Theology Today - Vol 21, No. 2 - July 1964 - BOOK REVIEW - A Historical Introduction To the New Testament

234 - A Historical Introduction To the New Testament

A Historical Introduction To the New Testament
By Robert M. Grant
447 pp. New York, Harper & Row, 1963. $5.00.

For a long time an "Introduction to the New Testament" that might be called up-to-date has not been published in English. It is therefore a real gap that the new book by Robert M. Grant is intending to fill.

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Grant makes quite clear from the beginning what has been his aim in writing this book: he wants to show the position of the New Testament in the context of the early Christian Church according to his own views "without too much reference to those of others," and he claims that he is giving the presuppositions of his statements, "which usually are not stated." It is by no means clear who is attacked by this very sweeping contention, and the reader is therefore eager to know how far this book, starting from such methodical presuppositions, differs from what is usual in works of a similar kind. At two points this difference can easily be seen: the author refers in more than twenty cases to the opinions of other scholars mentioning only their names but giving no references at all (I do not think that to be an improvement); and the author does not supply any bibliography (and again I do not think that to be an improvement). Besides that this introduction departs from the usual layout of such a book by dealing not only with the historical problems of the individual books but also with "New Testament History and Theology." One might ask if it is advisable to include so much material in one book so that there is scarcely room enough to treat all the subjects in sufficient breadth. But it is true, on the other side, that the inclusion of "New Testament History and Theology" in an introduction to the New Testament might be thought to be very helpful by many readers, and so the question is whether the author has fulfilled his aim to write a reliable introduction to the whole range of New Testament problems.

If we ask this question, it can be said at once that he has written a very useful and clearly formulated book that will provide much necessary information. But it must be added, too, that at more than one point the reader would be grateful if more information had been given. That will be clear if we give a short outline of the book. The first part deals with the canon and the text of the New Testament and with the critical methods used in trying to understand the New Testament. What is said about the development of the canon and text is good but so short that anybody who does not know anything about these subjects will scarcely get a sufficient understanding; and I doubt, therefore, if such a reader will be able to understand the concluding statement that "in making decisions about the text, just as in making decisions about the canon, it is still necessary for us to use our minds. Perhaps in consequence of the Fall, human reason has become totally corrupt, but since we are not dogs or cats we must still make use of it" (p. 51). The short remarks on literary and historical criticism, and on "The Necessity of Theological Understanding" that follow, are not much more than a foretaste of the problems.

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Things are different when we turn to the Second Part which deals with the historical problems of the individual New Testament books. Here the problems are shown up in a clear way and the solutions given to these problems are in general convincing, although, as a matter of course, not everybody will agree with everything. Grant thinks, for example, that the Gospel of John was written "around the time of the Roman Jewish war of 66-70 . . . in order to present faith in Christ to bewildered and distressed Jewish sectarians." He takes Ephesians as Pauline and James as in accordance with Paul. But while this part of the book is in the main convincing, here too many questions remain unanswered that could not possibly be left out (e.g., the authorship of Mark, the date of Corinthians and Hebrews, the heretics in Galatia). Still I think this part will fulfill the book's aim quite well in introducing the beginner to the historic problems of the individual books of the New Testament.

The Third Part dealing with New Testament history and theology is curiously unequal. While "The Problem of the Life of Jesus" is treated in more than ninety pages, there are only twenty pages for Paul and twenty for the rest of the New Testament. And while for that reason the problems of understanding the work and message of Jesus are discussed in a helpful and, on the whole, very convincing way, the chapters on Paul, the early Church, and John can scarcely be called satisfactory.

So this new "Historical Introduction to the New Testament," while being a reliable piece of scholarship, unfortunately will fulfill its aim in introducing the uninformed reader to the historical problems of the New Testament only in its chapters dealing with the individual books and with the history and teaching of Jesus. If the author claims to have shown that New Testament literature, history, and theology are the beginning of the literature, history, and theology of the Church, "which did not come to an end with the apostolic age" (p. 428), nobody will oppose that even though that seems to be nothing new. But if he then adds: "There is no reason to suppose that God's revelation is limited to the pages of the Old and New Testament or even to the events therein described," he surely states his presuppositions quite frankly, but, not every reader will, I suppose, be ready to agree with them. The reviewer certainly will not.

Werner Georg Kümmel
Marburg, Germany