This latest volume in the ZECNT on Philippians is a work of mature scholarship that possesses all the warmth you could hope for. Guthrie particularly succeeds in taking rich detail and weaving a tapestry that displays an inviting picture of what’s really going on in Philippians.

Guthrie takes all the pieces that you look for in a commentary and actually fits them all together rather than offering us a collection of near unconnected parts, which describes many commentaries today. Some of those might be indispensable, but we can enjoy one like here where all the pieces do in fact make a whole.

You will see what I’m talking about in the Introduction. It’s masterfully done. Things that are dryly given in other works here are marshaled into a view of a wide horizon. It’s not just what Paul said, but why he said it. As a case in point, notice the section on crafting the letter, particularly “The Church in Philippi and Paul’s Reasons for Writing”. That was eye opening for what’s really going on in Philippians. Still, while I’m bragging on his forest, there are enough trees here to fill the appetite of the more rigorous types.

The Commentary proper carries on what the Introduction began. The rich details are woven into an incredible unveiling of structure. Structure, as you may recall, is an aim of this series. I might not have thought of structure as being so essential to Philippians, but Guthrie proved me wrong. I say that even as I admit that some parts of this letter’s structure are baffling.

Philippians is much loved by all of us, but writings on it can easily grow stale. They can drown in a nebulous sea of joy as if that is all this letter had to say. There’s no drowning here! This is a keeper.

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