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Reformation Commentary on Scripture #10
Galatians, Ephesians: New Testament Volume 10 (Volume 10)
The gospel of justification by faith alone was discovered afresh by the Reformers in the epistolary turrets of the New Testament: the letters to the Galatians and the Ephesians. At the epicenter of the exegetical revolution that rocked the Reformation era was Paul's letter to the Galatians. There Luther, Calvin, Bullinger and scores of others perceived the true gospel of Paul enlightening a situation parallel to their own times--the encroachment of false teachers and apostates upon the true teaching of salvation by grace through faith. In Ephesians, the Reformers gravitated to what they understood to be the summit of Paul's vision of salvation in Christ. Finding its source, beyond time, in the electing love of God, the Reformers disseminated the letter's message of temporal hope for Christians living under the duress of persecution. For the Reformers, these epistles were living, capsule versions of Paul's letter to the Romans, briefs on the theological vision of the celebrated apostle. Probed and expounded in the commentaries and sermons found in this volume, these letters became the very breath in the lungs of the Reformation movements. The range of comment on Galatians and Ephesians here spans Latin, German, French, Dutch and English authors from a variety of streams within the Protestant movement. Especially helpful in this volume is Gerald Bray's editorial presentation of the development of tensions among the Reformers. The epistles of Galatians and Ephesians open up a treasure house of ancient wisdom, allowing these faithful Reformation witnesses to speak with eloquence and intellectual acumen to the church today.
446 pages, Hardcover
First published September 9, 2011
5 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Gerald L. Bray
99 books40 followersGerald L. Bray (Ph.D., University of Paris--Sorbonne) is director of research for the Latimer Trust, based in London, and a research professor at Samford University, teaching in the Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. A priest of the Church of England, Bray has also edited the post-Reformation Anglican canons. He has edited several volumes of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and Ancient Christian Texts, as well as volume one of the Ancient Christian Doctrine series, all for IVP Academic. General EditorTimothy George (Th.D., Harvard University) is a renowned Reformation historian and author of Theology of the Reformers, as well as many other theological and historical works. He is founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and an executive editor of Christianity Today.
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October 22, 2011
Imagine that you and I and some friends are invited to a dinner party. We don't know any specific details other than the other invited guests are heavy hitters in biblical and theological circles. Since we love the Bible and theology and a good discussion of both--especially when there's good food and even better drink involved--we clear the calendar and make plans for our own little night of the Inklings.
When we arrive we are greeted with the smells of delicacies and sounds of drink-infused discussion. As we make our way deeper into the large Victorian-era home our eyes can hardly believe the sight before us: around a massive dining table are seated all of the well-known and not-so-well-known thinkers, preachers, theologians, scholars, and revolutionaries from the Protestant Reformation. There's Theodore Beza, the French reformed pastor and professor who succeeded John Calvin as leader of the French Reformed ecclesial communities. There's the Dominican friar turned Reformer Martin Bucer. In the corner is the famed Martin Luther nursing a third (or perhaps fifth?) German Doppelbock. Dutch humanist and scholar Desiderius Erasmus is getting the evil eye from Luther across the room. Of course John Calvin is in a heated debate with Jacobus Arminius over predestination and divine foreknowledge. And then there's the company of not-as-well-knowns: Rudolf Gwalther, Jean Diodati, Georg Maior, Wolfgang Musculus, Kasper Olevianus, and several others.
This is quite the party. And you're invited!
That's what IVP's new Reformation Commentary on Scripture series is like. It's like a dinner party with the greatest, most influential minds of the Reformation era all brought together to share their insights and interpretations and give their input into the ongoing exegetical and theological mission of the Church in the 21st century. And you're invited into the party to follow along with their discussion, even joining in at times with your pushback, revisions, and extensions.
Galatians & Ephesians, edited by Gerald L. Bray, is the first of several volumes in this highly anticipated commentary series. It is similar in scope and vision as the highly acclaimed Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series. It's appropriate that this new series follows this first one as the Reformers saw themselves standing in continuity with the early church fathers, and this new series demonstrates how this commitment was reflected in their exegetical work. This volume gives us an intimate cross-sectional view of how the Reformers handled two of the most significant letters of Paul.
The volume opens with a general introduction of the commentary series to help orient the reader to the goals and method of the new series, as well as give the reader insights into the historical context and exegetical schools. From there Bray leads the reader into dialogue with the Reformers with a solid introduction to the Reformation conversation surrounding Galatians and Ephesians. He describes the influence of the Pauline epistles in the Reformation era in general before launching into a well-informed discussion on the major Reformation interpreters of the two epistles. Particularly helpful was the broad historical overview of such interpreters from the early 16th century through late 17th. After grounding the reader in the formalities of introductory material, we're ready to engage the major exegetical and theological themes of discussion that float around our fictions dinner party.
It's hard to review commentaries, I think, because you neither read a commentary like a book nor engage one that way. So I'm gonna do what most people do when they get a new commentary--at least what I do when I get a new commentary: go to my pet verses and see what's there. And I'm doing this with an eye toward those as yet engaged Reformed thinkers aside from Luther and Calvin, who already have published commentaries in the English language.
I've chosen Gal 1:6/7; 2:16; 3:10-13; and Eph 2:8-9. Gospel, justification by faith, law, and grace/works. All four were central issues to the Reformation, and I think central issues to the 21st century church, too. And we get the privilege of saddling up to some of the best conversations surrounding these issues and verses and Paul's theology through this invitation to our Reformation dinner part.
So conversation number one: Galatians 1:6-7 and the gospel. Of the gospel Munsculus says, "The true gospel is unchanging, because it does not allow for any variations. Where there is variation, change, diminution, mixture or subtraction it ceases to be the gospel and becomes false and corrupted."He goes on to say, " The false apostles accepted the historical facts about Jesus but denied the sufficiency of the grace that he offered. The grace and power of the gospel of Christ for salvation is meant for every believer, both Jew and Greek. To add to it is to detract from it." 26) Powerful!
In regards to adding rites and ceremonies to the gospel, Gwalther comments, "It must be remembered that this whole passage is not about traditions invented by people but about observance of circumcision and the law, which God himself had originally enjoined. Whenever people attribute some value to themselves and their own world, they detract from the merits of Christ, which inevitably leads to a perversion of the gospel in which Christ alone is preached. The gospel is the happy and blessed news that the human race has been saved, and by it repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached in the name of Jesus Christ alone." And then the kicker: "Those who corrupt any part of this doctrine of teach that repentance and the forgiveness of sins is possible apart from Christ, or cannot be obtained through him alone, pervert the gospel because they deny the most important thing about it, as the Gentiles had understood." (27)
Two powerful perspectives on the definition and boundedness of the gospel.
From one table conversation we leave and move to our second conversation, a rousing discussion of justification by faith. Luther of course maintained, "There are two ways in which a person can be justified and they are totally opposed to each other. There is the external way, by works based on one's own capacities...Then there is the inward way of faith and grace, which comes into play when a person despairs of his former life...and casts himself completely on the mercy of God...This is what Christ has won for us, that the name of the Lord, the mercy and truth of God, is preached to us, and whoever believes in that name will be saved." (71) That sounds about like Luther.
But how about other? Erasmus Sarcerius says this about justification by faith, "I am adding all of this about justification so that you will know that we are justified by faith through imputation...although we are justified by faith, it is not by faith as a work that we are justified, but only by imputation" (Interesting, as "imputation" is no where in the text!) He goes onto say about faith and justification that, "Faith means a certain and undoubted trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for justification, that is to say, a sure and undoubted affirmation of the grace and mercy of God for our justification, or for the forgiveness of sins..." (72)
I love how Johannes Wigand gets right to the point: In regards to the reality that no part of the law is able to justify, he says "Paul includes all laws and related statements without distinction, though the papalists argue that the text is referring only to the ceremonial laws of Moses. This just shows how stupid they are." No mincing of words there! "Paul here says that none of the law justifies us in any way, and he clearly contrasts the justification of the sinner by faith in Christ with the law."
Speaking of the law, let's change tables and move over the one heated one happening in the corner on the law itself. Johannes Brenz is acting as interpreter of Paul by explaining the flow of Paul's argument here in Galatians 3: "Everyone who has not kept everything written in the book of the law is cursed. This is Paul's main assertion, taken from Deut 27. But everyone who is without the works of the law yet does them does not keep everything written in the book of the law. This is Paul's second assumption...Therefore, everyone who is without the works of the law but who does those works is cursed...From this verse it is clear that external observance of one or another commandment of the law is not enough to be able to claim a true and perfect fulfillment of it. For that entire law must be fully observed, and whoever does not jeep the whole law, as much internally, with a pure heart and complete holiness as externally, with perfect works, is under a curse." Whew; that was quite the explanation!
Sarcerius agrees and heightens this explanation by adding that no one can keep the law, while admitting that those who could would receive righteousness: "The apostle does not deny that those who do the law will inherit righteousness and life if they fulfill it completely, but he says that because they cannot fulfill the law completely they obtain neither righteousness nor life...We do not deny that those who fulfill the law perfectly will inherit life and righteousness, but because nobody actually does this, there is no one who obtains either righteousness or life from it....we want them to admit to us that keeping the law perfectly is beyond our abilities. There is nothing particularly odd about saying that those who keep the law perfectly can obtain life and righteousness, but there is nobody who keeps the law perfectly" (101)
And finally, we turn to a conversation over Ephesians 2:8-9, a very familiar conversation on the dynamics of grace and works to most evangelicals, one that is usually already informed by Reformed thinkers, but let's hear what they have to say, anyway: Erasmas vividly describes our transference from darkness to light by arguing "God has freely poured into you the gift of faith by which you should put darkness aside and see the light of the truth of the gospel. This is wholly to be ascribed to his free gift. No one can boast of it as if it were his own, because even out creation is something we owe to God." While not a true, blue Reformed thinker, he was a forerunner to the Reformation that describes as orthodox a position on the grace of God.
Ridley, a little known English bishop and reformer, describes the dynamics of grace and works thus beautifully: "To faith, in the Scripture, is to attribute our justification, not because faith is the author of our justification, for the author of our justification is Christ, but justification is attributed to faith because faith receives the mercy of God and believes the promises of God made to just people and believers to be fulfilled. So faith is the organ and the means by which we perceive our justification to come of the only mercy of God, and it makes us believe the Scriptures that show that we are justified by grace through faith without any work." And as he ends his commentary bit, "Good works do not go before faith, but they follow faith and make us certain we are justified."
And of course, no Reformation dinner party discussion on grace and works could be complete unless it ended on a Calvin note! So Calvin gives the word--the final word for many--on our fourth and last conversation: "God owes us nothing, so out salvation is a free gift of his grace. Righteousness comes to us from the mercy of God alone, it is offered to us in Christ by the gospel, and it is received by faith alone. Faith bring us empty to God, so that we may be filled with the blessings of Christ." And of works he writes, "These works refer not just to Jewish ceremonies but to any form of human effort...There is no room for our works because there is no room for boasting on our part." There is no boasting, indeed!
Unfortunately, like all dinner parties, this one must also come to an end. Thankfully, in the case of this Reformation Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians, the conversation can still continue because the folks at IVP have done a masterful job of creating a useful, usable resource for scholars, students, and pastors alike. Obviously, this is not meant to be a foundational commentary text for exegesis, but a supplemental one--and I'd say a fine supplemental one at that. I wish more pastors--and more scholars for that matter--would engage the great thinkers of the past in their exegetical, homiletical enterprise in order to remind people of how the Church has always understood and talked about what is central to the Christian faith. This commentary will at least provide the Reformation voice, which shouldn't trump all other voices, but shouldn't be neglected nonetheless.
I am thankful for the commitment of IVP, which began with the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series, of helping the 21st century Church engage the ancient, historic Church's writings. In so doing, they are helping re-root the Church in a time of desperate need for roots. In many respects those roots are rotting, the tether to the historic Church is fraying. Efforts like this new commentary will go a long way in preserving the memory of the Church of one of the greatest, most significant eras in the Church: the Reformation. I for one am thankful for that preservation effort.
When we arrive we are greeted with the smells of delicacies and sounds of drink-infused discussion. As we make our way deeper into the large Victorian-era home our eyes can hardly believe the sight before us: around a massive dining table are seated all of the well-known and not-so-well-known thinkers, preachers, theologians, scholars, and revolutionaries from the Protestant Reformation. There's Theodore Beza, the French reformed pastor and professor who succeeded John Calvin as leader of the French Reformed ecclesial communities. There's the Dominican friar turned Reformer Martin Bucer. In the corner is the famed Martin Luther nursing a third (or perhaps fifth?) German Doppelbock. Dutch humanist and scholar Desiderius Erasmus is getting the evil eye from Luther across the room. Of course John Calvin is in a heated debate with Jacobus Arminius over predestination and divine foreknowledge. And then there's the company of not-as-well-knowns: Rudolf Gwalther, Jean Diodati, Georg Maior, Wolfgang Musculus, Kasper Olevianus, and several others.
This is quite the party. And you're invited!
That's what IVP's new Reformation Commentary on Scripture series is like. It's like a dinner party with the greatest, most influential minds of the Reformation era all brought together to share their insights and interpretations and give their input into the ongoing exegetical and theological mission of the Church in the 21st century. And you're invited into the party to follow along with their discussion, even joining in at times with your pushback, revisions, and extensions.
Galatians & Ephesians, edited by Gerald L. Bray, is the first of several volumes in this highly anticipated commentary series. It is similar in scope and vision as the highly acclaimed Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series. It's appropriate that this new series follows this first one as the Reformers saw themselves standing in continuity with the early church fathers, and this new series demonstrates how this commitment was reflected in their exegetical work. This volume gives us an intimate cross-sectional view of how the Reformers handled two of the most significant letters of Paul.
The volume opens with a general introduction of the commentary series to help orient the reader to the goals and method of the new series, as well as give the reader insights into the historical context and exegetical schools. From there Bray leads the reader into dialogue with the Reformers with a solid introduction to the Reformation conversation surrounding Galatians and Ephesians. He describes the influence of the Pauline epistles in the Reformation era in general before launching into a well-informed discussion on the major Reformation interpreters of the two epistles. Particularly helpful was the broad historical overview of such interpreters from the early 16th century through late 17th. After grounding the reader in the formalities of introductory material, we're ready to engage the major exegetical and theological themes of discussion that float around our fictions dinner party.
It's hard to review commentaries, I think, because you neither read a commentary like a book nor engage one that way. So I'm gonna do what most people do when they get a new commentary--at least what I do when I get a new commentary: go to my pet verses and see what's there. And I'm doing this with an eye toward those as yet engaged Reformed thinkers aside from Luther and Calvin, who already have published commentaries in the English language.
I've chosen Gal 1:6/7; 2:16; 3:10-13; and Eph 2:8-9. Gospel, justification by faith, law, and grace/works. All four were central issues to the Reformation, and I think central issues to the 21st century church, too. And we get the privilege of saddling up to some of the best conversations surrounding these issues and verses and Paul's theology through this invitation to our Reformation dinner part.
So conversation number one: Galatians 1:6-7 and the gospel. Of the gospel Munsculus says, "The true gospel is unchanging, because it does not allow for any variations. Where there is variation, change, diminution, mixture or subtraction it ceases to be the gospel and becomes false and corrupted."He goes on to say, " The false apostles accepted the historical facts about Jesus but denied the sufficiency of the grace that he offered. The grace and power of the gospel of Christ for salvation is meant for every believer, both Jew and Greek. To add to it is to detract from it." 26) Powerful!
In regards to adding rites and ceremonies to the gospel, Gwalther comments, "It must be remembered that this whole passage is not about traditions invented by people but about observance of circumcision and the law, which God himself had originally enjoined. Whenever people attribute some value to themselves and their own world, they detract from the merits of Christ, which inevitably leads to a perversion of the gospel in which Christ alone is preached. The gospel is the happy and blessed news that the human race has been saved, and by it repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached in the name of Jesus Christ alone." And then the kicker: "Those who corrupt any part of this doctrine of teach that repentance and the forgiveness of sins is possible apart from Christ, or cannot be obtained through him alone, pervert the gospel because they deny the most important thing about it, as the Gentiles had understood." (27)
Two powerful perspectives on the definition and boundedness of the gospel.
From one table conversation we leave and move to our second conversation, a rousing discussion of justification by faith. Luther of course maintained, "There are two ways in which a person can be justified and they are totally opposed to each other. There is the external way, by works based on one's own capacities...Then there is the inward way of faith and grace, which comes into play when a person despairs of his former life...and casts himself completely on the mercy of God...This is what Christ has won for us, that the name of the Lord, the mercy and truth of God, is preached to us, and whoever believes in that name will be saved." (71) That sounds about like Luther.
But how about other? Erasmus Sarcerius says this about justification by faith, "I am adding all of this about justification so that you will know that we are justified by faith through imputation...although we are justified by faith, it is not by faith as a work that we are justified, but only by imputation" (Interesting, as "imputation" is no where in the text!) He goes onto say about faith and justification that, "Faith means a certain and undoubted trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for justification, that is to say, a sure and undoubted affirmation of the grace and mercy of God for our justification, or for the forgiveness of sins..." (72)
I love how Johannes Wigand gets right to the point: In regards to the reality that no part of the law is able to justify, he says "Paul includes all laws and related statements without distinction, though the papalists argue that the text is referring only to the ceremonial laws of Moses. This just shows how stupid they are." No mincing of words there! "Paul here says that none of the law justifies us in any way, and he clearly contrasts the justification of the sinner by faith in Christ with the law."
Speaking of the law, let's change tables and move over the one heated one happening in the corner on the law itself. Johannes Brenz is acting as interpreter of Paul by explaining the flow of Paul's argument here in Galatians 3: "Everyone who has not kept everything written in the book of the law is cursed. This is Paul's main assertion, taken from Deut 27. But everyone who is without the works of the law yet does them does not keep everything written in the book of the law. This is Paul's second assumption...Therefore, everyone who is without the works of the law but who does those works is cursed...From this verse it is clear that external observance of one or another commandment of the law is not enough to be able to claim a true and perfect fulfillment of it. For that entire law must be fully observed, and whoever does not jeep the whole law, as much internally, with a pure heart and complete holiness as externally, with perfect works, is under a curse." Whew; that was quite the explanation!
Sarcerius agrees and heightens this explanation by adding that no one can keep the law, while admitting that those who could would receive righteousness: "The apostle does not deny that those who do the law will inherit righteousness and life if they fulfill it completely, but he says that because they cannot fulfill the law completely they obtain neither righteousness nor life...We do not deny that those who fulfill the law perfectly will inherit life and righteousness, but because nobody actually does this, there is no one who obtains either righteousness or life from it....we want them to admit to us that keeping the law perfectly is beyond our abilities. There is nothing particularly odd about saying that those who keep the law perfectly can obtain life and righteousness, but there is nobody who keeps the law perfectly" (101)
And finally, we turn to a conversation over Ephesians 2:8-9, a very familiar conversation on the dynamics of grace and works to most evangelicals, one that is usually already informed by Reformed thinkers, but let's hear what they have to say, anyway: Erasmas vividly describes our transference from darkness to light by arguing "God has freely poured into you the gift of faith by which you should put darkness aside and see the light of the truth of the gospel. This is wholly to be ascribed to his free gift. No one can boast of it as if it were his own, because even out creation is something we owe to God." While not a true, blue Reformed thinker, he was a forerunner to the Reformation that describes as orthodox a position on the grace of God.
Ridley, a little known English bishop and reformer, describes the dynamics of grace and works thus beautifully: "To faith, in the Scripture, is to attribute our justification, not because faith is the author of our justification, for the author of our justification is Christ, but justification is attributed to faith because faith receives the mercy of God and believes the promises of God made to just people and believers to be fulfilled. So faith is the organ and the means by which we perceive our justification to come of the only mercy of God, and it makes us believe the Scriptures that show that we are justified by grace through faith without any work." And as he ends his commentary bit, "Good works do not go before faith, but they follow faith and make us certain we are justified."
And of course, no Reformation dinner party discussion on grace and works could be complete unless it ended on a Calvin note! So Calvin gives the word--the final word for many--on our fourth and last conversation: "God owes us nothing, so out salvation is a free gift of his grace. Righteousness comes to us from the mercy of God alone, it is offered to us in Christ by the gospel, and it is received by faith alone. Faith bring us empty to God, so that we may be filled with the blessings of Christ." And of works he writes, "These works refer not just to Jewish ceremonies but to any form of human effort...There is no room for our works because there is no room for boasting on our part." There is no boasting, indeed!
Unfortunately, like all dinner parties, this one must also come to an end. Thankfully, in the case of this Reformation Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians, the conversation can still continue because the folks at IVP have done a masterful job of creating a useful, usable resource for scholars, students, and pastors alike. Obviously, this is not meant to be a foundational commentary text for exegesis, but a supplemental one--and I'd say a fine supplemental one at that. I wish more pastors--and more scholars for that matter--would engage the great thinkers of the past in their exegetical, homiletical enterprise in order to remind people of how the Church has always understood and talked about what is central to the Christian faith. This commentary will at least provide the Reformation voice, which shouldn't trump all other voices, but shouldn't be neglected nonetheless.
I am thankful for the commitment of IVP, which began with the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series, of helping the 21st century Church engage the ancient, historic Church's writings. In so doing, they are helping re-root the Church in a time of desperate need for roots. In many respects those roots are rotting, the tether to the historic Church is fraying. Efforts like this new commentary will go a long way in preserving the memory of the Church of one of the greatest, most significant eras in the Church: the Reformation. I for one am thankful for that preservation effort.
November 5, 2011
For the last several years, Intervarsity Press has published a set of Bible commentaries that have won critical acclaim. This wonderful series is the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. In this set of commentaries, the editors of each volume bring together the best of the Church Fathers and other leaders of the early church.
Now, Intervarsity Press has begun the project of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture, which is a Bible commentary that highlights the best of the Reformation scholarship on Scriptural interpretation. Going through the whole Bible, each volume will highlight what the Reformers said about a particular passage or text on Scripture.
This is very exciting, because the Reformation brought about a revolution in Scriptural interpretation and insight. Much of the most significant theological work ever done was done during the Reformation era, especially if one is a Protestant Christian. And since the Reformation happened soon after the development of the printing press, writing of theology during the Reformation era was more plenteous that at any point before.
I just received a review copy of the first volume in the set from Intervarsity Press. It is a commentary on the Biblical books of Galatians and Ephesians. I could not be more impressed.
First of all, both the series introduction and the introduction to this specific volume are wonderful to read. Each could stand alone as both enjoyable reading and impressive scholarship apart from the commentary. I particularly enjoyed George bringing attention to the fact that good scholarship and pastoral ministry were not separate ventures in the Reformation Era. Most of the great Reformers were also leaders of local congregations, and both their theology and the way they communicated those beliefs were refined through that experience (p. xiv). Relatedly, “the post-Enlightenment split between the study of the Bible as an academic discipline and the reading of the Bible as spiritual nurture was foreign to the reformers. For them the study of the Bible was transformative at the most basic level of the human person: coram deo” (p. xv).
Also, it is fun to read the Reformers side by side with one another. For me, it was especially fun to see the contrast in tone and style between Calvin and Luther in regard to the book of Galatians. This contrast was exacerbated by kind of source material chosen, as Calvin’s commentaries were selected as his primary source material for this text, and Luther’s lessons to his classes were the primary texts from Luther quoted in this commentary. The result is the best of each person’s work. For Luther, that means that he reads as both thoughtful and earthy. In the case of Calvin, his work reads as methodical, logical, and academic, which is his strong suit.
I also like reading what I will call the “scoundrels” of the Reformation in this volume. By this term “scoundrels” I mean people like Tyndale and Erasmus who were influential in the Reformation for their own reasons, but were not highly regarded or well treated by the church as a whole.
It was also interesting how contemporary some of the Reformers sound even today. I think this is because in many ways the Reformation was about getting the gospel to the people, instead of doing theology and writing books for the benefit of the church and other clergy. For example, I appreciated Bugenhagen’s simple explanation of Ephesians 5:21 (and what follows), “Paul adds that each one should submit to the other in the fear of God, so that everyone will fear of God, so that everyone will fear God and believe his brother…and not claim to know more than he ought to” (p.381).
Although I loved this book, I was disappointed in the lack of diversity in the sources that were chosen. Most were either Lutheran or Reformed. There were very few from the Anabaptist tradition represented, for example. I hope this weakness is remedied in further volumes of this fine set of commentaries.
I would recommend, if you can afford it, to find a way to get this excellent inaugural volume in this fine new commentary series. I have loved it. I know you will too.
Now, Intervarsity Press has begun the project of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture, which is a Bible commentary that highlights the best of the Reformation scholarship on Scriptural interpretation. Going through the whole Bible, each volume will highlight what the Reformers said about a particular passage or text on Scripture.
This is very exciting, because the Reformation brought about a revolution in Scriptural interpretation and insight. Much of the most significant theological work ever done was done during the Reformation era, especially if one is a Protestant Christian. And since the Reformation happened soon after the development of the printing press, writing of theology during the Reformation era was more plenteous that at any point before.
I just received a review copy of the first volume in the set from Intervarsity Press. It is a commentary on the Biblical books of Galatians and Ephesians. I could not be more impressed.
First of all, both the series introduction and the introduction to this specific volume are wonderful to read. Each could stand alone as both enjoyable reading and impressive scholarship apart from the commentary. I particularly enjoyed George bringing attention to the fact that good scholarship and pastoral ministry were not separate ventures in the Reformation Era. Most of the great Reformers were also leaders of local congregations, and both their theology and the way they communicated those beliefs were refined through that experience (p. xiv). Relatedly, “the post-Enlightenment split between the study of the Bible as an academic discipline and the reading of the Bible as spiritual nurture was foreign to the reformers. For them the study of the Bible was transformative at the most basic level of the human person: coram deo” (p. xv).
Also, it is fun to read the Reformers side by side with one another. For me, it was especially fun to see the contrast in tone and style between Calvin and Luther in regard to the book of Galatians. This contrast was exacerbated by kind of source material chosen, as Calvin’s commentaries were selected as his primary source material for this text, and Luther’s lessons to his classes were the primary texts from Luther quoted in this commentary. The result is the best of each person’s work. For Luther, that means that he reads as both thoughtful and earthy. In the case of Calvin, his work reads as methodical, logical, and academic, which is his strong suit.
I also like reading what I will call the “scoundrels” of the Reformation in this volume. By this term “scoundrels” I mean people like Tyndale and Erasmus who were influential in the Reformation for their own reasons, but were not highly regarded or well treated by the church as a whole.
It was also interesting how contemporary some of the Reformers sound even today. I think this is because in many ways the Reformation was about getting the gospel to the people, instead of doing theology and writing books for the benefit of the church and other clergy. For example, I appreciated Bugenhagen’s simple explanation of Ephesians 5:21 (and what follows), “Paul adds that each one should submit to the other in the fear of God, so that everyone will fear of God, so that everyone will fear God and believe his brother…and not claim to know more than he ought to” (p.381).
Although I loved this book, I was disappointed in the lack of diversity in the sources that were chosen. Most were either Lutheran or Reformed. There were very few from the Anabaptist tradition represented, for example. I hope this weakness is remedied in further volumes of this fine set of commentaries.
I would recommend, if you can afford it, to find a way to get this excellent inaugural volume in this fine new commentary series. I have loved it. I know you will too.
November 14, 2011
Excellent, excellent. If you are unfamiliar with this type of commentary let me tell you about it. A few years ago IVP (Inter Varsity Press) came out with a set of commentaries called the Ancient Christian Commentary of Scripture. What they did was take the writings of the early church fathers on certain passages and put it together like a commentary. In the end there were 14 (plus) volumes in the Old Testament and 12 in the new.
Now they are doing the same with the reformers. It will be years before they are done, but this is the first volume and I may have just wet myself a little when I got it because I am so excited. They do such excellent work.
Now they are doing the same with the reformers. It will be years before they are done, but this is the first volume and I may have just wet myself a little when I got it because I am so excited. They do such excellent work.
May 20, 2014
Essentially a book of quotes and not really a commentary that can be read in its own right. Contains verse by verse commentary from a list of the who's who of the reformation.
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