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Books : Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary SetIn association with Amazon.comRating:  - A new kind of resource for the New Testament expositorDr. Clinton Arnold, known for several ground breaking books on magic and superstition and how they relate to Paul's epistles, has assembled an all-star cast of neo-evangelicals to contribute to this stellar resource for New Testament studies. This commentary series focuses on the 1st century background to verses in the new testament. It is successful due to its adherance to its clearly stated objective, "The stimulus for this commentary came from the church and the aim is to serve the church. The contributors to this series have sought to provide illuminating and interesting historical/cultural background information. The intent was to draw upon relevant papyri, inscriptions, archaelogical discoveries, and the numerous studies of Judaism, Roman culture, Hellenism, and other features of world of the New Testament and to make the results accessible to people in the Church." (from pg. vii of the introduction.) The entries are concise and to the point and are extremely useful for those who don't have the time or resources to look up relevant passages in Josephus, or the Dead Sea Scrolls, and who does? The entries are concerned with providing necessary and relevant background information that illuminates the specific context/language used in the text. As a teacher of youth as well as a trainer of Adult Sunday school teachers, I am finding this commentary to be an essential resource for those who do not have professional training in Biblical studies, but who nontheless have a heart for teaching the Bible correctly. The only thing that dissapointed me was the binding of the books, they look and feel more like a textbook than a commentary, however this downside is less important than the content. If they were published as comic-books I would still treasure their usefulness in understanding what the Bible meant when it was written. |
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