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BOOK REVIEWS 189
is shown to be most important. Acts also receives special treatment.
The book draws our attention to a concept which has been too long
neglected and, if it induces scholars to pay more attention to it, it
will have fulfilled a useful function.
On the whole, however, it is a disappointing book. Too often it is
merely the listing of references without much penetrating reflection
on them. In so far as it attempts to cover the concept of witness, in
distinction from examining the martus terminology, it is not even
exhaustive; the common theme which runs through passages like
Matt. 5.16; 1 Thess. 4.12; Col. 4.5; 1 Tim. 3.7; 1 Pet. a.12 is
discussed very inadequately. This probably arises because the study
begins from the juridical understanding of witnessing, and so the
wider aspects of the concept tend to be neglected. On the whole,
critical questions are not faced. It is too easily assumed (p. 78) that
John's Gospel was written for unbelievers; at least four of the most
recent commentators (Bultmann, Barrett, Brown, Schnackenburg)
are unanimous in rejecting this conclusion; how much Trites'
interpretation of the Fourth Gospel would be affected if he changed
his view on this is not easily apparent. In Acts he draws attention to
the importance of the apostolic witness to the facts of Jesus' death
and resurrection; the evidence conies largely from the speeches in
Acts; if the speeches are Lukan compositions, what has this to say
about Luke's concept of witness? Trites is indeed not clear about the
meaning of the word 'facts'; he appears to think that facts and
interpretations are two separable entities. He finds little about
witness in Paul yet he takes witness to be a juridical concept and
draws it from Isa. 40-55 which is precisely the area from which Paul
draws his juridical concept 'righteousness'.
The book is indexed very comprehensively and there is an
adequate bibliography. If it draws attention to the concept and
leads to fuller discussions New Testament scholarship will be under a
debt to its author.
ERNEST BEST (Glasgow)
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