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Amos: A Commentary on the Book of Amos
Shalom Paul
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991) 436 pp., $44.95
The editors of the impressive Hermeneia series, intending to keep the series up-to-date and to include different perspectives on the biblical books, have decided to include a second commentary on Amos. The first was a translation of H.W. Wolff’s Joel and Amos (1977), in which the author, a scholar from Germany, argues that the nine-chapter book went through six stages of development, ranging in date from the time of Amos himself (8th century B.C.E.) to the post-Exilic period (5th century B.C.E.). In sharp contrast, Shalom Paul, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, maintains that Amos is a unity as it stands, with perhaps a minor addition or two. Thus, unlike many other commentators, Paul considers the optimistic ending, which speaks of the Lord’s raising the fallen booth of David, as an original part of the book. In defending his position, he lays heavy stress on literary and stylistic features that relate parts of the book one another. Paul prefers not to follow the recent suggestion that Amos was from the northern kingdom (Israel), where he prophesied; instead, he accepts the traditional notion that his hometown, Tekoa, was the place of that name in Judah. The author has written extensively on biblical prophecy and here offers the reader the benefits of his wide expertise. The volume is armed with the features that one has come to expect in the Hermeneia series: a long bibliography, detailed textual as well as expository notes, and complete indices of passages, authors, names and subjects.
Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels
Michael Grant
(New York: Collier Books, 1992) 272 pp., $12.00
The publisher’s decision to reprint Michael Grant’s 1977 book Jesus in paperback is clearly prompted by the debate about the historical Jesus, which continues to gather interest in scholarly and popular circles. Because Grant is a historian of the ancient Mediterranean world and not a New Testament scholar, his book on Jesus is more popularly written one than the current crop of Jesus books. Although he professes to examine Jesus with objectivity, Grant fails to take seriously the Gospels as historical sources. He adopts the chronology of Mark’s Gospel, assuming that because it was written first it is more accurate, although Gospel critics are nearly unanimous in arguing that Mark has very little chronological value. Grant also exhibits a rather unsophisticated understanding of literary relationships among the Gospels, deciding, for example, that Jesus must have fed a multitude of people with a little food since the story is repeated so frequently in the Gospels. Grant explains Jesus’ miracles as natural rather than supernatural events, a view reminiscent of an earlier era of Jesus research. To Grant’s credit, however, he does succeed in setting Jesus in his cultural and historical context.
The Gospel According to Mary: A New Testament for Women
Miriam Therese Winter
(New York: Crossroad, 1993) 143 pp., $10.95
If a woman had written one of the Gospels how might it have looked? Miriam Therese Winter, professor of liturgy, worship and spirituality at Hartford Seminary, reconstructs the life of Jesus from a feminist perspective. Much as the canonical evangelists do, she tells old stories in new ways to provoke theological reflection on them in the context of a new experience: in this case, the experience of 20th-century North American women dissatisfied with traditional renderings of the Gospel and seeking new ways to be included in the church’s life and tradition.
Winter retells many familiar stories from the canonical Gospels, but she adjusts the point of view to that of the women characters in the stories (so that we have the “Birth of Mary’s Baby” and the “Naming of Mary’s Baby”) or to that of women in general, such as the parable of the good Samaritan, which is recast as the story of a woman raped and beaten. This deliberate shift in perspective is provocative and frequently insightful, and may for many women, as its author intends, assist devotional or educational reflection on the life of Jesus.
Amos: A Commentary on the Book of Amos
Shalom Paul
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991) 436 pp., $44.95
