DICTIONARY OF NEW TESTAMENT BACKGROUND
Edited by C.A. Evans & S.E. Porter
IVP. xxxiv + 1328 pages. £29.99
ISBN 0 85111 980 8
Here is a novel and stimulating experiment. One might have thought Inter-Varsity had said it all in the dictionaries of Jesus and the Gospels, Paul and his Letters and The Later New Testament and its Developments. What could DNTB add to them?
The aim is modest, and vague. It only 'hopes to supplement' them. But it is stepping onto quicksand. The editors know that 'background' is inadequate but settle for the term (perversely) because it will be 'widely and immediately understood', whereas 'context', 'setting' or 'world' all 'pose difficulties of their own'. We need, however, to hear about the problems with 'background' as well, since the aim is 'to clarify the world of thought and experience in the light of which the New Testament should be read'. This 'should' hints at something more. Perhaps as a 'dictionary' it only sets out to clarify detail, but this 'world of thought and experience' is far more extensively and profoundly analysed than that. How far does it then shape the thought and experience of the New Testament itself? That question is not properly faced.
