I’ve been looking for this volume for years. It was announced so long ago that I wondered secretly if it was never going to come to pass. At times it was portrayed as a simple updating by Seyoon Kim of F. F. Bruce’s well received work of years ago. Well, let me tell you that that is not what it is. This is a major new production. There are very few of Bruce’s words that actually remain. That Kim is a protégé of Bruce is the real connection that remains. Apparently, Kim felt that an entirely new work needed to be written, and, as it turns out, it is the commentary section itself that is rewritten. This was the right choice for this work. Most of us already possess Bruce’s work, so what Kim has done is much more valuable to us.

To be sure, there is incredible breadth here. It was a little more technical than I expected, and then in some cases a little more than I would even want. But that is a matter of taste. The introduction ran to near 120 pages. Some of that is for the scholars only, but there’s a lot of good material for any of us. I like the way he introduced topics, compared options, and then gave a conclusion. So many modern commentaries never clearly give us conclusions. I’m a fan of conclusions. Whether I agree with them or not will be based on the evidence presented, but if a work is written without an eye toward conclusions, it often is little more than a barrage of words. For the record, I like and agree with several of his conclusions.

The commentary proper is in the well-known and often discussed format of the WBC series. I’m yet to find someone who professes it to be the best format, but we are all used to it by this point. Perhaps it has more value than some think because it separates out some things that some of us would not necessarily want.

I told you it was technical. There’s a lot of Greek given, but usually the English phrase is next to it and still easy to follow. I felt what we were given in the Form/Structure/Setting sections of each passage was especially good and filled with insights. You can’t be this detailed and not have several places where readers disagree with you, but again, his clarity of argument propels this work into the very helpful category. I recommend this work, and hope that it is the first of several new releases in this venerable series.

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.