Book Review -- A Study Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles

"Why one more?" asks Guy Prentiss Waters in the Preface to his A Study Commentary on the Acts of Apostles, noting the proliferation of publications on this book of the Bible. "What will this commentary contribute to the burgeoning literature?" As Waters explains, he intends his commentary to be 1) brief and clear, 2) geared towards the exposition of the text, and 3) distinctively Reformed in orientation. Waters is successful in each of these three areas, providing a commentary that is both readable and useful for serious students of the Bible.

Waters' commentary is published by EP Books as part of the EP Study Commentary series, which is intended for a general audience and written from a Reformed perspective. Due to its length, Acts has tended to produce commentaries of ever-increasing length (consider Craig Keener's soon-to-be-completed four volume monster), but Waters' volume clocks in at just over 600 pages of reasonably-sized type. In his Introduction, Waters briefly surveys the standard questions of authorship, date, title, genre and purpose, arguing that Luke has written Acts to edify Christians by highlighting "the continued word and deeds of the exalted Jesus through his apostles." He then divides the text into 18 major sections, with further subdivisions under each. After providing his own English translation of the text, Waters walks verse-by-verse through the pertinent exegetical details and interacts with the secondary literature. The volume is well-researched, with copious footnotes provided for further study, yet Waters never lets the main commentary get bogged down with extraneous details or arcane technical discussions. For example, Waters often highlights significant details from the Greek text, but in such a way that readers need not be students of Greek to grasp Waters' arguments. In addition to examining Acts itself, Waters also focuses on connections with other Scriptures, such as the use of the Old Testament in Acts and its links with the Gospel of Luke.

Another key feature of Waters' commentary is that the exegetical analysis of each subdivision of the text is followed by several paragraphs of Application. In these sections, Waters demonstrates how the Scriptural texts inform the lives of Christians today. These sections are very much pastoral in nature, and address many of the practical questions that naturally arise from reading Acts, such as the nature of the continued role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, the fact of conflict inside the church, and the reality of opposition to the Gospel from outside, just to name a few. In these sections Waters often makes use of Calvin or the Westminster Standards to integrate the text with a broader Reformed perspective.

All in all, Waters does an admirable job of providing a detailed yet readable commentary on Acts. The depth of engagement makes the book ideal for use in preparing sermons or Bible study lessons, yet anyone interested in growing in their faith through studying the Acts of the Apostles would benefit from this commentary.

(Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book in exchange for providing a review, with no obligations as to its content.)

Book Review - Galatians For You

Galatians For You by Tim Keller, is the first installment in the God's Word For You series from The Good Book Company. Per the Series Preface, the series aims to provide expository studies of Biblical books for a broad audience in a manner that is "Bible centered, Christ glorifying, relevantly applied, and easily readable." Each volume is written with three different purposes/audiences in mind: "Read," as a guide to the contents of the book; "Feed," as a daily devotional, and "Lead," as a resource for preaching and teaching through the book. The books aren't intended to be commentaries, and the reader is not expected to have understanding of the Biblical languages or even a high level of Scriptural knowledge. Keller approaches the material verse-by-verse, providing historical context, links with other Biblical texts, insights from other theologians and scholars, and personal application (including reflection questions). There's also a Glossary of key terms, an Appendix on recent scholarship on Galatians, and a Bibliography for further study. Throughout his study of the epistle, Keller continually connects the text back to the overarching theme of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the freedom it brings to those trust in him.

To be honest, I pity the authors who have to write subsequent volumes in the series, because Keller has set the bar pretty high. I was initially skeptical about the Read-Feed-Lead format, but the book weaves together the different purposes and audiences quite well. In less skillful hands, a book with such a wide intended audience could easily degenerate into an appeal to the lowest common denominator, but not so here. Even in writing for enquirers and new believers, it is apparent that Keller wants to encourage readers to stretch and grow in their knowledge of the text, and ultimately of the Lord who gave it. And his questions for reflection are hardly fluff, but are actually quite thoughtful and even convicting. An example picked at random: from the chapter on Galatians 2:1-10, "Both personally and as part of your church, do you tend to over-adapt or under-adapt the gospel for the culture around you?" My only caveat is that I'm not sure that Keller's book by itself is enough to handle to Lead aspect (i.e., leading a Bible Study on Galatians, or preaching through it), but there is a companion study guide that is tailored for small group study.

The book's greatest strength lies in the way that Keller clearly articulates and emphasizes the theme of the Gospel of grace throughout his treatment of the epistle. From the very start, Keller stresses the need for Christians to truly understand the grace of Christ and to never underestimate their need for it. In fact, in his second chapter he writes:  

You might think: We covered this in Chapter One of this book! And we did - but this letter, in its structure as well as its content, shows us that the gospel of grace underpins every step of the Christian life. Paul will keep coming back to it; so should we, in our lives, our prayers, our thoughts, our preaching and teaching.

Grace is not only the means of gaining the salvation achieved by Christ's death and resurrection, it is also the means of living the Christian life. In discussing everything from the error of the Judaizers, to the work of the Spirit, to the role of the Law, to the profundity of the believer being adopted as a child of God, Keller ties it all back to the complete sufficiency of Christ's work and the utter folly of trying to improve upon. As Keller memorably puts it, "you can't add to Christ without subtracting Christ. He is either all [our] value or He is without value." Furthermore, Keller does a great job of translating the situation of Galatians, which revolves around discussions of potentially unfamiliar subjects such as circumcision and food laws, into terms more accessible to a modern audience, such as the threats posed by social/racial divisions in the church or the dangers of unflinching adherence to non-essential cultural and theological distinctives. On the latter, Keller does not hesitate to sound a word of caution for his own Reformed tribe, observing that championing justification by faith alone does not always protect against relying on good doctrine as a source of salvation. In Keller's treatment, Galatians is hardly relegated to the record of religious debate from millennia past; rather, it is supremely practical and relevant to readers in our own day (and all others).          

The few quibbles I had about the book did little to detract from its overall value. As mentioned above, despite its usefulness, I'm not sure it succeeds as a one-stop shop for preaching/teaching. Individuals seeking to lead a Bible Study or preach through Galatians would be advised to use Keller's book in conjunction with other resources. One other aspect of the book that nagged at me was the way that Keller glosses over Paul's references to people being cursed/condemned. To be fair, Keller makes it clear that Paul sees the right understanding of the Gospel as a matter of eternal life and death. But when discussing "the curse" or "condemnation", Keller devotes much more time to the subjective, present experience of his audience, such as the anxiety and insecurity of the person who constantly fails to live up to whatever standard of works-righteousness they have adopted. True as that is, I don't think Keller's emphasis on the subjective aspects of deviating from the Gospel do justice to Paul's concerns. In general, I'm not a fan of "turn or burn" type preaching and teaching, but given the sharp tone and language of Paul's letter to the Galatians, I wish Keller would have focused more on the big picture of what is truly at stake when the Gospel is corrupted. Nevertheless, this omission did not significantly interfere with my enjoyment of the book.  

In summary, Galatians For You is highly recommended for anyone seeking to better understand Paul's epistle, whether as a new believer or as a lifelong student of the Scriptures. Although the book is not overly-long, Keller has packed enough insight and application between its covers to keep the thoughtful reader engaged for quite some time.

(Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for writing a review, though without any stipulations on its content.)

Book Review - A Theology of Luke and Acts

A Theology of Luke and Acts, by Darrell Bock, is the second installment (of eight planned) in Zondervan's Biblical Theology of the New Testament series. As the publisher's website states,

The Biblical Theology of the New Testament (BTNT) series provides upper college and seminary-level textbooks for students of New Testament theology, interpretation, and exegesis. Pastors and discerning theology readers alike will also benefit from this series. Written at the highest level of academic excellence by recognized experts in the field, the BTNT series not only offers a comprehensive exploration of the theology of every book of the New Testament, including introductory issues and major themes, but also shows how each book relates to the broad picture of New Testament theology.

Bock, having spent over three decades studying and writing about both Luke and Acts, is certainly qualified for the task, and his volume is a suitable contribution to the BTNT series. A closer examination of a representative chapter demonstrates both the overall format and the intended goals of the book and series.

Chapter 3 presents "The Case for the Unity of Luke-Acts and Reading the Volumes as Luke-Acts and as Luke and Acts." As Bock states from the chapter's outset, "Before one can work with Luke and Acts and present their theology as a unified whole, one must make the case that these volumes were intended to be seen as a literary unit and can be read as such."  Since Bock's work contains 17 chapters worth of discussion on various theological themes appearing in Luke and Acts, there's a good bit riding on his case that Luke and Acts present a unified theology!

The chapter begins with a bibliography of sources relevant to the discussion. One noteworthy feature is that Bock interacts with sources which were published predominantly within the last 5-10 years, in keeping with the BTNT's goal of providing a survey of recent scholarship. In Chapter 3, Bock presents the case that Luke and Acts were originally designed and written to tell one basic story. As various scholars have observed, the two books correspond at several important points, such as the similarities of their respective prologues, the description of Israel's tragic rejection of their Messiah, the portrayal of Jesus' interaction with the main characters of each book (i.e., Peter and Paul), and the emphasis on the Gentile mission (hinted at in Luke but coming to fruition in Acts) - not to mention structural details linking Luke 24 with Acts 1. The preponderance of these features strongly indicate that Luke and Acts should be read not merely as two books by the same author, but as a literary unity.

However, not all scholars have accepted this position, and Bock surveys the two major categories of objections: one, that certain tensions between the two books challenge a unified reading, and two, that the early church's use of the books (especially in the ordering of the canon) indicate that they were not viewed as a single unit. Bock treats these objections evenhandedly, but also responding to each point from additional relevant scholarship. To the first objection, Bock concludes that the sheer amount of similarities and connections between the two books far outweighs the purported tensions. As to the second objection, he argues that the early church's treatment of the books as separate ends up being a matter of nuance, and not a factor which undermines the literary unity of Luke-Acts. Ultimately, he allows for the value that can come from reading Luke and Acts as separate units on their own terms, but holds firm to the case that the two are best seen as a unified work. In the end, the suitability of the two different perspectives depends on the intended use: in terms of developing a biblical theology, Luke-Acts should be seen as a whole, whereas the church's canonical division between Luke and Acts serves as a reminder of the drastic new-ness of the faithful community created after the death and resurrection of Christ.

Having set the stage in Chapter 3 with this argument for the unity of Luke-Acts, Bock then spends the rest of the book surveying the text to discuss several theological themes, examples of which include the Person and Work of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Israel, the Gentiles, Discipleship, Ethics, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology. In each chapter, he interacts with applicable scholarship, and provides plenty of bibliographical material for further study.

Overall, Bock succeeds in providing a useful overview of the major themes of Luke-Acts. The interaction with scholarly literature allows for a nuanced discussion, although Bock never intends his work to be a mere compendium of scholarship - that is, he presents his own assessment of the topic of hand. As expected in a book of this sort (and one whose primary object of study presents such a wide range of topics for discussion!), Bock often has to greatly summarize the positions with which he is dialoguing, but the detailed bibliography gives plenty of entry-points for these wishing to go deeper. Anyone seeking to study the theology of Luke-Acts would be well advised to consult A Theology of Luke and Acts by Darrell Bock.


(Disclaimer: the publisher provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for writing a review. I was and am under no obligation to provide a favorable review.)