The Roundup – 9.21.25

“While the Gospels richly repay literary analysis, they also richly repay historical analysis. This is because, although they are not history in the modern sense, they are equally not fiction in the modern sense. And it would be a mistake to reduce them without remainder to their authors’ theologies, narrative strategies, and compositional aims. For over and above embodying those things, they also preserve memories – even if often fuzzy – of things Jesus said and did.”

– Dale C. Allison Jr., Interpreting Jesus (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2025), 148.

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• Thomas Schneider looks at the Exodus narrative through the lens of Josephus’s tale of the expulsion of lepers from Egypt.
• Over at The Inquisitive Bible Reader, Paul Davidson explores the different accounts of Jesus’s baptism as they appear in the canonical Gospels. It’s a fascinating expansion of Davidson’s previous work on the Synoptic Problem.

• Phil Long reviews Robert Chisolm’s and Michael Hontz’s Isaiah 1-39 in the Kerux series. I’ve not engaged with this series of commentaries yet, but they look to be interesting and perhaps representative of current evangelical interpretive strategies. Long also has reviews to other books in that series.
• A new episode of the New Testament Review podcast has dropped. It’s all about Bernadette Brooten’s 1977 article “Junia…Outstanding among the Apostles (Romans 16:7).” (You can read Brooten’s piece here.)
• Did John know the Synoptics? Mark Goodacre talks with James Barker about their new books that cover the issue.

• My morning New Testament reading (which is a combination of my Greek New Testament, the Jewish Annotated New Testament, and the SBL Study Bible) has been in 2 Corinthians. I recently read from 2 Cor. 4 where Paul talks about a “treasure in jars of clay” and being persecuted “but not forsaken.” It reminded me of a song I used to listen to back in my evangelical days from the album Glory Revealed II. It’s got some nostolgia value for me.

• Mark Edward has a new post on the book of Revelation that explores the connection between it and 2 Peter 3. He surveys various ancient texts extant and otherwise (e.g., the lost text of Eldad and Modad), and thinks that the Petrine author and the Revelator were influenced by a similar tradition.
• James Barker has a review of Joan Taylor’s recent book Boy Jesus.
• Speaking of boy Jesus, has anyone seen the preview for the upcoming Nicholas Cage film The Carpenter’s Son?!? As a fan of horror and biblical studies (and when they converge), the movie looks really interesting. And who doesn’t love Nicholas Cage?!