Philippians, Revised Edition

Word Biblical Commentary #43

by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph Martin

After 30 years, Hawthorne's commentary on Philippians has now been extensively revised and updated. Working jointly with Ralph Martin, this commentary contains over 50% new material, with nearly 100 additional pages.

Genres: Reference, New Testament, Nonfiction, Biblical Studies, Theology, Christian

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

My most helpful technical commentary on this book, and I must say the most helpful edition in my handful of commentaries from the World Biblical Commentary series. They can be overly technical and not very insightful, although always thorough. But this is a great contribution that is very good. I would not recommend though for most layperson studies, because of the technical and textual information that could bog down someone without any training in Greek.

[David Campton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive, detailed but somewhat dry commentary of this engaging epistle.

[Steve Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hawthorne provides thoughtful and helpful analysis of the book of Philippians from an Evangelical perspective. He interacts well with other views and gives clear reasons for his views. The thing that keeps this from being a five-star commentary is the format. As in the other books in the Word Biblical Commentary Series, the analysis of each passage is divided into sections. The first section is a bibliography, followed by the author's translation of the passage, textual notes, an analysis of the form/structure/setting, a verse-by-verse commentary, and finally, a section for explanation. Footnotes are contained within the text. All of this adds up to a cluttered feel and risks obscuring the meaning of the passage rather than enhancing one's understanding. Still, this is a good commentary to go to for a scholarly treatment of Philippians.

[Vanjr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction had me worried that this was going to be one of those "in left field" commentaries that makes a lot of assumptions without textual proof as it discusses many of the theories about the book of Philippians. However the commentary of the book looks at what the text says in a fair and careful manner. The commentary is pretty technical and dense. You are not going to sit down and read 20 pages at a time. However there is a lot of good discussion. I would recommend. This is my first Word Biblical Commentary, as I usually use the NICNT/NICOT ones, but there is no Philippians in that series.

[Seth Mcdevitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second most used commentary through Philippians. It is good as an addition to the Fee NICNT commentary. It presents the letter has having been written from somewhere other than Rome. It was good to see that that didn't really change the interpretation that much. People have complained about the formatting of the volumes in this series, but I did not find it any more difficult to use than other commentaries. Worth your money, but hindsight I would have purchased this digitally through accordance.

[Dan Glover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content is overall good, though I don't agree with all of Hawthorne's conclusions. As always, the format of the Word series is frustrating.