Tag Archives: BST

Book Review The Message of Luke (Michael Wilcock)

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While the BST series claims not to be a commentary series, many of the New Testament volumes follow a typical verse by verse approach. By contrast, the volumes covering Old Testament books take a broader view of the overall flow of a book, highlighting its major themes without necessarily touching on every verse or discussing all the interpretational or theological issues that are raised. Michael Wilcock’s volume on Luke is very much in the latter style.

The author acknowledges from the outset that this is an intentionally brief volume majoring on exposition rather than exegesis. There are no prolonged defences of traditional authorship or historicity. Neither is there more than a few passing references to what is and isn’t found in the other gospel records. Controversial or complicated passages are noted as such, but not explored in any depth. The introduction is particularly short, although this is compensated by an extended first chapter on 1:1-4. After that, the pace picks up considerably, and he begins by analysing Luke’s interesting literary style in the birth narrative.

Rather than treating each parable, miracle or teaching separately, Wilcock prefers to group them together and demonstrate what common themes are to be found in all of them. He is primarily concerned with grasping Luke’s flow of thought and discovering why he arranged the material in the way he did. This means that sections that you might expect to find a long section of comments on (e.g. the Lord’s prayer) are covered in only a few sentences. It also means that the book is not suitable as a reference for those who want an explanation of an individual pericope.

However, this book does do a good job of fulfilling the stated aim of the series – to highlight “the message of” a particular book. Luke’s portrayal of Jesus as the healer and saviour for all nations is at the forefront throughout the book. Also, in keeping with the rest of the BST series, practical and theological application is very important, and nowhere more so than in the chapter on the cross. Wilcock strongly disagrees with any suggestion that Luke had no theology of the cross.

If you want an overview of the book of Luke this is a good place to start. At 200 pages it is much more manageable than most commentaries on Luke. In fact it will serve well as a companion to other introductory level commentaries on Luke, which will leave out much of Wilcock’s treatment of the flow of thought in favour of cramming in more comments on individual verses.

Book Review – The Message of Leviticus (Derek Tidball)

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This is the most recent addition to the Bible Speaks Today series, and follows firmly in the tradition of the others in the belief that God is speaking relevantly to us from all parts of the Bible, even the commonly neglected parts of the Old Testament such as Leviticus. Tidball’s writing style is engaging and the book begins with a fascinating introduction dealing with some of the themes and issues that come up in the book. Rather than breaking down the rules into categories of moral, civil and ceremonial, he prefers to seek the principles and paradigms expressed within them as we seek to apply them in the new covenant as Christians.

Tidball is clearly interested in some of the contemporary scholarly trends concerning Leviticus studies and often interacts with the views Milgrom, Douglas and others. He is not uncritically accepting of new theories and argues against them in places, but neither does he reject everything out of hand. Leviticus is of course the type of book that receives a lot of criticism for some of the unfashionable ethics it espouses as well as some of the rules and stipulations that are far from being ‘politically correct’. For Tidball, Leviticus is more about relationship with God than regulation, and his probing behind the letter of the laws to the spirit of the law often reveals strikingly modern concerns for human dignity and social welfare.

While the relevance for Christians is never far from the author’s concern, each chapter begins with a summary of the passage in question before concluding with a specific section of application. This proves to be a very helpful format for this commentary in particular. In these end sections, the sacrifices are thought of in light of Christ’s sacrifice for us, the priestly duties are used to draw out lessons for Christian leadership (although he stresses that OT priests are not analogous to NT leaders, as we are all priests in the new covenant), and purity laws serve to remind us that our religion concerns not merely what happens in the worship service but in every area of our lives – even in the kitchen and the bedroom God has something to say.

I can highly recommend this volume to anyone studying Leviticus whether for their own personal benefit or as part of preparing studies for others. Not only will it give a fuller understanding of the meaning of the book, but it will bring many practical challenges and encouragements for Christian life. I particularly enjoyed the sections on the Day of Atonement and Jubilee, as well as his discussion of the purity regulations, food laws and the sacrifices for unintentional sins.

Book Review – The Message of Hebrews (Raymond Brown)

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This is one of the first volumes in the Bible Speaks Today series, and was in fact originally published separately under the title “Christ Above All”. The introduction sets out Brown’s working theory that Hebrews was written to believers who were tempted to give up or compromise to avoid the persecution they were facing. The letter is an appeal to endurance, and specifically warns against the folly of giving up Christianity to return to Judaism. Brown briefly discusses authorship but proposes no favourite candidate.

Hebrews draws heavily on the Old Testament, and the author is keen to stress the understanding of the Old Testament from a Christian, and especially Christ-centered viewpoint. The background information he provides concerning the relevant OT passages will prove helpful to those who do not immediately recognise some of the connections and significance of the various allusions.

On quite a few occasions, Brown goes on the offensive against a liberal watered down christology, as well as critiquing liberation theology, Catholic teachings and various secular writings. He quotes books such as “Honest to God” or “The Myth of God Incarnate” as illustrative of contemporary challenges to biblical Christianity. He occasionally interacts other commentators, mainly Bruce and Hughes.

Hebrews contains a number of important passages which relate to the controversial “once saved always saved?” debate. Brown carefully manages a blatantly partisan approach, but his general interpretation of Heb 6 is Calvinist friendly. He also endeavours to provide a more pastoral perspective, considering the situation where friends who had an apparent genuine faith fall away.

As usual with the Bible Speaks Today series, the emphasis is on contemporary relevance rather than technical linguistic or theological arguments, and this will benefit those who find Hebrews a difficult book and want some devotional help. Immensely practical subjects such as facing death without fear, and understanding God’s discipline are explored helpfully.

The size of the book makes it slightly too long to be read alongside a chapter a day of Hebrews, but it is well suited to those who want to take a bit longer to study the book, or who want to use it as an aid in preparing sermons or studies for others.

Commentary Series Review – Bible Speaks Today

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The Bible Speaks Today series is responsible for me getting interested in reading commentaries. The first one I bought was Michael Green’s volume on Matthew, which I then followed with Stott on Romans. Both were excellent and now I have read 51 (just 1 to go!).

The Bible speaks today series has been slowly growing for almost 40 years and is now nearing completion, with just a couple of Old Testament books to go. (There is also a Bible themes series which has about 10 volumes) It is conservative evangelical in outlook, and therefore the books in question are understood in the light of the rest of the canon. The Old Testament in particular is viewed from a Christian perspective. They are in a fairly large paperback format, with a typical length of 200-300 pages.

The series benefits from two highly competent editors – Motyer and Stott (OT and NT respectively). They ensure that, in keeping with the series title, each volume is more about what Christians can learn from the book rather than being simply a ‘commentary’. Their judicious and even-handed editorship is evidenced by the remarkably broad spectrum of British evangelical leaders who have endorsed the series.

The authors are typically British Anglicans, and most are pastors rather than academics, although the writers are not lacking in scholarly expertise, and some have contributed to more technical series. Authors are frequently chosen for having preached a notable sermon series on the book in question to their own congregations. This makes the books often feel like a collection of expository sermons, and full of practical application.

They are designed to be accessible to all Christians who want to study a book in a bit more depth, and to this end the New Testament series has been furnished with a study guide, which offers a few (thankfully not patronising) questions on each chapter.

The books begin with a short introduction and bibliography, in which they will typically outline the main arguments for accepting the book’s historicity and traditional authorship. More important however, is the intention to communicate the biblical author’s main message, to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the book.

The commentary itself can vary dramatically in length. For example, Jeremiah is shorter than Jonah. Only two books (Genesis and Psalms) are covered in two volumes. In particular, some of the commentaries on the shorter NT epistles are quite long, and include treatment of issues covered by more intermediate level commentaries. Volumes on shorter books of the Bible will also typically include the biblical text. Most are based on the NIV, although some of the older ones use the RSV.

The authors are generally given freedom to make points on related issues such as ecology, the ecumenical movement, third world debt, infant baptism and so on. Where evangelicals are broadly agreed, they are forthright, and where evangelicals are divided, they are firm but never belligerent. The commentary is not always sequential either, with some sections being studied out of order, and in the case of Proverbs, approached thematically. You can expect the occasional key Greek or Hebrew word to be discussed, but no specialist vocabulary is presumed and it is always transliterated. They will not normally discuss the opinions of other commentators, but may well tie in current events.

This series is ideal for Christians who want to dig a bit deeper into a particular book of the Bible but find standard commentaries overwhelming and dull. Those looking for help preparing a Bible study on a passage will find it will provide plenty of ideas and insight.

The series is accessible but it’s not lightweight, and will perhaps still prove heavy-going for those who do not read non-fiction often. Slightly more readable series to try might be Tom Wright’s “For Everyone” series, or “Focus on the Bible” from Christian Focus. Alternatively, those looking for a bit more technical depth while retaining the evangelical and practical focus might want to try the Pillar (PNTC), Tyndale (TNTC, TOTC), New American (NAC) or NIV Application (NIVAC) series.

For me the series highlights are Leviticus (Tidball), Chronicles (Wilcock), Song of Songs (Gledhill), Ezekiel (Wright), Hosea (Kidner), Matthew (Green), Romans (Stott), Ephesians (Stott), 2 Timothy (Stott), and John’s Letters (Jackman). They have been most helpful for me in appreciating the main message of those books. I have reviewed a number from the series here on my blog:

Jeremy Pierce has also reviewed James (Alec Motyer) and 1 Peter (Edmund Clowney).

Book Review – The Message of Numbers (Raymond Brown)

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This recent addition of Numbers to the BST series comes almost 10 years after the author’s contribution on Deuteronomy. Brown has obviously spent a lot of time studying the Pentateuch, and the fruit of this is another volume that will help Christians to draw out theological and practical lessons from what can be a daunting book to study. He argues in the introduction for the relevance of this book – though we live in a completely different time and culture, our basic needs are the same as those who we read about in Numbers.

Numbers contains a great diversity of material, but characteristically of the BST series, Brown does not go into detail discussing how the book came to be in its form, or arguing over issues of historicity (e.g. how did the number of Israelites grow so fast?). Rather he views it as a part of Christian scripture, and from a firmly evangelical viewpoint harmonises with the whole message of the Bible. There is rougly one chapter of commentary per chapter of Numbers, obviously with some important sections given more attention, and some of the more repetitive parts moved over more quickly.

The book of Numbers contains quite a few passages that attract criticism – laws that seem sexist, punishments that seem cruel, and even a command to wipe out a nation. Brown does not spend as much time dealing with these issues as he does in his Deuteronomy commentary, but over the course of the book he does provide some balanced guidelines for understanding and applying these passages.

I particularly appreciated the sections on the Aaronic blessing, the principles of giving (Numbers 7 and 18), the Levites as paradigms of modern Christians, and Moses’ strengths and failures as a leader. The story of the Bronze serpent is looked at in the light of John 3 and is used as the basis for a gospel exposition. The difficult chapter 31 is understood in the light of a long section on Balaam earlier in the book.

This book will not answer every question you have about Numbers, but will bring you a long way to appreciating its worth and contribution to Scripture. Rather than there being one key theme running through the book, this commentary on Numbers is a rich source of practical application in the personal, corporate and even political realms. Sin, holiness, worship, community, humility, unity, gospel, marriage, giving, forgiving, leadership – pretty much every aspect of Christian life is addressed in some way by this book.

Book Review – The Message of Revelation (Michael Wilcock)

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Michael Wilcock is a regular writer for the Bible Speaks Today series, having written four on Old Testament books (the one on Chronicles is particularly good) and two New Testament titles. The book of Revelation provides its own special challenges for a series such as this one, which intends to be expository rather than academic. Wilcock admits from the start that due to the extremely diverse range of possible interpretations encountered in Revelation studies, this book falls somewhere in between the “academic and sermonic”.

Particularly important to Wilcock is the structure of the book. He argues for eight scenes, each with seven sections. Whilst in a few places, his division of the material is less than convincing, his overall scheme does make sense, and is reinforced as he goes through the book by demonstrating the parallels between corresponding sections of different scenes. The book is furnished with the RSV text (reflecting the fact that this is one of the older volumes in the BST series – originally published in 1975).

The letters to the churches are the subject of the first scene, and Wilcock stresses their relevance as the church will tend to follow the same repeating patterns of errors. Scene two concerns the seven seals – which are interpreted as suffering for the church. Throughout the book, there are a number of short excursuses, dealing with problems of interpretation. In one on the meaning of numbers, he provides a useful discussion of 12, 24, 7 and 4, which he uses as he progresses through the book.

Wilcock tries to be even-handed towards those of all schools of interpretation of Revelation, but he quickly dismisses the historicist interpretation, as he sees that each scene is capable of rewinding and going over the same period again. The general approach is reminiscent of John Stott’s recent writing on Revelation in “The Incomparable Christ”, which is is not surprising since Stott is the editor of this book. The four horsemen are thus not a sign of the end, but representative of the suffering that will go on throughout history.

In scene three (the trumpets), Wilcock is careful to harmonise with Matt 24, which he takes as the definitive guide to the end times. The trumpets are specifically warnings and suffering for the ungodly. He thankfully does not provide fanciful speculations on how these might come into effect. Scene 4 is “the drama of history”, and Wicock defends his breaking the book into scenes by showing how various “openings” mark the start of each one. The existing chapter divisions are almost all in the wrong places as far as he is concerned. The “beast from the earth” is identified as false religion, although he seems to imply that miracluous signs are always now a sign of the false church. His paraphrase of the verse about 666 was also interesting (it’s not a problem for us to work out).

Scene five is concerned with punishment for the world, and Wilcock stresses the battle of ideologies that plays throughout history between the world and the church. Many of the symbols both here and in future scenes he interprets as relating to this ideological struggle. In scene six (Babylon the Whore), there is a helpful excursus on identifying symbols and why only some are explained, where he argues that these are not so much symbols as realities viewed from another perspective. He has a particularly interesting interpretation of Rev 17:9-12, which he does not view as primarily prophetical concerning particular kings or rulers, but archetypal of worldly governmental systems.

Finally in scene seven we get onto the subject of the millenium, which is the subject of another excursus. He outlines the options, along with their strengths and weaknesses, and explains why he has chosen an amillennial interpretation. This scene, along with the next give him some opportunity for some excellent devotional reflections on the gospel (e.g. on the book of life, the bride’s garments etc). As he begins the eigth scene, he argues the case for why a book with so many sevens should have eight scenes. This is the scene of new beginnings, just as after the seven days of the week, Jesus rose on the eighth day. This vision is not just of what the church will become, but what the Lord is making us into now. The book rather unexpectedly closes with a strange section explaining that the book of Revelation is unnecessary but beneficial since it is a “sacrement”. The command not to add to the book is understood as a warning not to modify the gospel.

I have always found parts of the book of Revelation difficult to understand, and I can’t pretend to have found a complete explanation in this book. But certainly there are a number of insights that will prove very helpful as I return to study Revelation in the future, and Wilcock’s structural analysis of the book is the most convincing I have heard so far (perhaps until I read another commentary!).

Book Review – The Message of Deuteronomy (Raymond Brown)

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The book of Deuteronomy brings us more than a simple reiteration of the law, but a series of sermons that teach about the character of God, revelation and grace. They were full of practical application of how God’s law should be put into effect in everyday life. This is how Brown introduces the book to us, and from the outset he declares his intent to take the paradigms and find their contemporary relevance, rather than simply dismissing the teaching as “no longer applicable”.

In the early chapters Brown draws some leadership lessons from the life of Moses, but from then on the dominant theme is the character of God. As his fine section on the Ten Commandments shows, the laws are not simply designed to teach us how to obey God, but how to be like God. He accepts analysis of the structure of the book that link it to an ancient treaty document, with its stipulations in general and specific terms as well as warnings against breaking the covenant. In this model the Lord is the “suzerain” who would provide benefits to his “vassal people” the Israelites if they kept the terms of the covenant which are spelled out in some detail.

Even though he is commenting on an Old Testament book, he is quite willing to make links with New Testament passages to show how these things apply in the New Covenant. In fact rather than a verse by verse exposition, he typically will turn a section into a sermon, drawing out the principles and including examples for contemporary application.

Brown does not shy away either from discussing some of the “difficult” sections. These include harsh punishments, obscure prohibitions and even some commands to wipe out certain nations. Without pretending to provide easy answers, his comments bring some perspective on the reasons and context, but also look ahead to the law of Christ expressed in the New Testament.

The end of the book describes the blessings and curses for obeying or disobeying the ‘treaty’, along with provision for the new leadership of Joshua. Lots of space is given to the song of Moses and his blessings of the tribes, whilst the well-known blessings and curses of chapter 28 are passed over surprisingly quickly.

There are approximately 10 pages of commentary for each of the 34 chapters of Deuteronomy, making it a realistic prospect to read this book alongside a daily reading of one chapter from the Bible. This makes a welcome change from some in the BST series that dwarf the size of the book on which they are commentating.

Deuteronomy is regularly quoted by the New Testament writers, but is perhaps not so well known and loved by modern Christians. Brown’s commentary serves as a valuable guide to the main themes and lessons that this book has to offer.

Book Review – The Message of John’s Letters (David Jackman)

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John’s letters, says Jackman, contain simple vocabulary but profound theology. In his introduction he makes a case for the apostle John as the author of these letters along with the gospel of John. The first letter intends to deal with the problem of the Gnostic false teachers who were vaunting their ‘anointing’ and ‘knowledge’. 1 John stands as a warning against knowing without doing. “Belief and behaviour” and “truth and love” are the major themes.

The commentary is broken into 20 short chapters, each dealing with a few verses. The last two chapters deal with 2 and 3 John respectively and are therefore slightly longer. The NIV text is included at the start of each chapter which is a useful feature that I wish more commentaries had (it’s very impractical to have a Bible and a commentary when reading in the bath). Jackman is willing to discuss issues of translation and Greek on occasions but it is never overly technical. He is also an appreciator of hymns, quoting them on regular occasions throughout the book. He has a good way with words, and at no point did I feel the book got bogged down with too many comments on one individual verse. As with all the New Testament BST volumes, there is a study guide at the end, which has a couple of (thankfully not patronising) questions on each chapter.

As he moves through the first letter, Jackman slowly deals with some of the heresies of the false teachers: their denial of the incarnation, their heretical views about Christ, their claims to perfectionism, their elite holier-than-thou attitude because of their special knowledge and their claiming to speak on behalf of God. Jackman shows how John counters these with affirmations of truth about Jesus and teaching about fighting sin. While the author hints that he can think of a few groups in the contemporary church that tend towards the same errors, he diplomatically avoids direct comparisons.

Love is a major theme of the book and the sections on how much God loves us as well as some practical teaching on how we love others are most valuable. The challenge to love one another is clearly spelled out, as it constitutes the irrefutable evidence of the new birth. Particularly excellent is the discussion of how love and obedience work together, and the way he shows that, for John, love is not merely a duty but a characteristic of real Christianity. The theme of truth is also clearly close to Jackman’s heart as he regularly stresses the importance of sound doctrine.

The chapters on 2 and 3 John both begin with a short discussion of authorship, both arguing for John again on stylistic grounds. In his comments on 2 John, Jackman talks about John’s concern for truth, particularly now that almost all the first apostles had died. He describes the competing trends in the church to either go for ‘new ideas’ or ‘old traditions’, neither of which is intrinsically right or wrong, but argues that the desire for ‘biblical truth’ should be paramount.

The chapter on 3 John is not surprisingly structured around the three men mentioned in the letter: Gaius who was welcoming and supportive, Diotrophes with his self-centred ambition and Demetrius the good example. The lessons they each teach the modern church are as important now as ever.

Book Review – The Message of Joel, Micah & Habakkuk (David Prior)

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The commentary on Joel starts by helping us to visualise the plague of locusts and the devastating effect they would have had on Joel’s community. We have almost no historical background on Joel, but his call to repentance for a nation that had lost its spiritual life is as relevant today as ever. Prior provides an overview of the teaching on “the day of the Lord” from the prophets – a day of decisive judgement on which the people were naively assuming they would be vindicated and saved. Nothing less than a genuine and heartfelt repentance from the whole community was required if they were to escape calamity. In response to the people’s repentance, Joel prophesies blessing restored in the near future, the Spirit’s outpouring (fulfilled at Pentecost) and then finally the “day of the Lord” would arrive. In the third chapter Prior draws parallels with modern day nations as judgement is pronounced.

Micah writes to an affluent society who were sidelining God and growing richer at the expense of the poor. It was also a time of political upheaval with the Assyrian empire invading Samaria during his ministry. Prior follows most commentators by dividing the book into three cycles of threat and promise. He does a good job of filling in a lot of the background details (such as the significance of the places) and pointing out where allusions to other Old Testament books are being made. This allows the essence of the prophetic message to be seen in passages that most Bible readers will skip over quite quickly as a generic list of judgement prophecies. As he comments on Micah’s indictment of the pride, greed and injustice of his day, Prior himself takes on a prophetic edge speaking forthrightly into modern political and cultural situations.

Habakkuk is introduced to us as a man zealous for God living in a society filled with violence. Again we are encouraged to see contemporary parallels. Prior spends most time on chapter two as Habakkuk asks the difficult questions of God boldly and yet reverently and waits for his response. He is rewarded with his answer in the form of a vision, but it wasn’t necessarily what he wanted to hear. Finally, Prior argues that Habakkuk has matured through the course of the book, demonstrated as he comes to a place where he rejoices in God purely because of who he is, irrespective of his own personal circumstances.

Prior has provided a helpful resource on these three Old Testament books. It took me longer than I expected to read, perhaps because it is a bit heavy-going in places. In many ways it is like reading the biblical books themselves – there are sections that can seem hard and dry interspersed with some real high points. Its best feature is the way that Prior gives us a feel for what issues these three men might address were they preaching today.

October Book Reviews

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Hebrews: The Radiance of His Glory (John Piper) 5/5

OK, this isn’t a book, but there is more than enough material in these 52 sermons on the book of Hebrews to put together a commentary. Whilst not going through the book as slowly as he is currently going through Romans (170 sermons and counting!), he does not rush through, usually tackling 3-4 verses in each 30-45 minute sermon. And as anyone who has heard Piper before will tell you, this is not dry and academic expository material – Piper is passionate about getting his message across.

The book of Hebrews may seem a surprising book to choose for someone as vocally Calvinist as Piper because of its passages that seem to teach that you can lose your salvation. He deals with this, in my view, brilliantly, demonstrating that the author of Hebrews himself teaches the “perseverance of the saints” elsewhere in the very same book. So believing that the author was not confused, and did not contradict himself, he shows that endurance is the only true sign of a genuine faith (bringing him, not surprisingly, into line with the standard teaching of the Puritans).

The call to persevere in faith flows through the book, with John Piper repeatedly warning about the dangers of drifting in the Christian life. In fact, it would seem that much of the material for his recent (and excellent) book “Don’t waste your life” came from this sermon series.

Also prominent throughout the series is John Piper’s characteristicly honest treatment of the subject of suffering. Everyone experiences suffering in their life, and everyone will one day die. Add to that the fact that many great saints of Bible times and throughout church history have had do endure tremendous suffering and it is a wonder that preachers do not address this subject more often. John Piper doesn’t believe in the “I’ll worry about that when it happens” approach. His heart is for people who are ready and willing to suffer and die for the cause of the gospel, and who know how to make sense of it when it comes in whatever form (whether for the gospel or not).

You will need quite a lot of spare time to work your way through this series, but it will be time well spent. It would be ideal material for listening to on a daily commute. Prepare to be challenged to a seriously radical discipleship.

Power Through Prayer (E M Bounds) 4/5

This is just one of seven books E M Bounds has written on prayer. It is broken up into 20 chapters, each of which are fairly short making it easy to work your way through slowly. The book is directed at preachers and uncompromisingly calls them to put prayer as their top priority. Bounds argues that without prayer, a preaching ministry is useless, even if on the surface of things it seems to have some good qualities or results. The early chapters urge the preacher to spend more time in prayer, drawing repeatedly on the examples of great preachers from church history, demonstrating their own reliance on prayer. He is critical of those who are willing to put much time into studying theology or developing their rhetorical technique while neglecting prayer.

He sees prayer as the key to a successful and Holy Spirit anointed preaching ministry, almost to the point of saying that prayer is the only thing you need to get right – the rest will just follow. You could perhaps criticise him for coming across as legalistic in some places, and anti-intellectual in others but that would be to miss his main point. A preaching ministry is dead without prayer as surely as a human being is dead without oxygen. Don’t think you need to be a preacher to appreciate this book though, its call to prayer is a vital message for all Christians.

Paul For Everyone – Galatians & Thessalonians (N T Wright) 3/5

I had been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time, as the books of Galatians and Thessalonians contain subjects on which Wright has some unique things to say. Galatians of course brings up the issue of the “New Perspective on Paul”. As expected Wright does not see the book as an attack on teaching that the way for an individual to be saved is by works. Instead, he explains that faith, rather than circumcision is the “badge of membership” of God’s people, and that the issue at stake was God wanting to create a people from all nations rather than by Gentiles having to conform to Jewish law. While rejecting the Lutheran view of the law, Wright describes the law as a “babysitter”, performing a useful function, but no longer required when maturity is reached.

Thessalonians brings up the controversial issues of the rapture and the antichrist. Wright has argued strongly in other publications that the “coming” passages in the gospels are not to be read as prophecies of Christ’s “second coming”. Rather, they are seen as mirroring the Daniel 7 “coming” of the Son of Man to heaven (as opposed to from), or the long awaited return of YHWH and the end of the exile. The passage on the rapture is seen as symbolic language rather than literal. Wright provides good insight into the situation at the church in Thessalonica, linking up with the Acts accounts and demonstrating the relevance of Paul’s comments to them. In 2 Thessalonians, he avoids getting into debate on the identity of a future antichrist, favouring a partial preterist approach (he sees it as being fulfilled in AD70).

The Message of Daniel (Ronald Wallace) 4/5

Any commentary on the book of Daniel is in danger of getting bogged down in argument about dating and authorship and an overwhelming amount of background historical information. Wallace does well to provide a basic overview of the main arguments and necessary history as well as making his own case for Daniel as author without letting the introduction become unmanageably long.

The commentary itself is never far from practical application, particularly due to the parallels with Daniel’s situation for modern Western Christians. Like him, we are trying to live for God in a pagan culture, wondering what aspects of our culture we may accept, and what we ought to stand against. Wallace also draws out lessons from the contrasting attitudes of kings Nebuchadnezzar and Belteshazzar, both received judgement and mercy from God but responded very differently.

Whilst the first part of the book of Daniel is well known and loved, the second part is taken up with some vivid apocalyptic imagery which Christians either tend to skip over quickly or else come up with very fanciful interpretations of which 21st century characters and organisations it is refering to. Wallace takes a balanced approach, briefly explaining the options and drawing out relevant encouragements for us without feeling the need to explicitly determine who the 6th horn on the 4th beast is. He helpfully distinguishes between those prophecies clearly already fulfilled, and those that speak of the “end times”.

The Message of Hosea (Derek Kidner) 4/5

Of all the symbolic actions the Old Testament prophets were required by God to perform, Hosea’s is surely the most emotionally taxing. He married a prostitute, who bore three children, only one of whom was his, and then left him. Hosea then graphically modelled God’s grace and love by buying her back at great cost to be his wife again. Kidner has been careful to help the reader get a good overview of the flow of the book and its historical setting by providing some useful appendices (in fact, it would be nice if some of the other BST volumes could follow suit in this regard).

He breaks the book into two sections – the first being Hosea’s acted out parable of God’s love and then the prophetic message. In both parts, a vision of both the love and holiness of God shine through as the people are confronted for their sin and unfaithfulness yet the deserved judgement to come is not without hope because of God’s amazing grace. In the second part Kidner shows how Hosea consistently reveals their self-sufficiency, half-hearted religion and shallow repentance. The book ends with the amazing grace of God as he offers healing, refreshing and fruitfulness to those who will genuinely repent.