is the way I tie those ideas throughout Edwards's greater theological endeavors. I try to show that affections were a perennial concern for Edwards, from his early days at New Haven, to his later writings against the theological progressives of his day. Finally, I make the case that the way Edwards thought about affections has little in common with more recent emphases on emotions found in popular Christian religious thought. 

 

What do you hope readers will gain from the book?

I hope they'll gain an appreciation of Christian theology, the remarkable genius of Jonathan Edwards, and the necessity of gracious affections for the Triune God. 

Understanding Affections in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards: “The High Exercises of Divine Love” is available for pre-order now, and is due for release on 15th November 2018!

 

 

Ten Books for Easter

As a tribute to this Holy Week of 2018, we have created a list of previous, current and future releases, that we feel particularly reflect the importance of the days before us!

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Our Guides for the Perplexed explain key themes for scholars and general readers, providing an accessible introduction to challenging thinkers, writers and subjects.

 

T&T Clark Companion to Atonement

Focusing on dogmatic location, analysis of the Old and New Testaments, major theologians and contemporary developments on atonement, every essay in this companion seeks to both appropriate and stimulate the church's understanding of the manifold nature of Christ's death and resurrection.

 

The Resurrection of Jesus in the Gospel of Peter: A Tradition-Historical Study of the Akhmîm Gospel Fragment

An investigation of the significance of the discovery of the Akhmim fragment, and the consequences of understanding it as an eye-witness testimony of the resurrection of Jesus.

God as Sacrificial Love

Examines the Christian theologies of sacrificial love, this book breaks new ground on the significance of Jesus' life, sacrifice and death, and what it means both for the contemporary reader and the modern world. 

Judas Iscariot: Damned or Redeemed: A Critical Examination of the Portrayal of Judas in Jesus Films (1902-2014)

An original analysis of 23 filmic representations of Judas Iscariot, tracing their changing portrayals, the reasons for these changes, and how they impact on theology.

 

Space, Time and Resurrection

This classic of modern theology demonstrates the life affirming and cataclysmic significance of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, by focusing on the redemptive, life from death, operation of the Historical and Eschatological Jesus. This upcoming reissue, to be published in November of this year in the Cornerstones Series, features a preface by Paul D. Molnar.

T&T Clark Companion to the Bible and Film

Coming in June this year, this companion provides a comprehensive overview of the Bible and film, looking at context, theory and key 'texts' both biblical and cinematic.

What did Jesus Look Like?

And finally, a theorization of the man behind the iconography and the scripture - a book that has caused a stir both in the academic and journalistic world, garnering reviews from The Sun, Times Higher Education, The Irish Times, The Telegraph and The Independent!