Best Books– Part Five

March 18, 2015 by Ben Witherington 3 Comments

It would be difficult to fully assess in one blog post the work of J.D.G. (Jimmy) Dunn. For one thing, he is among the most prolific NT scholars of the modern era. Don’t believe me? Check this out….
James D. G. Dunn (1970). Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Studies in Biblical Theology Second Series 15). London: SCM Press.
James D. G. Dunn (1975). Jesus and the Spirit. London: SCM Press.
James D. G. Dunn (1985). The Evidence for Jesus. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 978-0-664-24698-3.
James D. G. Dunn (1980). Christology in the making: a New Testament inquiry into the origins of the doctrine of the incarnation. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-24356-8.
James D. G. Dunn (1988). Romans 1-8, 9-16. Waco, Tex: Word Books. ISBN 0-8499-0252-5.
James D. G. Dunn (1990). Jesus, Paul, and the law: studies in Mark and Galatians. Louisville, Ky: Westminster/John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-25095-5.
James D. G. Dunn (1990). Unity and diversity in the New Testament: an inquiry into the character of earliest Christianity. London: SCM Press. ISBN 0-334-02436-6.
James D. G. Dunn (1991). The Partings of the Ways between Christianity and Judaism and their Significance for the Character of Christianity. London: SCM Press. ISBN 0-334-02508-7.
James D. G. Dunn (1993). The Epistle to Galatians. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 1-56563-036-X.
James D. G. Dunn and Alan M. Suggate (1994). The justice of God: a fresh look at the old doctrine of justification by faith. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0797-6.
James D. G. Dunn (1996). The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: a commentary on the Greek text. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-2441-2.
James D. G. Dunn (1998). The theology of Paul the Apostle. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. ISBN 0-8028-3844-8.
James D. G. Dunn (editor) (2003). The Cambridge companion to St. Paul. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-78694-0.
James D. G. Dunn, general editor, editor of the New Testament; John W. Rogerson, editor of the Old Testament and Apocrypha (2003). Eerdmans commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-3711-5.
James D. G. Dunn (2003). Christianity in the Making: Vol. 1, Jesus Remembered. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-3931-2.
James D. G. Dunn (2005). A New Perspective On Jesus: What The Quest For The Historical Jesus Missed (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology). Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic. ISBN 0-8010-2710-1.
James D. G. Dunn (2007). The New Perspective On Paul. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-4562-2.
James D. G. Dunn (2008). Christianity in the Making: Vol. 2, Beginning from Jerusalem. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-3932-0.
James D. G. Dunn (2009). The Living Word (second edition). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-6355-1.
James D. G. Dunn (2010). Did the first Christians worship Jesus?. London – Louisville, KY: Society for promoting Christian knowledge. ISBN 978-0-281-05928-7.
His output is only eclipsed in the U.K. by Tom Wright. Jimmy, like Marshall, like Barrett, is a British Methodist, and like Bruce he is a Scot. What is impressive about Dunn’s work is that so many of his books have been groundbreaking studies, and even many of those which aren’t are of the very highest caliber of scholarship. His doctoral dissertation done under C.F.D. Moule at Cambridge is one of the best dissertations ever— and it became the basis for his earlier work Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970). This was followed by an equally seminal study Jesus and the Spirit. Dunn had an early interest in pneumatology. I remember his coming to Durham in the late 70s and giving the Lightfoot lecture on glossolalia, which surprised many. Like Barrett and Marshall, Jimmy was equally interested in and adept at Jesus and Paul studies. Christology in the Making and Unity and Diversity in the NT both had wide impact. You can tell when you are dealing with a formidable scholar when even those who strong disagree with him feel that they have to deal with his work at length. Jimmy long had a profound interest in the relationship between early Judaism and the Jesus movement, and the ongoing debate about when ‘the parting of the ways’ happened between these two entities. In my view, it had for the most part already happened even before the fall of the Temple in A.D. 70, as Paul’s letters attest.
In my estimation, one of Jimmy’s very best books is his The Theology of Paul the Apostle. This shows deep and long reflection on Paul’s thought world. While I disagree with him about the New Perspective on Paul issues such as what the phrase ‘works of the Law’ means for Paul, there is so much excellent exposition of Paul’s thought in that volume. And the quality of Jimmy’s work has never dropped off. His recent series on the beginnings of Christianity, Christianity in the Making undoubtedly his own attempt to do for his generation what Cadbury did in their Beginnings study and others did with a multi-volume study with basically is of a very high quality.
Of his various commentaries, I would say that while they are all good, the really top draw ones are his Roman commentary and his one on Colossians and Philemon.
Like Barrett whose chair he occupied once Barrett retired, Jimmy was proud to be in the Lightfoot chair at Durham, being very much a fan of Lightfoot. It is one of the things that unites Barrett and Dunn and myself. Lightfoot would have been very proud of his Durham NT successors, including John Barclay, whom we will discuss in the next post.

Part Four

I’m often asked why I turned down Oxford, where I had been accepted to do my doctoral work, to go to Durham. The answer is simple— Durham had a better NT department with Barrett and Cranfield and others, and C.K. Barrett was at the time the best Methodist NT scholar in the world, by general acknowledgment. In fact, as time went on, it was surprising to hear various of the German scholars like Martin Hengel say that Barrett was the best NT scholars in the English-speaking world. When I got to Durham I discovered they also had T.H.L. Parker the greatest Calvin scholar anywhere (he translated many of Calvin’s works), and John Rogerson, a fine OT scholar as well. It was an embarrassment of riches. In fact, it became even more so when I discovered that the line of world-class NT exegetes stretched back over one hundred years beginning with Lightfoot, Westcott, Sanday, Plummer, Turner, and then of course the department I worked with. It was quite the heritage of NT scholarship.
By the time I got to Durham in 1977, Barrett was in his late innings, as the Brits would say, in terms of taking doctoral students. He had 13 when I arrived, and most of them Evangelicals from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. It was impressive. Barrett himself was working on his important ICC Acts commentary, and Cranfield was finishing up his ICC Romans commentary. Barrett had already made major contributions to the world of NT studies in various seminal studies. The following is only a short description of some of the best ones.
As a commentator, CKB had already won an honorary doctorate for his impressive Gospel of John commentary, so rich in exegetical detail, and dealing with issues both theological and historical. It was soon enough translated into German, so strong and enduring was the impact of the book, and it went through two editions, the second one coming out not long after I arrived in Durham (it appeared in 1978). Before that there had been good commentaries on Romans, and especially the ones on 1 and 2 Corinthians were much praised. These too went through multiple editions (in America published by Harper, then Hendrickson). He had also published a slender but rich little commentary on the Pastoral Epistles for Oxford. In general it is right to say that like quite a good number of British scholars, Barrett was more conservative on Paul than he was on the Gospels, and more certain of what could be said about Paul, than about the historical Jesus. There were a variety of rich little monographs that Barrett wrote along the way that were invaluable to students of the NT. Two of my favorites were: 1) The Signs of an Apostle (his 1969 Cato lectures); 2) Freedom and Obligation (A Study on the Epistle to the Galatians). He produced textbooks as well, and the one that kept being used and reprinted was New Testament Background first printed in 1957, and updated and reprinted various times, including in 1995 by Harper One.
One of the most important and impressive things about CKB was what a churchman he was. He was preaching somewhere almost every single Sunday in some Methodist chapel, however small. In this regard he was following the precedent of his father, who was quite the Methodist preacher and evangelist. After he retired, there were several valuable collections of his articles, including the volume entitled Essays on Paul, and Jesus and the Word, then there was a further little study as an Introduction to Paul entitled Paul: an Introduction to his Thought (Westminster 1994). There was even a publication of a more popular study Reading through Romans in 2009. Furthermore, there were popular versions of various of his commentaries done as well, particularly the two volumes on Acts.
There are not many NT scholars about whom one could say ‘anything he wrote was worth reading’ but Barrett was one of them. He always wrote clearly, and vigorously, and you did not have to guess where his commitments tended. He would tell you if he was unsure of something. Behind the pulpit and the lecturn Barrett was formidable. In person he tended to be a bit shy and quiet, and an incredibly kind Christian man. It is fair to say I would not have a doctoral degree without his considerable help along th

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Part Three

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Towards the end of my college years, I read a book that I really loved, recommended by Dr. Boyd— Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Prophets (two volumes). I still love it. For the first time I began to see the prophets as real flesh and blood people, real passionate believers, and I learned about their pathos, what really moved and exercised them. The books focused on their sense of divine love, on ‘hesed’ and what it meant. Suddenly the prophets were not just predictors, but people in love with God and his people. Suddenly the prophets were not just an interesting subject matter, but were rather subjects of interest in themselves. I still recommend this classic study. It still reads well as a point of entry into the prophets and their lives and urgencies.
In about 1974 I also learned about a British scholar who was clearly an Evangelical Christian and was making a big impact in Biblical studies. I suspect the first book I read by him was New Testament History, which went through many editions. But Bruce was no one trick pony. He could write on history, do exegesis, expound theology, focus on philology, and discourse on inerrancy. It was one stop shopping with Fred Bruce, the Scot with the entertaining accent. I actually got to meet him and hear him in person in Cambridge at Tyndale House Conferences in the late 70s. I remember a lecture on John 18 and the soldiers falling down. The man was approaching 70 and was still as sharp as a tack. I remember he liked his chip buddies as well (a french fries sandwich for those scratching their heads). I next read his commentary on The Acts of the Apostles, and began to figure out what it took to write such a thing— namely a knowledge of many languages, history, archaeology, theology, ethics, text criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, current scholarship, ancient scholarship, and more! Reading his Acts commentary, or should I say commentaries, produced a wow, very much like reading J.B. Lightfoot’s recently uncovered Acts commentary which I was honored to have been able to put into print.

Maybe my very favorite F.F. Bruce book was his seminal study on Paul which came out in 1977 with some fanfare and in America was called Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free. Much later, in the 80s I loved his The Canon of Scripture. In the 60s and 70s and into the 80s there were very few Evangelical scholars who commanded wide respect right across the discipline of NT studies. Bruce was certainly one of them. It is interesting that those that did were one’s who had really expertise in history and exegesis and text criticism. Another of this ilk that had a big impact on me was I Howard Marshall, another Scot who for many years was the mainstay at Aberdeen. We’ll talk about his work in the next post.

Best Books– Part Three

March 16, 2015 by Ben Witherington 1 Comment

Ian Howard Marshall was someone I could identify with quite readily. He was an Evangelical and he was a Methodist and he was a NT scholar as well. One of his earliest books (1969), based on a thesis was Kept by the Power of God, which made sense of all the apostasy and perseverance texts in the NT. This is still one of the best studies on this particular subject. Howard was a real churchman as well, frequently preaching here and there in Methodist Churches, and he became President of the … [Read more...]

Part Two

Finding Jesus— Episode Three »

Best Books– Part Two

March 15, 2015 by Ben Witherington 2 Comments

Towards the end of my college years, I read a book that I really loved, recommended by Dr. Boyd— Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Prophets (two volumes). I still love it. For the first time I began to see the prophets as real flesh and blood people, real passionate believers, and I learned about their pathos, what really moved and exercised them. The books focused on their sense of divine love, on ‘hesed’ and what it meant. Suddenly the prophets were not just predictors, but people in love with God and his people. Suddenly the prophets were not just an interesting subject matter, but were rather subjects of interest in themselves. I still recommend this classic study. It still reads well as a point of entry into the prophets and their lives and urgencies.
In about 1974 I also learned about a British scholar who was clearly an Evangelical Christian and was making a big impact in Biblical studies. I suspect the first book I read by him was New Testament History, which went through many editions. But Bruce was no one trick pony. He could write on history, do exegesis, expound theology, focus on philology, and discourse on inerrancy. It was one stop shopping with Fred Bruce, the Scot with the entertaining accent. I actually got to meet him and hear him in person in Cambridge at Tyndale House Conferences in the late 70s. I remember a lecture on John 18 and the soldiers falling down. The man was approaching 70 and was still as sharp as a tack. I remember he liked his chip buddies as well (a french fries sandwich for those scratching their heads). I next read his commentary on The Acts of the Apostles, and began to figure out what it took to write such a thing— namely a knowledge of many languages, history, archaeology, theology, ethics, text criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, current scholarship, ancient scholarship, and more! Reading his Acts commentary, or should I say commentaries, produced a wow, very much like reading J.B. Lightfoot’s recently uncovered Acts commentary which I was honored to have been able to put into print.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bibleandculture/2015/03/14/best-books-part-one/

Part One

The journey has been a long one for me. It’s taken reading several thousand books over the years. It really began back in high school when I read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. That really stuck with me. So did Leslie Weatherhead’s little book on The Will of God. I remember a book on the Shroud of Turin which was fascinating too. Of course I also read all the Tolkien, and Lewis, and Williams, and Sayers volumes I could manage starting in high school and continuing through college. Somebody handed me Evidence that Demands a Verdict, probably at an Inter-Varsity meeting, and I went to hear Josh, it’s author. Reading is rather like the snow that keeps falling in my yard. It accumulates, it adds to what has come before, it piles up and becomes weighty. Eventually it changes things. Old paradigms collapse. New mental structures have to be erected, and it never stops. And by what criteria do you decide something is a ‘best book’? I don’t pay any attention to the category ‘bestseller’ because a lot of that stuff is popular for all the wrong reasons. Is it a best book because it made the biggest impression on you? But what if it didn’t make that kind of impression on many others? Is it a best book because its the best summary of some topic of importance whether well written or poorly written? You see my dilemma. This series of posts will simply be about the books that most shaped my thinking along the way, though of course some of them I later saw were less accurate or zingy than I first thought. This is what happens when you continue to learn.
My real education to be a teacher of the Bible began at Carolina, under the tutelage of Dr. Bernard Boyd of blessed memory. I took his OT and NT courses and his seminars. Heck, I took everything I could possibly take with him. He was the best lecturer, best Christian, best mentor ever. He was in the James A. Gray chair long before Bart Ehrman. Unfortunately, he died suddenly and prematurely in Charlotte while I was in Boston in seminary. The line at the funeral home was longer than for Dean Smith. That tells you something about that man’s impact. One estimate is that over 5,000 went into Christian ministry of some sort due to the impact of Dr. Boyd. I was one of them.
Some of the books I read early on in college which impacted me were as follows: 1) John Bright’s classic, that went through many editions starting in 1959 A History of Israel. In fact there were a variety of books by Bright, and G.E. Wright of Harvard and S.F. Albright. They made up the so-called Wright, Bright, and Albright school. Dr. Boyd was an archaeologist and so these folks were seminal to his work at Beersheba and elsewhere. 2) I began to read things recommended by Inter-Varsity as well, like for instance J.I. Packer’s classic Knowing God which first emerged in 1973 while I was at Carolina; 3) C.S.Lewis’ Mere Christianity closely followed by John Stott’s Basic Christianity. These were books talked about endlessly at Carolina by a variety of people. Thank goodness I had a good Bible pastor, Jim, who week after week was teaching the Word and giving guidance at the Chapel Hill Bible Church. He’s still at it! 4) I began to become interested in the works of G.Eldon Ladd, and the book that really got me thinking about the Kingdom of God was his classic The Presence of the Future. 5) I remember a huge concern about Biblical Authority in Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators, and Inter-Varsity. We read Clark Pinnock’s A Defense of Biblical Infallibilty and it produced a host of discussion.
In the next post I will start talking about seminary books we read.

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