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BOOK REVIEWS
A New Translation
AJ. MALHERBE, The Lettersto the Thessalonians:
withIntroduction
and Commentary
(Doubleday, New York, The Anchor
Bible 32B, 2000), xx + 508 pp. $50.00 ISBN: 0385184603.
Malherbe describes 1 Thessalonians as 'the first Christian pastoral
letter' (p. 211). It was written in 50 CE, 'less than six months after
Paul had left the newly founded church' (p. 258), and shortly after
Timothy arrived in Corinth, 'probably' (p. 345) carrying a letter from
the Thessalonians wherein 'they expressed their yearning to see Paul
and asked him for advice on a number of matters' (p. 210). In reply,
Paul wrote this pastoral letter to a predominantly Gentile congregation (p. 220), numbering a 'few dozen' (p. 63), to address actual concerns like their grief over the death of some in their midst (p. 263).
The letter 'provides no explicit evidence that Paul was at odds with
his readers' (p. 95). Moreover, 1 Thess 2:13-16, which is regarded as
Pauline, 'is not a condemnation of Jews in the style of their ancient
critics', but only speaks against those behind Paul's involuntary expulsion from Thessalonica (pp. 165, 170).
The Pauline authorship of 2 Thessalonians is defended. Written a'few months after his first letter' (p. 375), it was also a 'pastoral, hortatory letter' (p. 364), the primary purpose of which was not so much
to provide eschatological teaching-2 Thess 2:1-12 'performs a pastoral
function' (p. 432)-as 'to correct some of his readers' misunderstanding of 1 Thessalonians' (p. 373). 2 Thessalonians also had a secondary
purpose: to discipline the disorderly (p. 448).
The personaPaul presents to this readers in 1-2 Thessalonians is not
that of a philosopher or apostle, but a preacher and prophet (pp. 105,
156, 174, 221, 302). However, Paul is at ease using the 'popular moral
philosophical traditions' of the Greeks, and he expects these conventions to be understood by his readers (pp. 228, 259). He combines
with them 'traditional biblical' ideas (p. 220) such as the OT understanding of Holy Spirit (pp. 234-235) and sanctification (p. 238).
Malherbe sees Paul pastorally adapting every tradition he drew upon
'according to his own self-understanding and the needs of his readers'
(pp. 111, 134).
? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2002
Also available online - www.brill.nl

Novum Testamentum XLIV, 4

396

BOOK REVIEWS

By giving us a reading that places Paul squarely within a cultural

matrix that was as much defined by Jewish as by Graeco-Roman beliefs
and values, Malherbe shows just how much Paul and his theology
were part and parcel of the first-century world. He brings to bear
on the interpretation of the letters his encyclopedic knowledge of the
philosophical, dramatic, and literarywritings of the Greeks and Romans,
as well as the writings of the Jews: the Septuagint-'there are more
OT phrases in 1 Thessalonians than is generally recognized' (p. 365),
the OT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, and
Josephus. Malherbe marvels that Paul can write at such length on
'apocalyptic themes' using 'the conventions of his Greek philosophical
contemporaries' (p. 284). Although not expressed, The Lettersto the
Thessalonians
may be situated within a stream of scholarship that seeks
to work far removed from the traditional approach of interpreting
Paul's letters in terms of either Hellenism or Judaism-what Troels
Engberg-Pedersencalled the 'traditionalmonolithic contrasts'.Malherbe's
effort to bring many features of Paul's thought into focus by laying
bare similarities and differences between 1-2 Thessalonians and other
literatures of antiquity is sagacious and circumspect. In his treatment
of parallels, he only utilizes what he sees contributing to the exegesis
of a passage or what is founded on exegesis (pp. 262, 267, 303). On
rare occasions, however, the use of parallels seems indiscriminate. For
instance, his excursus on prophetic inspiration (pp. 335-336) is contributive for understanding Paul's views (1 Thess 5:19) as far as it goes,
but Philo has a variety of views on ecstatic prophecy too; so why
Plutarch and not Philo?
Malherbe resists the notion of development in Paul's theology, in
part due to his reluctance to impose modern understandings of what
might constitute a mature Pauline theology (p. 362). 1 Thessalonians
does not reflect a rudimentary theology but the mature thinking of
someone 'who brings to bear his theological convictions and pastoral
experience on problems and challenges of a newly founded church'
(p. 13). Nevertheless, Malherbe distinguishes Paul's lack of interest 'in
a formal church structure'in 1 Thessalonians from the attitude reflected
at Phil 1:1 (p. 312).
The layout of the commentary is typical of The AnchorBible series
and needs no rehearsing. Malherbe reads 1-2 Thessalonians critically
in the light of the other Pauline letters, the rest of the NT, patristicJohn Chrysostom especially-and modern commentators. Reviews of
scholarly opinion on every disputed point of interpretation are not pro-

BOOK REVIEWS

397

vided, but where warranted, the author gives a protracted treatment,

as his discussion of 1 Thess 4:4 illustrates (pp. 226-228): he argues
there for 'acquire his own wife' (RSV) rather than 'control his own
body' (NRSV).
The Lettersto the Thessalonians
abounds in exegetical detail; Malherbe
makes every effort to understand the argumentative logic of the letters in their literary contexts without getting bogged down with taxonomy. One comes away from reading this commentary with a rich
understanding of Paul's 'theologically informed' approach to 'pastoral
care' (p. 130) and the Graeco-Jewish-Roman environment in which
he lived.
KENNETH A. Fox

GERBEN S. OEGEMA, Fur Israel und die Volker.Studienzum alttestamentlich-

derpaulinischenTheologie
jiidischenHintergrund
(Supplements to Novum
Testamentum Vol. 95, Leiden, Brill, 1999), xvii + 306 Seiten.
ISBN 9-004-11297-9. Nlg 204,95 ($ 114.00).
Das anzuzeigende Buch vereinigt sieben gr6Btenteilsunveroffentlichte
Beitrage, die seit 1985 entstanden sind und hier in uberarbeiteter und
aktualisierter Form vorgelegt werden. Wenn der Buchtitel eine Arbeit
iiber die Missionsarbeit des Paulus unter Juden und Nichtjuden suggerieren soll, ware er irrefuhrend: Oegema behandelt vor allem die
Frage, "wie Paulus mit der 'Heiligen Schrift', der ein Jahrhundert nach
ihm von vielen Christen 'Altes Testament' genannten 'Hebraischen
Bibel' in der griechischen Ubersetzung der 'Septuaginta', umgegangen
ist" (S. 18). In der "Einleitung" (S. 1-32) bietet 0. eine hermeneutischtheologische Standortbestimmung. Nach einem kurzen Abschnitt "Zur
Methode" (S. 3f), in dem die Positionen von M. Hengel und
G. Strecker zu den Quellen fur das Studium des historischen Paulus
skizziert werden, stellt 0. zur Frage nach dem jiidischen Hintergrund
der paulinischen Theologie "lutherische"und "calvinistischeInterpretationsmodelle" vor (M. Luther, R. Bultmann, E. Kasemann, bzw.
J. Calvin, K. Barth, K. H. Miskotte) (S. 4-15). Er stellt bereits bei den
Reformatoren verschiedene Paulusdeutungen fest, auch die Frage nach
dem Zentrum der paulinischen Theologie werde unterschiedlich beantwortet. Der Abschnitt "Das Judentum aus der Sicht der Reformatoren" (S. 15-24) behandelt das Verhaltnis von Kirche und Israel,
? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2002
Also available online - www.brill.nl

Novum Testamentum XLIV, 4