Filled with the Spirit

“[Here] is a new book that will become, and perhaps already has become, the benchmark and starting point for all future studies of the Spirit. The effusiveness of the endorsements match what I have seen in the book: a full study of the evidence in the Old Testament, the Jewish literature, Greco-Roman materials, and the New Testament, and a comprehensive re-evaluation of the state of the art. . . . This book is eloquent and exceptional. Buy it and read it.”

Scot McKnight

“In this scholarly tour de force—breathtaking in its scope, depth, and erudition—Levison opens up new vistas of interpretation beyond all our settled categories in both Judaism and Christianity. . . . Texts in Levison’s hands witness to the surging of the vitality of the creator who refuses to let creation wither and close. This rich and generative study will surely not only be defining for time to come but will also evoke much new interpretive work.”

Walter Brueggemann

“John R. Levison undertakes an impressive task here. In the wake of no less a scholar than Hermann Gunkel, he follows the concept of being filled with the Spirit through Israelite, Jewish, and early Christian literatures—and he does so with a thorough knowledge of the sources and their problems and with a constant eye on the deep transformations that the concept underwent in Hellenistic Judaism under the influence of Greek ideas of possession and inspiration. The result is a fascinating contribution to the contemporary study of Mediterranean religions that takes its interdisciplinary approach seriously and situates Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity in their much wider context of Jewish and Greco-Roman traditions of religion and thought.”

Fritz Graf

“Jack Levison’s Filled with the Spirit is a magisterial overview of the changing view of the Spirit in the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and early Christianity. Levison treats the Jewish material not just as background for early Christianity but as a subject of study in its own right. He also makes excursions into the Greco-Roman world to explain the increased interest in ecstasy in the period between the Testaments. This is a lively and engaging study and a first-rate contribution to the history of religion.”

John J. Collins

“Levison has brought us a broad and provocative study of the spirit in Israelite and in early Jewish and Christian literature. . . . Deserves to be read closely and appreciated for its innovations.”

Alan F. Segal

“Filled with the Spirit has many virtues, but two deserve special mention. First, Levison treats a wider array of biblical and other ancient sources on the spirit than any predecessor, and does so with uniformly deep knowledge and insight. Second, he persuasively shows how ideological and cultural factors have shaped the history of scholarship on this topic and continue to influence our reading today.”

Susan R. Garrett

“A stunningly good reappraisal (and redirection) of Gunkel’s short-but-giant book. Methodologically sophisticated, deeply and finely researched, brilliant on the Jewish intertestamental literature, wonderfully original, and beautifully written (clear as bright water and tangy as fresh grapefruit). Anyone writing seriously on the spirit in the biblical literature needs now to start with this book—and will probably keep it as a constant dialogue partner.”

Max Turner

“In 1926 Karl Adam commented that Barth’s Römerbrief of 1919 ‘fell like a bombshell on the playground of theologians.’ I predict that Levison’s Filled with the Spirit will similarly explode in the field of those laboring on a theology of the spirit. . . . The question is not if but to what degree biblical scholars, dogmaticians, and systematicians working in pneumatology will need to rethink their task after this radical book.”

Amos Yong

“Levison’s treatment bounces off from Hermann Gunkel’s famous and groundbreaking treatment of the Spirit in the apostolic age and in Paul. He uses it to raise the question whether the anthropological spirit should be neatly distinguished from the charismatic Spirit and makes a very good case for the thesis that in pre-Christian biblical and Jewish literature the life-principle and the Spirit of God were understood to be one and the same—the human spirit as holy spirit. This in turn adds a whole new dimension to the discussion of the Spirit in Paul, Luke, and John and raises fascinating questions as to the reality experienced and how they handled it. And all of this with a light touch, intriguing insights, and nice turns of phrase.”

James D. G. Dunn