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Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 34 • NUMBER 1 • MARCH 2008

though Athens was defeated militarily, its conquerors

spread its language throughout the East (and to an extent in

the West) in the form of koine, “the first unification of

Greek.” Once again, however, differentiation soon occurred,

this time into the literary Greek of the educated and the

traditional, and the popular spoken language, a division per-

petuated into modern times in the forms of the “pure”

(καθαρε ουσα) and the “popular” (δηµοτικ ), from which

all modern dialects derived. Political independence for

Greece in 1830 unleashed forces that by the beginning of the

twentieth century generated a second unification in the form

of a new koine, Modern Greek. Magisterial and authoritative,

it offers a mature interpretation accessible to almost anyone

interested in the often-astonishing three and a half millennia

history of the Greek language.

Michael W. Holmes

Bethel University

INDO-EUROPEAN POETRY AND MYTH. By M.L.

West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xii + 525.

$145.00, ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.

M. L. West’s erudite study of Indo-European poetry and

myth forms a sister volume to his East Face of Helicon

(1997) that examined the influence of the Near East on

Greek poetry. But this work is far more wide-ranging, both

temporally and geographically, sweeping from India to Ire-

land and from 1500 BCE to the present, and examines both

poetics and poetic tropes and common mythological ele-

ments in the Indo-European arena. As such it resembles C.

Watkins’ How to kill a Dragon (1995), but is more extensive

in its coverage. The Introduction helpfully lays out the vari-

ous languages and poetic traditions to be examined. It also

explains the comparative method and certain caveats in

dealing with conceptual parallels rather than purely linguis-

tic criteria to demonstrate Indo-European affiliation and the

possibility of later cultural diffusion rather than a common

descent. Two chapters deal with shared poetic devices and

conceptions of poetry, while the bulk of the book lays out

shared mythological notions like Sky and Earth, and the

Heroic Warrior. The book is sometimes hard going, offering

learned catalogs of common features and no real conclu-

sions. But the persistent reader will be impressed with the

author’s scholarly breadth and be rewarded by flashes of

Westian wit.

Jenny Strauss Clay

University of Virginia

Christian Origins

LO, I TELL YOU A MYSTERY: CROSS, RESURREC-TION, AND PARAENESIS IN THE RHETORIC OF 1CORINTHIANS. By David A. Ackerman. Princeton Theo-

logical Monograph Series, 52. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publi-

cations, 2006. Pp. x + 171. $21.00, ISBN 1-59752-435-2.

This accessible book, a revision of the author’s PhD

dissertation (Iliff/Denver, 2000), uses diachronic rhetorical

n¢ h¢

criticism and social-scientific analysis to argue that 1 Corin-

thians embodies a conflict of “ideologies” (Paul’s versus the

Corinthians’). Ackerman claims that the problem in Corinth

was “spiritual immaturity.” Problems normally identified by

scholars (e.g., factionalism) as the central issue in Corinth

are really symptoms. Paul’s solution for this problem was

based in his “understanding of time.” Paul thought that he

and his congregations lived in the interim period between

the past revelation of the divine “mystery” in Christ’s death

and resurrection, and the future fulfillment of that “mystery”

at the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead; this

required that those “in Christ” must live not according to the

paradigm of Adam, but of Christ (1 Cor 15:22, 45). This

“ideology,” which, described in these terms sounds like “the-

ology,” provides the basis for Paul’s paraenesis, elements of

which Ackerman attempts to situate in relation to the con-

text in Corinth. Recommended for theological libraries and

interested specialists.

Daniel A. Smith

Huron University College, University of Western Ontario

ACTS IN ITS ANCIENT LITERARY CONTEXT: ACLASSICIST LOOKS AT THE ACTS OF THE APOS-TLE. By Loveday C. A. Alexander. Early Christianity in Con-

text. Library of New Testament Studies, 298. London: T&T

Clark, 2005. Pp. xi + 290. Cloth, $140.00, ISBN 978-0-567-

08209-1; paper, $49.95, ISBN 978-0-567-08219-0.

Alexander’s writings on Acts have been among the

recent decades’ more interesting contributions to Lukan

scholarship. This volume collects nine previously published

essays, which have been left virtually identical in their orig-

inal versions: “The Preface to Acts and the Historians;” “Acts

and Ancient Intellectual Biography;” “ ‘In Journeyings

Often’: Voyaging in the Acts of the Apostles and in Greek

Romance;” “Narrative Maps: Reflections on the Toponomy

[sic] of Acts;” “Fact, Fiction and the Genre of Acts;” “New

Testament Narrative and Ancient Epic;” “The Acts of the

Apostles as an Apologetic Text;” “Reading Luke-Acts from

Back to Front;” and “Septuaginta, Fachprosa, Imitatio: Albert

Wifstrand and the Language of Luke-Acts.” In an introduc-

tory chapter Alexander describes the essays and situates

them in relation to her longtime interest in examining the

Lukan writings within a Greco-Roman literary context.

These essays, already known and appreciated by serious

students of Acts, deserve the opportunity for wider circula-

tion among new audiences. It is frustrating to see that oppor-

tunity hampered by the book’s high price, which likely

keeps it beyond the reach of all but the most devoted readers

and their institutions’ libraries.

Matthew L. Skinner

Luther Seminary

FRONTIERS OF FAITH: THE CHRISTIAN ENCOUN-TER WITH MANICHAEISM IN THE ACTS OF ARCH-ELAUS. Edited by Jason BeDuhn and Paul Mirecki. Nag

Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 34 • NUMBER 1 • MARCH 2008

42

Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, 61. Boston: Brill, 2007.

Pp. viii + 178. N.p., ISBN 978-90-04-16180-1.

Here are the results of five years of work on the Acts

of Archelaus (AA) by members of the Society of Biblical

Literature’s Manichaean Studies Seminar. The AA is a fic-

tional account of debates between the prophet Mani and

Archelaus, bishop of a place called Kaskar (or Carchar) in

Mesopotamia in the late third century, written in the late

fourth century by an otherwise unknown author named

Hegemonius. In the opening chapter, the editors place the

AA in its historical and geographical setting. J. K. Coyle

then treats the portrayal of Mani in the AA. I. Gardner

argues that Mani’s letter to Marcellus in the AA is based

on an authentic letter. T. A. Sala finds authentic Man-

ichaean tradition in Turbo’s account of the Manichaean

myth in the AA. Coyle sets up a contrast between the por-

trayals of Mani and Archelaus in the AA. J. BeDuhn studies

the use made of the Bible by Mani in his Christological

arguments in the AA, and finds authentic Manichaean tra-

dition there. K. Kaatz examines the scriptural evidence

used by Manichaeans for the existence of the Two Natures.

T. Pettipiece studies the competing ideas of kingship found

in the AA. BeDuhn finds an authentic Manichaean source

behind Mani’s discussion of the antitheses between the

Old and New Testaments in the AA. P. Mirecki compares

AA 63.5-6 and a spell in PGM I.42-195. B. Bennett argues

that the presentation of Basilides’ barbarian cosmogony at

the end of AA is based on Middle-Platonic interpretations

of Plato’s Timaeus. These essays shed new light on an

important witness to the confrontation between Man-

ichaeism and Christianity in the late third century.

Birger A. Pearson

University of California, Santa Barbara

THE GREAT STEM OF SOULS: RECONSTRUCTINGMANDAEAN HISTORY. By Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley.

Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005. Pp. xv + 388; plates.

$76.00, ISBN 1-59333-338-2.

Mandaean books (scrolls and codices), all handwritten,

have colophons at the end or at the end of a section in which

a scribe identifies himself (or herself) and sometimes pro-

vides information on contemporary community affairs. That

scribe will copy the colophons of previous scribes, and the

line of scribes is sometimes very long. These Mandaean

colophons are the focus of this important book. Buckley has

identified the earliest attested scribe as a woman named

Shlama, who copied the Left Ginza in around 200 CE. The

first part of the book (chapters one to four) deals with colo-

phons written into the manuscripts of the most important

Mandaean work, the Ginza. Part two, “Priests and Scholars,”

deals with Lady Drower and her important contributions to

scholarship (chapter five); the work of H. Petermann (chap-

ter six); the life of the most important Mandaean of the

nineteenth century Y. Bihram (chapter seven); and the evi-

dence for women priests (chapter eight). Part three is

devoted to the colophons found in manuscripts of other Man-

daean works (chapters nine to twelve). In Part four, “Dis-

cerning History,” Buckley compares the earliest colophons

(chapter thirteen), discusses the work of previous scholars

dealing with Mandaean history (chapter fourteen), and offers

her own conclusions on Mandaean origins and early Man-

daean history (chapter fifteen). She traces the Mandaean

religion back to the beginning of the first century CE. This

groundbreaking study is absolutely essential for scholars of

Mandaeism and Gnosticism in general.

Birger A. Pearson

University of California, Santa Barbara

THE SOLUTION TO THE “SON OF MAN” PROBLEM.

By Maurice Casey. Library of New Testament Studies, 343.

London: T&T Clark, 2007. Pp. xiv + 359. $29.95, ISBN 978-

0-567-03069-6.

Casey has written a definitive book on a previously

unresolved problem: Why do Greek sources preserve “ho

huios tou anthr8pou” with reference to Jesus? Casey offers a

multilayered solution to deal with linguistic and exegetical

complexities. After writing to debunk errors perpetuated in

scholarly literature, Casey discusses the idiomatic use of bar

(e)nash(a). The Greek expression is not normal monoglot

Greek, so it must signal translation from a Semitic expres-

sion. He covers the generic use of bar (e)nash(a) in definite

or indefinite states, and its range of meanings (human

being[s] in general; a particular individual). His application

of modern translation theory to the Son of Man problem is

convincing, explaining how and why a bilingual translator

chose ho huios tou anthr8pou to render bar (e)nash(a). Since

no such idiom exists in Greek to translate the range of mean-

ings of bar (e)nash(a), the translator(s) used the singular ho

huios tou anthr8pou when he thought it was a primary ref-

erence to Jesus. Casey traces bar (e)nash(a) to Jesus in six

“genuine sayings of the historical Jesus” (Mark 2:28; 9:12;

10:45; 14:21; Matt 11:19//Luke 7:34; Matt 12:32//Luke

12:10) where some general level of meaning is implied. He

discusses the Aramaic subtext of several more sayings that

are from Jesus but subsequently edited (Mark 2:10; 8:31, 38;

Matt 8:19-20//Luke 9.57-58; Luke 12:8-9//Matt 10:32-33;

Luke 22:48). The rest of the sayings Casey considers to be

secondary, many developed out of midrashic use of Dan 7:13.

Although I may quibble with Casey about whether all of the

sayings he recognizes as “genuine” indeed are, I am con-

vinced that his solution to the Son of Man problem is suc-

cessful, even formidable.

April D. DeConick

Rice University

COMMISSION NARRATIVES: A COMPARATIVESTUDY OF THE CANONICAL AND APOCRYPHALACTS. By István Czachesz. Studies on Early Christian Apoc-

rypha, 8. Leuven: Peeters, 2007. Pp. xii + 322. €40.00, ISBN

978-90-429-1845-0.

This excellent revision of a 2002 Groningen dissertation

is more than a study of commissioning stories in Acts and

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Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 34 • NUMBER 1 • MARCH 2008

the Apocryphal Acts of John, Thomas, Philip, Barnabas,

Titus, and the Acts of Peter and the Twelve. The book is a

model of how comparative study of a constituent form can

illuminate both individual texts and the study of movements.

Czachesz makes able use of numerous methods, including

philology, intellectual history, literary criticism, and social-

scientific analysis. He identifies three (often mixed) social

types of commission: institutional (e.g., Acts 9), philosophi-

cal (e.g., Acts 26), and prophetic (e.g., Acts 22). All are asso-

ciated with biographical interests. The major Apocryphal

Acts show little interest in either the prophetic or institu-

tional types. In the course of his survey Czachesz offers

many illuminating structural and literary comments about

his target texts, as well as interesting hypotheses regarding

their settings. He proposes, for example, that the Acts of

Peter and the Twelve (Nag Hammadi Codices VI, 1) reflects,

in its present form, Pachomian monasticism (162-83), and

he examines the extant text of the Acts of John within the

framework of nascent Neo-Platonism at Alexandria (115-19).

Commission Narratives deserves a wider audience than spe-

cialists in the various Acts and belongs in every seminary

and graduate library.

Richard I. Pervo

St. Paul, MN

THE WRITINGS OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.

Edited by Paul Foster. T. & T. Clark Biblical Studies. Lon-

don: T&T Clark, 2007. Pp. xiii + 159. $29.95, ISBN 0-567-

03106-3.

The twelve articles in this book were originally pub-

lished in Expository Times. All are written by scholars who

have devoted years of study to particular apostolic texts and

authors. Although intended to be “introductory,” the articles

offer us not only overviews, but also unique insights and

reflections. This makes the articles in Foster’s book far more

challenging and valuable than encyclopedia articles on sim-

ilar subjects. The book opens with a piece by Koester, reflect-

ing on the Apostolic Fathers in terms of struggles that

engaged early Christians and shaped second-century Chris-

tianity. For Draper the Didache is a mid-first century Jewish-

Christian writing of which Matthew is aware. Gregory writes

about ways in which 1 Clement reflects a network of com-

munication between churches. Parvis considers 2 Clement

as a mid-second century text whose author knew of the

existence of authoritative Christian writings but no closed

canon. Hill reassesses the fragments of Papias, Foster the

Apology of Quadratus as well as Ignatius’ writings and Diog-

netus, and Verheyden the Shepherd of Hermas. Paget stud-

ies Barnabas, asking whether the author’s “take over” of

Jewish scriptures while promoting a separatist stance

reflects a division between Christians and Jews, or some

more complex form of interaction. Polycarp is discussed by

Holmes in relationship to “orthopraxy” and “orthodoxy.”

Parvis assesses the Martyrdom of Polycarp in terms of

Roman legal procedures. This volume is perfect for class-

room use, and highly recommended as a convenient entry

point into recent research conducted on these important

ancient authors and writings.

April D. DeConick

Rice University

THE RHETORICAL ROLE OF SCRIPTURE IN 1CORINTHIANS. By John Paul Heil. Studies in Biblical Lit-

erature, 15. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.

Pp. xiv + 309. $35.95, ISBN 1-58983-167-5.

In this book, Heil argues that Paul’s rhetorical use of

scripture is conditioned not only by Greco-Roman rhetorical

conventions, but also by Jewish exegetical techniques, which

in Paul’s use have interpretive and persuasive functions.

Both the “authorial audience” (the ideal audience created/

implied by the text) and the actual first-century audience at

Corinth were familiar with the scriptures to which Paul

refers. Heil sees the letter as comprising six major “rhetori-

cal demonstrations” (following Collins, First Corinthians,

1999), containing twenty-one scriptural citations. These are

individually examined as to both original context (“back-

ground”) and deployment in the new literary-rhetorical con-

text of 1 Corinthians (“foreground”). Each chapter closes

with a summary of the core interpretive insights that Heil

has reached. Heil finds that rhetorical appeals to scriptures

do not stand alone, but are “elegantly embedded . . . within

Paul’s various rhetorical strategies.” They also presume the

audience’s acceptance of Paul’s views about the authority

and interrelatedness of the scriptures. This is an important

contribution to the rhetorical study of Paul’s letters, and will

be a useful exegetical tool for interpreters of 1 Corinthians.

Highly recommended for research libraries and interested

specialists.

Daniel A. Smith

Huron University College, University of Western Ontario

THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS, TOGETHER WITH THELETTER OF PETER TO PHILIP, JAMES, AND ABOOK OF ALLOGENES FROM CODEX TCHACOS:CRITICAL EDITION. By Rodolph Kasser, Gregor Wurst,

Marvin Meyer, and François Gaudard. Washington, DC:

National Geographic Society, 2007. Pp. iii + 378. $45.00,

ISBN 978-1-4262-0191-2.

The publication of the English translation of the Gospel

of Judas in April, 2006 (plus an online preliminary transcrip-

tion) encouraged a spate of books on Judas and his new

gospel. Now, with the publication of the critical edition of

Judas (plus the other three tractates in Codex Tchacos) schol-

arship on that gospel has been put on a sounder footing.

Kasser has provided the Introduction, Dialectical Study,

French translations of the tractates, and Index of the Coptic

text. Kasser and Wurst prepared the Coptic transcriptions,

and Meyer and Gaudard the English translations. Meyer pro-

vided introductions to Peter to Philip and Allogenes, and

Wurst introductions to James and Judas. Meyer and Wurst

provided the notes to all four tractates. Coptic transcriptions

and English translations appear on the right-hand facing

Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 34 • NUMBER 1 • MARCH 2008

44

pages, and color photographs of the corresponding pages on

the left. The translation of Judas differs somewhat from the

earlier one, and there are a few changes to the transcription.

The color photographs are disappointing in that they have

been reduced to some fifty-six percent of the actual size of

the manuscript pages. This book is absolutely essential for

anyone working on the four tractates of the Codex Tchacos.

Birger A. Pearson

University of California, Santa Barbara

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN BOOK. Edited by William E.

Klingshirn and Linda Safran. CUA Studies in Early Chris-

tianity. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America

Press, 2007. Pp. xiv + 314; plates. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8132-

1486-3.

This volume is composed of papers presented at a 2002

conference on the production and use of books in the Chris-

tian movement between the third and seventh centuries CE.

An introduction by P. Rousseau (“From Binding to Burning”)

precedes essays on “The Word Made Visible: The Exterior of

the Early Christian Book as Visual Argument” (J. Lowden);

“Books and Book Production in the Monastic Communities

of Byzantine Egypt” (C. Kotsifou); “Talmud and ‘Fathers of

the Church’: Theologies and the Making of Books” (D.

Boyarin); “The Syriac Book of Women: Text and Metatext” (C.

Burris); “Through the Looking Glass Darkly: Jerome Inside

the Book” (C. M. Chin); “City of Books: Augustine and the

World as Text” (G. Clark); “Judging by the Book: Christian

Codices and Late Antique Legal Culture” (C. Humfress); “The

Symbolics of Book Burning: The Establishment of a Christian

Ritual of Persecution” (D. Sarefield); “Engendering Palimp-

sests: Reading the Textual Tradition of the Acts of Paul and

Thecla” (K. Haines-Eitzen); “Holy Texts, Holy Men, and Holy

Scribes: Aspects of Scriptural Holiness in Late Antiquity” (C.

Rapp); “Sanctum, lector, percense volumen: Snakes, Readers,

and the Whole Text in Prudentius’s Hamartigenia” (C. Cony-

beare); and “Theory, or the Dream of the Book (Mallarmé to

Blanchot)” (M. Vessey). A consolidated bibliography and

index complete the volume. These titles indicate the broad

range of topics, perspectives, and approaches encountered

in this volume. It is an auspicious beginning for a new series,

and would be a fine addition to graduate-level libraries.

Michael W. Holmes

Bethel University

JOHN. By Gail R. O’Day and Susan E. Hylen. Westminster

Bible Companion. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox

Press, 2006. Pp. x + 205. $24.95, ISBN 978-0-664-25260-1.

This Westminster Bible Companion volume on John

does exactly what the series intends, “help[s] the laity of the

church read the Bible more clearly and intelligently.” The

authors have used their 204 pages to illuminate “the major

movements in the Gospel,” although to varying degrees of

luminescence. Each of the nineteen chapters discusses a

recognized segment of the Gospel and includes a brief over-

view of the section followed by one or more passages from

the NRSV text, with discussions on each passage. Their lim-

ited amount of copy space granted to discuss the complexi-

ties of John’s Gospel requires a selectivity of topics and

themes. The authors’ decision to employ a literary approach

permits them to reinforce recurring themes or structures

(for example “witness” and the miracle stories) that are often

missed by uninformed, atomistic reading. When themes

reappear, the authors remind their audience of the literary

relationship to other passages thus providing a stronger

foundation for understanding later developments in John’s

Gospel. While the authors do not oversimplify the complex-

ities of the biblical text, at frequent passages the reader is

left wishing they had explained some of their points with

greater precision. The reader can uncover a gem within the

text when a multivalent issue is granted pristine clarity, as

in the Lamb of God declaration of John 1:29. This volume is

a good beginning place for becoming acquainted with the

depth and complexity of the Gospel of John, but is not an end

unto itself.

Stan Harstine

Friends University

ABRAHAM’S FAITH IN ROMANS 4: PAUL’SCONCEPT OF FAITH IN LIGHT OF THE HISTORYOF RECEPTION OF GENESIS 15:6. By Benjamin

Schliesser. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen

Testament 2 Reihe, 224. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.

Pp. xiii + 521. €79.00, ISBN 978-3-16-149197-9.

The focus of this hefty tome, which originated as a dis-

sertation at Fuller Theological Seminary, is simultaneously

broad and narrow: Schliesser seeks to understand “the New

Testament concept of faith” by examining Paul’s reading of

Gen 15:6 alongside other readings, both ancient and modern.

One chapter surveys landmark works from the nineteenth

and twentieth centuries on the more general Pauline doc-

trine of faith, while another describes the Rezeptionsge-

schichte of this pivotal text in ancient Jewish writings (Ps

106; Neh 9; LXX; Jubilees; 4Q225; 4QMMT; 1 Macc 2; Philo).

Painstaking exegesis of Gen 15:6 (with special attention to

the terms “consider,” “righteousness,” and “believe”) sets up

the analysis of Paul’s argument in Romans 4 (and its the-

matic links to 1:16-17; 3:21-31). Paul’s treatment of Abra-

ham reveals that “the horizon of his hermeneutics is

eschatology, his hermeneutical method typology, and his

hermeneutical key the salvation-historical reality pistis

Christou.” Participants in debates about the “New Perspec-

tive” will especially profit from the author’s insights. The

bibliography alone—fifty pages in small print—makes this a

valuable resource for all serious students of Paul.

Patrick Gray

Rhodes College