The news of Raymond E. Brown’s death on August 8, 1998 arrived during the annual meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association at which Roland E. Murphy coincidentally yet most appropriately delivered the address, “What Is Catholic about Catholic Biblical Scholarship?” (BTB 28:3, 112–19). Both Brown and Murphy are former presidents of this association. Both produce scholarship clearly Catholic in character and modern in substance. Both respect and  follow guidelines of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (BTB 26:2, 79–81).  For both, caution was never so strict that they forsook honesty. Together, they span the two Testaments.

Orthodoxy for Raymond E. Brown was a hallmark. Given a conflict between text and theology, he found a middle course that allowed both to survive. His lines of argument may have exhausted the field; yet his Catholic loyalty never flagged. Still, Brown observes in AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT (Doubleday, 1997), “I spent much of my academic life teaching other Christians . . . and so the wider range of Christian practice and belief are very much my concern—and should be in this ecumenical era” (xi).

The legacy of Raymond E. Brown is manifest in a cooperative Catholic biblical scholarship in the United States today. Whatever path he took, he amply cited and weighed the works of a wide range of scholars, giving preference only to his judgments and not merely to his predispositions. Yet, his predispositions remained, as they generally do, close to the soil from which he came. A disciplined son of the church, he saw the church in progress from doctrinal isolation to larger involvement within the realm of pluralistic scholarship. The trajectory of this cooperative scholarship may well continue beyond what even he could envision.

The authors contributing to the pages of BIBLICAL THEOLOGY BULLETIN likewise continue to present critical explorations beyond the doctrinaire. As Raymond Brown’s honesty at times may have shocked some, so the forthrightness of BTB authors should expand the envelope of scholarship today for even more expansive inclusivity in the future.

In the present issue of BTB, Carey Walsh’s A Startling Voice: Woman’s Desire in the Song of Songs views the text with a fresh honesty that itself may startle some, yet help to open the way to fuller honesty in human relations.  F. Scott Spencer, in Paul’s Odyssey in Acts: Status Struggles and Island Adventures, helps attune readers today to the cultural scripts of the author of Acts. Halvor Moxnes presents a masterfully inclusive analysis of historical scholarship in The Historical Jesus: from Master Narrative to Cultural Context, pointing toward further developments in awareness for biblical scholarship better equipped to decipher contextual meanings. Finally, Mark R.J. Bredin, in The Synagogue of Satan Accusation in Revelation 2:9, reasserts the need to recognize intramural conflicts that abounded within the House of Israel at a time before Jews and Christians as we know them had emerged.

The passing of Raymond E. Brown signals the completion of one biblical scholar’s achievements. We duly honor him as a milestone in the ongoing quest for truth and understanding in biblical theology. His work challenges others to yet greater progress.

David M. Bossman
Editor