Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 27:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

Book Reviews

From the Manger to the Throne: A Theology of Luke. New Testament Theology. By Benjamin L. Gladd. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022, 208 pp., $24.99 paper.

In recent years, the publishing of books on biblical theology has increased exponentially. A variety of series are dedicated to the production of resources covering biblical theological themes ranging from work to the people of God. The goal of the New Testament Theology series by Crossway is to provide a biblical theology of individual New Testament books, or sets of related books. Within this series, Reformed Theological Seminary New Testament professor Benjamin L. Gladd has contributed the volume, From the Manger to the Throne: A Theology of Luke. His goal was to investigate several themes in Luke’s Gospel focusing on how those themes evidence the fulfillment of OT hopes.

Gladd begins with an introductory overview of Luke’s gospel. Therein he consistently references Old Testament themes which find their fulfillment in Luke’s presentation of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The section-by-section summary of the gospel provides the reader with the necessary framework to understand the seven themes which are the focus of the remainder of the book.

In each chapter, Gladd examines a theme of Luke’s gospel that connects Jesus’ person or work with the Old Testament. In chapter 1, he presents the theme of the reversal of the humble and the proud, in which Jesus is the paradigm of the humble one who is exalted because of his humiliation, reflecting the expectations of Hannah’s prayer (1 Sam 2:1–10). In chapter 2, Gladd argues that Luke presents Jesus as the one who came to establish peace in the entire cosmos, in heaven and on earth, fixing the brokenness which resulted from Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. In chapter 3, he explains how Jesus is identified in Luke as the servant from Isaiah who brings salvation to the nations. In chapter 4, Gladd explores the theme of the second Exodus and how Jesus is the one who leads his people out of slavery to sin into the new creation. In chapter 5, Gladd observes Luke’s use of the adamic genealogy and the wilderness temptation to identify Jesus as the second

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Adam who succeeds where the first Adam failed. In chapter 6, he provides an interpretation of key texts in Luke which refer to Jesus as the Son of Man from Daniel 7, who has received authority from God to rule over all earthly and spiritual powers. In chapter 7, Gladd explains how Luke indicates for his readers that Jesus fulfill the expected blessings of the Day of Atonement and the Year of Jubilee, in that he atones for his peoples’ sins and provides rest for them in ...