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Journal for the Study of the

New Testament
http://jnt.sagepub.com

SCHREINER, Thomas R., Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary


on the New Testament, 6; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,
1998), xxii + 919 pp. ISBN 0- 8010-2149-9
Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2000; 22; 120
DOI: 10.1177/0142064X0002207814
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120
New essays include, in the Hellenism and Judaism section: Jewish SelfDefinition by Way of Contrast in Oracula Sibyllina III 218-247; in Judaism and
Christianity: &dquo;The Finger of God.&dquo; Miscellaneous Notes on Luke 11.20 and its
Umwelt; and in Hellenism and Christianity: &dquo;A Simple Philosophy.&dquo; Alexander
of Lycopolis on Christianity, and Platos Fear as a Topic in Early Christian
Apologetics. These new essays are interspersed through the original collection at
the appropriate points. An unfortunate by-product of the new type-setting-compounded, I imagine, by the change of house-style from the original edition, published by Kok Pharos, to the new edition, published by the new owners, Peeters-is
that the page-lengths of the first edition essays do not match with the second
edition. As a result, it is somewhat annoying trying to find the true locus of page
references given for the original, and not as simple as adding the amount of new
pages to the original count.
It seems that van der Horst has no area in which he is not expert, when it comes
to anything to do with Judaism or Christianity from approximately the fifth or
fourth centuries BCE to the end of the Late Antique period (and beyond). The essays
in this volume, as disparate as their topics are in chronological and geographical
distribution, religious affiliation and linguistic origin, are all executed with an enviable mastery. Because van der Horst clearly recognizes the unifying factor of the
culture of Hellenism throughout his period of interest, this translates into a collection that, though expert in each of its individual topics, is able to present them as
part of a larger whole. Anyone willing to give this volume (and indeed van der
Horsts entire oeuvre) the time it deserves will not find themselves disappointed.
BP

SCHREINER, Thomas R., Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New


Testament, 6; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1998), xxii + 919 pp. ISBN 08010-2149-9.
age of commentary production, it is only right that every series produce a
major commentary on Romans. Schreiner has done just that-he has produced a
large commentary. Those who are conservative in their theological orientation will
probably find much of value in it. I must admit that I was taken aback to read on the
first page of the authors preface that I have attempted to demonstrate inductively
that the glory of God is the central theme that permeates the letter (p. xiii). I am not
sure what this means-what was the process that led to this conclusion? And is this
really the central theme of Romans? I have my doubts. There are many conclusions
with which I would agree with Schreiner. For example, I have little trouble with
beginning with thirteen authentic Pauline letters, endorsing textual integrity, that all
sixteen chapters were sent to Rome, with believing that the majority of readers were
Gentiles but Jews were also present in Rome. I also agree with much of his exegesis, such as the thematic importance of Rom. 1.16-17, that Paul refers to natural law

In

an

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121
in ch. 2, that the genitive in 3.22 is objective, that the diatribal style continues in ch.
5, that Jewish understanding of Adam lies behind 5.12-21, that one should avoid
concepts of corporate personality, that chs. 9-11 fit with 1-8. But there are a
number of places where I am less convinced. One is in the area of Schreiners textual criticism. Such notorious cruxes as 5.1 are not convincingly handled, in this
instance failing to appreciate that the context can be read such that the subjunctive
is confirmatory of the clearly stronger external evidence. He seems to have a penchant for defending the Nestle-Aland text. There are also a number of other questionable judgments. For example, Schreiner suggests that the use ofydp indicates a
dictated text (p. 2), he seems to follow a fairly rigid time-based view of the tenseforms, even where his exegesis runs contrary (e.g. 2.16), to the point of calling
aorist tense-forms past tenses (e.g. p. 85, but cf. n. 1; p. 386), he seems to let his
theology dictate his understanding of Greek (e.g. pp. 187, 287, 682, 688), and he
follows more of a theological and less of an epistolary outline. Schreiner certainly
has read an abundance of secondary literature, to which he makes reference

throughout.
SEP

WALLACE, R. and W. WILLIAMS, The Three Worlds of Paul of Tarsus (London


and New York: Routledge, 1998), pp. xiv + 239, paper; £12.99; ISBN 0-41513592-3.
It has been some time since I have read such an excellent book about Paul.
Strangely, this is a book which has both very much and very little to do with him. It
has everything to do with Paul in that it is perhaps the most effective degree-level
survey I have seen of the three worlds of Paul-Jewish, Greek and Roman, which
the authors handle effectively as cultural layers rather than three distinct worlds.
As such, I used this book as a text-book for a Pauline epistles class this past year.
This is when I realized, as I went through the book with my students on a week-toweek basis, that as its one (minor) weakness, this book actually has little to do with
Paul himself. This is always a difficulty when dealing with so-called background
material: how to make it effectively connect with the foreground in which one is
interested.
The authors consider Paul to be a typical citizen of the Graeco-Roman worldperhaps in a mobile minority, but a typical citizen nonetheless. This means that Paul
forms the anchor of the book, which looks at multiple aspects of the cultural layering of the Graeco-Roman world (chapter headings include Travelling the World,
The Native Cultures, Hellenisation in the Near East, Roman Rule in the Near
East, The Life of the Polis, and The Individuals Self-Identification). All of
these are conversely important for an understanding of Paul himself, but this
reverse flow is not as obvious in the book as, perhaps, undergraduate students need
it to be. Nonetheless, this is an outstanding work by two scholars of the classical

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