Here’s a solid new commentary on Daniel in the winsome Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (ZECOT) series. Widder projects as one who did her homework throughout. There’s the right balance between lucidity and depth throughout while the volume succeeds in finding its own niche in what has become a crowded commentary market.

What are the strengths of this commentary? Plenty to be sure. They become apparent in the Introduction. Avoiding stilted language, Widder manages to engagingly lay out scholarly trends on every issue, to weigh them, and to crown the scholarly consensus winners. She hit her stride on Structure after somewhat warming up on earlier topics like genre, authorship and date. Structure was clear and compelling. That is, wouldn’t you agree, fortuitous for this series with its specific aims? Significance of the book discussions and the outline proceed at a high level as well. In the commentary proper, depth, exegesis and clarity are good as is thriving in ZECOT’s sterling format. The tone resonates throughout her writing too and she never turns to lecturing us or grating on our nerves. She can go from macro to micro seamlessly as well. The discourse analysis sings.

What are the weaknesses? Though fewer, they sometimes stand close to the strengths. While the scholarly survey is tops, she is less adept at championing her conclusions. If that is not your preference as is mine, you’ll love the book even more. Perhaps the controversial Daniel 9:27 best illustrates what I’m saying. There’s more scholarly variety there, so the weighing gets harder while the conclusions get more imprecise. ( I’m not basing this merely on disagreeing with what she shared either).

She rarely cuts a new path either. Rather than any original explanations, it strikes me as more of a weighing of the known opinions. That’s worthwhile too, but that is what might separate, say, a really good commentary from a great, influential one.

Still, I’m comfortable in labeling this one a really good commentary. I should mention there’s some theological nuggets along the way too. The book as a whole package succeeds.

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.

He did it. He had big shoes to fill, but he replaced the Hebrews volume in this much-beloved series. He had big words to live up to as well. After I had almost finished the Introduction and was becoming impressed with Sigurd Grindheim, who I had never heard of, I turned back to D.A. Carson’s Editor’s Preface and read the high praise of “lucid brevity” among other things and found he lived up to that too. High expectations I found had been met and exceeded.

What makes this a winning commentary? First, it’s the breath. It’s noticeably impressive. It would take a far better man than me to think of something about Hebrews that he hadn’t fully surveyed. Second, it’s the writing style. Complex things sound simple without an ounce of superficiality. Third, it’s the sparkling theology that can keep the big picture in focus. If you force me to find a flaw, occasionally he led you right to the end before you could figure exactly where he stood, but even that criticism is a stretch.

The Introduction is thorough in its coverage, brilliant in its synthesis and thoughtful in its conclusions. I’m shocked I would say this, but his discussion of authorship and date was riveting. Scholars en masse have rejected the idea of a Pauline authorship, but his fair and balanced presentation led me to believe it’s not as unreasonable as you would think. That is not his conclusion, but that shows the magnanimity of his writing. Audience and occasion are well related while Structure is presented with the most reasonableness possible. I’m forced to agree with it. Rhetoric, an unavoidable issue in Hebrews, is evenly portrayed. Reception gets a deep turn, but as you will see, the doctrinal battles of the church must stop by the door of Hebrews. His discussion of theology kind of suggests theme as much as theology and is winsome all around.

From there, the commentary had little chance of failing. Everything you need for exegesis is neatly packaged, but then, and here’s the neat part, you are left with the essence as well. Commentaries served up from this recipe will gladly find me feasting at its table.

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.

There are several nice volumes on the Minor Prophets available these days, but this one stands out. Its subtitle “A Theological Introduction” spells it out exactly. Think of it like this. You are receiving a nice introduction to each of these prophets as might be found in a major commentary on any one of them, but with the exceptional emphasis on theological matters over the minutia that sometimes engulfs said commentaries. In other words, here are introductions that get at what you really want to find.

The first two chapters set the stage. I found chapter 1 as a fascinating recap of how the scholarly world approaches studying the writings of the Prophets. Some of it is helpful while some of it might be something of overanalyzed conclusions. For example, sometimes scholars keep finding new genres to break things down into that in no way could have been on the original writers minds. They rehearse among themselves until they are thoroughly convinced, but some of us are a tad bit skeptical. Still, the authors here present this information in a succinct fashion that is really helpful. The overall layout and the charts only make it better better.

From there, every prophet gets a chapter that overviews the big picture and finds theological themes. I found this rich throughout. Obviously, structure is thoughtfully observed. In several cases, the prophet gets a second chapter plumbing some key theme. Some of those are more apropos than others, but all are worthwhile. Each chapter ends with a brief listing of recommended further reading.

I like this book to the point that I will never do a deep study of any individual Minor Prophet in the future unless I consult this book. It is a good one.

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.

Think of all the people you know that see Numbers as their favorite book in scripture. In that blank space, I should find a nice opportunity to divert your attention to this review. Baker now has a second book of the Pentateuch covered in this newly emerging series. Clearly, this is going to be a major series.

I am not familiar with Mark Awabdy. It didn’t take me long to realize that he has a very distinct writing style for these types of works. In fact, it is almost as if the tone even was different. I’ll be curious to find out later if he strikes other people besides me in that same way.

Outside of style, he is clearly an accomplished scholar. He does write a tad bit more in a scholarly style than is my preference, but he has a lot of depth and shares a lot of information. In my view, he is solid on most fronts, whether that be exegesis or structural analysis of the text or even theology. On the negative side, he’s more accommodating to redaction criticism than I am comfortable to see. There’s a lot more to this book than that, but it is still distinctly noticeable to me. It’s like having a pretty good dish and adding the wrong spice. Were you to agree with his approach to redaction criticism this might be one of your favorite commentaries.

The introduction has a lot to ponder. The concentric rings of genre shown on page 11 do not seem particularly plausible to me while his overall ideas of structure were on target. As you might expect, I could not get on with his section entitled “composition” at all. Getting past that discussion will lead you to some pretty good theology.

When you get into the commentary proper, the trends of the introduction are still plainly seen. His reaction criticism is his escape hatch to get away from the question of the historical validity of the numbers given in this book. Look at, for example, his commentary on 1:44-54. That analysis won’t float for me.

Still, the mixture of exegesis and theology mitigate some of the criticism and renders this volume an asset. I would not make it my first choice on the book of Numbers, but it is still a nice book to have, and can teach you much. Mark my word, this is going to be a major series, and we are going to want to have all of its volumes.

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.

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.

Perhaps you say, this is just a release of a book in paperback that has been around a while. While you’d be technically correct, you’d still be missing the point. Some commentaries are out of date in a few years while others last decades. Do you wonder why that is? It’s two things really: a) approach, and b) how well they say what they say. If you go hyper academic, you’ll be soon laid aside. If you can dig out what Scripture is really saying, that has more a timeless feel. You must, of course, be able to share penetrating thoughts in a way we can catch or you’ll fail over time as well even if your content is good. Victor Hamilton can do what it takes for a winning commentary. Being in a popular series, his Genesis is more well known, but this work is in that vein. Perhaps it’s more streamlined, but there’s real quality throughout. Back to this paperback release—any way to get a great commentary in a better deal is cause for celebration.

This commentary only concerns itself with what’s important. It’s not a devotional commentary that always runs to application, but rather one that so carefully draws out the theology that the application is obvious. Far and away, it’s best strength is the biblical theology that it provides. It wisely avoids critical minutia and goes hard after timeless insights into our story with God.

The exegesis is to the point and superb. Much learning guides this work more than learning just paraded through it. The commentary on each passage gives what I consider to be distinctly helpful.

Most people mention how this commentary is not in any major series, and that only proves it had nothing to prop it up. It’s just simply good. I’m so glad to have it.

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.