Novum Testamentum 52 (2010) 189-195

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Book Reviews
G.K. Beale, D.A. Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old
Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker; Nottingham: Apollos, 2007), xxviii + 1239 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-8010-2693-5 (Baker), 978-1-84474-196-0 (Apollos), $54.99.
This book (declared best academic book of the year by the Association of Theological
Booksellers during the SBL Meeting at Boston in 2008) is, according to the Introduction by the editors (pp. xxiii-xxviii), a commentary on all those NT passages in which
the OT is used, in the form of either quotations or probable allusions. As a rule,
six questions are asked for quotations and for clear allusions: (1) What is the NT context? (2) What is the OT context? (3) How was the OT source used in early Judaism?
(4) What is the textual background of the quotation or allusion? (5) How has the OT
passage been interpreted in its new context in the NT? (6) What theological use does
the NT author make of the OT quotation or allusion?
The NT documents are discussed in their canonical order: Matthew by C.L. Blomberg (pp. 1-109), Mark by R.E. Watts (pp. 111-249), Luke by D.W. Pao and
E.J. Schnabel (pp. 251-414), John by A.J. Kstenberger (pp. 415-512), Acts by
I.H. Marshall (pp. 513-606), Romans by M.A. Seifrid (pp. 607-694), 1 Corinthians
by R.E. Ciampa and B.S. Rosner (pp. 695-752), 2 Corinthians by P. Balla (pp. 753783), Galatians by M. Silva (pp. 785-812), Ephesians by F. Thielman (pp. 813-833),
Philippians by M. Silva (pp. 835-839), Colossians by G.K. Beale (pp. 841-870), 1 and
2 Thessalonians by J.A.D. Weima (pp. 871-889), 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus by
P.H. Towner (pp. 891-918), Hebrews by G.H. Guthrie (pp. 919-995), James by
D.A. Carson (pp. 997-1013), 1 Peter by the same author (pp. 1015-1045), who also
comments on 2 Peter (pp. 1047-1061), 1, 2 and 3 John (pp. 1063-1067), and Jude
(pp. 1069-1079), and lastly Revelation by G.K. Beale and S.M. McDonough
(pp. 1081-1161). There is a short note on Philemon (p. 918), telling the reader that
[t]here are no OT quotations or clear allusions to discuss in this letter. 2 and 3 John
are included in the chapter on the Johannine Epistles, to judge from the chapter title
(1-3 John), but there is in fact nothing on these two brief letters. All chapters end
with a bibliography. The volume is closed with a very complete and very useful Index
of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings (pp. 1163-1239).
The volume, with two columns per page, contains a wealth of materials on the NT
use of the OT. One nds here discussion of all relevant NT passages, information on
their textual anities, on the OT and NT contexts, on parallels in early Jewish literature, on the function and meaning of the quotation or allusion, on relevant secondary
literature. One aspect of the NT, its use of the OT, that is often dealt with more or less
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010

DOI: 10.1163/004810010X12471172125797

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Book Reviews / Novum Testamentum 52 (2010) 189-195

marginally in commentaries, gets full attention in this volume. It deserves this full
attention: Jesus and his followers saw themselves and their message rmly rooted in
Gods history with Israel and in the Scriptures that issued from this history. We touch
here on a central element of early Christianity, and this commentary on the OT in the
NT shows how central it is.
The editors frankly admit that they have allowed some liberty to the contributors in
the organization of the various chapters (see pp. xxiii, xxiv, xxvi). As a result, there is
some unevenness in the distribution of materials. The chapter on Mark has 139 pages,
whereas Matthew, a much longer gospel with a higher density of OT references, gets
only 109 pages. For Lukes Gospel, somewhat longer than Matthew but with a denitely lower density of use of the OT, there are 164 pages. There are comparable dierences in proportion in the chapters on the other NT writings; especially striking are
the 30 pages for Colossians, a letter in which most commentators do not nd many
OT materials. There are apparently dierences among the contributors in the amount
of space they devote to an individual quotation or allusion. The bibliographies are also
of comparatively uneven size.
Almost all chapters start with an introduction on the way in which the biblical
author in question deals with the OT, but these introductory sections are of very divergent size and scope. Such an introductory section would be the natural place to discuss
a NT authors use of formulae to introduce quotations, but that does not always happen. I found the absence of a discussion of Matthews fullment formulae (with their
subtle dierences) especially striking.
There is a lot of variety in the outline of the chapters themselves. One author makes
his contribution into some sort of running commentary in that he mentions all kinds
of OT references occurring between the quotations that are discussed more extensively
(so Blomberg on Matthew, or Kstenberger on John), another one strictly limits himself to quotations and important allusions (so Watts on Mark). One author (Weima on
1 and 2 Thessalonians) gives much attention to OT vocabulary, OT metaphors and
OT theology, whereas another one (Carson on the Johannine Epistles) explicitly states
that he strictly focuses on the links between specic NT texts and specic OT texts, in
the form of quotations, allusions, or references to events.
All evident OT quotations in the NT are discussed in the volume. Now quotations
are rather easily established, certainly when they have been marked by an introductory
(or concluding) formula. The selection of the allusions to be discussed is of course
much more complicated, and will always be debatable. One gets the impression that
not all contributors use the same criteria for establishing allusions. That is not surprising, in a sense even unavoidable, but it would have been helpful if there had been some
explicit discussion of the various criteria used.
Questions of authorship of NT documents are hardly discussed in the book. It
seems that the contributors simply take for granted the traditional ascriptions. This
leads to views such as that there are no Deutero-Pauline Epistles: not only the seven
undisputed letters, but also Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians and the three Pastoral Epistles are supposed to have been written by Paul himself. Although many
scholars have expressed their doubts on the Pauline authorship of these six documents,

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hardly any trace of these doubts is found in this volume. Now one obviously cannot
discuss all aspects of a biblical document in a book which focuses on one well-dened
aspect, but the question is how far authorship problems bear upon the use of the OT.
To mention one example: the quotation from Deut 25:4 in 1 Tim 5:18 (You shall not
muzzle a threshing ox) may come as a real quotation from the pen of the same Paul
who quoted the same biblical prohibition in a slightly dierent form in 1 Cor 9:9, or
it may be the product of a Deutero-Pauline author who does not directly use the OT
but derives the quotation from Pauline tradition. Depending on which solution one
prefers, the impact and the meaning of the quotation will appear in a dierent light.
So authorship issues can inuence the assessment of the use of the OT in the NT, and
some attention to them might be sensible in a book of this type.
The lack of interest in authorship problems is probably related to the academic
context in which the book came into being, which seems to have been one of evangelical theology. This context also explains other tendencies that can be perceived
throughout the volume. Gospel stories, including Johns, are often historicized and
harmonized with each other; so there is, according to Kstenberger, no dierence
between the Synoptic and the Johannine date of Jesus death (p. 500). On the other
hand, Blomberg (on Matthew) and Pao and Schnabel (on Luke) accept the Two Document Hypothesis (see, e.g., pp. 2, 277, 279). When there is some friction between
the original meaning of an OT passage and the new meaning it gets in the NT, eorts
are undertaken to harmonize the original and the new meaning. The use of Hos 11:1
(Out of Egypt I have called my Son) in Matt 2:15, for instance, is understood by
Blomberg as a classic example of pure typology (p. 8). The problem with this exegesis of Matthew is that it does not agree with what the evangelist writes in his introductory formula, that the prophetic word was fullled in what happened to Jesus. To my
mind, it is better to accept that Matthew has read Hoseas reference to Israels exodus
from Egypt as a prophecy to be fullled, and then try to situate and understand this
way of reading in the context of early Jewish (and early Christian) interpretation of
Scripture. In the approach to the use of the OT in the NT practised in this volume,
there is the danger that the Jewish context of early Christianity is not suciently taken
into account.
Taking all things together, I can only say that this is a rich and useful volume which
has, however, its own limitations. Scholars working in the eld of Vetus Testamentum
in Novo will prot from consulting it.
Maarten J.J. Menken