Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul

Preaching the Word

by R. Kent Hughes

The book of Hebrews conveys a double dose of spiritual power: it not only presents the supremacy of Jesus Christ unlike any other New Testament book, but it also repeatedly demands a heart response from the reader. No one can study Hebrews and not grow spiritually as he or she comes face to face with God's one and only Son. In this insightful commentary, readers will find a gold mine of helpful discussion related to a book of the Bible that is easily misunderstood and often overlooked. With divisions and outlines that are never forced but flow naturally from the text, this updated volume in Crossway's Preaching the Word series will be a great resource for anyone studying or teaching the book of Hebrews.

Genres: Christian

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

R. Kent Hughes (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and a visiting professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hughes is also a founder of the Charles Simeon Trust, which conducts expository preaching conferences throughout North America and worldwide. He and his wife, Barbara, have four children and an ever-increasing number of grandchildren.

Reviews

[Michael Boling · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are just some commentary series I have grown to greatly appreciate. Such series earn my respect not necessarily for diving into every nuance of Hebrew and Greek or analyzing all of the various historical issues of a particular text or for their scholarly verbiage and approach. While I certainly appreciate all of those elements given they are important in their own right, what draws me more often than not to a commentary is the ability of the author and the editor for that matter to provide a product that exegetes Scripture faithfully and most importantly in a way that enables the reader to grasp the overall message of the book in question. Additionally, I look for an effort that ultimately helps the reader apply the text both in their own life and in the lives of others which is after all the purpose of studying Scripture in the first place.

Crossway’s Preaching the Word commentary series is quickly becoming a favorite of mine and one of their latest additions, namely R. Kent Hughes revised Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul is a volume I firmly believe should be in th possession of laymen, scholars, and most importantly it should be on the shelf of every pastor. This is a series and a particular volume that has the ability to dig into Scripture without getting lost in the academics, scholarly notations, or other issues that make many other commentary series so difficult to read.

Crossway has taken the excellent two volume commentary on Hebrews by R. Kent Hughes and combined them into one volume. Some may think that for a book as deep as Hebrews, this would result in a gigantic single commentary volume that would take forever to work through. The exact opposite is true given this combined commentary clocks in at around 550 pages.

The commentary itself is biblically sound and very readable. The intent of this particular commentary series is helping pastors dig sufficiently into the text so they can in turn relay a message their parishioners will understand. Given the theological depth and importance of a book like Hebrews, it is absolutely vital to get the theology correct and to present the exegesis of this book in such a manner that can be relayed to the average layman. As Hughes so rightly notes, while there is certainly a variety of opinions on the specifics of Hebrews, “Virtually all agree that the grand theme of this epistle is the supremacy and finality of Christ.” It is that glorious theme which Hughes spends every page exploring.

I found Hughes exegesis to salient, especially in relation to the more difficult passages found throughout Hebrews. The grand issues of Hebrews such as faith, covenant, hope, Jesus as High Priest, the warning passages, that enigmatic character of Melchizedek, and the call to persevere are all addressed in this excellent commentary. The exegesis is well thought out, expertly presented, and extremely valuable for anyone desiring to understand Hebrews. I know I will return to this volume many times in the future as I engage what God has to say in Hebrews. Hughes does a marvelous job and I truly appreciated the practical approach taken by the author. All you pastors out there – grab a copy of this book!

I received this book for free from Crossway Books for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[Kofi Opoku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable. This is my second book from the "Preaching the Word" commentary series, and I can say that it has a very rich homiletical and devotional content.

[Steve Croft · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my 10th book Ive completed in the PTW commentary series, and the first one I've failed to keep pace with the M'cheyne bible reading plan 😅. It's a hefty book, and there are some sections where up to 10 chapters are devoted to a single chapter of Hebrews! That said, I'm glad I got through it, as usual Kent has provided great teaching as he worked through Hebrews verse by verse and provided historical context, exegetical hermeneutic context, and modern practical application. Kent is very humble, and while this is the first book in the series where his Calvinistic views were obviously exposed, he was careful to provide other views as viable options to interpret the text.

Hebrews itself is a strange book. No other book in the bible quotes as much scripture, the author was clearly a scholar, though nobody know who it was! Most modern scholars agree it was written in about 60AD to a very small church in Jerusalem to a group of Jewish Christians. Its amazing how their specific advice in this letter is so applicable today.

[Matthew Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - I wanted to like this more, but felt let down after having finished the Job commentary in this series. For 500+ pages of reading, I was deeply surprised at how shallow a lot of the analysis on many of the passages were. Hebrews has some of the most difficult and tricky passages in the whole Bible, but the author spends minimal time on these to understand what they could mean or their implications.

There’s an overload of personal stories and side theological side tangents that really take away any depth that’s in this one.

This is also me being nit-picky, but there were a handful of typos and/or errors that stood out enough I deemed it worth mentioning. Oh well.

[Terry Dykstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful, pastoral explanation of the letter to the Hebrews which I found encouraging as I navigate storms of this season (not the same as what the Hebrews church faced, but storms nonetheless). Only knock is that he supplies what could be main points of a sermon, which is the intent of the series and is not bad in itself. I imagine it might be difficult to veer from those supplied points when using as reference.

[Wesley Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great resource to use as I studied and also preached on Hebrews. Accessible commentary that is not too technical. Helped with larger, 10000 foot view of certain passages or chapters of Hebrews.

[Candace]

This commentary series is amazing!!Every time I dive into a Bible study on a book of the Bible I buy the accompanying commentary!