“Resurrection signs occur again when the apostles escape from prison. The Sanhedrin imprisons them overnight (5:18–19), but the angel of the Lord opens the prison doors, mirroring the angel rolling away the stone at Christ’s grave.” “ Ultimately, the text is about Jesus, but Jesus is painted in eunuch hues. The joining of the eunuch and the servant is seen in multiple ways. First, two men of means humble themselves and are exalted. Second, they both come before a shearer, or literally, “the one who cut him.” This certainly resonates with the eunuch as a castrated male. Third, the “cutting” of both is held in tandem with their progeny. Jesus is the faithful servant-eunuch who attaches himself not to earthly dynasties or progenies but to God’s kingdom.” I’ve read a few of PS’s book because I enjoy the discipline of biblical theology. However, the issue with this discipline, especially within contemporary scholarship, is that there is a lack of solid criteria on how to approach the subject, which prevents interpreters of the Scripture from falling into the trap of parallelomania. Every seeming allusion, echo, or cross reference is not an allusion, echo or cross reference. When Peter is released from jail are we as readers really supposed to think of the angel rolling away the stone at Christ’s resurrection? Was Peter dead? It seems more like this text’s thrust is that the gospel will advance despite the turf-war between the religious leaders and the apostles. When Philip leads the Ethiopian to faith is the latter really thinking that Christ is a servant-eunuch? Does Luke desire for the reader to make that connection? It is unlikely. A lot of what PS writes is shock value, with some gems mixed in.

"So when the Son of Man spiritually arrives in AD 70, he metes out judgment through the Roman army on the earth. Ironically, the fourth beast in Luke 21 is not the devil or the Romans but the nation of Israel!" Benjamin L. Gladd, From the Manger to the Throne: A Theology of Luke, New Testament Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), 164. His theology is all over the place with many premature conclusions. For example in the above quote, the Son of Man spiritually arrives in AD 70 via the Romans and all of a sudden Israel is the fourth beast. When have you ever heard anything like this? This is not to say that people cannot introduce new ideas, but this is just inexcusable hermeneutics from a supposed scholar. Gladd has to say "spiritually" arriving because he knows, I assure you he does, that being a full preterist is borderline heresy, if not heresy. He does a lot of reaching in this book, which he even admits at one point when he is discussing the so-called connection of Daniel 7 with Jesus' wilderness temptation. Daniel 7 is eschatological, but Gladd says it is fulfilled during the first advent. No. I love biblical theology and allowing for Scripture to interpret itself, but a huge bulk of BT scholars have no boundaries, and they fail to realize, because of their theology presuppositions, how much of Scripture that they are failing to take into consideration. In the last example, Gladd mentions how the historical exodus occurs in three phases, (1) Liberation, (2) Wilderness Wandering, and (3) Conquest into the promised land. This is absolutely correct, and it is a view that I argued in my dissertation based on Exodus 6:6-8, which describes the three phases. Gladd goes on to say, if you understand these three phases you will understand the second exodus (my paraphrase). This is also true. The problem is that Gadd argues that the three phases are finalized during Jesus' earthly ministry. This makes no sense and is impossible to validate textually, especially if we are to consider the totality of Scripture when doing BT. It is better to argue that the book of Revelation describes the culminating events of the prophets' expectations for the second exodus, not the gospel narratives. I had high expectations for this book, but at the end of the day it did not live up to what I was expecting—despite some interesting arguments throughout the reading.