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STANLEY E. PORTER and JACQUELINE c. R. DE ROO (eds.), The Concept of the Covenant in the second Temple Period (JSJSup 71; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003). Pp. xiv + 343. euro110, $138.
The editors, conscious of the diversity of second Temple thought, have collected a series of essays that explore the changing notion of covenant. After a brief introduction by the editors (pp. 1-3), the volume is divided into five parts.
In the first part, "Covenant and the Old Testament" (pp. 5-52), there are two essays: David Noel Freedman and David Miano, "People of the New Covenant" (pp. 7-26); and George W. Buchanan, "The Covenant in Legal Context" (pp. 27-52). F. and M. consider three covenants, the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the new covenant. After rehearsing the difference between conditional and unconditional covenants, they argue that the unconditional commitment made to Abraham was "the basis for belief in the renewability of the conditional, obligatory covenant(s)" (p. 12). The promise made to David's seed is an "assurance that the covenant would be everlastingly renewable" (p. 16). Thus, F. and M. maintain that the phrase "the new covenant" refers to the renewal of the original covenant. However, the new covenant described in Jer 31:31-34 defies classification, since humans would be unable to violate covenant stipulations (p. 25). Buchanan, in his essay, stresses the juridical aspects of covenant as contract and expresses well how a contract of marriage between God and Israel could also result in a bill of divorce (pp. 40-43).
In the second section, "Covenant and the Dead Sea Scrolls" (pp. 53-164), there are four essays: Craig A. Evans, "Covenant in the Qumran Literature" (pp. 55-80); Martin G. Abegg, "The Covenant of the Qumran sectarians" (pp. 81-97); Michael...