Jude-2 Peter, Volume 50

by Richard Bauckham, David Allen Hubbard (Editor), Glenn W. Barker (Editor)

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.

 

Overview of Commentary Organization

Introduction—covers issues pertaining to the whole book, including context, date, authorship, composition, interpretive issues, purpose, and theology.Each section of the commentary Bibliography—a helpful resource containing the most important works that pertain to each particular pericope.Translation—the author’s own translation of the biblical text, reflecting the end result of exegesis and attending to Hebrew and Greek idiomatic usage of words, phrases, and tenses, yet in reasonably good English.Notes—the author’s notes to the translation that address any textual variants, grammatical forms, syntactical constructions, basic meanings of words, and problems of translation.Form/Structure/Setting—a discussion of redaction, genre, sources, and tradition as they concern the origin of the pericope, its canonical form, and its relation to the biblical and extra-biblical contexts in order to illuminate the structure and character of the pericope. Rhetorical or compositional features important to understanding the passage are also introduced here.Comment—verse-by-verse interpretation of the text and dialogue with other interpreters, engaging with current opinion and scholarly research.Explanation—brings together all the results of the discussion in previous sections to expose the meaning and intention of the text at several (1) within the context of the book itself; (2) its meaning in the OT or NT; (3) its place in the entire canon; (4) theological relevance to broader OT or NT issues.General Bibliography—occurring at the end of each volume, this extensive bibliographycontains all sources used anywhere in the commentary.

Genres: Nonfiction

376 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2014

About the author

Richard Bauckham (PhD, University of Cambridge) is senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge University, in Cambridge, England, where he teaches for the Cambridge Federation of Theological Colleges. He is also a visiting professor at St. Mellitus College, London, and emeritus professor of New Testament at the University of St. Andrews. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the author of numerous books.

Reviews

[Fred Kohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much to the consternation of the evangelical community, fellow evangelical Richard Bauckham has asserted that Peter did not write 2 Peter (see for example Ligonier Ministry's review of this book). Regardless of what one thinks of that issue, this is an excellent commentary. It certainly gave me a renewed appreciation for Jude. I think the consensus is correct that sees 2 Peter as an expansion of Jude. 2 Peter especially expands on the eschatology of Jude. I find especially interesting the origin of the idea that the elements (or heavenly bodies) will dissolve in a fervent heat. Along with Bauckham, I am skeptical of the idea that this comes from Greek philosophy. Another thing I found excellent in this commentary was Bauckham's frequent indications of parallels of 2 Peter in the Apostolic Fathers. Like Bauckham, I suspect this means that the Apostolic Fathers knew and used 2 Peter, which has implications for dating 2 Peter.

[Ian Minielly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only have one other Word Biblical Commentary, so I did not come into this with expectations one way or the other. I think Bauckham does a great job with difficult letters. These letters have questions about authorship, date, and location and Bauckham does a good job addressing that before he tackles the content of the letters. I found the commentary to be excellent and easy to follow.