DailyHebrew.com

40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2010. $17.99 (Amazon $12.23; Google Book Preview).

עֲשׂ֨וֹת סְפָרִ֤ים הַרְבֵּה֙ אֵ֣ין קֵ֔ץ

"There is no end to the making of many books"

-Qoheleth 12:12

This quotation is used regularly to lament the multiplicity of books made available by publishers and the poor quality of such books—this title, however, stands in contrast to the negative connotations of this dictum.

The purpose of the book is presented in the first paragraph of the Introduction: "[T]his book will serve as a textbook for an introductory Bible course at a college or seminary, but I endeavored to write so that the book will be beneficial to any curious Christian."  Further Plummer states: "My goal was to be accessible without being simplistic and scholarly without being pedantic, while always keeping an eye to practical questions and real-life application."  This is indeed a noble goal, and one which the author attained; his pastoral hand is seen in several sections particularly when providing answers to more difficult or controversial questions (see pp. 44-45 "Recommendations for Dealing with Difficult Texts").

The intended audiences are undergraduate and seminary students, but the book would be accessible by the lay-person or biblical novice.  With the exception of a few places, the jargon of biblical studies is either well-defined or excluded completely, which is a pleasant discovery for those of us who are not native Latin speakers or have lost our pocket German dictionaries.

Plummer outlines clearly his presuppositions of interpretation in the first few chapters: he understands the biblical text as "uniquely inspired and authoritative" (p. 17), follows a traditional evangelical Protestant model of the text and canon of the Bible (ch. 2-3, 6), and presents a concise understanding of inerrancy (ch. 4) with an apt warning: "Don't demand that the ancient writers conform to your expected standards" (p. 45).  An overview of the biblical manuscript evidence, both Old and New Testaments, is found in chapter 5, and chapter 6 provides a fair evaluation of different English translations contrasting the positive and negatives of translation methods in general.

One of the greatest strengths of this work is the 40 Questions about… format in which each chapter is centered on a question with short concise answers consisting of 5-12 typed pages, several reflection questions, and a selected bibliography.  According to the verso of the first leaf of the book, five titles are forthcoming in the series edited by Benjamin Merkle, bringing the total for the series to seven (including the previously published 40 Questions about Elders and Deacons [2007], authored by the series editor).

The dialectic-type argumentation structure is presented not piece-meal, but aptly organized with parts and sections each building upon one another toward the goal of leading the reader step-by-step to a clear model of biblical interpretation.  The four parts are grouped according to broad topics—"Getting Started: Text, Canon, and Translation", "Approaching the Bible Generally", "Approaching Specific Texts", and lastly "Issues in Recent Discussion" which is probably more in depth than the average reader will need, but provides an excellent starting point for further research and understanding popular and scholarly trends in contemporary biblical hermeneutics.  For the reader who is looking for answers to specific questions, the format also allows for movement between the parts with each chapter able to stand on its own (references to other chapters are kept at a minimum and do not distract from the prose).

Though Plummer is a New Testament professor, he does not feel limited to his specialty, but does well in providing both examples and solutions from the Hebrew as well as the Greek portions of the Bible. This practice, however, opens up criticism at points about some details suffering from the fact that mastery of both Old and New Testament studies (not to mention the secondary and tertiary fields of study) is impossible for any one individual; I do not wish to present a catalogue of typos or errors, but a few examples may be noted:

·         Chapter 2 "Chapter Divisions", even though the convention of delimiting chapters by number is decidedly modern, the oldest biblical manuscripts (those found near Qumran) show divisions similar, though not exactly corresponding, to the Masoretic open and closed paragraphs (marked by פתוחא and סתומא) demonstrating an ancient tradition of separating sense units.

·         Chapter 5 "The Old Testament", the Essenes Hypothesis is supported uncritically as the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, despite scholarly debate about the origin of these documents.

·         Chapter 6 "Old Testament Canon", Plummer states: "It seems clear that by the time of Jesus, most Jews were in agreement as to their own canon"; however, one finds debates in the first century Tannaitic literature (see particularly Yadayim, chapter 3) about the canonical status of at least two books—Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.

·         Chapter 9, an initial section before "The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament" on The Use of the Old Testament in the Old Testament may be warranted. Examples of this may be Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22, Isaiah 36-39 and 2 Kings 18-20 (cf. 2 Chronicles 32), and for that matter Samuel/Kings and Chronicles.

·         Several places the bibliographic data could be expanded, noticeably absent but helpful would be E. Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament, Eerdmans, 1994 (ch. 2), E. Brotzman, Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction, Baker, 1993 (ch. 5), and A. Berlin, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism, Eerdmans, 2007 (ch. 29).

At bottom, Plummer provides an excellent, readable book with clear evangelical Christian leanings written for the non-specialist interested in a thorough grounding in biblical interpretation.  He brings together expansive material found previously only in multiple locations into one place with clear, concise prose and an excellent format.  40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible will certainly be found on my future Biblical Hermeneutics syllabuses.

H.H. Hardy II

The University of Chicago

Previous DH.com review: A Reader's Hebrew Bible

Ever since Ron Hendel announced his departure from SBL, the bloggers are going crazy and so too is SBL with a mass email, usually reserved for monetary requests, and some heavy rhetoric (at one point correcting Hendel's preposition usage–"the Society for (not “of”) Pentecostal Studies").  One can see how the ship may be at stake, or at least risk taking on some water, if members start abandoning ship (to push the metaphor a bit!).  I, for one, will remain a member of SBL, but shall be on the lookout for hellfire and brimstone or other such frivolity!

UPDATE:

June 28, 2010

Dear Member,

We are pleased to announce that on June 10, 2010, the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion signed a Letter of Intent that outlines an agreement to hold concurrent Annual Meetings beginning in San Francisco in the fall of 2011. These meetings will

• Occur in the same city—though the venue will change from year to year;
• Occur at the same time—the weekend before the US Thanksgiving holiday;
• Feature a single, jointly managed Publishers/Software/Book Exhibit;
• Feature a single, jointly managed Employment Center;
• Feature distinct and separate AAR and SBL programs planned with open communication between the organizations;
• Encourage the organizations’ members to attend each other’s programs and events at no additional cost;
• Allow the organizations to pursue their unique, if sometimes overlapping, missions;
• Enhance cooperation, not competition, between the organizations.

The advertising for these conventions will use the city name, the year, and will identify the SBL and AAR as hosts. For example, the first of these meetings will be known as “Annual Meetings 2011 San Francisco, hosted by the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature.” This name will appear on the registration gateway, on signage at the meetings, on promotional materials, and on other common elements.

A Conventions Management Committee, consisting of the Executive Directors and staff members from each organization, is developing operating policies and procedures that expand on the considerable detail that already exists in the Letter of Intent. Each year the Committee will review the most recent meetings with an eye toward making improvements in subsequent gatherings. Nine concurrent meetings are being planned for 2011 through 2019. Beginning in 2013 the organizations will begin operating on a seven-year planning horizon that includes a mechanism by which the organizations can, on an annual basis, extend the seven-year agreement for an additional year. Dates and venues of the first three concurrent Annual Meetings are as follows:

• November 19-22, 2011 San Francisco
• November 17-20, 2012 Chicago
• November 23-26, 2013 Baltimore

We believe that concurrent meetings will serve the interests of our members, will help to advance the many disciplines and areas of study we represent, and will maintain and advance the critical inquiry that characterizes the work of our societies. We invite you to join us in building this exciting new future.

Cordially,

The NY Times has a brief and relatively even-handed article on Hershel Shanks, the (in)famous (the in- or lack thereof, of course, depends on one's opinion of "Biblical Archaeology" and a host of other controversial issues) founder of BAR.

A good article particularly focusing on the early history of the Oriental Institute is online.  It focuses mainly on the expeditions in the eastern half of the Fertile Crescent.