Study, Commentary, and Exposition
Duguid, Iain M., James M. Hamilton, Jr., and Jay Sklar, Editors. Contributions by C. John Collins, Ryan Patrick O'Dowd, Max Rogland, Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Daniel M. Doriani, Hans F. Bayer, and Thomas R. Schreiner. ESV Expository Commentary (Volume V, Psalms-Song of Solomon). Wheaton: Crossway, 2022. 11 Pages. Hardcover. $70.00. https://www.crossway.org/books/esv-expository-commentary-premiumhc-5/
Duguid, Iain M., James M. Hamilton, Jr., and Jay Sklar, Editors. Contributions by Bob Fyall, Jerry Hwang, Jonathan Gibson. ESV Expository Commentary (Volume VI, Isaiah-Ezekiel). Wheaton: Crossway, 2022. 1248 Pages. Hardcover. $70.00. https://www.crossway.org/books/esv-expository-commentary-premiumhc-6/
O'Donnell, Douglas Sean and Leland Ryken. The Beauty and Power of Biblical Exposition: Preaching the Literary Artistry & Genres of the Bible. Wheaton: Crossway, 2022. 303 Pages. Paper. $23.99. https://www.crossway.org/books/the-beauty-and-power-of-biblical-exposition-tpb/
Today's review focuses on the pulpit with resources from Northwestern and Crossway. I delayed its release to include two additional commentaries.
Our first two resources are from Northwestern Publishing House.
Who were the Pharisees and why did they clash with Jesus so often? The student lessons in this eleven-lesson Bible study booklet offer a historical and theological look at this group while applying law and gospel to uncover and combat every Christian’s temptation toward self-righteousness.
“Don’t be such a Pharisee!”
Many Christians know that being a Pharisee isn’t a good thing but may not know or agree on the reason. Explore the origins of the Pharisees and find out why they were so hostile to Jesus in this eleven-lesson Bible study booklet! Written by retired pastor Gary Baumler, this study helps participants see how easily believers can become just like the Pharisees when they forget what Christ has done for them. The study offers reflection questions and points to the gospel to help believers fight the temptation of self-righteousness.
Lesson chapters:
- Origins
- Jesus a Pharisee?
- The Separatists
- Paul, the Pharisee
- Free Will
- The Law and Repentance
- The Pharisaic Psalm
- The Yeast (Leaven) of the Pharisees
- The Seven Woes of Matthew 23
- I Thought I Saw a Pharisee!
- The Larger Picture
Teaching Index: 7
This Bible study is accompanied by a downloadable leader’s guide (2201202E) with PDF and RTF files and a promotional toolkit available separately.
To learn more about Gary Baumler, visit nph.net/baumler.
(Publisher's Website)
This study can last from eleven to as few as eight sessions based on group need. I particularly appreciated the discussion question on page 25 of the student guide:
3. Conservative Lutherans are often known for being against this or that. Of course, there are scriptural reasons for being against anything that might promote false teaching or against someone who promotes sin. However, if we focus most on what we are against, it is easy to slide into hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Describe the narrow Lutheran middle way that will help us keep from accepting false teaching or sin or from becoming self-righteous.
Written from a caring, pastoral perspective, this devotional commentary explores the relationship between the events recorded in Exodus and the Christian’s daily struggle to trust in God alone.In From Egypt to Sinai, Pastor Paul S. Meitner uses his knowledge as a scholar of church history and biblical interpretation to give readers a full picture of the Exodus account. Exodus is not just a historical account of the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land. It is also the story of God leading Old Testament believers to the promised Messiah and the personal journey of the Christian from trusting self to trusting God alone.The commentary features opening prayers related to each chapter's main theme, helping you connect the important spiritual lessons of Exodus to your own life. In a world that is increasingly hostile to Christianity, this book will help you navigate the wilderness of the world with biblical wisdom and trust in God's promises.(Publisher's Website)
Resources from Crossway will feature in the second part of this review.
Exposition. What does this mean?
The Beauty and Power of Biblical Exposition: Preaching the Literary Artistry and Genres of the Bible
By Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Leland Ryken
The Sacred Duty and Delight of Handling the Word of God
In order to understand, appreciate, and faithfully preach the word of God, pastors must discern the literary nature of the Bible. Instead of just acknowledging the various genres of Scripture, pastors and teachers should allow these genres to influence how the text is approached and communicated. In The Beauty and Power of Biblical Exposition, they will learn how to both read and preach the Bible as a literary anthology.
To accomplish this, Douglas Sean O’Donnell and Leland Ryken teach pastors how to faithfully preach while keeping the original authors’ intentions in mind, helping them grow in their craft and love for God’s word. They explain how to read 6 genres—including narratives, parables, epistles, poetry, proverbs, and visionary writings—for the purpose of captivating congregations with the richness of Scripture.
Written for Pastors: Especially young pastors or those just out of seminary
Practical: Contains guides, tables, and examples to help develop sermons
Heartfelt: Written with the desire for pastors to learn and grow as communicators
Douglas Sean O'Donnell (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is the senior vice president of Bible editorial at Crossway. He is the author and editor of over a dozen books, including The Beginning and End of Wisdom; The Pastor's Book; The Song of Solomon and Matthew in the Preaching the Word commentary series; and Psalms in the Knowing the Bible series. He also contributed the Song of Solomon and Job to the ESV Expository Commentary.
Leland Ryken (PhD, University of Oregon) served as professor of English at Wheaton College for nearly fifty years. He served as literary stylist for the English Standard Version Bible and has authored or edited over sixty books, including The Word of God in English and A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible.
(Publisher's website)
We originally requested this title because of an assumption, a connection to the ESV Expository Commentary series. That isn't true. That's on me. That said, this would still be a helpful volume for seminarians or pastors early in their ministry career.
The subtitle is a better description of the contents in my mind, Preaching the Literary Artistry and Genres of the Bible. That focus only makes sense given the co-authorship of Leland Ryken, literary stylist for the ESV.
Six chapters cover preaching narratives, parables, epistles, poetry, proverbs, and visionary writing. I resonated most with the Conclusion, just a few pages, but ones packed with meaning for a classical Lutheran educator of rhetoric: references to the three Aristotelian appeals, logos, ethos, and pathos, and a connection to St. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 thanks to Abraham Kuruvilla. Classical rhetoric has made a positive difference in my preaching since 2015, especially when preaching with an outline and open Bible instead of a manuscript.
Three volumes of ESV Expository Commentary greet us next.
I'm spending the new Church Year in the New King James Version of the Bible for reading, Sunday lections, preaching, and for Bible Study. This volume of this commentary series still helped me.
ESV Expository Commentary: Romans–Galatians
Volume 10
Series edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., Jay Sklar, Contributions by Robert W. Yarbrough, Andrew David Naselli, Dane C. Ortlund, Frank Thielman
Designed to help the church understand and apply the overarching storyline of the Bible, the ESV Expository Commentary is broadly accessible, theologically enriching, and pastorally wise. It features clear, crisp, and Christ-centered exposition and application from a team of respected pastor-theologians. With exegetically sound, broadly reformed, biblical-theological, passage-by-passage commentary, this volume was written to help pastors and Bible readers around the world understand the riches of God’s Word.
Contributors:
Robert W. Yarbrough (Romans)
Andrew David Naselli (1 Corinthians)
Dane Ortlund (2 Corinthians)
Frank Thielman (Galatians)
(Publisher's website)
A review of this volume was written first for this blog post. Honestly, it was out of necessity. I needed to take this volume to church to have with me in the pulpit for a sermon on Romans 13:11-14, Epistle for Advent 1 in the Historic Lectionary (according to Lutheran Service Book and The Lutheran Missal). I appreciated the insights on those four verses enough to prioritize this part of the review and emphasize the uncomfortable parts of the law exposition and the comfort of the Gospel found in the text in my sermon on 27 December 2022. My sermon for that date is available on YouTube. After preaching, I found that similar insights were available from other resources in my library of Romans commentaries. Yet, apart from the notes in The Lutheran Study Bible (ESV), the other most concise commentary that had them, and was available and palatable to Christians of other traditions was found right here. That enough was worth the price of the volume to me.
I appreciated the Lutheran-friendly commentary on Romans, 2 Corinthians, and Galatians. There were exceptions to the volume as a whole. I'll mention two here. The commentators do not treat the Lutheran position on Holy Communion fairly or accurately in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 (and in fact DIRECLY contradict it in a way offensive to me and others like me, like this review blog's readers). And they don't give Luther enough credit for his Romans and Galatians commentaries. Commentary was familiar, predictable, and reliable elsewhere, and the insight, nuance, and pastoral approach to 2 Corinthians almost made up for 1 Corinthians. That said, this is my least favorite book commentary of this entire series.
Would the editors and publisher kindly consider letting a Lutheran read these volumes before publication? We like the ESV, too. Do you have to intentionally offend us so regarding Holy Communion? I'll volunteer to be the reader! Honestly, I'd love to help. If this volume were my first impression of the series, I would understandably by reluctant to review, let alone buy other volumes because of the 1 Corinthians commentary section alone.
The greatness of the series as a whole outweighs the bias of any one of the authors of commentary on any one book.
We turn to the Old Testament for the other two volumes.
ESV Expository Commentary: Psalms–Song of Solomon
Volume 5
Series edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., Jay Sklar, Contributions by C. John Collins, Ryan Patrick O'Dowd, Max Rogland, Douglas Sean O'Donnell
A Passage-by-Passage Commentary on Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon
Designed to strengthen the global church with a widely accessible, theologically sound, and pastorally wise resource for understanding and applying the overarching storyline of the Bible, the ESV Expository Commentary features the full text of the ESV Bible passage by passage, with crisp and theologically rich exposition and application. Editors Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton, and Jay Sklar have gathered a team of experienced pastor-theologians to provide a new generation of pastors and other teachers of the Bible around the world with a globally minded commentary rich in biblical theology and broadly Reformed doctrine, making the message of redemption found in all of Scripture clear and available to all.
With contributions from a team of pastors and scholars, this commentary’s contributors include:
C. John Collins (Psalms)
Ryan Patrick O’Dowd (Proverbs)
Max Rogland (Ecclesiastes)
Douglas Sean O’Donnell (Song of Solomon)
In-Depth: Features passage-by-passage commentary on the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, taking a biblical-theological and broadly Reformed approach to interpreting and applying the text
Experienced Old Testament Scholars: Contributions by C. John Collins, Ryan Patrick O’Dowd, Max Rogland, and Douglas Sean O’Donnell
Perfect for In-Depth Bible Study: Includes introductions to each book featuring an outline, key themes, author and date information, literary features, relationship to the rest of the Bible, and interpretive challenges
Practical: Characterized by sound exegesis, biblical theology, global awareness, accessible application, and pastoral usefulness
High-Quality Production: Bound with durable, high-quality simulated leather stretched over board
(Publisher's website)
With a lead in from Plato and John Stott, the Psalms commentary is a storehouse of riches for Bible study, preaching, and pastoral care. Footnote 205 connects Psalm 23 with Jonah 4:9 and helps the preacher explain "the valley of the shadow of death" (p. 148). The Response section for Psalm 51 (pp. 290-291) is helpful to pastors caring for "Christians [who] are learning to aspire to be people who confess their sins freely and trust in God's forgiveness..." Psalm 95 provides a comprehensive treatment of the Venite canticle of Matins and Morning Prayer (p. 479ff). With a school chapel sermon on Psalm 111 in recent weeks, I appreciated the awareness of connections between that psalm and 112 and that both were acrostic poems.
Commentary on Proverbs was enlightening:
Nevertheless, the real Christological fruit of the book comes in thinking of wisdom alongside the ancient creedal understanding of God the Trinity (p. 712).
That quote led into an extended sections on Jesus as Logos and Wisdom, Wisdom in Creation and Incarnation, and Raised, Ascended, Returning. As one of my professors used to say, "Enormously helpful!" That's in addition to the Topic and Comment structure insight about Proverbs (pp. 704-705).
The ability to keep our head on straight in this world is easier said than done, which is why Proverbs emphasizes the challenge so vividly (911).
I didn't expect a reference to Douglas Adams in the commentary on Ecclesiastes (p. 1027; The editor and commentary author may find it interesting to learn that forty-two is the ASCII code for the asterisk, the symbol *, which stands in for anything or everything. The number 42 could = everything, the meaning of life.).
The Ecclesiastes commentary also helpfully described the relationship of the book to the rest of the Bible and to Christ (p. 1021ff). I was disappointed with notes on 11:1-2, though initially was optimistic given the reference to an ancient Egyptian text. Too many commentaries focus on only industriousness, work, then play. I find Jewish beer brewing (learned from Egypt) and sharing it with seven or eight. There's much of value here in a very compact, yet substantive section of a large tome.
The Song of Solomon commentary may be of practical help for wedding preparation, sermons, and ongoing pastoral care to married couples. The commentary favors a focus on human love in the context of marriage (p. 1123). After quoting Bernard of Clairvaux, we read:
Just as our desire for physical intimacy with our spouse is a reliable indicator of marital health, so our desire for daily (and eschatological) intimacy with Christ is a reliable indicator of our spiritual health (1128).
This volume distracted me at home (in a good way) for much longer than commentaries usually do. I really spent a lot of time in the Psalms before discovering the treasures found later in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.
Major prophets are featured in this volume.
ESV Expository Commentary: Isaiah–EzekielVolume 6
Series edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., Jay Sklar, Contributions by Jonathan Gibson, Bob Fyall, Jerry Hwang
A Passage-by-Passage Commentary of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel
Designed to strengthen the global church with a widely accessible, theologically sound, and pastorally wise resource for understanding and applying the overarching storyline of the Bible, the ESV Expository Commentary features the full text of the ESV Bible passage by passage, with crisp and theologically rich exposition and application. Editors Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar have gathered a team of experienced pastor-theologians to provide a new generation of pastors and other teachers of the Bible around the world with a globally minded commentary rich in biblical theology and broadly Reformed doctrine, making the message of redemption found in all of Scripture clear and available to all.
With contributions from a team of pastors and scholars, this commentary’s contributors include:
Bob Fyall (Isaiah)
Jerry Hwang (Jeremiah)
Jonathan Gibson (Lamentations)
Iain M. Duguid (Ezekiel)
In-Depth: Features passage-by-passage commentary on the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel, taking a biblical-theological and broadly Reformed approach to interpreting and applying the text
Experienced Old Testament Scholars: Contributions by Bob Fyall, Jerry Hwang, Jonathan Gibson, and Iain Duguid
Perfect for Bible Study: Includes introductions to each book featuring an outline, key themes, author and date information, literary features, relationship to the rest of the Bible, and interpretive challenges
Practical: Characterized by sound exegesis, biblical theology, global awareness, accessible application, and pastoral usefulness
High-Quality Production: Bound with durable, high-quality simulated leather stretched over board
(Publisher's website)
This volume's commentary on Isaiah will be particularly helpful to lectionary preachers, since Isaiah shows up so often. I found the commentary on Isaiah 40, 52:12-53:12, and 56 to be particularly helpful. The commentary on Isaiah 6 insightfully identifies the hopelessness of the prophet because of his sin (p. 63ff). Isaiah 60:1 commentary comfortingly states: "Zion can now enjoy and share all that the Lord has done for her" (p. 371).
I will more than quibble with the 'almah commentary on page 70. The Septuagint should have been consulted here for Christological clarity.
The Jeremiah commentator did his homework on the LXX and explains well the differences between the Masoretic Text and the ancient Greek translation (pp. 428-429). Lamentation receives a full treatment of almost one hundred pages.
Having recently completed a long-term study of the book of Ezekiel, I appreciated especially the background material on chapter one (p. 921ff). There is a natural connection to the Great Commission of Christ (p. 927; Matthew 28). Readers would be well-equipped to refute nonsense from PBS, The History Channel, and The Discovery Channel about angels and Ezekiel 1. In my study of Ezekiel with laypeople, I probably labored too long on the somewhat repetitive visions of judgement before the fall of Jerusalem, yet I savored the detail given in this volume, including this comfort:
Yet, if we are in Christ, then God's wrath is no longer against us. It has been poured out upon Christ, and now, united to him, we are welcomed into God's presence as his beloved children. His favor rests upon us even now, and we can know his presence in our midst whenever we gather to worship him (1207).
We look forward to the final volume of the ESV Expository Commentary, focusing on Genesis through Numbers.
The Lord bless your study and exposition of His Word with these resources.
Rev. Paul J Cain is Senior Pastor of Immanuel, Sheridan, Wyoming, Headmaster Emeritus and Instructor of Liberal Arts at Martin Luther Grammar School and Immanuel Academy, a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education, First Vice-President of the Wyoming District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Chairman of its Board of Directors, Rhetoric Teacher for Wittenberg Academy, a regent for Luther Classical College, a Director for Steadfast Lutherans and Associate Editor of Curriculum for Steadfast Press, and Editor of Lutheran Book Review. He has served as an LCMS Circuit Visitor, District Worship Chairman, District Evangelism Chairman, District Education Chairman/NLSA Commissioner, and District Secretary. A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Rev. Cain is a contributor to Lutheran Service Book, Lutheranism 101, the LSB Hymnal Companion hymn and liturgy volumes, and is the author of 5 Things You Can Do to Make Our Congregation a Caring Church. He is an occasional guest on KFUO radio. He has previously served Emmanuel, Green River, WY and Trinity, Morrill, NE. Rev. Cain is married to Ann and loves reading and listening to, composing, teaching, and making music.
