Buswell Bulletin: Journal Articles – July 2022

Buswell Bulletin

Jul 12

Covenant’s librarians keep an eye on the new journal issues coming into the library and then each month we highlight recent articles and reviews that strike us as interesting and/or important to the scholarly conversation. (Inclusion on this list is not an endorsement.)

Linked items marked “Open Access” are accessible to anyone. Otherwise, a Covenant library account may be required for access. Alumni may access items marked “Alumni Access Available” by visiting the Alumni Portal and selecting the identified resource on the library resources page.

The Erosion of Church Growth through Patriarchal Leadership in Russia

Johannes Reimer
Evangelical Review of Theology 46, no. 1 (February 2022): 5–11

Abstract:

Authoritarian patriarchal leadership has spawned abuse, scandal and controversy caused tragedies in churches and Christian ministries all over the world. This article highlights the pervasive problem of autocratic leadership among Russian evangelicals—explaining the historical reasons for the development of this pattern, analysing its components and urging a healthier way forward.

Open Access: Download Issue

The Theological Lineage of N. T. Wright’s Historical Method

Jonathan Rowlands
Journal of Theological Interpretation June 16, no. 1 (June 2022): 110–131

Abstract:

In this article the author examines the historiographical methodology of N.T. Wright. The author claims that Wright employs the methods of “critical realism” in an attempt to retain metaphysical and theological neutrality in his historiographical writing. However, the author argues that Wright’s reception of critical realism, from Meyer and Lonergan, ignores implicit theological presuppositions within the critical realist approach that make it unsuitable for this very task from the outset.

The Challenge of Biography: Reading Theologians in Light of their Breached Sexual Ethics

Sarah Shin
Studies in Christian Ethics 35, no. 3 (2022): 584–606

Abstract:

Though their biographies vastly differ, Karl Barth's long-term extra-marital relationship with Charlotte von Kirschbaum and John H. Yoder's sexual crimes have been the focus of a range of reactions and proposed approaches on how to read the theology of the two theologians given their biographies. This article will examine those critical responses using an analytical framework appropriated from Sameer Yadav's work on cognate conversations about locating and remedying the causes of white supremacy in the church: are the problems due to problematic theology, problematic institutional practice, or both? A correct diagnosis helps the theologian to then propose the right remedy. This adapted framework will be applied to the cases of Barth and Yoder to critically examine how Steven Plant and Rachel Muers respond to Barth's biography and how Stanley Hauerwas and Hilary Scarsella respond to Yoder's biography. After demonstrating how the different respondents address the issue as one primarily of problematic theology or problematic institutional practices, I will argue that it is both theology and practice that must be addressed in order to satisfactorily deal with the reality and scale of infection when it comes to influential theologians. Sample treatments will be offered for responding to Barth's and Yoder's biographies.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals

Intertextuality and New Testament Studies

Doosuk Kim
Currents in Biblical Research 20, No. 3 (June 2022): 238–260

Abstract:

Intertextuality is a hermeneutical strand of poststructuralism. In biblical scholarship, since Hays’s influential work Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (1989), the term has also been employed to refer to a later text’s interpretation of an earlier text. Regrettably, however, for the past three decades, scholars have failed to come to a consensus on how to understand and apply intertextuality in New Testament studies. Though both literary and biblical studies employ the same term intertextuality, their conception and application of intertextuality differs substantially. Accordingly, this essay will sketch how literary and biblical studies have perceived and utilized the concept of intertextuality. Following this, the study will evaluate these approaches. Finally, the present essay will conclude with a proposal for how to relate intertextuality and New Testament studies that is a cogent middle ground between poststructuralism and biblical studies, thereby compensating for both sides’ deficiencies.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals

Don’t Do What to Whom? A Survey of Historical-Critical Scholarship on Leviticus 18.22 and 20.13

Mark Preston Stone
Currents in Biblical Research 20, No. 3 (June 2022): 207–237

Abstract:

Leviticus 18.22 and 20.13 continue to play a decisive role in the debate over sexuality and the Bible. A bit surprisingly, it was not until the mid-1990s that these texts began to be subjected to thorough historical-critical analyses. Since that time, interest has steadily increased along with the number of hypotheses. Many have assumed that these laws unambiguously condemn ‘homosexuality’. Among specialists, however, there continues to be much disagreement with at least twenty-one unique proposals. This article will survey the various historical-critical offerings, put them into conversation with one another, and describe current trends.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals

God and Heirs: The Theme of Progeny in Job

Nicholas J. Campbell
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 36, no. 1 (2022): 150–162

Abstract:

This paper explores the theme of children in the book of Job. It will be argued that a significant theme in Job is divine blessing through progeny to continue his household name. Both Job and his friends refer to the death of his progeny in the prologue as a sign of disfavor and the possible reinstatement of his children as divine favor. The focus upon progeny as heirs to continue the house of Job explains why the replacement of children in the epilogue is not presented as problematic in the text. Within the text, progeny is the sign of divine favor not specific children, so the epilogue is only concerned with the reinstatement of potential heirs to continue Job’s name.

On the Form and Function of the Waṣfs in the Song of Songs

Esther Heinrich-Ramharter
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 36, no. 1 (2022): 3–23

Abstract:

Description Songs, also called waṣfs, form an important part of the Song of Songs. They show the structure of a two-tiered list, one column of which comprises body parts, while the other column consists of metaphors taken from different domains. This paper explores eight dimensions of the functioning of the waṣfs that depend on this structure, for example the two-tiered lists as secret codes, or as a case of mnemonics.

The “eight dimensions” are different interpretive strategies that may be either complementary or mutually exclusive. The author’s “aim is not to offer ‘the right understanding’ of the Song or the waṣfs, but to elaborate on some interpretations that help readers to see some interesting aspects” (3n4).

Open Access

The Craftsman: Paul’s Law of Christ and the Stoic Law of Nature

Annalisa Phillips Wilson
Journal of Biblical Literature 141, no. 2 (2022): 381–401

Abstract:

Paul’s statements on law have recently been considered in the context of Hellenistic discourse, but these readings have not always included his “law of Christ.” Here I analyze this phrase in Gal 6:2 in comparison with the Stoic “law of nature,” arguing that both Paul’s negative and positive discourse on law and this particular phrase can be elucidated by comparison to Stoic ethics, which used similar discourse to, respectively, elevate a first-order good, endorse a second-order value, and reference a higher-order norm. I first discuss the Stoic theory of “natural law,” conventional laws, and their relationship to each other, then offer a reading of Gal 5:13–6:2 with reference to other statements in Galatians and 1 Cor 9:21. The metaphorical “law of Christ” in Gal 6:2 references a higher-order norm that could be placed in antithesis to conventional laws, including the Mosaic law, and could be used to challenge them. This metaphor portrayed the norm as functioning like a law in its ability to prohibit and command behavior, but more comprehensively than conventional laws. Paul posits a “law of Christ” as a shared standard of behavior for Jesus-believers that also grounds a qualified use of the Mosaic law.

Designing the Golden Calf: Pens and Presumption in the Production of a “Divine” Image

Elizabeth VanDyke
Journal of Biblical Literature 141, no. 2 (2022): 219–233

Abstract:

This article reexamines the creation of the golden calf in Exod 32:4a. Though the text in question is brief, it has been a puzzle to translators and commentators since the time of the LXX and warrants reassessment in light of new inscriptional and linguistic data. Syntactical analysis and comparative Semitics show that Aaron not only produced the calf but designed it as well. This interpretation requires glossing the verb in the passage, יצר, according to its cognates in Akkadian and Aramaic as “to draw” or “to design.” The resulting translation solves the grammatical difficulties of the text and fits a greater cultural concern for the “divine design” of cultic objects. I will also suggest that the implement Aaron used to design the calf was not an engraving tool but a rush pen. Artifacts from Egypt as well as from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud evidence how ancient scribes sketched, played with, and practiced their craft with ink and pen before creating a final product. Understanding the tool חֶרֶט in this manner also suits its usage in Isa 8:1 as a writing instrument used on a large piece of papyrus. In sum, the translation “and he designed it with a rush pen and made it into a cast-metal calf” solves the grammatical and lexical difficulties of the passage while adding to our understanding of Exodus’s overall polemic against the bovine image.

Daniel and the Diadochi

Edmon L. Gallagher
Journal of Biblical Literature 141, no. 2 (2022): 301–316

Abstract:

Three verses in the book of Daniel describe the Hellenistic world as divided into four segments (Dan 8:8, 22; 11:4). The history of interpretation of the book of Daniel displays a remarkable readiness, even among critical scholars, to take this scheme literally and to press Hellenistic history into the mold supplied by Daniel’s apocalyptic visions. Daniel commentators agree, for instance, in understanding the four new horns of the goat in Dan 8 as representative of the Diadochi, the successors of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE, but they disagree on precisely which Diadochi the apocalyptic seer had in mind. An examination of our classical sources for early Hellenistic history, particularly the most detailed source, Diodorus Siculus, demonstrates the near futility of trying to identify precisely four parts of the post-Alexander Macedonian Empire. In the present article, I find a symbolic interpretation of the number four to be the most satisfying, but I also make some suggestions for how to understand the number literally as a representation of the Hellenistic world. Nevertheless, commentators taking the number “four” in Dan 8:8, 22; 11:4 as a straightforward and simple reference to a historical reality have underestimated the chaos of the decades following Alexander’s death.

A Child Is Being Eaten: Maternal Cannibalism and the Hebrew Bible in the Company of Fairy Tales

Rhiannon Graybill
Journal of Biblical Literature 141, no. 2 (2022): 235–255

Abstract:

The Hebrew Bible contains multiple texts in which mothers eat their children. Deuteronomy 28, Lam 2 and 4, and 2 Kgs 6 all offer variations on the theme of maternal cannibalism. While these passages are often written off as gruesome, exceptional, or motivated by extreme necessity (such as starvation), such approaches miss the literary and ideological significance of maternal cannibalism. This study, in contrast, approaches the biblical accounts through another body of literature with its own rich assembly of cannibalistic mothers: the classic fairy tales. Reading with fairy tales surfaces four important points: (1) starvation is insufficient to explain cannibalism; (2) cooking children, as much as eating them, is narratively significant and should be analyzed as such; (3) some mothers are indeed Bad Mothers, even as (4) cannibalism does not preclude affection and love—including at least some mothers who cannibalize their children. Taken together, these principles challenge the assumed norms of maternity, while offering new ways of reading and responding to the cannibal mothers of the Hebrew Bible.

‘The Land Question’: William Temple and Environmentalism

Jeremy Carrette
Theology 125, no. 4 (2022): 264–270

From a special issue celebrating the eightieth anniversary of the publication of William Temple’s wartime Penguin paperback Christianity and Social Order.

Abstract:

This article explores Temple’s understanding of the ethics of land in Christianity and Social Order. It explores Temple’s engagement with contemporary issues of land in relation to profit, ownership and invasion. It is relevant to the contemporary invasion of Ukraine and environmentalism.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals

Interpreting the Double Conclusion of the Gospel of John from the Perspective of Ancient Greco-Roman Literature

Seung-In Song
The Expository Times 133, no. 10 (July 2022): 421–429

Abstract:

This study examines how the double conclusion of the Gospel of John can be viewed from the perspective of ancient Greco-Roman literature. I have found four Greco-Roman works that include double conclusions (Josephus’ Antiquities, Cornelius Nepos’ Atticus, Isocrates’ Panathenaicus, and Isocrates’ Nicocles). I have also found that the double conclusion of these four was written by the same author. These four works indicate that the double conclusion was not a rare phenomenon in ancient Greco-Roman literature at the time when the Gospel of John was written. That the double conclusion was written by the same author in these four works also enhances the possibility that the double conclusion of John’s Gospel was also written by the same author. Based on the observations thus far, I propose that the double conclusion of John’s Gospel was written by the same person and that John 21 including the second conclusion (21:24-25) was written after a considerable amount of time after John 1-20 including the first conclusion (20:30-31) was written.

Alumni Access Available: SAGE Journals