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 includes:
- Pericope 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 levels: (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 bibliography contains all sources used anywhere in the commentary.
John Goldingay (PhD, University of Nottingham; DD, Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth) is professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, but lives in Oxford, England. His numerous books include An Introduction to the Old Testament, A Reader’s Guide to the Bible, Reading Jesus’s Bible, and commentaries on Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel. He has also authored Biblical Theology, the three-volume Old Testament Theology, and the seventeen-volume Old Testament for Everyone series, and has published a translation of the entire Old Testament called The First Testament: A New Translation.
Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford (PhD, Baylor University) is the Carolyn Ward Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Reading from the Beginning: The Shaping of the Hebrew Psalter, Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Textbook, Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel, and The Book of Psalms (NICOT).
Peter H. Davids (PhD, University of Manchester) is visiting professor in Christianity at Houston Baptist University and visiting professor of Bible and applied theology Houston Graduate School of Theology. He is author of numerous books, including Reading Jude with New Eyes, The Epistle of James (NIGTC), The Epistle of 1 Peter (NICNT), James (NIBC), and A Biblical Theology of James, Peter, and Jude. He coedited with Ralph P. Martin The Dictionary of the Latter New Testament and Its Developments.
