Eerdman’s New Testament Commentaries Collection

Shortly after my back surgery, in November of last year, the good people at Logos Bible Software asked me to review the Logos electronic version of the Eerdmans New Testament Commentaries Collection.

I warned Logos that I had several books ahead of them and could be a long time getting well — all of which proved true.

Nonetheless, I’ve been plugging along, reading these books on Vyrso or Logos software. Vyrso is the Logos version of Kindle, allowing me to read these books on my iPhone as well as on my PC.

To this point, I’ve only read three of the four books. I saved the one I’m most looking forward to for last.

I first read Ian Christopher Levy’s The Letter to the Galatians, which is part of the series The Bible in Medieval Tradition. And as the series caption suggests, this is not a modern commentary but a collection of Medieval commentaries on Galatians.

I’m not a scholar of Medieval Christian literature, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book, especially the lengthy introduction that summarized the Medieval Catholic Church’s Bible studies. It was fascinating to learn about Scholasticism in some detail and to then read actual Medieval commentaries on Galatians.

Surprisingly — to me — the Medieval commentaries are very perceptive and not all that different from what many modern commentators say. I’ve studied Galatians in great detail over many years. I know Galatians — and so did the Medieval commentators.

On the other hand, I can’t say that they add tremendous insights or would revolutionize Galatian studies compared to the modern commentaries — which are much more thorough and cover the vastly greater volume of material that we have access to today.

Nonetheless, I consider my time pouring over these ancient texts very well spent.

I next read Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Paul’s Most Famous Letter by Richard Longenecker. This book is not a verse-by-verse commentary but an introduction — over 500 pages about Romans generally.

Most modern commentaries begin with an introduction that covers the dating, authorship, intended audience, and perhaps the major themes of the book to be commented on. This book is just such an introduction — on steroids.

As you know, I’ve spend a lot of time in Romans in my writings here. It’s one of the truly central books of Christianity — and so I’m not all complaining about the length or detail of Longenecker’s work.

In fact, having read several commentaries on Romans, I found all sorts of new insights in Longenecker’s introduction. He deals in detail with recent studies on the rhetorical methods of Paul, the possible use of his preaching materials, and the major themes of the book.

I was particularly fascinated by his analysis of the textual criticism questions relating to chapter 16. I was unaware that some ancient manuscripts omit the last chapter. As is also true of Ephesians, Romans may have circulated as a general epistle to several churches, so that the personal greetings of chapter 16 would only have been attached to the copy originally sent to Rome.

On the other hand, while I see real value in the rhetorical analysis of Paul in light of Greek rhetorical methods, I’m not sure why I should care that this or that chapter may have been borrowed from an earlier sermon of Paul delivered separately from the book. This is really speculative and doesn’t shed much light on the interpretation of the text.

I couldn’t help but be a bit bemused by Longenecker’s obvious minimization of the very important work of N. T. Wright on Romans, especially his commentary in the New Interpreters Bible commentary series from 2002 — nearly a decade before Longenecker’s book. Longenecker is obviously very knowledgeable and brilliant in his own right. But you have to wonder how an 500-page introduction could nearly ignore the insights offered by Wright.

In fairness, Longenecker does mentioned the Sanders/Dunn/Hayes/Wright perspective, but he constantly raises questions that I know Wright has addressed with original insight. Agree or disagree, he really should have addressed Wright’s positions more thoroughly.

Longenecker says that he intends to write a verse-by-verse commentary to go with his thorough-going introduction — and I look forward to buying and reading it when it comes out.

So this is a book for truly serious students of Romans, and it’s a good one.

Lipscomb students from the 1970s and 80s will remember Frederick Dale Bruner as the author of A Theology of the Holy Spirit, which was part of Harvey Floyd’s classes on the Holy Spirit, back when it was dangerous to teach on the Spirit in the Churches of Christ.

I love that book — and learned more from it than I can say — not only about the Spirit but about New Testament studies.

Now Bruner has written a commentary on John’s Gospel — and I love it, too. I knew I would. In fact, this book is one of the main reasons I agreed to review the package.

Bruner writes not only as a scholar but as a Sunday school teacher. He is therefore practical and very real in his presentation. Moreover, he ties his commentary to the work of theologians of the ancient past, such as Augustine, Chrysostom, and Calvin.

Bruner is a Calvinist, and I am not. And so I find myself in disagreement on various “proof text” passages dealing with Calvinism — but I still recognize and enjoy the excellence of his work.

I’ll soon post something on the last of the four books, Hultgren’s commentary on Romans.

And I need to comment on Vyrso, the software offered by Logos to read their books on an iPhone or iPad.

At first, I was miffed that it didn’t include the feature, long-standard in Kindle, that syncs a book across platforms to the last page read. That is, I can move between my PC, my Kindle, and my iPhone, reading the same book on each device as I have opportunity, knowing that each device will allow me to pick up where I left off on the other device.

While Vyrso doesn’t work on my Kindle, it does work on my PC and my iPhone and has been recently updated to include a last-page-read feature.

Moreover, Vyrso makes searching easy, which for the longest time was a challenge on the Kindle.

So my only complaint is that I would love to be able to read my Logos books on my Kindle without having to download hackware. Otherwise, I’ve been very pleased with the free software — which greatly helps deal with the fact that I don’t have paper copies.

Vyrso is available on the Kindle Fire tablets, just not the E-Ink Paperwhite models (which I favor). One of the real advantages of the Logos software world is the Logos iPhone application that allows you to do Greek word look ups, among many other features. If could just run Vyrso on my Kindle, I’d be sitting pretty.

But I’m being overly critical, I think. I mean, Vyrso works on every tablet and Smartphone other than the low-price Kindles — and that’s more compatibility than most software.

PS — I got the books for free in exchange for agreeing to review them here — but I’m under no obligation to say good things. Vyrso is free to all. Logos software is not free, and I received my original copy for free in exchange for a review. However, I paid for the latest upgrade and for several books I now own through Logos.

PPS — I recently lost my computer. Dell service was horrific. It took a month or more to get it repaired. In the meantime, I worked on my laptop. I learned to my delight that I could download a copy of Logos, with all my additions, to my laptop for free and no hassle. As you know, most companies would charge for the second copy — or at least put you through a two-hour phone call to justify the extra download.

The same is true of BibleWorks, which I could also download a duplicate for free on my laptop. I was thrilled that I could keep on blogging while my computer was being lost and otherwise handled incompetently by Dell Computers.