Semitic Background of the New Testament, The

The Semitic Background of the New Testament. By Joseph Fitzmyer. The Biblical Resource Series. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997, xxi + 524 pp. + 300 pp., $35.00 paper.

This volume is a reprint combining two of Fitzmyer's classic studies, Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament (1971, 1974), and A Wandering Aramean: Collected Aramaic Essays (1979). There is a new preface and, more importantly, a new appendix that contains additional notes and bibliographic references to more recent works. But this appendix is only ten pages long and most of it is comprised of corrections and bibliographic additions to footnotes. The longest comment, concerning the interchange between Fitzmyer and G. Vermes on methodology in studying the Aramaic substratum of dominical sayings in the Gospels, is less than a page long.

Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament is a collection of papers originally published between 1955 and 1967 on a variety of NT issues. It includes two essays on the use of the OT, six on passages from the Gospels, two each on the Corinthian correspondence and Hebrews, and four on early Christianity. A Wandering Aramean comprises studies mostly done between 1970 and 1975. It discusses Aramaic in its own right and explores the relationship of Aramaic texts to the NT, with emphasis on Qumran and Christological issues.

Since this volume does not contain substantial new material, it will be of interest mainly to those who have not yet been able to read or purchase these previously out of print studies. In the new preface Fitzmyer acknowledges his essays may be somewhat dated, but he affirms that his conclusions are still valid. One could wish for an up-to-date discussion of texts and secondary literature that have been published in the last 25 years, but one will not find it here. Nevertheless, Fitzmyer's original studies made an important statement and they deserve an ongoing wide audience. This is especially true in these days of scholarly emphasis on the wider Hellenistic setting of the NT and the theory of a cynic Jesus who was only tangentially related to formative Judaism.

David L. Turner

Cincinnati, OH

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Sep 1999
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