New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT)

Fensham's study on the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah is a contribution to The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Like its companion series on the New Testament, this commentary devotes considerable care to achieving a balance between technical information and homiletic-devotional interpretation.

The letter to the Ephesians provokes interpretive questions of authorship, audience, date, occasion, and purpose of writing. Interacting critically with this intense debate, Lynn Cohick provides an exegetically astute analysis of the six chapters of Ephesians. Cohick offers an insightful account of the epistle's theology and soteriology as she attends to the letter's expansive prose and lofty vision of God's redemption. Cohick investigates the complex relationship between Jews and gentiles within the text and in the broader cultural context as she analyzes the epistle's description of the Church and its appeals for discipleship. Her extensive knowledge of the social realities of women and families in the ancient world is evident throughout. Cohick's historically sensitive and theologically rich commentary will resource a new generation of scholars, pastors, and lay leaders.

Marshall's study on the Epistles of John constitute a single volume in The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Prepared by some of the world's leading scholars, the series provides an exposition of the New Testament books that is thorough and fully abreast of modern scholarship yet faithful to the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God.

". . . undertaken to provide earnest students of the New Testament with an exposition that is thorough and abreast of modern scholarship and at the same time loyal to the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God." This statement reflects the underlying purpose of The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Begun in the late 1940s by an international team of New Testament scholars, the NICNT series has become recognized by pastors, students, and scholars alike as a critical yet orthodox commentary marked by solid biblical scholarship within the evangelical Protestant tradition. While based on a thorough study of the Greek text, the commentary introductions and expositions contain a minimum of Greek references. The NICNT authors evaluate significant textual problems and take into account the most important exegetical literature. More technical aspects - such as grammatical, textual, and historical problems - are dealt with in footnotes, special notes, and appendixes. Under the general editorship of three outstanding New Testament scholars - first Ned Stonehouse (Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia), then F. F. Bruce (University of Manchester, England), and now Gordon D. Fee (Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia) - the NICNT series has continued to develop over the years. In order to keep the commentary "new" and conversant with contemporary scholarship, the NICNT volumes have been - and will be - revised or replaced as necessary. The newer NICNT volumes in particular take into account the role of recent rhetorical and sociological inquiry in elucidating the meaning of the text, and they also exhibit concern for the theology and application of the text. As the NICNT series is ever brought up to date, it will continue to find ongoing usefulness as an established guide to the New Testament text.

In this commentary Gordon Fee aims first and foremost to offer a fresh exposition of the text of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. He shows the reader what is in the biblical text, what the text meant in the first century, and what it means now. Fee reveals the logic of each argument or narrative before moving on to the details of each verse, and he concludes each section with a theological-practical reflection on the meaning of the text today. Among other things, Fee explores the occasion for writing for each epistle, restoring 2 Thessalonians to the place it deserves as a full companion to the first letter, rather than merely a tagalong to 1 Thessalonians.

This widely praised commentary by William Lane shows Mark to be a theologian whose primary aim was to strengthen the people of God in a time of fiery persecution by Nero. Using redaction criticism as a hermeneutical approach for understanding the text and the intention of the evangelist, Lane considers the Gospel of Mark as a total literary work and describes Mark's creative role in shaping the Gospel tradition and in exercising a conscious theological purpose. Both indicating how the text was heard by Mark's contemporaries and studying Mark within the frame of reference of modern Gospel research, Lane's thoroughgoing work is at once useful to scholars and intelligible to nonspecialists.

This contribution to The New International Commentary on the New Testament is a revision of Robert Mounce's original entry on the book of Revelation and reflects more than twenty additional years of mature thought and the latest in scholarship.

For more than twenty-years, Douglas Moo's NICNT volume on Romans has been providing pastors, students, and scholars with profound insight into Paul's most famous letter. In this thorough revision of his commentary, Moo deals with issues that have come into prominence since the first edition (1996), incorporating the latest research and rewriting the text throughout for better comprehension. Exegetically astute and theologically minded, Moo interacts critically with the new perspective on Paul, highlights the emphasis in Romans on "practical divinity," and traces the theme of the gospel throughout the letter. His Letter to the Romans in this second edition will inform and enlighten a new generation of serious Bible readers.

The First Epistle of Peter constitutes an important work of New Testament theology and pastoral care, serves as an example of how the early church applied Jesus' sayings and the Old Testament writings to contemporary concerns, and presents some extremely useful perspectives on living the Christian life today. This commentary by Peter Davids does an excellent job of mining the rich wealth of instruction to be found in this very significant section of Scripture. Davids's commentary contains several notable features: a unique grasp of 1 Peter's structure, a systematically arranged introduction that summarizes the commentary proper, a perceptive excursus on suffering in 1 Peter and the New Testament, Davids's own study translation, thorough and incisive comments on each verse of the test, frequent parallels to ancient literature, an exceptionally clear and lively writing style, and one of the most comprehensive bibliographies on 1 Peter available anywhere.