Commentaries

Christ-centered Bible truths unfold as you read this complete series of commentaries designed for spiritual growth and reading enjoyment. These trustworthy commentaries help you comprehend what you've read in Scripture as well as apply it to your life.

These commentaries offer: Easy-to-read commentary that follows the text (in New International Version (NIV)) so you learn as you read, Scripture and commentary on the same page, Bible text highlighted in bold, Explanation of complicated passages, Important facts are identified to expand understanding of Bible times and help apply passages to life today, maps and charts.

This series is an excellent companion text for Bible study leaders and for individual use.

Lockwood expounds upon this application-rich text from "the Words of the cross, " the basis for the church's unity, holiness, freedom, worship, and resurrection hope.

Paul's letters to the Corinthian church have left a mark on Christian Scripture in a way that could never have been predicted. Here the pastoral issues of a first-century Christian community in what Chrysostom identified as "still the first city in Greece" stand out in bold relief. How was a community shaped by the cross to find its expression in a city that Chrysostom knew to be "full of orators and philosophers" and that "prided itself . . . above all on its great wealth"? How was church unity to be maintained in a setting where prominent believers, bending truth and morality to their own advantage, divided the body of Christ? Here lay the challenge for the apostle Paul. And as the apostle writes, the fathers lean over his shoulder, marveling and commenting on his pastoral wisdom. Best known among these patristic commentators is Chrysostom, whose seventy-seven homilies on the two Corinthian epistles are a treasury of exposition and application. The fragmentary works of Didymus the Blind and Severian of Gabala give us samples of Greek exegesis from the Alexandrian and Antiochene schools. The partial work of Theodore of Mopsuestia, a commentator of great skill and insight, was long valued in the church. And the comments of Theodoret of Cyrus are notable for their sensitivity to the intertextuality of Scripture. Then there are Origen and Pelagius, whose names resonate with notable error, to the needless obscuring of their brilliant insights into Scripture. But pride of place goes to the unknown fourth-century commentator long mistaken for Ambrose and now dubbed "Ambrosiaster." His excellent commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians has been unavailable in English translation, and for that reason it is excerpted more generously in this volume. This Ancient Christian Commentary on 1-2 Corinthians opens a whole new way of reading these New Testament texts. The pastoral and theological interpretation of the fathers offers spiritual and intellectual sustenance to those who would read Paul again with open minds and hearts. Here we find the Pauline wisdom of the cross generating an effective heritage of Christian interpretation.

About This Volume
These epistles represent the singular voice of an extraordinary theologian. John, the last living apostle,writes to his children. For decades he has served as the elder father of the house churches of Asia Minor, but during his exile, false teaching has persuaded some to abandon the faith and the life of the community of the beloved. At least one church s leader has presumed to advance his own teaching at the expense of the apostle s instruction. Knowing that his days are numbered, John sends a general epistle, 1 John, together with its introductory cover letter, 2 John. In order to address the errant leader s conduct, he also sends a situation-specific, personal and pastoral addendum, 3 John. Rallying the faithful so that none would be lost to the ongoing threat of deception, John urges his children to confess by the Spirit in this last hour the man Jesus as the Son of the Father, come in the flesh in truth and love. The fulfillment of God s historic dealings with his people of old is Jesus atoning sacrifice of himself. Through his shed blood, a cleansing flood, God confers the life of the age to come.

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.

About the Author
Dr. Schuchard is a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan (B.S., 1979), and Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana (M.Div., 1984), where he also earned the S.T.M. degree in 1985. His Ph.D. in biblical studies is from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, Richmond, Virginia (1991).

This series is an excellent companion text for Bible study leaders and for individual use.

About This Volume:
This prophet is often interpreted as a manifesto for social justice, political activism, and economic change. But Dr. Lessing expounds Amos as a book that proclaims God s Law and his Gospel in Jesus Christ. The prophet condemns propensities that all sinners have. He preaches justification by grace alone, and righteousness through faith alone. Yahweh roars from Zion as a Lion (1:2; 3:4, 8, 12; 5:19) to terrify and console. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah who died and is alive forevermore (Rev 1:18; 5:5). The roar in Amos awakens people from apathetic slumber and judges dishonest business dealings, abuse of the poor, idolatry, and immorality. Yahweh sends fires and earthquakes, locusts and drought, and a nation bent on destroying Israel in his fury against those whom he calls my people (e.g., Amos 7:15; 8:2; 9:10). Yet in the last oracle he promises to resurrect the tabernacle of David and restore a remnant gathered from both Israel and the Gentiles that shall live in the abundance of the new creation forever (9:11 15). These promises point to the feast Jesus instituted in Holy Communion, in which the baptized are forgiven of all their sins and celebrate that death has been swallowed up in victory (Is 25:6 9; 1 Cor 15:54).

The rhetorical method of this commentary highlights that Amos is a master at Hebrew poetry radical, subversive, affrontive. Key excursuses include Amos Use of Earlier Biblical Texts, The Church s Response to Ethical Issues, The Relationship between the Prophets and Israel s Worship, The Quotation from Amos 9 in Acts 15, and Preaching Like Amos.

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.

Explore a theological exposition of sacred Scripture. The Concordia Commentary series enables pastors and teachers of the Word to proclaim the Gospel with greater insight and clarity. Interpreting the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments through the person and work of Jesus Christ, each commentary affirms the inspiration and authority of Scripture, offering a literal translation, textual notes, and theological exposition. Two new commentaries are available. The letter to the Colossians is rich in Christology, to which all the articles of faith are intimately connected. One might even argue that Colossians possesses the most profound Christology in all the New Testament. A true, biblical Christology, centered in the cross and the empty tomb, gives life and meaning to all theology. Colossians has much to say about the doctrine of creation. Moreover, the letter relates its teaching on creation directly to its Christology. In this way Colossians unites the presupposition of all theology (creation) with the heart and center of all theology (Christology). Colossians is also strongly eschatological. The eschatology of the letter extends beyond those verses which speak of the life to come, for its message is given with an eye on eternity. The true doctrine of Christ, who is the exalted Lord over the entire creation, refutes the false Christologies that were circulating in Colossae, variations of which continue to compete against the true Gospel in the world today.

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

Book by Braun, Mark E.

Ephesians is a veritable compendium of St. Pauls theology, and a candidate for his most influential epistle. In it we learn of the reconciliation of the cosmos and our eternal election in Christ; salvation by grace through faith apart from works; the mystery of salvation also for the Gentiles; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism; the divine gift of the Holy Ministry; the church as Christs bride and body; the Christological meaning of marriage; and the resplendent armor of God. We today, no less than the Ephesians recently converted from their pagan lifestyle, need to appropriate these teachings because of spiritual peril of the environment in which we live. Dr. Wingers commentary unfolds the mysteries of the Gospel by his meticulous analysis of the Greek text and his reverent exposition of the epistles proclamation of Christ and his gifts for the sake of his church.

Christ-centered Bible truths unfold as you read this complete series of commentaries designed for spiritual growth and reading enjoyment. These trustworthy commentaries help you comprehend what you've read in Scripture as well as apply it to your life.

These commentaries offer:

Easy-to-read commentary that follows the text (in New International Version (NIV)) so you learn as you read
Scripture and commentary on the same page
Bible text highlighted in bold
Explanation of complicated passages
Important facts are identified to expand understanding of Bible times and help apply passages to life today
Maps and charts

This series is an excellent companion text for Bible study leaders and for individual use.