As we continue the great Christmas book list series, I want to spotlight several volumes in IVP Academic’s New Studies in Biblical Theology series. This is one of my favorite series, and if you search a bit on the blog, you can find longer reviews of most of the volumes. Thanks to IVP Academic for sending me these review copies over the last couple years now!
Working in reverse order though, here’s the last several titles released. It gives you a good sense for how different volumes can be, but also how they all have a similar depth of scholarly rigor and exegetical insights.
Finding Favour in the Sight of God
This is the most recent released volume in the series, although another one comes out soon. Here, Richard Belcher offers readers a theology of wisdom literature, focused on Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. This volume provides a good example of theological readings of a specific genre of Scripture. Belcher works his way through each of the biblical books across a few chapters, and ends his book by looking forward to the New Testaments connections through Christ. In doing so, he not only helps readers understand the wisdom literature itself better, but shows how it fits into the storyline of Scripture.
In this volume, Karl Deenick offers readers a biblical theology of circumcision. After introducing the biblical concept, Deenick wisely devotes an entire chapter to Genesis, before the following two chapters trace the development of circumcision across the Old and New Testaments. The next two chapters zero in on Paul’s theology of circumcision, specifically in Romans 2-4 and Galatians. The final chapter ties the threads together so that nothing is inadvertently cut off. The end result is a work that provides thoughtful readers with a better understanding of the theological meaning of circumcision, as it is unfolded in Scripture. In trying to understand the relationship of Old Testament circumcision and New Testament baptism, this work would also be worth consulting.
In this volume, Paul Williamson offers chapter length biblical theologies of death, resurrection, judgment, hell, and heaven. Within each chapter, he briefly surveys the material in the Old and New Testaments related to the topic at hand. Unlike the previous volume I mentioned that traced a single concept through all of Scripture in detail, here Williamson clusters related issues together and does a mini biblical theology of each. The material chosen is probably best suited for that kind of treatment because these concepts, while significant, have less biblical data than we would like. Still, for readers who want think more deeply about these eschatological issues, Williamson provides good biblical groundwork for further reflection.
God’s Mediators
Andrew Malone offers readers a biblical theology of priesthood. In doing so, he splits the material into two parts in order to trace the biblical concept of individual priesthood first, and corporate priesthood second. This helps differentiate the layering of the biblical concept. There is both a literal development of the priesthood at the individual level from Old to New Testaments. But there is also a spiritual, or metaphorical application of that development to the people of God corporately. This volume is a good example of how careful reading and order of the biblical material can enhance one’s understanding of a concept and provide deeper insights into God’s unfolding revelation.
Preaching in the New Testament
In one of the slimmer volumes in this series, Jonathan Griffiths gives readers a biblical theology of preaching. It’s actually a more unique volume in this series. Rather than tracing the theme through Scripture, Griffiths starts by offering theological orientation to the concept of the word of God and word studies on the key biblical terms. He then spends the second part of the book doing exegetical studies of key passages in the New Testament related to the preacher and preaching. The final result gives readers a clearer picture of the New Testament teaching on the nature of the message, the messenger, and the impact of preaching both then and now.
This volume and the next are good examples in this series of single book biblical theologies. This one, by Peter Lau and Gregory Goswell focuses on Ruth. Because of the length of this volume, and the book of Ruth, the authors have space to go into detail on several themes in Ruth. They chose several that are prominent in Ruth, and connect them to other portions of Scripture. Perhaps most interesting is God’s hiddenness and human agency, although I can’t think of other books that look at the prominence of famine and hunger in a biblical book. While a short book, Ruth repays close and careful study, and a book like this will open new avenues of exploration for most readers.
The Book of Isaiah and God’s Kingdom
In distinction to Ruth, Isaiah is much longer and more difficult to really get your mind around. Andrew Abernathy’s volume provides a nice big picture framework, as well as detailed study of the individual parts. After an introduction, the first three chapters work through each major division in the book: 1-39, 40-55, 56-66. The final two chapters focus on the nature of the King/king, and the people of the realm. Doing so offers readers a close thematic reading of the book of Isaiah itself, and development of big picture themes that help tie everything together.
Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?
I let my brother in law borrow this so I’m a little late getting to read it. He had Michael Morales as a teacher at Reformation Bible College, when the book was in the final stages. If you’ve ever wondered why Leviticus is in the Bible and how it connects to the rest of Scripture, this is your book. On the one hand, it is a biblical theology of Leviticus. On the other, it is a kind of biblical theology of the Pentateuch showing how Leviticus is the centerpiece. If you’re into chiastic structures, this book is a feast. It is a rich, theological reading of Leviticus that shows its place in the larger storyline of the Bible.