These early volumes of the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (EEC) series are impressive. Just think, if they hadn’t decided to start printing these formerly digital-only volumes, I would’ve missed it completely. This volume on the Book of Jude by Herbert W. Bateman IV is of the same high quality of the earlier volumes I’ve seen.

Bateman has turned out a fine Introduction to the Book of Jude. I love the way he clearly expresses his conclusion at the end of each section. He begins with discussing some of the textual issues before he jumps into authorship and place of writing. As you would expect, he discusses which Jude this book is about and other theories of authorship. His conclusions are conservative. When he addresses the recipients of the letter, he seems to feel that we are to decide between either Jewish or Gentile Christians. He concludes a Jewish ethnicity of Jude’s readers and that affects everything he discusses thereafter. He next discusses dating the letter and has an outstanding overview of other scholarly opinions. He sees it as written during the apostolic period.

He reaches a unique conclusion that the revolutionary forces of the Judean rebels are the false teachers, or opponents, of Jude. To be honest, I wasn’t convinced of his conclusion, but found it fascinating. You couldn’t accuse this volume of being a regurgitation of some other commentary for sure. The Introduction is thorough and including the bibliography almost reaches 100 pages.

The commentary is outstanding and holds up well with any major exegetical commentary. The depth is good, the options well-defined, and the conclusions are carefully stated. He interacts with scholarship both ancient and modern in this carefully researched volume. Every passage receives an introduction, textual notes, translation, and detailed commentary, followed by biblical theology comments and application and devotional implications.

If you pick up this commentary, I think you’ll agree that it has to be in the running for the best exegetical commentary we have on the Book of Jude today.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.