Book Review: Exegetical Guide To The Greek New Testament - Ephesians

B&H Academic has a collection of Exegetical commentaries called: Exegetical Guide To The Greek New Testament. I was privileged to receive a review copy of Ephesians and I have to say upfront, this is an amazing commentary. If the rest of the series is anything like the Ephesians version I'll be getting them all.

               The commentary is based on the Greek New Testament which means that for a person to get the most out of these guides they must have, at least, a working knowledge of the language. The guides will still be of some limited use to those who do not know the language, especially for the preacher because each section contains suggested Homiletical outlines. These outlines can be used to help prepare sermons or Bible studies.
               The commentary begins with a short introduction which discusses things like authorship and date. There is also an outline and a section of recommended commentaries. The introduction is not extensive but is simply a condensed summary. The person interested in more material covering those introductory topics will need to refer to one or more of the recommended commentaries or a Bible Dictionary/Encyclopedia.
               The main text dealing with the scriptures proper are composed of a number of sections: "structure", a grammatical diagram of the relevant verses being discussed followed by a verse by verse discussion of the Greek text. The body of the guide is devoted to the lexical, grammatical, and translational issues. At the end of each section there's a subsection called "For Further Study" which lists resources that are helpful for studying topics that have arisen in those verses just commented on followed by the "Homiletical" outline section.

               The guide is actually quite small in size, but is so dense. This book will be at my side as I study the book of Ephesians. It doesn't give me everything but does a great job summarizing the material and pointing me in the right direction for further study.
               If you are a preacher, I think you would do well picking these guides up, especially Ephesians. If you are not a minister but have a working knowledge of the language this too is a great resource for you. All others will more than likely find frustration and very little help due to the fact that these guides are extremely technical and deal with an ancient language.

 Get your copy Here or Here

 

A quick summary of some short books I've recently read

A Christmas Carol
• I've known the basic story from watching different versions of it on TV. The Disney cartoon version and other movie versions.
• I do have to say that the book was much more detailed especially when the ghost of Christmas present was on the scene
• I also think this is a great story of redemption. You have a man who has become bitter in his old age. He is rich but stingy and unhappy. After he is taken on a trip through Christmas past, present, and the future he has a major change of heart and sees how not only his life, but the lives of others are effected by how he lives.

She Stoops to Conquer
• An interesting play. The play is a comedy that all takes place in one evening.
• The characters are all, in some way, trying to get their own way while at the same time trying to trip up others.
• Different people are presented as other than who they really are. Some people are shocked by the way they are treated because they are misidentified. The father is thought to be an innkeeper and is treated as such. Demands are made of him as if he was simply a servant.
• One person wants to run away with another man's fiancé. The husband to be doesn't want to marry the woman and she doesn't want to marry him. This is an arranged marriage. They scheme and plot and plan in order to deceive those who are arranging this marriage.
• In the end after all the ups and downs and major errors and all the deception it all works out. How convenient.
• Certainly not a realistic story, but is comedic in the modern sense of causing laughter.

Bartleby, the scrivener
• Here is a story about a man who has three employees and ends up needing another because business is so good. So he hires Bartleby to help. Bartleby is a copyist. He copies boring law documents all day long. But after he gets hired it isn't long before he begins to act strange. Bartleby won't do anything but copy. He won't help check his work, go to the post office, nothing. He simply say "I prefer not to" do whatever he has been asked to do.
• Finally Bartleby stops working all together. He won't even copy. The employer doesn't know what to do with him. He tries to get him to work, to do something, anything. After a long time Bartleby still hasn't done anything and now the towns people begin to talk about this odd fellow. The employer finally tries to fire Bartleby, but he won't leave.
• Finally the employer just moves his office to another building. Bartleby stays behind, but the new occupants can't get him to do anything either and they can't get him to leave. Bartleby is, in the end, put in prison where he eventually dies.
• Some have suggested that this is a work discussing the idea of people becoming "Cogs" in the machine of life/business. One "Cog" simply stops working, quits and eventually dies. He is then replaced.
• What is the moral or proper interpretation of the story? I don't really know. It was an interesting little story that's for sure.

Metamorphosis
• This is a very strange story about a man who wakes up one day to find that he has been changed into a bug. He tries to figure out how he can continue to go about his daily life (work, ect.) and at the same time he has to adjust to being a bug (he can't move properly, ect.).
• Over time his family comes to cope with the change and they pretty much leave him along, keeping him locked in his room.
• More time passes and he becomes more bug like and accustomed to him new bug body. He is able to move around and eat, ect.
• The family has to all get jobs because the son, who is now a bug, was the sole bread winner.
• After a long period of time the bug man gets injured, stops eating, and then dies.
• The family takes the day off from work and goes for a nice ride in the sun. The bug is gone from the home, life goes on.
• When I first read this I thought it might be a way of discussing what happens when a member of the family gets sick with a terminal illness. At first everyone tries to do what they have always done and not make much fuss. Over time the family becomes burdened and the person who is sick has less and less interaction with the family.
• Finally the family has had enough of all the stress and desires the sick person to leave/get better/be less of a burden. Eventually the sick person dies. Everyone is now able to move on.
• But I have heard that this story is about being so much a part of the system that you wake up one day feeling like you're an animal (or bug), just going along with the flow.
• I have also heard one interpretation that it may have to do with going from puberty or adolescence to adulthood. Changes of your body and feeling misunderstood by parents, ect.
• Whatever the true interpretation, if there is one, it is a strange story.

 

Book review: The Story of Philosophy

I just finished reading The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee. What a great introductory survey of the great philosophers of the world. This book does a wonderful job of surveying and discussing those major philosophers who have had an impact upon our view of the world around us including how we see and understand ourselves.

            The book is broken up into nine main chapters dealing with a specific period of time or philosophic point of view. For example, the book starts off with The Greeks And Their World, there are also chapters on The Great Rationalists, The Great Empiricists, and 20th Century-Philosophy.

            The book is 240 pages long with lots of pictures and small snippets of extra information scattered throughout. At the end there is an index, glossary, and a section on further reading, which lists major philosophers and their major works.

            This book is great for those new to "The Great Conversation" or those looking to be reminded of major figures and major philosophical ideas. Well worth reading.

Get a copy here.

Book Review: Divorce in the Bible

Divorce in the Bible by Michael S. Sayen is a 65 page booklet on a very important subject. If the statistics are accurate, we are told that the rates of divorce are almost identical in the secular world as they are in Christendom. So, I was excited to get this booklet and see what the author had to say and if maybe he had any new insights.
               First let me say that the author's ideas are intriguing. I'm not sure that I agree with his conclusions, but he certainly gave me a lot to think about. I always find it enjoyable to try and see things from a new perspective and this book certainly did that for me.
               The problem I had with this booklet was the way it was written. It's only 65 pages long, so I should have finished it in a very short time, but I just couldn't get through it. I would pick it up and read a paragraph or two and feel exhausted. The style is just hard to get into. It also suffers from some grammatical errors. I really feel like this booklet could be much better if it had an editor go through it.
               Ultimately, I simply cannot recommend this book until it gets rewritten. Again I'm not complaining about the fact that (I think) I disagree with the author, but rather my complaint is with the writing style and the grammatical errors.

You can buy a copy here.

 

This was a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through the Book Crash program.