A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Fred G. Zaspel
I have long been an advocate of helping people see the biblical forest before examining all the trees, and so I was excited to see this new series from Benjamin Gladd (series editor). The first two installments are now available:
- Handbook on Acts and Paul’s Letters, by Thomas Schreiner
- Handbook on Hebrews through Revelation, by Andreas Köstenberger
- Handbook on the Gospels, by Benjamin Gladd (forthcoming)
These “handbooks” are concise commentaries on their respective New Testament books, providing the reader with a brief introduction to each and then a quick yet firm grasp of the developing argument of each, passage by passage. It is not quite a verse-by-verse commentary; it looks, rather, to guide the Bible reader through each New Testament book at a relatively rapid pace. The information is very well-informed, yet it is “crunched” to a few pages per passage.
It is a pleasure to see these works made available, and it is a pleasure to recommend them. For the Christian who wants to gain a firm grasp of the New Testament before getting into the nitty-gritty of more extensive commentaries, I do not know a better place to turn. It struck me while reading through these that they would make for very profitable aid to daily Bible reading – work your way through the New Testament, one passage a day, reading both the biblical passage itself and then the brief corresponding commentary, and just watch your biblical understanding grow by leaps and bounds daily.
A really excellent resource. Highly recommended.
PS: You can see Mark Baker’s review of the Schreiner volume here.