The so-called Scandinavian school has made significant contributions to New Testament research over the past century, disrupting paradigms and offering fresh perspectives on a range of issues, particularly related to the oral transmission of the “Jesus tradition.” However, English speakers have not generally had the linguistic facility to benefit from their work. It is therefore a delight to see this Swedish introduction to Christian origins, Jesus och de första kristna: inledning till Nya testamentet (Verbum, 2007), recently updated and translated into English under the title Jesus, the New Testament, and Christian Origins: Perspectives, Methods, Meanings, edited by Dieter Mitternacht and Anders Runesson. Unlike most introductions to Christianity which are lone efforts, this introduction is the work of twenty-two contributors, many of whom are Swedish and Lutheran (xiv).
Chapter 1, “Invitation to Study the New Testament,” begins with an overview of New Testament research, with sections on the historical Jesus and Paul respectively. Rather than launching into the texts themselves, chapter 2 provides a comprehensive historical background, “From Persia to the Romans,” concluding with a valuable discussion on women in the early Christian movement. The third chapter then treats the historical Jesus in greater detail. In keeping with the hermeneutical focus of the work, special attention is paid to the limits of the historical method and what is meant by the ‘historical Jesus.’
It is only in chapter 4 that we are introduced to what is typically the organizing principle of New Testament introductions: the texts themselves. Following a discussion of text criticism and canonization, we are introduced exclusively to the texts of the New Testament via their authorship, dating, structure, communication strategies, and key theological ideas. From Christianity’s texts to the movement itself, chapter 5 sketches a reconstruction of how Christianity emerged from a Palestinian group in the mid-1st century CE to the more variegated movement of the early 2nd century CE. A unique final chapter provides case studies of different exegetical approaches to the New Testament. These may be of particular use to graduate students, at whom the book is aimed.
The collection of essays could be described as mainstream rather than conservative, accepting pseudepigraphy, the ascription of false authors to works within the New Testament, and the inability of the historical-critical method to pronounce on divine action. Even so, one occasionally senses an apologetic intent safeguarding Christian traditions from the challenges of critical scholarship. The blanket statement “that Jesus’ body was, after a short period, no longer in the tomb is indisputable” (195) does not represent the view of several leading Jesus historians, who contest whether Jesus was ever buried in a tomb, let alone removed from one. In another storm center of debate, readers are reassured that suspicions about the motive of the evangelists to place Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem “prove nothing” (175). Meanwhile, the striking silence on Jesus’ virginal conception in Mark and Paul is unconvincingly dismissed as “an argument from silence” and thereby worthless (176). The historical discussion of both events may have benefitted from a stronger engagement of the New Testament sources as literature, including parallels in other ancient bíoi. Unfortunately, this volume does not point readers to the important consensus that the Gospels are ancient ‘lives.’
This English translation is updated to include many resources which are missing from the 2007 edition, which it helpfully recommends at the end of each section. Yet sometimes the further reading could have been better integrated into the chapters themselves. One methodological lacuna is the withering critique of the “criteria of authenticity” in the last decade of Jesus research. For instance, the criterion of plausibility is mentioned as a replacement of the criterion of dissimilarity, yet no discussion is made of the new methodologies which have begun to replace the quest for authenticity altogether, such as those inspired by social memory theory.
It could be said that of the writing of New Testament introductions there is no end. Yet this distinctive introduction offers much that is missing from others, including its sensitivity to hermeneutical issues, its historical scope beyond the New Testament texts, and its showcase of different exegetical approaches. This introduction is made even more valuable by its helpful appendices and glossaries, and ever-intriguing tidbits in the form of tables, text boxes, and illustrations. I would recommend this work to any keen undergraduate, graduate, or minister interested in familiarizing themselves not only with the New Testament texts, but also with the worlds around them. These, we learn, are not only the worlds in which the texts were composed, but the worlds brought to them by their modern readers.
John Nelson is a PhD candidate in New Testament & Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh.
John Nelson
Date Of Review:
August 18, 2021