never shoehorns his subjects into existing anthropologicalor religious theories and seldom overlooks how the localstimulates the global—namely how race in Japan complicatesnotions of blackness beyond the traditional boundaries ofthe African diaspora. Adroit and ingenious, Babylon East isan essential resource for scholars interested in the interna-tionalization of the Rastafari, in cultural globalization, and inAfricana studies.

Darren J. N. MiddletonTexas Christian University

Ancient Near EastTHE BOOK OF EZEKIEL: QUESTION BY QUESTION.By Corrine L. Carvalho. Question By Question Bible StudyCommentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2010. Pp. vii + 204.$21.95.

In keeping with the aims of the series, this volume pro-vides a resource for beginning-level engagement withEzekiel in the form of questions and answers that can beused in various settings of Bible study, especially withparish groups and educated laypersons. The work contains ashort introduction to Ezekiel, a section of questions coveringeach major portion of the biblical book, and a separatesection of answers to the discussion questions giventhroughout. The introduction gives very cursory remarks onbasic interpretive issues including the phenomenon of Isra-elite prophecy, historical context, and literary and theologi-cal features. Each section of questions for the major chapterblocks (chapters 1-3, 4-7, 8-11, 12-24, 25-32, 33-39, and40-48) provides an introduction, about five discussion ques-tions, and a conclusion. The questions mostly address thebasic content of the passages and the readers’ responses,although some explore historical settings, priestly perspec-tives, and major theological themes. The author does not shyaway from ethically problematic issues raised by the texts(e.g., gender imagery and divine violence), yet one wishesfor more attention to newer avenues of Ezekiel study such associo-psychology and trauma. The book is a good resourcefor those who want to study Ezekiel for congregational ordevotional interests while taking account of insights frommodern scholarship. It is useful and accessible to noviceaudiences in a variety of settings, including introductoryundergraduate courses.

Brad E. KellePoint Loma Nazarene University

EZEKIEL: A COMMENTARY. By Paul M. Joyce. Libraryof Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, 482. New York: T &T Clark, 2007. Pp. xi + 307. $140.00.

Joyce offers a focused work that does not intend toreplace existing comprehensive commentaries but providesa distinctive emphasis on the theology of the book of Ezekielviewed “in its own terms.” He leaves the task of constructivetheological application to others in order to adopt a primarily

historical perspective. The commentary interacts with theNRSV and begins with an extensive introduction that coversall the major critical issues relevant to Ezekiel. Joyce locatesEzekiel as a sixth-century BCE prophet in Babylonia andtakes a balanced and judicious approach to identifyingoriginal and redactional elements in the book. He exploresEzekiel’s key theological themes (judgment, repentance,responsibility, future restoration, theocentricity, divinedeparture, and return) and provides a thorough survey of theuse of Ezekiel in later religious and cultural traditions. Thecommentary section proceeds verse by verse (sometimesphrase by phrase), offering mostly historical and grammati-cal observations, with some literary and theological perspec-tives. The work features detailed interaction with up-to-datescholarship, even highlighting newer approaches such astrauma theory, yet makes only passing mention of gender-/feminist-critical issues. The volume will be useful to stu-dents and scholars on various levels and constitutes ahelpful resource for theological and research libraries.

Brad E. KellePoint Loma Nazarene University

THE POLEMICS OF EXILE IN JEREMIAH 26-45. ByMark Leuchter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2008. Pp. xiii + 320. $90.00.

This monograph represents Leuchter’s continued workon the compositional history of the book of Jeremiah. Hisprior work, Josiah’s Reform and Jeremiah’s Scroll, exploredthe formation of Jeremiah 1-25. In contrast to many schol-ars, Leuchter claims that chapters 26-45 compromise a dis-tinctive literary construct (the Supplement) that can bedated to a specific point in the history of exilic Israel. Thefirst four chapters provide detailed discussions relating tothe growth and exilic appropriation of the words and imageof the prophet Jeremiah within exilic Deuteronomisticcircles. The remaining two chapters attempt to situate thetheological program of the Supplement within internalexilic debates. In brief, those responsible for the productionof the Supplement were concerned to validate the Deuter-onomistic reading of Israel’s history among the Babyloniandeportees and to polemicize against a Zadokite (i.e.,Ezekielian) explanation for the destruction of Jerusalemand a corresponding Zadokite understanding of the resto-ration. Most controversially, Leuchter questions long-standing assumptions about the textual relationshipbetween the MT and LXX versions of the book, especiallywith relationship to the placement of the Oracles againstthe Nations in the respective versions. This carefullyresearched work will be of interest to many far beyondthose concerned with reconstructing the compositionalhistory of a notoriously disorderly work. The book is alsoan excellent research source, given the copious footnotesand extensive bibliography.

Phillip Michael ShermanMaryville College

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EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. By Matthew W. Levering.Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids,MI: Brazos Press, 2007. Pp. 256. $29.99.

Levering extends his theological reading of the Chris-tian Scriptures with this volume on Ezra and Nehemiah. Hebegan the project with his first book, Christ’s Fulfillment ofTorah and Temple (2002), and continued it with M. Dauphi-nais in Holy People, Holy Land: A Theological Introduction tothe Bible (2005). He takes standard literary divisions ofeach book to witness to unifying theological themes of“holy land” (Ezra 1-6; Neh 1-6) and “holy people” (Ezra7-10; Neh 7-13). As a result, he constructs a non-supercessionalist reading of the books while simulta-neously maintaining a traditional Christological focusthrough a Christian typological appropriation in line withAugustine, Boethius, and Thomas Aquinas. The book wellfulfills the purpose of the series in an intellectually coher-ent and interesting way. It has much to teach even thoseopposed to such theological readings, although the bookmost likely will not persuade them. The book might findparticular use in classes within Christian theological edu-cation where the books of Ezra and Nehemiah find little, ifany, purpose except as appropriated through supercession-alist readings of Second Temple Judaism, often inherentwithin the standard theological backgrounds of thediscourse.

John W. WrightPoint Loma Nazarene University

THE INTERTEXTUALITY OF ZECAHARIAH 1-8. ByMichael R. Stead. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old TestamentStudies, 506. New York: T & T Clark, 2009. Pp. xiii + 312.$130.00.

This revised dissertation (University of Glouchester-shire in 2007) examines the ways in which Zechariah 1-8makes use of previously existing biblical texts, with aprimary focus on the use of prophetic texts. The authorutilizes an approach he terms “contextual intertextuality”in his search for allusions and echoes to other biblical pas-sages in Zechariah. He situates his methodology betweentraditional intertextual analysis, which is unconcernedwith questions of textual priority, and approaches such asinner-biblical exegesis. He claims that the sustained allu-sions and echoes of the former prophets (as well as ahandful of other biblical texts) should be read as a claim oftheir imminent fulfillment in the time of Zechariah, in con-trast to those who would treat Zechariah 1-8 as proto-apocalyptic or as envisioning a future messianic figure.Stead also argues that the meaning of the prophet is pre-sented as a dialogic truth where the message of the prophetcan only be understood when read against the backgroundof its various intertexts. Failure to attend carefully to theseprior texts makes the text less intelligible. The work is ofuse primarily to scholars concerned with the application ofliterary studies to prophetic literature and to those who

would argue for a transformation of the prophetic style inthe postexilic period.

Phillip ShermanMaryville College

Greece, Rome, Greco-Roman PeriodPLATO AND HESIOD. Edited by G. R. Boys-Stones andJ. H. Haubold. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Pp. vi + 362. $99.00.

An entire volume dedicated to Plato’s reception ofHesiod would, in all likelihood, have been inconceivableuntil recently; it presupposes a conception of Hesiod as aserious thinker rather than a singing peasant, and a view ofPlato that sees his involvement with his predecessors, espe-cially the poets, as not merely dismissive but as a far moreopen and complex engagement, both playful and serious,that invokes, adapts, and modifies both the cosmogonic andethical dimensions of the poet who most closely shared hisconcerns. The present volume of fifteen papers stems from a2006 conference and is roughly divided between moregeneral discussions of the two authors’ interrelations andHesiodic elements in individual dialogues. In the latter half,as one might expect, Hesiod’s influence on Plato’s cosmog-onic thought focuses on the Timaeus, while both the Republicand the Politicus offer readings and manipulations of theHesiodic myth of the races. Rather more metaphorical is L.Kenaan’s interpretation of the Symposium’s Socrates andEros as reflexes of the seductive Pandora. In the first section,Haubold discovers in Hesiod’s trajectory from the Theogonyto the Works and Days a pattern for intellectual development.To be sure, whether Plato’s views of Hesiod developed orchanged in the course of the dialogues raises methodologicalquestions concerning Platonic chronology and context. Butwhat characterizes most of the contributions here is a refusalto simplify, instead allowing the relation between the twopoet/philosophers to be multiple and nuanced. It is preciselyin this lack of reductionism that the value of this stimulatingvolume lies.

Jenny Strauss ClayUniversity of Virginia

THE DEATH AND AFTERLIFE OF ACHILLES. ByJonathan S. Burgess. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Univer-sity Press, 2009. Pp. xvi + 184; illustrations, maps. $45.00.

In his 2001 book The Tradition of the Trojan War andthe Epic Cycle, Burgess argued that the Homeric poemspresuppose and draw on a vast body of traditional materialconcerning the Trojan War that comes down to us in thepost-Homeric poems of the Epic Cycle and in visualrepresentations from the Archaic period onward. His workthere offered a persuasive revision of classic neoanalysisthat does not rely on textually based Quellenforschung butacknowledges the fluid character of orally composed andtransmitted poetry and the variations in mythological tradi-

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