Noted preacher and expositor James Montgomery Boice has created a unique blend of scripture insight, rich devotional application, and vivid illustration in this commentary on the book of Acts.
James Montgomery Boice was a Reformed theologian, Bible teacher, and pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until his death in 2000. He was also president and cofounder of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, the parent organization of The Bible Study Hour on which Boice was a speaker for more than thirty years.
Great read with some very helpful insights. I especially enjoyed Boice’s commentary on the deacons that the Apostle’s appointed and how they influenced the early church; ie Stephen. Boice also has a pastoral way of writing that is beneficial to the reader. The fact that this commentary is adapted from his sermons is obvious!
Some of Boice’s views of the prominence of city ministry, Paul’s “urban” ministry strategy, the necessity of seminary and fine education, and his focus on the academic and winsome would be points I would disagree about. However, overall this is a great commentary on the Acts of the Apostles.
My sense is that this commentary emerged from Boice's preaching series on Acts. Accordingly, you won't find much technical information, or even systematic exegesis. The content is sound though, and this was a helpful resource in conjunction with other commentaries.
While I usually love JMB's commentaries this was not my favorite. I felt like Boice would use a text as a spring board for discussing something that really was unrelated. I ended up skimming what I did read to find the real nuggets of information that I'm used to reading in Boice's commentaries.