First Glance
“If Christ has not been raised,” the apostle Paul declared, “then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Nearly 2,000 years later, Paul’s statement still reflects Christians’ vital interest in Jesus’ resurrection. This concern, as well as the desire to reconstruct what actually happened, continues to spur scholars to undertake new research and to produce a massive outpouring of textual analysis, as Malcolm L. Peel shows in “The Resurrection in Recent Scholarly Research.” In this survey of the field, Peel explains the principles that scholars use to evaluate ancient texts and systematically describes the most up-to-date scholarly conclusions—including disagreements and points of uncertainty—about each source and each type of resurrection tradition.
Ordained in the Presbyterian Church, Peel serves as department chairman and professor of Bible and religion at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. His major scholarly work has focused on New Testament language and literature, with specialization in the Gnostic literature of the Nag Hammadi Library. Two of his translations and introductions appear in the third edition of The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Harper & Row, 1988), soon to be reviewed in BR. Peel’s ongoing study of this library has won him fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the Andrew Mellon Foundation and others. His other scholarly work includes five monographs, 15 journal articles and 30 articles for the forthcoming Mercer Dictionary of the Bible (Mercer University Press).
Many scholars study a language, a religion, a type of artifact or a specific culture, but few command the broad knowledge necessary to study a whole period in depth, as Philip J. King does in “The Great Eighth Century.” King unravels the complex politics among Phoenicians, Philistines, Assyrians and Israelites, as he describes the great building projects and advanced agriculture brought to light by recent archaeological excavations. He also documents the extraordinary spread of writing and literacy in the eighth century B.C. and the phenomenon of the “writing prophets,” who exhorted the people of Israel to rise to a new level of social consciousness.
Professor of biblical studies at Boston College, as well as an archaeologist, King has to his credit a string of presidencies of distinguished scholarly organizations. Most recently the president of the Society of Biblical Literature (1988), King has also presided over the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (1972–77), the American Schools of Oriental Research (1976–82) and the Catholic Biblical Association of America (1981–82). He is a member of several editorial boards including that of BR. During the past year, he has been a Visiting Fellow in the department of archaeology at the University of Cambridge. His most recent book is Amos, Hosea, Micah—An Archaeological Commentary.
“Translators will be translators,” says Leonard J. Greenspoon, whether in the age of the parchment scroll or the computer. When the first Bible translation was created 2,200 years ago in Alexandria, Egypt, Jewish elders worked much as translation committee members do today—tackling separate passages and then meeting, comparing versions and agreeing to a majority opinion. In “Mission to Alexandria: Truth and legend about the creation of the Septuagint, the first Bible translation,” Greenspoon illuminates a fascinating, third-century B.C. document called the Letter of Aristeas, which describes the delegation of translators from Jerusalem and their momentous task—producing a Greek version of the Hebrew Bible. Greenspoon then delves into the Septuagint itself to determine whether the Septuagint was in fact translated at one time by one “committee.”
Professor of religion at Clemson University, Greenspoon recently spent a semester at the Annenberg Research Institute (formerly Dropsie College) in Philadelphia, where he conducted research on translations of sacred literature. In his work on Bible translations, Greenspoon emphasizes the need to place each translation within its proper religious and cultural environment and, where possible, to study the relevant biographical details of the principal translators. His biography of Max L. Margolis (Scholars Press, 1987), editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society’s Bible translation of 1917, is one effort in this direction.
The organization of the Hebrew Bible has perplexed many a reader. Its tripartite division into Torah (the Pentateuch), Nevi’im (the Prophets) and Kethubim (the writings) may appear straightforward enough, but closer inspection raises all sorts of nagging questions. Why is Daniel, in the traditional Hebrew order, included in the Writings section instead of the Prophets where it would seem to belong? Similarly, Chronicles, also in the Writings section, covers much of the same historical ground as Samuel and Kings, yet those books are in the Prophets section. Even more fundamental is the issue of why certain books were included in the Hebrew Bible while, others failed to pass the muster of the ancient editors. Marc Brettler leads us through this thorny thicket in “Canon—How Books of the Hebrew Bible Were chosen,” the second installment of our recently inaugurated Glossary department. Brettler also reviews two books of biblical literary criticism (see Bible Books).
Assistant professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University, Brettler focuses his research on biblical historiography, medieval Jewish biblical interpretation and literary study of the Bible. He has contributed more than 20 articles to the forthcoming Anchor Bible Dictionary and nearly that many to the Harper’s Bible Dictionary (1985).
Readers of the February 1989 BR will recall the bitter academic debate chronicled in “Alter vs. Kugel—Taking the Heat in Struggle over Biblical Poetry.” The furor caused Harwood D. Schaffer to re-examine poetic texts, leading to the fruitful result in
Ordained in the United Church of Christ 20 years ago, Schaffer has spent his entire career ministering to small, rural communities. Currently—besides running a printing business with his wife—he serves as pastor for two churches, one in Ceylon, Minnesota, and one in nearby Sherburn. Schaffer reports that his experiences as a volunteer at excavations in Israel at Tel Aphek and at Izbet Sartah enrich his sermons.