Sin in the New Testament is part of Oxford's Essentials of Biblical Studies series. The goal of these classroom-focused books is to offer “relatively brief, accessibly written books that provide orientation to the Bible's contents, its ancient contexts, its interpretive methods and history, and its themes and figures.” As a result, the intention is not to produce striking new approaches to the subject but rather to orient the student to the subject in question. Jeffrey Siker is an admirable choice for this particular volume given his previous high-quality contributions to the subject at hand. The book begins with a brief consideration of how sin was understood in Second Temple Judaism and Greco-Roman religion before turning to chapters dealing with relevant books (e.g., the Gospels) or genres of literature (Pauline correspondence). The chapters are clearly written and walk the student through most of the relevant texts in each part of the New Testament. The discussion also reflects the current range of scholarly opinions on each question, and the ample bibliography at the back provides the reader with numerous paths to follow should he or she wish to go deeper. The major themes that are considered include: how the various books explain how Jesus’ death atones for sin, the variant pictures for what constitutes a sin, and the consequences of apostasy. This book is a descriptive historical survey and, consequently, does not attempt to evaluate or arbitrate among the various pictures of sin and atonement that are rehearsed.

All in all, this book presents the picture of sin in the New Testament in a balanced and well-argued fashion. There are a few elements, however, that I would have treated differently. First, Siker notes that although Luke 24 declares that the Messiah was to suffer and rise on the third day according to the Scriptures, the idea is “nowhere in the Jewish scriptures.” On the one hand, this is true and is often repeated in New Testament scholarship. Yet in his book The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, Jon Levenson (Yale University Press, 1993, page 30) argues that “a Jewish audience, versed in the Torah, would have recognized the dark side of the heavenly announcement” found in Mark 1:11 (“You are my beloved son”). As a beloved son, Jesus would undergo some sort of “death and resurrection.” I would claim that in Luke 24, our Gospel writer applies this deep scriptural principal to the Messiah. This is not as big a leap as Siker has imagined. Second, the subject of the origin of sin (what the Christian tradition refers to as “the fall”) is treated only in passing. Another theme that is given scant attention is the role that charity or acts of kindness play in the forgiving of sins. This topic has become something of a cottage industry in the field of early Christianity. David Downs’ recent volume, Alms: Charity, Reward, and Atonement in Early Christianity (2016), would provide a useful companion.