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92

BOOK REVIEWS

reconstructionof P5 at this point remains an issue in debate. It is surprisingthat

the notes make no mention of the judgment of the original editors on this important variation. Grenfell and Hunt had noted, "The lacuna here is larger by the
space of one letter than in the two lines preceding. It would therefore be hardly
filled up by the reading 6 i'io];. Moreover, in this MS, itoS would naturally have
been written in the shorter form vc (B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunt Oxyrhynchus
Papyri,
Part II (1898) p. 7).
Elliott and Parker are well aware of the importance of line lengths, and it is
often the governing factor in their decisions. For example, on the same page (29)
at line 22, they note "ed. pr. prefers to read ciCnvo5q
xepo et; eic86[."In our judgment this is too long for the space available." Similar argument is found with
regard to line length at p. 34 line 19. Our editors should have been equally as
attuned to the argumentfrom line length at this importantvariantat 1:34. However,
their oversight here seems to be the only significant error in the volume.
Small errors might be noted, such as the sudden failure to indent paragraphs
toward the end of the introduction (pp. 5-6), but this does not detract from the
overall impression of a volume that greatly advances our understandingof the text
of the New Testament in a form that is both useful and elegant.
PETR R. RODGERS

einervomNeuen
OSCARCULLANN, Das Gebetim NeuenTestament.
Zuglich Versuch

Testament
aus zu erteilndenAniwortauf heutigeFragen(Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr
[Paul Siebeck] 1994), x + 194 S. English edition, Prayerin theNew Testament.
theNea Testamntto Today's estions,tr.John Bowden (London:
WithAnswersfrom
SCM/Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), xviii + 190 pp.
Oraet labora!This Benedictine banner for their common life not only encapsulates the theology of prayer in the New Testament for Oscar Cullmann but also
epitomizes this uncommon nonagenarian'sown "theology of life." With the publication of the German edition in 1994 at the age of 92, Professor Cullmann has
given the century that he has spanned in its entirety yet one more labor of prayer
and intellectual acumen that is a fitting crown to his rich array of scholarly books
and articles which open up the meaning of the New Testament. This contribution
is one of only a rare number of comprehensivestudies of the significanceof prayer
in all of the major sections of the NT: the Synoptic Gospels (Part II, I [pp. 1669 ET]), the Pauline corpus (II, II [69-89]), the Gospel of John and theJohannine
Letters (II, m [89-111]), and the Other NT Writings (II, IV [111-18]). But its
significancegoes far beyond its filling a gap in the scholarlyliteratureor of its constituting a final(?)work of a prolific author. For this is the book that for many
years ProfessorCullmann has wanted to write as an expression of his deepest convictions and insights concerning the possibility at all of speaking of a "theology"
of the New Testament: talk aboutGod is possible only as it articulates talk with
God! It is only as the one God who is love has chosen to communicate Himself
definitively in the God-human Jesus Christ that the unityof the New Testament
amidst the diversiyof its several witnessescan be conceived and legitimatelyclaimed.
However nuanced the various notions of God, all the major voices of the NT join
in the jubilant chorus that God through Christ desires, even requests humans to
converse with Him in order that they might enter into this loving will "by which
he created human beings in his communication of himself" (143). By constructing
this foundationalpremise for a theology of the NT, Prayerin theNew Testament
thus
forms a companion volume to C.'s UnityThrough
Diversity[EinheitdurchVielfalt,2nd
C EJ. Brill, Leiden, 1997

Novum TestamentumXXXIX, 1

BOOK REVIEWS

93

ed., 1990] in which the unity of the church(es)is envisioned through the very diverwhich alone enable God's new creative act, the
sity of the Spirit's gifts (charisms)
creaturesof the "body of Christ," to return appropriatespeech to their Creator as
well as to communicate this love to the rest of creation. In both works, we see the
mature fruits of Cullmann the exegete and ecumenical theologian fully blended.
Similar also to his Unity hroughDiversitybut differentfrom previous monographs,
C. in this latest work places his exegetical deliberations in the frameworkof contemporaryargumentsconcerning both the possibilityas well as relevance of prayer.
In Part I (1-13) C. introduces difficulties in praying such as God's silence-particularly to petitions against evil-or to the routinization of prayer into meaningless ritual or to the rush of modern life which squeezes out quiet meditation or
pits decisive action over against the passive paralysis of prayer (2-5). He also poses
"fundamentalobjections to prayer," including such illuminating "post-theistic"critiques of the "personal"transcendent and yet immanent God by a D. Solle or to
more "traditional"post-enlightenmentarguments against all intercessoryprayer to
the immutable God of natural or moral law by a Rousseau, Schleiermacher, or
Ritschl, etc. (5-13). C. concludes, echoing Luther, that there is a reciprocal relation between a particularview of God and the exercise of prayer which inevitably
informs that view. It will behoove any reader of the NT, then, constantlyto enquire
what view of God underlies or is reflected in the various conceptualizationsand
practices of prayer.
Accordingly in Part II, C. turns to the New Testament itself and proposes to
let the authors speak as much as possible on their own terms, without imposing
moder problems of prayer into their conceptions, but also to see if the NT has
anything to say with respect to those issues:
1. Contramost exegetes, the sixth petition of the PaterNosterasks God to spare
the suppliant-even in view of the greater plan of salvation which includes Godordained testing-of being led into any and all temptation or testing which exposes
one to evil. The following "petition"then qualifies that request: If one should not
be so spared, "then please grant the strength to overcome or be rescued from that
exposure" (Matt. 6:13a,b) (58-67). This tandem is echoed in Jesus' request in
Gethsemane (Mark 14:35-36, par.), which, in fact, serves as a paradigm for the
distinctive"biblical"God and the possibilitiesof conversingwith Him. Jesus exhibits
a childlike trust (cf. Abba, Mark 14:36) to a God whose plan may finally be unalterable ("not my will but your will") but One, nevertheless, for whom "all things
are possible" and who desires to incorporate human wishes uttered in such faith
(65-66). God's "will includes the possibility that we may even turn to Him with a
wish which perhaps cannot be fulfilled,just as a child in hopeful trust makes a
request to parents without being sure whether it will be granted" (65).
2. At the heart of Paul's theo-logyof God's grace is the experience of the Spirit
praying within him. The crux is Rom. 8:12-27 where Paul, beginning with the cry
of Jesus in the "Our Father"/"Abba"(8:15), construes all prayer as the necessary
articulation of human concerns by the Spirit because of the fundamental inadequacy of any human utterance to speak to God (72-80). C. even suggests that the
"sighs [of the Spirit] which cannot be uttered" (8:26) describe the same phenomenon as "speakingin tongues" (glossolalia)
"because the utterance of the Spirit which
takes place in all prayers in this case [i.e., v. 26] makes itself known particularly
clearly by excluding the human understanding"(79) (cf. 1 Cor. 14:15).
3. The Johannine writings manifest most palpably the theological ground upon
which C. builds a "theology of prayer" and which enables the unity of the NT to
be comprehended. The "stream of love" which stems from God through Christ
through the disciples to the world forms the "inner bond of love" which enables
one in prayer to encounter God "in Spirit and truth"through the exalted "incarnate
one," who continues to speak on the prayer's behalf (esp. 110-11).

94

BOOK REVIEWS

4. Acts, I Peter, James, Hebrews, and Revelation do not add substantivelybut

rather confirm the theology of prayer that emerges in the three main streams of
the NT. Hebrews' profile of Jesus as "high priest" (114-15) highlights the new
approach or access to God which makes confident encounters with God in prayer
possible (esp. Heb. 4:16; 10:19-22), while the whole framework of Revelation
presents a liturgical service in heaven (116-18) resounding the praise and thanksgiving of the church's anticipation of the future through which "we already transcend the limits of our existence" (118).
In Part III (119-44), C. returns to the initial issues and, in so doing, presents
under six categories a synthesis of the NT's theology of prayer: I. The Difficulty
of Praying; II. Human Weaknesses and Prayer; II. The Idea of God and Prayer;
IV. God's Foreknowledge and God's Will that We Should Nevertheless Pray to
Him; V. The Immutability of the Divine Plan and the Divine Freedom to Hear
Prayers;VI. Prayer and the Question of God's Omnipotence over Evil. Only with
respect to category II does the NT fail to provide direct, pertinent answers to modem objections. Still even here, the frequent injunctions throughout much of the
NT to "persist"in prayer, do speak, for instance, against the dichotomy of action
versus prayer: "CertainlyJesus puts us 'on the road' (Solle). But he also sends us
to our rooms (Matt. 6.6)" (125). Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane distills the essence
of the 'theistic' God of omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence (categories
III-VI) which emerges as fundamental to the NT's view of prayer. This "transcendence," however, does not imply a God distant from the creation but rather
denotes the positive basis of God's immanence.Jesus prays to a Father who desires
to hear His Son's plea, even as God rejects it for the sake of a greater love which
will eventually remove the evil and injustice which Jesus so intensely experienced.
During this "unfathomableperiod of the interim"in which God limits His omnipotence, "we may venture to say that through our prayers we become God's helper
in the battle against evil in the world.... This is the supreme nobility of this
human activity, in which with the help of the Holy Spirit we go beyond all other
human language" (142). Consequently, ora et labora!
Columbia Theological Seminary

DAVIDP. MOESSNER

derVter: GattungsgeJesu unddieAbschiedsworte

MARTINWINTER,Das Vermachtnis
im BlickaufJoh. 13-17. FRLANT 161
der Vermachtnirede
schichtliche
Untersuchung
(Gottingen:Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994 - HabilitationsschriftAugustanaHochschule Neuendettelsau, 1992), 370 Seiten. 118 DM.

Die vorliegende Arbeit ist den atl. und friihjiid. Abschiedsredengewidmet. Die
aus ihnen erhobene Gattungsgeschichtedieser "Vermachtnisreden"wird im letzten
Drittel des Buches auf die gattungsgesch. Untersuchung und Analyse der joh.
Abschiedsredeangewendet. Die so erarbeitetenUnterschiedeund Gemeinsamkeiten
bieten neue Perspektivenfir Form und Interpretationvon Jh. 13-17.
In der Einleitung bietet Winter (W) sorgfaltigeund kritischeSichtung bisheriger
Erforschung dieser Gattung (Stauffer, Munck, gegen Baltzers "Bundesformular,"
Michel, Kolenkow, Cortes, von Nordheim, Hultgard),speziell fiurh. (Becker,Blank,
Berger,Beutler)und schlieBt,"daBan L6sungsvorschligenzwar kein Mangel herrscht,
aber eine eingehende, exegetisch begriindete Klarung des gattungsgesch.Problems
von Joh. 13-17 als ganzem nach wie vor aussteht" (35). Im Blick aufJh. 13-17
will W. nach den konstitutivenGattungselementen(Anfang,SchluBundRedekorpus),
nach Grunden fir die Verbreitung der Gattung, nach den individuellen Ziigen
? EJ. Brill, Leiden, 1997

Novum TestamentumXXXIX, 1