Commentaries

The book of Kings is a history, written in a selective manner, for the sake of theology. Primarily covering more than 380 years of the history of Israel and its monarchy, from the last part of David's rule to the end of the kingship in Judah, the book of Kings also emphasizes prophets.

Despite this concentration, the main subject of this body of literature is still God. This history presents God - the holy, righteous, just, merciful, compassionate, gracious omnipotent, and omniscient Deity - in relationship with Israel.

Keeping in the Biblically faithful, Gospel-centered tradition of the acclaimed Concordia Commentary series, this newest addition to the series displays God as the Ruler of the nations, the God of chastisement and punishment, but also the God of deliverance and salvation.

The Concordia Commentary series enables pastors and teachers of the Word to proclaim the Gospel with greater insight and clarity. Each commentary affirms the inspiration and authority of Scripture and explains the distinctive themes and the theological message of the biblical text.

As the earliest narrative source for the origins of Christianity, Acts is of unrivalled importance for understanding early Christianity and the mission that originally brought it from Judea and Galilee to gentiles, and even the heart of the Roman Empire. This volume is an abridged version of Keener's monumental, four-volume commentary on Acts, the longest and one of the most thorough engagements with Acts in its ancient setting. Sensitive to the work's narrative unity, Keener's commentary is especially known for its direct engagement with the wide range of ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman sources. The original commentary cited some 45,000 references from ancient extrabiblical sources to shed light on the Book of Acts. This accessible edition, aimed at students, scholars, and pastors, makes more widely available the decades of research that Keener has devoted to one of the key texts of Early Christianity.

This work by Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, Rolf Jacobson, and Beth Tanner is the most complete and detailed one-volume commentary available on the Psalms. Significantly, the volume reflects the combined insights of three superior (younger) biblical scholars.

DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner offer a succinct introduction to the Psalter, a new translation of all the psalms that takes special account of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and individual entries on each psalm unit. Throughout the book they draw on state-of-the-art research on the canonical shape and shaping of the Psalter and evidence a nuanced attention to the poetic nature of the psalms.

All three volumes of A Commentary on the Psalms are now available as a set!

For thousands of years, the Book of Psalms has been one of God's people's richest resources for expression of worship and development of the spiritual life. At the same time it is one of the more complex and challenging sections of the Bible for expositors. Pastors, teachers, and all serious students of the Bible will find this commentary invaluable for developing their understanding of the Psalms and for improving their ability to expound it with precision and depth.

For each psalm, Dr. Allen Ross guides the reader through a detailed exegetical outline, proposes a homiletical outline, and offers a summary expository idea of the message of the whole psalm.

The commentary includes discussion throughout of three primary challenges to understanding the Psalms:

Textual issues: Every major textual difficulty is addressed in order to help the expositor understand the interpretive issues and make decisions when there are multiple available readings.

Poetic language: The Psalms are full of poetic imagery, devices and structures. Ross discusses this "language" of Hebrew poetry in its context with each psalm, specifying the precise devices being used and how they work in the psalm.

Grammar and syntax: The Psalms' Hebrew poses a challenge to many expositors, whether they are familiar with Hebrew or not. This commentary illuminates Hebrew constructions word meanings in a way that is helpful both to readers who are comfortable with Hebrew and those who are not.

The miraculous narratives and complicated visions of Daniel portray the Gospel of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, and his eternal kingdom.

This theological exposition of Scripture enables pastors and teachers of the Word to proclaim the Gospel with greater insight and clarity. Each volume is based on the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek with sensitivity to the rich treasury of language, imagery, and themes found throughout the broader biblical canon. Further light is shed on the text from archaeology, history, and extra biblical literature.

The searing indictment of God's people warns of impending judgment, yet God also issues the promise of forgiveness and restoration.

About This Volume:
God raised up extraordinary individuals of faith to rebuild the Jerusalem temple and prepare for the coming of the Messiah. These books offer hope and comfort by showing us what God accomplishes through his people's faithful labors and, more importantly, in Jesus Christ, who fully accomplished our salvation through his perfect life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection. God continues to show his gracious mercy in Christ to his people despite their faults and failures, their self-centeredness and fickle love for righteousness. These themes give the books of Ezra and Nehemiah their power and their reason for being part of God's sacred Scriptures.

About the Series:
The Concordia Commentary Series: A Theological Exposition of Sacred Scripture is written to enable pastors and teachers of the Word to proclaim the Gospel with greater insight, clarity, and faithfulness to the divine intent of the biblical text.

This landmark work will cover all the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, interpreting Scripture as a harmonious unity centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Every passage bears witness to the Good News that God has reconciled the world to Himself through our Lord's life, death, and resurrection.
The commentary fully affirms the divine inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of Scripture as it emphasizes ''that which promotes Christ'' in each pericope.
Authors are sensitive to the rich treasury of language, imagery, and themes found throughout Scripture, including such dialectics as Law and Gospel, sin and grace, death and new life, folly and wisdom, demon possession and the arrival of the kingdom of God in Christ. Careful attention is given to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Further light is shed on the text from archaeology, history, and extra-biblical literature. Finally, Scripture's message is applied to the ongoing life of the church in terms of ministry, worship, proclamation of the Word, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, confession of the faith--all in joyful anticipation of the life of the world to come.

The rich tapestry of the creation narrative in the early chapters of Genesis proved irresistible to the thoughtful, reflective minds of the church fathers. Within them they found the beginning threads from which to weave a theology of creation, Fall, and redemption. Following their mentor the apostle Paul, they explored the profound significance of Adam as a type of Christ, the second Adam. The six days of creation proved especially attractive among the fathers as a subject for commentary, with Basil the Great and Ambrose producing well-known Hexaemerons. Similarly, Augustine devoted portions of five works to the first chapter of Genesis.

As in previous volumes within the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, the range of comment contained in this volume spans from the first century to the eighth and from East to West, from Greek and Latin speakers to Syriac.

This ACCS volume on Genesis 1-11 opens up a treasure house of ancient wisdom that allows these faithful witnesses, some appearing here in English translation for the first time, to speak with eloquence and intellectual acumen to the church today. Especially helpful is the volume editor's provision of Septuagintal alternative readings to the Masoretic text, which are often necessary to understanding the fathers' flow of thought.

This volume of the New Testament Library offers a thorough and careful commentary on the complicated book of Hebrews, showing its meaning within the context of ancient culture and the theological development of the early church. Written by one of the leading New Testament scholars of the present generation, this commentary offers remarkable insights into the Hellenistic, Roman, and Jewish contexts of the book of Hebrews.

The New Testament Library offers authoritative commentary on every book and major aspect of the New Testament, as well as classic volumes of scholarship. The commentaries in this series provide fresh translations based on the best available ancient manuscripts, offer critical portrayals of the historical world in which the books were created, pay careful attention to their literary design, and present a theologically perceptive exposition of the text.