John Proctor

Book Reviews : Major Commentary On Philemon

history nor Christology proper but rather theological retlection on history on those aspects of the Jesus of history that are central to his continuing significance’ (p. x). Accordingly, he concentrates on four central aspects of Jesus. Each chapter deftly outlines modern debates surrounding each theme before moving on to discuss its theological implications. He begins with his Jewishness, stressing that Jesus was a particular kind of Jew within first-century Jewish life (here he also provides interesting discussions of Jesus’s attitude towards Gentiles and

A Truly Masterly Work

are so shaped by circumstance that they display no central and sustained body of conviction. Rather he suggests roughly in line with .f. C. Beker’s approach to Paul ’that wc should assume an essential coherence to his thought and praxis, unless proved othenvise’ (p. 23). Ccrtainly episodes in his carecr may have led to new emphases and elaborations, but they ’did not alter the main emphases or overall character of his theology in a significant way’ (p. 731). With many critical scholars Dunn acccpts 2 Thessalonians as Pauline, but sets aside the Pastorals, Ephesians, and (more tentatively) Colossians. Nonetheless he cites this material extensively in footnotes, to contrast or support the points he draws from the acknowledged letters. He identifies Romans as the most mature and retlective

Book Reviews : Paul's Exegetical Method Displayed

to linguistic and historical data, but primarily the author’s focus is on insights to be gained from the social sciences and the study of Graeco-Roman rhetoric, which utilized particular literary devices and forms to persuade a hearer or reader of some position. Both of these approaches are increasingly in use in serious work on the Corinthian correspondence (esp. 1 Cor). However, Witherington’s book is perhaps the first to apply them both to 1 and 2 Corinthians in their entirety. Witherington writes for a general readership with numerous excursuses for the ’more advanced’ on everything from pagan views of salvation to honour and shame in the Roman world, to why Paul made tents, to prophecy and glossolalia in Corinth, to the Roman triumph. Profitable use is made of Roman history and a wealth of classical literature to illumine the texts. While 1 Corinthians is classified as deliberative rhetoric, the true art of persuasion, with semi-forensic (ch 9, accusations and defence) and epideictic digressions (ch 13, giving praise), 2 Corinthians is seen as forensic rhetoric with a deliberative aside (6:14-7:1). The social situation to which and out of which Paul wrote is kept firmly in view throughout. There is hardly a section in the t<vo letters about which the book does not have something new and valuable to say. The jury is still out on the extent to which Paul cast his letters in rhetorical forms. Furthermore, a full account of the background relevant to these letters would make more use of biblical and Jewish sources. Nonetheless, Conflict and Community in Corinth is a rich and accessible resource which marks a definite step forward in the study of I and 2 Corinthians.

Book Reviews : Christ and the Spirits

Here Schutter has no difficulty in pointing to most of the sequence characteristic of this type of exposition the ’text’ from the Law and supportive quotation from the prophets, linked by further use of the Old Testament but has to claim that the expected concluding repetition of the ’text’ is represented by a series of expressions related to the theme of holiness (p. 93). This is not altogether convincing. He is on firmer ground in showing how extensively the characteristic features of pesher exegesis occur in the immediately preceding verses, 1:10-12; he finds (p. 111) no fewer than eleven points of contact with lQpHab VII. 1-5. Verse 11 is particularly important for the subsequent discussion of other sections of the text. Schutter claims (p. 123) that what he calls the ‘ &dquo;sufferings&dquo;/&dquo;glories&dquo; schema’ there first enunciated provides a key to the hermeneutic of both of these later passages (2:11-4:11 1

Book Reviews : World Biblical Themes

Relations with the Corinthians (WUNT 2nd series 23, J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) [1987], DM 98, ISBN 316-145070-1). A study of the Graeco-Roman conventions of friendship and enmity shows that friendship (and thus also its converse) was closely bound up with the exchange of gifts, benefits, and services (between those of cqual rank, and between patron and client). From this, the clear probability emerges that the Corinthian offer was intended as an offer of friendship by which Paul would then himself become obligated. His refusal created a relationship of enmity, and became a prime factor in the subsequent alliance between the Corinthians themselves and the rival missionaries of 2 Corinthians. All this is