Raymond Brown: Death of the Messiah

To: NT-GREEK@virginia.edu
Subject: Raymond Brown: Death of the Messiah
From: Nichael Cramer <ncramer@bbn.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 22:38:35 EST
[The following is a brief article that I posted to some USENET groups.  It
is very likely that those interested already know all of the following, but
I repost it here in case anyone is interested.  --N]

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Raymond Brown: Death of the Messiah.

The newest volume in the Anchor Bible Reference Library series, Raymond
Brown's _The Death of the Messiah_ has just been released (I picked up my
copy last weekend at Wordsworth here in Harvard Square).

Brown is one the foremost NT scholars alive today and DotM is an in-depth
(2Vol, 1608pp) study of the Passion Narratives as recorded in the canonical
Gospels.  In Brown's words: "...the primary aim of this book [is] to
explain in detail what the evangelists intended and conveyed to their
audiences by their narratives of the passion and death of Jesus".  (Brown
then goes on to take the first ten pages of the Introduction to explain,
phrase by phrase, what _he_ means by _this_ clause.)

The work functions as something of a companion piece to Brown's earlier
_Birth of the Messiah_, the revised and update edition of which was
published last fall (also by the ABRL).

The work is divided into four large parts (or "Acts" to use Brown's
term): 
 1] The prayer and arrest
 2] The appearance before Jewish authorities
 3] The appearance before Roman authorities
 4] The crucifixion, death and burial
    (ending at Mk15:47/Mt27:56/Lk23:56/Jn19:42).

The works ends with nine lengthy appendixes, dealing at length with
various topics:
   I. _The Gospel of Peter_ -- a Noncanonical Passion Narrative
  II. Dating the Crucifixion (Day [of the week], Monthly Date, Year)
 III. Pertinent Passages Difficult to Translate
      (Mk14:41, Hb5:7f, Mt26:50, Jn19;13)
  IV. Overall View of Judas Iscariot
   V. Jewish Groups and Authorities Mentioned in the Pasion Narratives
  VI. The Sacrifice of Isaac and the Passion
 VII. The Old Testament Background of the Passion Narratives
VIII. Jesus' Predictions of His Passion and Death
  IX. The Question of a PreMarcan Passion Narrative,
      by Marion L. Soards

N