The Holy Spirit before Christianity, by John R. Levison

Reviewed by Henri Louis Goulet This is arguably the most important and insightful monograph ever written on the origins of what should rightfully be called “ruachology.”1 The result of over two decades of research, its historically, hermeneutically, and exegetically sound approach reveals “unprecedented conceptions of the spirit (i.e., ‘ruach’) that emerged in the crises of…

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The Nations in the Divine Economy: Paul’s Covenantal Hermeneutics and Participation in Christ by William S. Campbell

  Reviewed by Joseph Culbertson In a book about Paul’s vision for how the nations would relate to God’s covenant with Israel, William S. Campbell begins by sketching the history of the successors to Paul’s communities of gentile Christ-followers. Campbell asserts that it was Paul’s intention to cultivate a healthy identity for these congregations, in…

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Learning Messiah—Israel and the Nations: Learning to Read God’s Way Anew, by Edjan Westerman

Reviewed by Jennifer M. Rosner The post-Holocaust world has been marked by a striking two-way reappraisal between Christians and Jews. The historical events of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century have provided ample fodder for theological reflection (and revision) along these lines. The Holocaust itself brought the plight of the Jewish people onto the…

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How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Reviewed by Paul L. Saal It is not often that I am afforded the opportunity to write a book review with the potential of being longer than the actual book I am reviewing. Though I write this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss can be characterized by its brevity. Bound in a…

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Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity, ed. Pawel Maciejko

Reviewed by Solomon Intrater In the 17th through 18th centuries and beyond, a significant, though often ignored, messianic movement occurred, in association with the supposed messiah Shabbtai Zvi. Proper historical academic research into Sabbatianism was not initiated until the middle of the 20th century, at the hand of the famous German-Israeli scholar of Jewish mysticism,…

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Reading Romans After Supersessionism: The Continuation of Jewish Covenantal Identity by J. Brian Tucker

Reviewed by Henri Louis Goulet The clarion call of Markus Bockmuehl in 2006 to scholars of the New Covenant Scriptures was to once and for all overcome the de facto de-Judaizing of Yeshua’s person, aims, and teaching— and thus the universalizing abstractionism associated with most conventional and confessional interpretation of those Scriptures.1 The “New Testament…

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The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik’s Commentary to the Gospels Edited, with an introduction and commentary, by Shaul Magid

Reviewed by Russ Resnik Jesus is Jewish—it’s a truism not just in Messianic Jewish circles, but also in the wider worlds of biblical and historical scholarship. Use of the name “Yeshua” rather than “Jesus” reflects this truth. The open question, though, is just how is Yeshua Jewish? What kind of Jew was he? The ongoing…

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