Book Reviews

JETS 50/3 (September 2007) 595–668 BOOK REVIEWS The Essential Bible Companion: Key Insights for Reading God’s Word. By John H. Walton, Mark L. Strauss, and Ted Cooper, Jr. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006, 150 pp., $14.99 paper. As designed, The Essential Bible Companion is an elementary introduction to each individual book of the Bible. This will be beneficial for a beginning Bible reader, for Sunday School teachers aiming to give a 45-minute synopsis of a book, and perhaps for an undergraduate Bible Survey course. Like the Testaments the authors seek to summarize, there is great continuity between the OT and NT sections of the book. Most of the books in the OT and NT are summarized on two pages in an easy-to-use fashion (some of the OT prophetic books are combined and Revelation gets four pages). The summary of each book approximates the first page of an average study Bible: it includes key concepts, purpose statements, and information regarding dating. It goes beyond many study Bibles in that it is considerably more user-friendly with colorful maps, enjoyable pictures, and helpful timelines. For the Gospels, the book gives brief, but helpful, three- or four-point outlines. Unfortunately, this practice is limited to the Gospels; brief outlines for the rest of the biblical books would have contributed greatly to the design of this Bible companion. While continuity assists aesthetically and pedagogically, there is—again like the two Testaments themselves—some discontinuity between the OT and NT sections of the book. Although this discontinuity in no way hinders its readability, it does make evident some omissions that might have been helpfully added. The OT section has “Key Concepts,” “Key Terms,” and “Key Teachings about God.” But the NT section seems to combine all of these into the much shorter “Key Themes.” Arguably, this is easier to do for the NT books, but I think it would not have been overly difficult to do for the OT section also, and would have shortened things considerably. Furthermore, “Key Terms” that are in the OT section are also spelled out in the glossary and therefore could have simply been listed (without definition) for reference in the glossary. I also see little value in the “People to Know” section; significant names were generally mentioned already in the “Purpose” overview. Space saved in these areas could have been used to include brief outlines and helpful information on matters of special introduction (e.g. possible authorship or recipients) that may have helped with understanding the “purpose,” subtly assisting readers to determine a book’s purpose for themselves. One thing I did enjoy was Walton’s selection of “key verses” (although Gen 3:15 and Psalm 1 were conspicuously absent). These verses could be easily memorized and supplement well Ted Cooper’s The Bible in 90 Days. The NT section was more profitably organized, removing the key concepts, words, people, and teaching and replacing it with “key themes,” “summary overview,” “authorship information,” and “interesting facts.” The “Overview” features just 1–3 sentences summarizing each book. This is tremendously helpful for the beginning reader. The “Interesting Facts” sections were indeed always interesting and included information on the deaths of Paul and Peter, comments on Gnosticism, famous passages like the armor of God and the second coming, and inner-biblical connections. It was informative and made the whole read more enjoyable. 596 journal of the evangelical theological society 50/3 My small organizational criticisms should in no way take away from the substantial benefits of the book. The Essential Bible Companion should be commended as a helpful aid for foundational study of the Bible. Jace Broadhurst Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods & Results. By Paul D. Wegner. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2006, 336 pp., $17.00 paper. Paul Wegner has provided teachers and students with a clearly written and wonder- fully illustrated introduction to the practice of textual criticism of the entire Bible. (Most recent treatments focus on either OT or NT.) He introduces his topic with an example from each testament where modern versions vary in their handling of variant readings: (1) How many men were killed when they looked into the ark (1 Sam 6:19)? (2) How should the Lord’s Prayer read in Luke 11:4? These two passages quickly whet the reader’s appetite for the why and how of textual criticism. The author organizes his book in four major parts. Parts one and four deal with general issues. Part two deals with the OT, and part three with the NT. Chapter 1 gives a basic introduction to textual criticism. The author discusses a variety of ways to understand the goal of textual criticism, from restoring the original composition to restoring all literary editions of the OT (see the table on p. 31). He articulates well the basic differences in the practice of textual criticism in the OT (fewer manuscripts, but better ones) as compared with the NT (more manuscripts, but not as carefully preserved). Chapter 2 discusses the copying errors that may be observed by examining variant readings. Scribal errors are categorized as either unintentional or intentional. In each case, an example is given from the OT, and then the same error is illustrated in the NT. This way of presenting possible copying errors will have the advantage of reinforcement for the student, but this advantage may be offset by the student’s having to read the same chapter twice in two different courses. The author often includes examples of similar “scribal” errors that occur in English, and this will be very helpful for students. The final chapter in the first part of the book deals with the history of the transmission of the biblical text. The first part covers the OT and describes the history of copying practices during five time periods. Prior to 400 bc, the focus is on four questions: the language and script in which the OT was written; the issue of continuous writing (i.e. without spaces between words); the kinds of materials that were written on; and who maintained these texts in this period. From 400 bc—ad 100 there were two competing tendencies: preservation of the text and revision of the text. The author mentions three kinds of revisions: change from the archaic script to the square script; change of spelling; and change of grammar. From ad 100–500 there was a more standard form of the OT text that was transmitted by the Tannaim and the Amoraim. From ad 500–1000 the Masoretes transmitted the text they had received and added vowel points, accent marks, and their own careful notes. The transmission of the NT text is covered more briefly in two time periods—prior to and after ad 100. The discussion emphasizes the kinds of materials used for copying and the level of discipline in the copying process (less discipline in the first two centuries, but greater discipline beginning in the fifth century). The author closes this part of the book with an interesting comparison between those Jewish scribes who transmitted the proto-mt against other versions of the OT text and One Line Short september 2007 book reviews 597 the “mainstream” Christians who faithfully transmitted the NT documents against the opposition of those such as Marcion who held other views. Chapter 4 presents a brief history of the transmission of the OT. Topics include the Dead Sea Scrolls; the Septuagint; the emergence of a unified Hebrew text in the first century ad; and versions and early Hebrew editions. The chapter closes with a helpful excursus that introduces the reader to the layout and principles of the principal modern diplomatic editions of the Hebrew Bible. Chapter 5 discusses how to determine the most likely reading of the OT. The major steps include assembling the evidence (what are the possible readings) and making the appropriate selection of the most plausible original reading. Chapter 6 brings the discussion of part two to a close by describing in detail the various sources a text critic must work with to determine possible variants. There is some repetition between chapters 4 and 6, with the latter chapter usually offering more detail. I would have opted for integrating the content of chapter 6 into chapter 4. This would then lead more cleanly into the description of the actual practice of textual criticism in chapter 5. Part three covers the same ground for the NT that part two covers for the OT. Chapter seven introduces the history of NT textual criticism. Excursus 2 provides orientation to the two main critical texts for the NT—the United Bible Society text and the Nestle-Aland text. The Nestle-Aland text is mentioned, but little attention is given to it. Teachers who encourage use of the Nestle-Aland text will need to supplement the material in this chapter for their students. Chapter 8 discusses determining the most plausible reading. The chapter lists a sampling of NT texts on which the student can practice. Chapter 9 explores the sources that must be used to carry out textual criticism of the NT. I did not notice the same degree of overlap between the content of chapters 7 and 9 that I did in the earlier part of the book. Part four, a single chapter, deals with ancient versions that for the most part are not as important in the practice of textual criticism. These versions are grouped into eastern and western versions. A number of these versions are translations from the Septuagint, so their usefulness, at least for direct OT textual analysis, is minimal.

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