Over at The Bible & Interpretation, I have a brief piece now up in which I suggest that we should think seriously about including elements of reception history in New Testament Introductions. The essay concludes:
Would including elements of reception in NT Introduction produce an “ideal of a Juvenalian farrago” (Moffatt)? Would it be to return to the pre-Hupfeld days in which Einleitung became an unwieldy omnibus of biblical knowledge? There are certainly dangers to be carefully avoided in moving reception history from periphery to center in New Testament scholarship. The experiment would arguably be worth the risks involved, however, and a provocative foray into this territory may well supply an injection of exciting intellectual stimulation into a genre that often vies with the commentary for the award of least creative.
