(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
166
In sum, Harris’s John is the fruit of a lifetime of scholarly study and exegesis of the Greek
NT. Pastors, students, and informed laity will find Harris’s John to be a helpful handmaiden
in their exegetical toolbox in working through the Greek text of the Fourth Gospel, while
seasoned Johannine scholars may find many of Harris’s sources a bit dusty and outdated.
This work is intended to be neither a full-scale commentary (xxii) nor a replacement for
one’s own exegetical and syntactical analysis of the text. With these caveats in mind, I
highly recommend John and the rest of the EGGNT series, as they fill an important lacuna in
biblical studies through their synergistic union of the inductive and deductive elements of
hermeneutics. I am grateful that Jennifer was able to “share” her full-time caregiver for the
penning of this work (xx). May the tribe of such a visionary, scholar, and shepherd such as
Harris increase.
– Gregory E. Lamb, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina
The Messiah of Peace: A Performance-Criticism Commentary on Mark’s Passion-
Resurrection Narrative. By Thomas E. Boomershine. Biblical Performance Criticism
Series 12. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015. 464 pages. Paperback, $57.00.
Thomas E. Boomershine has supplied a much-needed commentary on the Gospel of
Mark from a performance-critical perspective. Boomershine, a leader in the development of
performance theory as a critical methodology, founded the Network of Biblical Storytellers
in 1977 as well as the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media, a section of the Society of Biblical
Literature. Until 2006, he served as the G. Ernest Thomas Distinguished Professor of
Christianity and Communication at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
Boomershine’s research is presented in two mediums, with the first consisting of a series
of webinars in which Boomershine performs Mark’s passion-resurrection narrative in both
Greek as well as in English. According to Boomershine, these webinars serve to introduce
the chapters of the book. The second medium is the book itself, which consists of two parts.
Following an introduction, the first part is a running commentary on Mark 14:1–16:8, labeled
by Boomershine as “Mark’s passion-resurrection narrative,” or “PRN.” The second part is a
collection of eight appendices that expand upon information addressed in the introduction.
Boomershine’s commentary on Mark is superb. He eruditely handles numerous critical
methodologies, yet does so in such a way as to focus the study around performance criticism.
His commentary has four primary elements: translation, sound map, notes on the translation,
and a concluding section discussing how the passion-resurrection narrative should be
performed. While there is much to commend in this book, such would require too lengthy a
review, so what follows is limited to highlighting one weakness and one strength of the book.