In an effort to promote the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary series, Logos is giving away the Matthew, Mark volume by David L. Turner and Darrell L. Bock for free—no strings attached! Make sure to use coupon code CORNERSTONE.

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It’s a limited-time offer. Spread the word!

Michael Bird announces a new commentary series called The New Covenant Commentary Series (NCCS). The series will be edited by Craig Keener and Michael Bird and published by Wipf & Stock between 2009 and 2014.

Here are the projected volumes and authors:

• Matthew, Joel Willitts (North Park University, Chicago)
• Mark, Kim Huat Tan (Trinity Theological College, Singapore)
• Luke, Jeannine Brown (Bethel Seminary, St. Paul)
• John, Jey Kanagaraj (Hindustan Bible Institute & College, India)
• Acts, Youngmo Cho (Asia Life University, South Korea)
• Romans, Craig Keener (Palmer Seminary, Philadelphia)
• 1 Corinthians, Bruce Winter (Queensland Theological College, Australia)
• 2 Corinthians, David deSilva (Ashland Theological Seminary, Ohio)
• Galatians, Brian Vickers (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville)
• Ephesians, Lynn Cohick (Wheaton College, Wheaton)
• Philippians, Linda Belleville (Bethel College, Indiana)
• Colossians, Philemon, Michael Bird (Highland Theological College, Scotland)
• 1-2 Thessalonians, David Garland (George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Texas)
• Pastoral Epistles, Aida Besancon-Spencer (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Massachusetts)
• Hebrews, Tom Thatcher (Cincinnati Christian University, Ohio)
• James, Pablo Jimenez (Pastor, Puerto Rico)
• 1 Peter, Eric Greaux (Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina)
• 2 Peter, Jude, Andrew Mbuvi (Shaw University Divinity School, North Carolina)
• 1-3 John, Sam Ngewa (Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, Kenya)
• Revelation, Gordon Fee (Regent College, Canada)

Read the series preface at Euangelion.

Hmm. It looks like there might already be a New Covenant Commentary Series:

William J. Dumbrell (Th.D., Harvard University) was for many years Vice-Principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney where he also lectured in Old Testament. He also lectured at Regent College in Vancouver, and Trinity Theological College in Singapore. He is the author of many fine books that follow some significant biblical themes from Genesis to Revelation such as Covenant and Creation, The End of the Beginning, The Search for Order, The New Covenant and The Faith of Israel. He has also written commentaries on Galatians, Romans, and the Gospel of John in the New Covenant Commentary Series. He still teaches at several Sydney colleges and at Macquarie University, Sydney.

Dan Phillips, who blogs at Biblical Christianity and Pyromaniacs, emailed me about a month ago and asked me about making Henry Alford’s The Greek Testament: With a Critically Revised Text; a Digest of Various Readings; Marginal References to Verbal and Idiomatic Usage; Prolegomena; and a Critical and Exegetical Commentary available for Libronix. In that email he told me that “John Piper names it as the one he always consults.” Recently I asked him if he knew the source for Piper’s statement. He didn’t, but said he’d do some hunting. He asked his blog readers for help, and it was Pilgrim Mommy to the rescue.

I think it might be . . . during the Q&A at the end of Piper’s talk on John Owen.

I just listened to the end of Piper’s biographical lecture on Owen, and here’s what he says in the Q&A in response to a question about commentaries that he finds helpful:

When I’m stumped with a . . . grammatical or syntactical or logical flow [question] in Paul, I go to Henry Alford. Henry Alford . . . comes closer more consistently than any other human commentator to asking my kinds of questions. (John Piper, “John Owen: The Chief Design of My Life—Mortification and Universal Holiness,” 1:30:11–1:30:31.)¹

Mystery solved. Thanks, Pilgrim Mommy.

If you like Alford and would like to have it in the best digital format, you can pre-order it for only $129.95. It’s out of print, hard to obtain, and will cost you 2 to 3 times that much for the print volumes.

Also, his The New Testament for English Readers is available on Community Pricing and with enough bids could go for $16 or less.

Read Dan’s post at the Pyromaniacs blog for more on Alford.

Footnotes

1. I actually have three different versions of this audio, all of which are different lengths. The time above is from the latest version of the audio on the Desiring God website. ↩

I just received the JPS Bible and Torah Commentary Collection (9 volumes) from Logos and started “thumbing” through a couple of the volumes. I’m glad I picked it up. It looks like a valuable series—primarily for what it reveals about modern Judaism’s understanding of the Tanakh.

As I expected, though, I’m going to disagree with many of the interpretations that it defends. Nahum Sarna’s interpretation of Genesis 15:6, for example, is disappointing on several levels.¹

6. he put his trust in the Lord The scene that opens with fear and depression closes with a firm statement that Abram remains steadfast in his faith in God. The promises must be realized, even in the face of a seemingly recalcitrant reality.

He reckoned it to his merit God is the subject of the verb.² Hebrew tsedakah, usually “righteousness,” sometimes bears the sense of “merit.” The idea is that Abram’s act of faith made him worthy of God’s reward, which is secured through a covenant. This interpretation is supported by Nehemiah 9:7–8 and by the similar phraseology in Psalms 106:30f., which refers to the narrative of Numbers 25:6–13. The latter tells of the intervention of Phinehas at the affair of Baal-peor, as a result of which he was granted God’s “pact of friendship”—“for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time.” The alternative possibility that Abram regarded “it,”—that is, the promise of posterity—as an expression of God’s righteousness and grace seems less likely.³

First, his comments are incredibly brief. (He doesn’t even footnote other places where righteousness supposedly means merit.) Second, he defends the wrong interpretation. Finally, he doesn’t even mention the evangelical Christian reading in a footnote, which apparently isn’t even a possibility since he mentions “the [less likely] alternative possibility that Abram regarded ‘it,’—that is, the promise of posterity—as an expression of God’s righteousness and grace.”

I think I’ll stick with Paul on this one.

Footnotes

1. Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, The JPS Torah commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 113. ↩
2. So Targ. Onk., Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Sforno. ↩
3. So in Deut. 9:4; 2 Sam. 19:29; Dan. 9:18. The alternative interpretation is given by Bekhor Shor, Ramban, Ralbag, Abravanel. ↩

I previously posted about Don Garlington’s commentary on Galatians being available as a free PDF from the Paul Page. But I wasn’t sure exactly which Galatians commentary it was. So I emailed Dr. Garlington and got the official answer.

As for Galatians, I appreciate that the situation is confusing. The thing has gone through an “evolutionary process.” First there was the manuscript for EBC, which was submitted three years ago and still awaits publication (supposedly in the Fall). That is a very basic commentary aimed at a more general audience.

Afterwards there have been several editions from Wipf & Stock, largely expanded, more technical and aimed at a more theologically educated readership. Very soon now the third and final edition will appear. It was the manuscript of this edition that was on the Paul Page. I had it withdrawn for the moment in order not to conflict with the print version. I placed it there to begin with because it seemed that W/S were not interested in pursuing this project any further.

However, that turned out not to be the case and the book should be available within several weeks.

So oddly enough, his contribution to the forthcoming EBC commentary appears to be the oldest one!¹ The first edition of his W&S commentary (332 pp.) was published in 2002, the second edition (362 pp.) in 2004, and the third and final edition (452 pp.) was just released in 2007, which is the one you’ll want to pick up for Garlington’s most most extensive and mature understanding of this ever-important letter.

I hope this helps to clear everything up. By the way, since Dr. Garlington removed the PDF from the Paul Page, I have also removed it from my site.

Footnotes

1. I’m not entirely sure how to reconcile all the dates with his statement that his manuscript for the EBC commentary was submitted in 2004 and the first edition of the W&S commentary was published two years earlier in 2002. Perhaps the EBC was completed much earlier than 2004, but not submitted until then; or perhaps by “first” and “afterwards” he wasn’t speaking chronologically but logically. But how they could be an expansion of a subsequent commentary, I’m not quite sure. I’m going to going with my first resolution. Regardless, the EBC is a shorter, more popular commentary; the W&S is expanded and more technical. ↩