Review in: Interpretation
1990 44: 310
Review door: Mark A.
ThrontveitGevonden op: http://int.sagepub.com/content/44/3/310.1.full.pdf+html
Ezra—Nehemiah: A Commentary, by
JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP. THE OLD TESTAMENT LIBRARY. The Westminster Press,
Philadelphia, 1988. 366 pp. $29.95.
IN THIS
WELCOME ADDITION to the Old Testament Library Series, Blenkinsopp writes out of
the conviction that a historical study of the Second Temple period is both
necessary and attainable. It is necessary because it is not enough to study
contemporary Jewish "backgrounds" to understand the relationship of
early Christianity to the varieties of Judaism in which it arose. Rather, the formative
period
of the two centuries of Persian rule with such pressing issues as conflicting
legal traditions, relation to the outside world, proselytism, assimilationist
tendencies, and response to the political status quo must be investigated as
well. As our primary source for this period, the study of Ezra-Nehemiah is
indispensable.
By the same token, a historical study of the Second Temple
period is also attainable, for recent emphasis upon reading biblical texts with
an eye to their function in the canon has allowed us to see the Books of
Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah as a second corpus of historical material. This
corpus reinterprets the earlier corpus, which stretches from Genesis through
Kings, in light of the tragedy of the Babylonian Exile and thereby returns that
history to emergent Judaism.
On the whole, Blenkinsopp succeeds. His translation of the
text is well done and draws upon the extant Qumran material. One can applaud his
concern for the literary shaping of the text as well as the insights he draws
from relevant extrabib-lical materials, especially those of Egyptian
provenance. While his championing of the common authorship of Chronicles and
Ezra-Nehemiah will not satisfy every participant in this controversial issue,
his careful argumentation and gathering of data will contribute to the debate. The reviewer's belief that one's
opinions in this regard seem to color the interpretation of Chronicles more
than that of Ezra-Nehemiah was confirmed to a large extent in working through
this commentary. Only in isolated instances would a presupposition of separate
authorship obviate Blenkinsopp's conclusions with regard to specific texts.
MARK A. THRONTVEIT
Luther
Νorthwestern Theological Seminary
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