David G. Firth, Joshua. Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2020 (original) (raw)
2022, Reading Acts
Firth (PhD, University of Pretoria) is tutor in Old Testament at Trinity College, Bristol. He previously published a monograph Including the Stranger: Foreigners in the Former Prophets (NSBT 50; IVP Academic, 2019) and a major commentary, 1 & 2 Samuel (Apollos Old Testament Commentary; IVP Academic, 2020). He also wrote The Message of Esther (2016) and The Message Joshua (2022) in the Bible Speaks Today series from IVP Academic. The commentary series uses the text of the Christian Standard Bible (Broadman & Holman) although the exegetical commentary itself is based on the Hebrew and Aramaic text of Daniel. As expected from the original publisher, although the authors of the series come from a variety of backgrounds, they all affirm inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture (xv).
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Joshua: A new translation with commentary
Weatherford, Texas: The Cutting Horse Press, 2023
This translation of Joshua is the seventh in my project to translate the Torah and Former Prophets. The book follows a similar approach to my other translations—my emphasis is on what is called “functional equivalence” (that is, expressing the ideas in the text in the most natural way in English), and I organize the text according to the Masoretic parashot rather than the traditional Christian chapter divisions. Organizing the text in this way, I believe, gets us closer to the ancient writers, and yields numerous insights into their composition approach. In my introduction to the book I summarize the theory of the composition history of the Torah and Former Prophets that I have developed over the course of my translation work, and I place Joshua within that framework, discussing how it came to be connected both to the books of the Torah and to the Former Prophets. The commentary accompanying the translation focuses on issues of translation, language, and composition history. After the commentary I provide an essay that summarizes my (necessarily speculative) views on the composition history of Joshua. In that essay, I assign each of the parashot to one of the five major compositional stages that I identify, which span a period of more than three centuries, from the early sixth century BCE to the mid-third century BCE. Most notably, in my treatment of Joshua's composition history, I view nearly all the material added to the book between the end of the Babylonian exile and 400 BCE as the result of a collaborative effort between Yahweh's priesthoods at Mount Zion and Mount Gerizim. The material that I identify as written principally by the Samarian priesthood is especially interesting, as it provides a window into the compromises required of the leaders at both cult locations in order to maintain a set of common texts in their respective cult libraries.
The Letter to the Hebrews is one of the most extraordinary texts in the New Testament. This anonymous sermon offers what is perhaps the highest Christology, the most comprehensive soteriology and realized eschatology, the clearest view of the costs and benefits of the Christian life, the deepest immersion in the Old Testament, as well as the most passionate exhortation and refined literary-rhetorical skills in the NT canon. After suffering years of neglect, Hebrews has recently attracted an abundance of critical attention, and keeping abreast of this growing corpus is becoming increasingly difficult. Though representing a welcome development, this rapid growth is leading to the neglect of older critical works, despite their foundational role. Contributing to this neglect is the fact that many of these works are in out-of-print books, discontinued journals, and other hard to find sources. This collection attempts to remedy both situations, rapid growth and regrettable neglect, by selectively gathering into one handy volume some of the very best English language essays on Hebrews from the last sixty years. In this volume of critical readings, edited by Scott D. Mackie, the essays are organized thematically, addressing such topics as theology, Christology, pneumatology, eschatology, authorship, audience, structure, Greco-Roman rhetoric, the OT, Hebrews’ relationship with contemporaneous Judaism, and soteriology. Each section is prefaced by an introduction and summary of the particular theme in Hebrews. At the end of each section is an annotated bibliography to point researchers towards further readings in these key themes.
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