Journal: Grace Journal
Volume: GJ 09:2 (Spring 1968)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

---

GJ 9:2 (Spr 68) p. 44

Book Reviews

The Epistle to Titus and Philemon. By Philip C. Johnson. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1966. 100 pp. $ 1.50, paper.

Word studies have a lasting value to ministers, teachers and Bible students. Philip C. Johnson, Professor of Bible at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, has prepared a profitable study on key words in the Pauline epistles of Titus and Philemon. Part of the Shield Study Outlines, this work will also serve as a concise and instructive commentary on the concerned books.

Dr. Johnson divides his study with three-fourths of the book devoted to Titus. Enlightening introductions precede each section with a select bibliography of ten authors for the sections. Readers are warned that critical authors are included in the list for the Titus section. No footnotes are used, but some authors are quoted with reference to their works in the text. Occasionally, an author as Beet (p. 92) is quoted, but his work is neither in the bibliography nor noted in the text. The outlines for the two epistles are composed of five brief points which are expanded in the exposition by italicized words or phrases of the King James Version.

Authorship and inspiration go hand-in-hand. Dr. Johnson ably defends the authorship of Paul in the Pastoral Epistles and Philemon. His short histories of the lives of Titus and Philemon are rewarding. There is a minimum use of Greek words, but clear evidence that the original meaning is rendered for the reader. The author employs several translations such as Way, Phillips and Williams. The chosen quotes from authors are excellent, especially those of Bernard. Illustrations are sparce, but selective and appropriate.

The author attacks the difficult problems of the two epistles. To him, “the husband of one wife” (Titus 1:6) suggests the elder’s qualification in the moral and spiritual realm. The technicalities of the married life are not involved, but God’s ideal and purpose in marriage should be carried out. In short, the elder is to set a good example in his Christian marriage with Christ as preeminent. For Philemon, the most difficult phrase “the communication of thy faith” is handled. Dr. Johnson accepts the meaning not as communicating the blessings of Christ to others, but in the usual New Testament sense of “fellowship” or “communion.”

James H. Gabhart
Community Church
Tippecanoe, Indiana

The Life and Times of Martin Luther. By J. H. Merle D’Aubigne. Trans. H. White. Moody Press, Chicago, n.d., 559 pp. $4.95.

This is the first book published by Moody Press in their proposed Tyndale Series of Great Biographies. The publisher hopes that this ...

visitor : : uid: ()