Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash (3 vols.)

by Hermann L. Strack; Paul Billerbeck

Publisher:

Lexham Press

, 2021–2022

Overview

Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck’s Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash is an important reference work for illustrating the concepts, theological background, and cultural assumptions of the New Testament. The commentary walks through each New Testament book verse by verse, referencing potentially illuminating passages from the Talmud and Midrash and providing easy access to the rich textual world of rabbinic material.

Originally published between 1922 and 1928 as Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, Strack and Billerbeck’s commentary has been unavailable in English until now.

 

Praise for the Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash

One can only hope that Strack and Billerbeck’s comprehensive Commentary will now receive the newfound appreciation it so richly deserves.

—Christfried Böttrich, professor in New Testament, Universität Greifswald, Germany

Strack–Billerbeck marked the culmination of nearly four hundred years of Christian engagement with Talmud and Midrash, the classic sources of Rabbinic thought. If used with discrimination it opens a door, in a way that no other work does, into the intense dialogue between early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.

—Philip Alexander, emeritus professor of post-biblical Jewish literature, University of Manchester, England

Everyone interested in the Jewish context of New Testament literature will welcome the appearance of the English translation of Strack and Billerbeck’s classic commentary that provides myriads of parallels with rabbinic literature. As an added bonus, David Instone-Brewer’s introduction very helpfully clarifies the proper use of this valuable tool and at the same time answers the criticisms leveled against it in its original German form.

—Craig A. Evans, John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins, Houston Baptist University

I have long wished for an English translation of Strack-Billerbeck.

—Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary

Strack-Billerbeck, the essential tool for rabbinic opinion relative to the New Testament, has been accessible only to scholars or others who could read German. That obstacle has been eliminated with this new English translation, an achievement that will certainly position it as the essential tool in the English language for discovering ‘what the rabbis taught’ in regard to the content of the New Testament.

—Michael S. Heiser, executive director, Awakening School of Theology; host of the Naked Bible Podcast

Product Details

• Title: Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash
• Authors: Hermann Strack and Paul Billerbeck
• Introduction by: David Instone-Brewer
• General Editor: Jacob N. Cerone
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Volumes: 3

About the Authors

Hermann Strack (1848–1922) was a German Orientalist and theologian. He studied rabbinics under Jewish-Bohemian scholar Moritz Steinschneider.

Paul Billerbeck (1853–1932) was a German Lutheran minister and scholar of Judaism.

About the Editor

Jacob N. Cerone is a doctoral candidate at the Friedrich-Alexander University at Erlangen-Nuremberg, coauthor of Daily Scriptures: 365 Readings in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and the editor and translator of Adolf von Harnack's The Letter of the Roman Church to the Corinthian Church from the Era of Domitian: 1 Clement.