Peder J. Borgen Reflects on Raymond Brown

Peder J. Borgen

Last year, I was very fortunate to attend the John, Jesus, and History Conference in Baltimore.  Held at St. Mary's Seminary, the conference took time to honor two giants in Johannine interpretation, C.H. Dodd and Raymond E. Brown.

While there, I met the eminent NT scholar, Peder Borgen, known for both his work in Philonic as well as Johannine studies, especially, his famous, Bread from Heaven. An Exegetical Study of the Concept of Manna in the Gospel of John and the Writings of Philo.


Dr. Borgen delivered some memories on the final night of the conference about Raymond Brown in which he has made available to the website which can be read here.

Raymond Brown's Interpretation Articles Now Free for Download!

One of the perils of creating a website for a figure of Raymond E. Brown's immense stature is learning the ropes of copyright law. Some time back, (last fall, actually) I contacted Debra Reagan, Managing Editor of Interpretation Journal, to inquire if I may make available Ray's articles that he wrote for said journal. After months of inquiries with both Debra and Sage Journals, the aforementioned parties have made Ray's articles free in perpetuity for users of my site! Many thanks goes to both Debra and Sage for their consideration and generosity. You can find the articles here.

With that being said, I have pulled some other articles available for download I had posted on that page. Even though I found them in Google searches, I have decided that in good conscience I could no longer make those available without expressed permissions. I hope one day to make most of Ray's articles, reviews, and the like available on the site, but it is a long, laborious process to do so.

In the meantime, enjoy!

Rudolf Schnackenburg and the Quote of the Day

No one who approaches the figure of Jesus with the cool distance of the historian can answer the question about the mystery of the person of Jesus, the radiant energy that emanates from him, the living power of his words and deeds, the magnetic force of his suffering and dying.

(Rudolf Schnackenburg, Jesus in the Gospels: A Biblical Christology [Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995]), 4.

Must Have IVP Forthcoming Releases

I noticed the other day that IVP Academic has a couple of forthcoming releases that I will indeed be adding to my library. These volumes cover my two greatest scholarly interests, the Gospels of Mark and John.

Robert H. Stein

The first volume, Jesus, the Temple and the Coming Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13, is authored by Robert H. Stein, senior professor of New Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. 

Stein also happens to be the author of the excellent Mark commentary in the BECNT series. I am so looking forward to this offering as Mark 13 is one of the most challenging chapters of any Gospel. Stein's book is due out in October, is 160 pages in length and retails for a modest $18.00.

Here are the particulars:

The Gospels contain many hard sayings of Jesus, but perhaps none have puzzled and intrigued readers as much as Jesus’ discourse on the coming of the Son of Man in Mark 13. Is Jesus speaking entirely of an event in the near future, a coming destruction of the temple? Or is he referring to a distant, end-of-the-world event? Or might he even be speaking of both near and distant events? But in that case, which words apply to which event, and how can we be sure? Seasoned Gospels scholar Robert Stein follows up his major commentary on Mark with this even closer reading of Mark 13. In this macro-lens commentary he walks us step by step through the text and its questions, leading us to a compelling interpretive solution.

Contents:

Preface 1 Determining Our Goal 2 Key Issues Involved in Interpreting Mark 13 3 Jesus’ Prediction of the Destruction of the Temple (and Jerusalem): Mark 13:1-4 4 The Coming Destruction of the Temple and the Sign Preceding It: Mark 13:5-23 5 The Coming of the Son of Man: Mark 13:24-27 6 The Parable of the Fig Tree and the Coming Destruction of the Temple (and Jerusalem): Mark 13:28-31 7 The Parable of the Watchman and the Exhortation to Be Alert for the Coming of the Son of Man: Mark 13:32-37 8 An Interpretative Translation of Mark 13 Bibliography Index of Subjects Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Literature

Endorsements:
"The interpretation of Mark 13 is controversial and sometimes a bit baffling. Robert Stein—with his characteristic clarity, common sense and exegetical skill—unpacks the meaning of the passage for readers. Even those who disagree will profit from Stein's lucid exegesis and will have to wrestle seriously with the arguments he presents for his reading. All readers will recognize the hand of a veteran and wise interpreter at work. We stand in debt to Stein for an outstanding exposition." —Thomas R. Schreiner, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary



The other must-have volume is Paul Rainbow's Johannine Theology: The Gospel, The Epistles and the Apocalypse.  

Here is a description:

Paul A. Rainbow

In this magisterial synthesis, Paul A. Rainbow presents the most complete account of the theology of the Johannine corpus available today. Both critical and comprehensive, this volume includes all the books of the New Testament ascribed to John: the Gospel, the three epistles and the book of Revelation. While not proclaiming a definitive position on the question of authorship, this work seeks to shed light on the theology common to all the New Testament authors. John’s root beliefs concerning God, humanity, sin, the world, and the significance of the Christ-event on eschatology unite the examined books with the rest of the New Testament canon. The Johannine corpus also highlights the important areas of christology, soteriology and ecclesiology in a manner that is worth exploration. Organizing John's ideas by the main characters around whom they revolve, the Johannine universe consists of persons divine and human, and their relationships with each other. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, faithful believers and the rest of the world are the main cast of characters that make up the rich set of writings considered in this exhaustive analysis.

Contents:

Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. The Revelation of God (The Father) 3. The World 4. God’s Self-Revelation in Christ’s Person 5. God’s Self-Revelation in Christ’s Work 6. The Revelation of the Father in the Son by the Spirit-Paraclete 7. The Believer and the True God: Coming to Christ 8. The Believer and the True God: Abiding in Christ 9. Disciples of Christ in Community 10. The Community of Christ’s Disciples in the World Bibliography Index of Authors Index of Subjects Index of Principal Scripture Passages

Rainbow's work is a hefty 464 pages, is due in October, and retails for $40.00

I cannot wait to the add these two to my library!