(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
152
the early church. Introductory essays are provided for each section of the New Testament
as follows: the Gospels; Acts; the Pauline Epistles; and for Hebrews, the General Epistles,
and Revelation as a unit. These contributions provide general information on historical,
literary, and theological issues for each division. Essays devoted to individual books of the
Bible are comprised of a brief introduction followed by a section-by-section commentary,
which is guided by a three-tiered format: “The Text in Its Ancient Context,” “The Text in the
Interpretive Tradition,” and “The Text in Contemporary Discussion.” Each essay is followed
by a list of works cited.
The New Testament volume of the Fortress Commentary finds a more balanced tone than
its Old Testament counterpart. 1 Contributors hail from various denominational backgrounds,
such as Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, and even Baptist. In the
fascinating essay “Reading the Christian New Testament in the Contemporary World,”
Episcopal scholar Kwok Pui-lan elucidates the manner in which biblical interpretation
varies across diverse ethnographic contexts, reminding readers that the familiar “Western”
interpretation is not always the correct reading of the text. However, some of his
perspectives may cause discomfort for conservative, evangelical readers. For example, Puilan
is dismissive of the household codes in Colossians and Ephesians on the basis of their
deuteropauline status, and theorizes that they “were written during the increasing patriarchal
institutionalization of the church” (23). He also appreciates the development of a “new” New
Testament, in which Gnostic texts are integrated into canonical writings. Pui-lan cautions,
“As global citizens living in the twenty-first century, we have to remember how the gospel
of Jesus Christ has been misused to oppress and construct the other, whether the other is
Jewish people, women, racial and ethnic minorities, colonized people, or queer people, so
that history will not be repeated” (25). While his warning is well-sounded, it should not be
heeded at the expense of the integrity, authority, and inerrancy of the biblical text.
Nonetheless, the variety of perspectives throughout the text is a strength of the work.
A comprehensive listing of non-traditional insights is impossible, so a few examples must
suffice. The essay on the Gospel of John is penned by the Jewish scholar Adele Reinhartz.
For a Gospel that is often charged with anti-Semitism, Reinhartz’s appraisal is enlightening,
as she allows readers to experience John through a Jewish perspective. In contrast to Laura
S. Nasrallah’s excellent overview of the rise of Pentecostalism in her commentary on 1
Corinthians, Michal Beth Dinkler exhibits a disappointing lack of attention to pneumatology
in her chapter on Acts. In the topical essay on Paul, Neil Elliott provides a thorough yet
concise survey of the life, ministry, and writings of the apostle. He covers Paul’s Jewish
background, Paul’s polemic against Roman imperial ideology, and the seeming contradictions
in Paul’s own writing and persona. Like other contributors, Elliot reminds readers that the
“commonsense” interpretation of a text is often culturally conditioned, and not always the
¹See my review of Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha in this
issue of JBTM.