Review in: Interpretation
2010 64: 90
Review door: Jeffrey
A.D. WeimaGevonden op: http://int.sagepub.com/content/64/1/90.full.pdf+html
1 & 2 Thessalonians
by Linda McKinnish Bridges
Smyth & Helwys, Macon, Ga., 2008.
293 pp. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-57312-083-8.
BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP
OVER the past twenty years has undergone a significant attitude shift with
regard to presenting its findings in a more "user-friendly" format.
Two decades ago, those few Old and New Testament studies that contained visual
images and special-interest boxes ("sidebars") were not considered
scholarly enough to be worthy of serious consideration. Not so any more. In
recent years, we have seen a growing wave of published biblical scholarship
specifically designed to bridge the gap between the insights of academicians
and the demands of theological students and preachers.
The new commentary on 1
and 2 Thessalonians by Linda McKinnish Bridges illustrates this shift. Her
volume is part of an ambitious series, the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary,
that covers both Old and New Testaments and whose stated goal is "to make
available serious, credible biblical scholarship in an accessible and less
intimidating format" (p. xv). A multimedia format is employed under the
conviction that "a visual generation of believers deserves a commentary
series that contains not only the all-important textual commentary on
Scripture, but images, photographs, maps, works of fine art, and drawings that
bring the text to light" (p. xv). Like the others in the series, this
volume treats each major section of the biblical text in two main sections:
Commentary and Connections. The first deals with matters typically found in an
exegetical commentary: explanations of the Greek text, historical context and
literary forms, as well as theological issues that the text raises. The
Connections section deals with the application of the text, providing the
pastor, teacher, and lay reader with specific ways in which these two ancient
letters remain relevant for the church today.
Sidebars are located liberally throughout both sections. Each
of these special-interest boxes has not only a descriptive heading but also an
icon intended to provide a visual clue to the type of material found within.
These sidebars are classified into four different types. The first, symbolized
with an icon of the Greek letters, Alpha and Omega, deals with issues
pertaining to the Greek text of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The second, with an icon
of an Ionic capital, covers the cultural context: how geographical, historical,
political, or social information from the Greco-Roman world sheds light on
Paul's words to the Thessalonian church. The third, with its icon of an open
book, includes quotations from classic or contemporary literature that
illuminate some aspect of the apostle's letter. The fourth, symbolized with a
magnifying glass, provides the reader with a list of useful resources for
further investigation.
A lot of effort has been put into producing a commentary on 1
and 2 Thessalonians that meets the series goal of making available serious
scholarship in an accessible format, and that effort must be judged a success.
This resulting volume presents its material in an inviting, visually rich
format that will be appreciated not only by pastors, seminary students, and lay
readers but also by academicians. In the midst of a plethora of commentary
series currently on the market, the user-friendly format of this volume makes
it stand out as an attractive option. Nevertheless, the discerning commentary
buyer might worry that such a volume is, as the saying goes, "all style
and no substance." We move, therefore, beyond the packaging of this volume
to consider more carefully its contents.
The brief introduction
(thirteen pages) presents four patterns of thought that have guided McKinnish
Bridges' reading of 1 Thessalonians. First, she was surprised to discover from
Paul's style of leadership that the apostle is not the arrogant, manipulative,
and misogynist person she anticipated but "a softer Paul, accessible to
all people, both male and female" (p. 6). Second, with regard to identifying
the letter's literary genre, McKinnish Bridges chooses "not to confine
Paul's words to any single genre or theory, ancient or modern" (p. 8), and
refers to the letter more generally as a letter of friendship by which Paul
encourages the Thessalonian church. Third, the congregation of Thessalonica is
not based in the home of a wealthy patron but is an artisan church—a community
shaped by manual laborers who meet in a workshop or tenement house. Fourth, the
original members of thi^artisan community were primarily male and the resulting
androcentric perspective encoded in the letter has implications for its
interpretation: "If a feminine perspective is absent, either by force or
ignorance, then the interpreter is faced with the challenge of creating new worlds
of meaning that will be more inclusive and available to all of the readers.
That is the purpose of this commentary" (p. 12).
The exegesis is competent and typically follows the positions
of mainline Thessalonian scholarship. Objections could be raised about any
commentary; space constraints allow me to raise just three. First, McKinnish
Bridges follows the majority of contemporary scholars in rejecting the older
view that sees an apologetic concern at work in the letter. Yet she
misrepresents the older view, claiming that it holds that Paul was seeking
"to defend his role as leader, a role that was being challenged by
opponents in the congregation in Thessaloniki" (p. 19). This is incorrect,
as defenders of the older view claim that Paul's opponents are outside the
church (2:14, "fellow citizens") and that the attack on the apostle
thus naturally concerned not his qualifications as leader (as in Galatians),
but his integrity and moral character. Second, on the heavily debated textual
question of whether Paul described himself and his coworkers as
"gentle" (epiot) or "infants" (nepioi), McKinnish
Bridges chooses what she admits on external evidence is the weaker reading,
namely, "gentle." She does so on the grounds that this reading
eliminates a mixed metaphor created by the image of a nursing mother mentioned
later in the same verse. But the problem of the mixed metaphor is greatly
minimized if not removed altogether with proper punctuation of the verse, so
that the metaphor of infants concludes the point of 2:5-7, while the
metaphor of a nursing mother introduces the new point of 2:7b-8 (as
correctly punctuated in the TNIV). Third, one of McKinnish Bridges' more novel interpretations is that the word
"laborers" in 5:12 ("those who labor among you in the
Lord") refers not to spiritual leaders working in the church but simply to
"people who produce goods for society" (p. 150). That Paul has in
view, however, not regular laborers but spiritual leaders seems clear from the
accompanying prepositional phrase that such folks are "in the Lord"
and that the rest of the church should "esteem them most highly because of
their work."
The Connection
section for each major unit of the letter runs on average about two-thirds the
length of the Commentary section and thus forms a significant part of the
overall volume. McKinnish Bridges draws heavily in this section from her own
past experiences and often speaks in the first-person voice, giving a very
personal and almost autobiographical quality to this material. She grew up in a
fundamentalist Baptist mountain church where end-time discussions played a
heavy role, and many of her observations in this section involve reflections on
how her past understanding of the Bible has been nuanced or changed by her
later academic studies, life experiences, and reflection.
There is a
separate and lengthier introduction (twenty pages) to 2 Thessalonians.
McKinnish Bridges argues that this letter differs from 1 Thessalonians in its
emotional tone, vocabulary, and syntactical structure, and thus was not written
by Paul. She spends quite a bit of time discussing pseudepigraphical writing,
arguing that "to forge a name on a piece of work did not signal
dishonesty; rather, to place a name other than your own on the work was a way
of honoring the past, of creating additional authority for the name and
readers" (p. 200). Second Thessalonians, she argues, was written by a
disciple of Paul to a Thessalonian church that is a little older, bolder, and
more organized, but that needed doctrinal correction concerning the end times
and admonishment concerning work.
To summarize, McKinnish Bridges has produced a commentary on 1 and 2
Thessalonians that fulfills well the series goal of providing solid scholarship
in a nonthreatening, user-friendly format, and therefore will be especially
appealing to those engaged in pastoral ministry. But while all will appreciate
this volume's packaging, judgment about its contents will likely be more mixed,
depending on whether one shares McKinnish Bridges' specific patterns of thought
on how these two letters ought to be read.
Jeffrey A. D. Weima
CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHGIAN
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