Dewey and Miller, Complete Gospel Parallels (2014) CBQ 76

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THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 76,2014

being compared. At times the translations are awkward; for example, C. translates Luke 13:11 as, "And look! [a] woman having [a] spirit of-illness [for] eighteen years and she-was bending-over and being-able to-straighten-up no [= not] into the completely [= fully]" (p. 189). Perhaps the book will find its most productive results if used in the classroom with an instmctor helping students slowly work through the details. James W. Barker, Luther College, Decorah, LA 52101

ARTHUR J. DEWEY and ROBERT J. MILLER, The Complete Gospel Parallels (Salem, OR:

Polebridge, 2012). Pp. xii + 417. Paper $45. Arthur Dewey and Robert Miller's synopsis contains the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Thomas, Peter, Hebrews, and Nazoreans, as well as Egerton Papyms 2 and Oxyrhynchus Papyms 1224. The volume divides into six parts: (1) a synopsis of the Synoptic Gospels, also including parallels from the Gospel of John and the extracanonical Gospels and papyri; (2) a synopsis of the Fourth Gospel and its canonical and extracanonical parallels; (3) a synopsis of Q, that is, a reconstmcting of Q between Matthean and Lucan parallels; (4) a synopsis of Thomas; (5) a synopsis oí Peter; (6) short (five pages or fewer) synopses of Egerton Papyms 2, Gospel of the Hebrews, Gospel of the Nazoreans, and Oxyrhynchus Papyms 1224, as well as three Gospel parallels to 1 Corinthians, in addition to Marcan, Lucan, and Petrine parallels to the account of Jesus' ascension in the Acts of the Apostles. D. and M. do not enumerate the 527 total pericopae in a table of contents, but they do provide an exhaustive Scripture index. The synopsis is remarkably user-friendly. Only one pericope (#245; pp. 191-93) comprises more than two pages. A maximum of four columns of text appears on a single page. Rarely does a single pericope tum frotn a right-hand to a left-hand page, but in such instances the names of the Gospels appear as column headings on both pages. For readers unfamiliar with Greek, D. and M. provide manageable text-critical data by listing "only those variants that materially affect the comparison of parallel texts" (p. 4); for example, "Some mss read either 'Gergesenes' or 'Gadarenes'" in Luke 8:26" (p. 71). The translation is eminently readable. D. and M. use the 2010 revision of the Scholars Version, a long-standing project of the Jesus Seminar {The Complete Gospels [ ed. Robert J. Miller; 4th ed.; Salem, OR: Polebridge, 2010]). The translators intend to recreate in contemporary American English "the language of everyday life" reflected in the Gospels' original language (p. 1 ). Some readers may not appreciate the Scholars Version's thoroughgoing colloquialisms, suchas "Look pal, how'd you get in here . . ."in Matt 22:12 (p. 133) and "Anyone here with ears, use 'em!" in Matt 11:15 (p. 138). Other tendencies include translating Ioudaioi as "Judeans" rather than "Jews," huios tou anthropou as "Human One" rather than "Son of Man," basileia as "empire" rather than "kingdom," and ouai as "damn" rather than "woe." The translation is also useful for comparing the Gospels because the 2010 revision of the Scholars Version was intended to preserve similarities and differences in English that match the underlying Greek. Synopses using the NRSV {e.g.. Burton Throckmorton's Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels [5* ed.; Nashville: Thomas Nelson,

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1992]) lack such precision. For example, translations of Jesus' vulture saying appear almost identical in Throckmorton's synopsis (pp. 141, 173): Matt 24:28 iV/lSK reads, "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather," and the only difference in Luke 17:37 NRSV is "where" (hopou) rather than "wherever" (hopou ean). However, the Greek Gospels use a different word order as well as different words for "corpse" (ptöma in Matthew and soma in Luke) and "gather" (synagô in Matthew and episynagö in Luke). The Scholars Version accounts for these differences by translating "wherever there's a corpse, that's where vultures gather" in Matt 24:28, as compared with "vultures collect wherever there's a carcass" in Luke 17:37 (p. 175). Such attention to detail proves beneficial to users unable to read Greek. In comprehensiveness, usabilify, and readability, D. and M.'s Complete Gospel Parallels is in my estimation the best available synopsis in English. James W. Barker, Luther College, Decorah, lA 52101

REINHARD FELDMEIER, Macht-Dienst-Demut: Ein neutestamentlicher Beitrag zur Ethik (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012). Pp. ix + 154. Paper €19. After an eleven-page Vorspiel with the devil based chiefly on Matt 4:1-11, Feldmeier, professor of NT at the Universify of Göttingen and author (with Hermann Spieckermann) of Der Gott der Lebendigen: Eine biblische Gotteslehre (Topoi Biblischer Theologie 1 ; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011; English, God ofthe Living: A Biblical Theology [Waco: Baylor University Press, 2011]), treats, in the Bible and related ancient writings, the topics of power: religion and power; service: the relationship between enslavement and liberation; and humilify: the biblical data. He contends that while power (exousia) is always present in the Bible, it is there in a very differentiated way. There is the power ofthe devil and the power of God's reign, and there is an ongoing struggle between them. In the Bible, God's power {Macht) is on the side ofthe weak and marginal, not the powerful and wealthy. Feldmeier argues that the exousia of Jesus and of Paul flows from their relationship with the almighty God and is most manifest in the mystery ofthe cross of Jesus, in Paul's embrace of it and his own weakness, and in Revelation's struggle against the power of the Roman Empire. In the NT, service or slavery (Dienst) has to do mainly with whom one chooses to serve, to the extent that those who regard themselves as truly "free" through Christ call themselves "servants" of God. Jesus, of course, is the perfect exemplar of service correctly understood, insofar as he came "to serve, and to give his life for many" (Mark 10:45). This self-sacrificing love should manifest itself in the lives of Christians and in church officers, as well as in their attitudes toward the state in its ideal condition as a servant or instrument of God (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-17). The NT concepts of power and service provide the context for a proper Christian understanding of humilify {Demut) as being "in Christ" (Phil 2:1-11; Romans 12), and these texts contain criteria for evaluating how humilify is interpreted in Colossians and Ephesians, 1 Peter, and James, respectively. Feldmeier concludes that the whole NT can be understood as a power struggle between destructive autonomous forces (the mythological devil, the anthropological flesh, the theological sin) and the proclamation of God's reign that brings healing and salvation

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