Lectio Sacra

“Reasoner's Now Shown Mercy” is the first commentary in 500 years that returns to the quadriga (literal sense plus threefold spiritual sense) in its exegetical approach. The commentary shows how Paul understands Israel to be valued by God for its own sake, not simply as a type of the church or a preparation for the Christ. Paul views Israel as under God's mercy even as he writes Romans chapters 9-11, grieving as he is over both Israel's political subjugation in the first century and its spiritual condition. Since these chapters show that God values Israel for its own sake, the commentary's exegesis calls gentile believers to heed anew Paul's warning against boasting over Israel.

Paul's teaching about justification is always important for understanding the apostle and for Christian theology. And, for that same reason, it is always debated. James B. Prothro's book looks at the apostle's words about righteousness, faith, the Mosaic law, and life in Christ to connect the dots of Paul's thought and to bring Paul into dialogue with major theological traditions. He offers an account of justification that is both forensic and thoroughly participatory, God's gift of forgiveness, friendship, and new life in Christ through the Spirit.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are rarely taken seriously in Christian theological reflection. To many modern readers, the community restored after the Babylonian exile appears diminished, legalistic, and xenophobic. What place do these books have in theology and practice today? Timothy Escott charts a way forward for reading Ezra-Nehemiah fruitfully as Christian Scripture. By locating Ezra-Nehemiah in the context of the canon and Christian theology, and in conversation with interpreters old and new, he argues that these books are best understood through a variety of Christian reading strategies. Approaching the books figurally, prophetically, ethically, and as part of a biblical story offers a mix of distinctive yet complementary perspectives. Ezra-Nehemiah portrays God's restorative work and God's people seeking to participate with him and live faithfully in the face of opposition and difficulty. In this way, Ezra-Nehemiah is a rich resource for Christian life and faith today.

Psalm 23, the most beloved of the Psalms, contains a perplexing riddle. What can it possibly mean that God prepares a table in the presence of the psalmist's enemies? Matthew Umbarger proposes that Psalm 23:5 makes the most sense when read according to its cultural context of prebattle covenant banquets. Beginning with ancient Mesopotamian mythology, Umbarger traces a conceptual trajectory of the prebattle banquet motif that reaches its zenith in the apocalyptic banquets of Second Temple Period literature and the eucharistic theology of the early church.