Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 139:553 (Jan 1982)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

The Words and Works of Jesus Christ. By J. Dwight Pentecost. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981. 629 pp. $16.95.

This work is destined to become a classic in its field. After years of teaching the life of Christ to Bible college and seminary students, Pentecost has put his work in print, and the reading public will not be disappointed.

The arrangement of this volume makes it useful for the Bible student and Christian worker. After giving a twelve-page unabridged outline of the life of Christ, Pentecost begins his discussion with a brief introduction and a consideration of Luke 1:1–4. From there the author proceeds through the life of Christ to His final commission and ascension. The remainder of the book contains appendixes on the geography, historical background, religious setting, social environment, and chronology of events in Christ’s life. Also included is a table of the passages in the Gospels which are discussed in this volume, lists of parables and miracles, and a bibliography. Closing out the book is a complete subject index.

A distinctive of Pentecost’s treatment is his thesis that the life of Christ should not be approached geographically but instead with the idea of Christ’s presentation of Himself (and God’s kingdom) with the results of rejection and acceptance. Other strengths of the book are its documentation, its thorough coverage of customs and social and historical backgrounds, and its dispensational outlook.

Undoubtedly certain interpretations will be debated. For instance, Pentecost believes a bill of divorce could only be written during the engagement period and that after marriage it was forbidden. He also states, “The fact of the new birth had not been revealed in the Old

Testament” (p. 126). The author takes the coming of the Son of man in Matthew 10:23 to be the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (p. 195).

This is an excellent volume. well suited for the serious student of the Scriptures.

S. D. Toussaint

Behold the King: A Study of Matthew. By Stanley D. Toussaint. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1980. 399 pp. $16.95.

Toussaint, professor of Bible exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary, has produced an extremely readable commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. As is pointed out in the preface, the work is not a verse-by-verse explanation of the book, but rather a presentation of the flow of thought in Matthew’s Gospel as it relates to his purpose. The study had its beginnings in Toussaint’s...

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