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Volume 33 Issue 1 - May 2008

An International Journal for Pastors and Students of Theological and Religious Studies



Table of Contents [+] Expand


Book Reviews[+] Expand

Old Testament
Sidnie White Crawford and Leonard J. Greenspoon.
The Book of Esther in Modern Research.
Reviewed by Robin Gallaher Branch
Eryl W. Davies.
The Dissenting Reader: Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible.
Reviewed by Robin Gallaher Branch
John Day, ed.
In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel.
Reviewed by Bálint Károly Zabán
Katharine J. Dell.
The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological Context.
Reviewed by Jennie Barbour
William G. Dever.
Did God Have a Wife?
Reviewed by William D. Barker
New Testament
Octavian D. Baban.
On the Road Encounters in Luke-Acts.
Reviewed by Jamie Read
Richard Bauckham.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.
Reviewed by David Wenham
Andrew E. Bernhard.
Other Early Christian Gospels.
Reviewed by Simon Gathercole
William S. Campbell.
Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity.
Reviewed by James C. Miller
David L. Dungan.
Constantine's Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament.
Reviewed by Preston M. Sprinkle
Margaret Hannan.
The Nature and Demands of the Sovereign Rule of God in the Gospel of Matthew.
Reviewed by Phillip J. Long
Carl R. Holladay.
A Critical Introduction to the New Testament.
Reviewed by Lee S. Bond
 
Larry W. Hurtado.
The Earliest Christian Artifacts.
Reviewed by Rohintan Mody
Bruce J. Malina and John J. Pilch.
Social-Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul.
Reviewed by Nijay K. Gupta
Mark Reasoner.
Romans in Full Circle: A History of Interpretation.
Louisville: Reviewed by Michael Bird
Sorin Sabou.
Between Horror and Hope: Paul's Metaphorical Language of "Death" in Romans 6:1-11.
Reviewed by Nijay K. Gupta
Chris VanLandingham.
Judgment and Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul.
Reviewed by Timothy Gombis
Tommy Wasserman.
The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission.
Reviewed by P. J. Williams 89

History and Historical Theology
Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, eds.
The Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities, c. 1815-c.1914.
Reviewed by John Coffey
Collin Hansen.
Young, Restless, Reformed.
Reviewed by Andrew David Naselli 91
Douglas A. Sweeney and Allen C. Guelzo, eds.
The New England Theology: From Jonathan Edwards to Edwards Amasa Park.
Reviewed by Oliver D. Crisp
Systematic Theology and Bioethics
Petrus J. Gräbe.
New Covenant, New Community.
Reviewed by A. T. B. McGowan
Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, eds.
Overcoming Sin and Temptation.
Reviewed by Graham Beynon
James K. A. Smith.
Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?
Reviewed by Tim Chester
Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
The Drama of Doctrine.
Reviewed by Robbie Fox Castleman
Ethics and Pastoralia
Gilbert Meilaender and William Werpehowski, eds.
The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics.
Reviewed by Brian Brock
H. P. Owen.
The Basis of Christian Prayer.
Reviewed by Stephen Dray
Milton Vincent.
A Gospel Primer for Christians.
Reviewed by Andrew David Naselli


The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International, 2006. xvi + 398 pp. £14.15/$28.36.

Tommy Wasserman.

P. J. Williams
Tyndale House
Cambridge, England, UK

It cannot be said of many doctoral theses that they have made a major and permanent contribution to human knowledge, but it can be said of this one. What has been achieved in the course of this published version of a doctoral dissertation at Lund University is quite incredible. The author has examined and collated the text of Jude in 560 different manuscripts, that is, in virtually all the continuous-text manuscripts of the epistle. Thus a work has been done that has considerably advanced our knowledge of the text of the New Testament and will not need to be repeated. Such full collations previously had existed only for the Apocalypse.

Moreover, Jude is acknowledged to be one of the most textually complex books of the New Testament. Wasserman presents in condensed form the results of his collation, together with a critical edition of the text of Jude and a full textual commentary.

The work is divided into three basic sections: Prolegomena, Editio, and Commentarius, each being a little over one hundred pages. The Prolegomena consider the history of scholarship, look closely at two very early witnesses (P72 and P78), and examine the relationship between 2 Peter and Jude, concluding that Jude is prior. In the course of the monograph, Wasserman reviews the work of many scholars. One of the striking features of the discussions is how many major names seem to have fallen into demonstrable elementary technical errors (readers will have to consult the book itself to compile their own list). The author has also identified three new NT manuscripts and found that what were registered as two separate New Testament manuscripts were in fact merely one.

A significant conclusion relating to the text of Jude is that it has a unique history of textual transmission. Th is suggests that it was not initially transmitted alongside other books and makes problematic any view that it was first transmitted as part of a Catholic Epistles collection. I am fascinated by the following statement on page 123: 'Interestingly, the genealogical data of the CBGM [Coherence Based Genealogical Method] for the two Petrine epistles suggest that their mutual textual history is more similar than that of the other Catholic Epistles, which suggests that 1-2 Peter were brought together earlier in the history of transmission.' This passing statement, with no further reference, should be developed in full as it could have interesting implications for the reception of 2 Peter. The dissertation ends with sixteen plates of manuscripts.