Sir Edwyn Hoskyns and the Quote of the Day

1884-1937

Sir Edwyn Clement Hoskyns, 13th Baronet and priest of the Church of England, is perhaps known best for his classic commentary, The Fourth Gospel, which was subsequently completed by his student, Francis Noel Davey, due to Hoskyns untimely death. To give one a measure of Hoskyns as a scholar, the great Charles Kingsley Barrett considered him a main influence in his own scholarly career.

In reading the Introduction, "The Problem of the Fourth Gospel"(17-20), Hoskyns discusses the anonymity of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel and states:

"...the author has done his best, apparently with intention, to cover up his tracks. For his theme is not his own workshop, but the workshop of God, and to this we have no direct access! Where the author's personal ideas and reminiscences? Where is his personal experience? No doubt they are there; no doubt, indeed, there is nothing else there but what he thought and what he experienced, but he does not intend us to bury ourselves with him as though he himself were himself the goal of our inquiry. He has, in fact, so burnt himself out of his book that we cannot be certain that we have anywhere located him as a clear, intelligible figure in history. At the end of our inquiry he remains no more than a voice bearing witness to the glory of God. So anonymous is his book, so intentionally anonymous, that there is in it, apart from the shy little 'I suppose' of the last verse, no 'ego' except the 'Ego' of Jesus, the Son of God. The author of the book has effaced himself, or, rather, has been decreased and sacrificed, in order that the Truth may be made known and in order that the Eternal Life which is in God may be declared." (18-19).

Gordon McConville on the OT and Human Flourishing

Just wanted to pass along a short video that I found interesting. J. Gordon McConville, Professor of Old Testament Theology at the University of Gloucestershire, has some compelling things to say about human flourishing in the OT in this brief interview.

Studying Isaiah with John Oswalt

John Oswalt, Visting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Seminary, best known for his work in Isaiah, particularly his two-volume commentary set in the NICOT series, has a series of  videos on Isaiah as well as Exodus through the Francis Asbury Society. Click here to access the channel on Vimeo.

Jack Lundbom's Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount

Jack R. Lundbom, best known for his magisterial work on Jeremiah, including a 3 volume commentary in the Yale University Press series and a recent stand-alone commentary on Deuteronomy for Eerdmans, has turned his keen interpretive eye towards perhaps the most famous section of the Gospels, Matthew's Sermon on the Mount teaching material (chs. 5-7). The volume, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: Mandating a Better Righteousness is a recent release by Fortress Press

Here are the particulars:

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is the best-known repository of the teachings of Jesus and one of the most studied. Amid the considerable erudition expended on the Sermon, however, Jack R. Lundbom argues that it has proven too easy to deflect or disregard the main thrust of the Sermon, which he characterizes as a mandate to holy living and a “greater righteousness.” Through careful attention to the structure of Matthew’s Gospel and the place of the Sermon within it, keen sensitivity to the patterns and themes of Israelite prophecy, and judicious comparisons with other Jewish and rabbinic literature, Lundbom elucidates the meaning of the Sermon and its continuity with Israel’s prophetic heritage as well as the best of Jewish teaching. By deft appeal to Christian commentators on the Sermon, Lundbom brings its most important themes to life for the contemporary reader, seeking always to understand what the “greater righteousness” to which the Sermon summons might mean for us today.

For more info including chapter samples click here .

Francis Watson's Forthcoming Volume

Francis Watson, one of the leading NT scholars in the world has already produced such groundbreaking works as Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith  and Gospel Writing, has another work on the way that promises to break new ground on how one should read the Gospels. Instead of focusing on the individuality of each Gospel in order to ascertain say, the theological meaning of Mark, Watson aims to read the fourfold Gospel in their plurality, arguing that this is the way the church witnesses to the work of God in Christ.

The book is set to release in April 2016 is priced at $24.99 and is 224 pages long.

Here is the info:


This groundbreaking approach to the study of the fourfold Gospel offers a challenging alternative to prevailing assumptions about the creation of the Gospels and the person of Jesus. How and why does it matter that we have these four Gospels? Why were they placed alongside one another as four parallel yet diverse retellings of the same story? Francis Watson, widely regarded as one of the foremost New Testament scholars of our time, explains that the four Gospels were chosen to give a portrait of Jesus. He explores the significance of the canonical Gospel's plural form for those who constructed it and for later Christian communities, showing that in its plurality it bears definitive witness to what God has done in Jesus Christ. Watson focuses on reading the Gospels alongside one another rather than in isolation and explains that the fourfold Gospel is greater than, and other than, the sum of its individual parts. Interweaving historical, exegetical, and theological perspectives, this book is accessibly written for students and pastors but is also of interest to professors and scholars.



Contents 
Prolegomenon: The Making of a Fourfold Gospel More than Four? Fewer than Four? Why "Gospel"? Why the Evangelists' Names? Why These Four? Part One: Perspectives 

1. The First Gospel: Jesus the Jew The Messiah's Double Origin Genealogy as Narrative The Sacred Story and Its Shadow The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah 

2. The Second Gospel: Preparing the Way The Four Faces of the Gospel The Voice in the Desert The Inclusive Gospel An End and a Beginning 

3. The Third Gospel: Magnificat How Luke Became Luke Reassuring Theophilus Reading in Parallel 

4. The Fourth Gospel: Seeing God Three plus One The Johannine Eagle In the Beginning Part Two: Convergences 

5. Four Gospels, One Book The Evangelist: Portrait and Artist Prefatory to a Gospel Order out of Chaos Parallels and Numbers 

6. The City and the Garden Acclamation Reading the Event A Man of Sorrows 

7. Christus Victor The Death of the Messiah Atonement Pattern Life Aftermath 

8. The Truth of the Gospel The Eucharistic Milieu Evangelical Apologetics Form and Content The One Word

 Indexes