Arnold, Clinton E. Ephesians. Vol. 10 Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Clinton E. Arnold. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010.
I would like to thank Zondervan for providing this review copy.
Clinton Arnold is professor of New Testament language and literature at Talbot School of Theology.
The ZEC commentary series now has four volumes out and looks to be taking the lead as the go-to series for exegetically minded pastors who are looking to prepare expository sermons.
Beginning with a strong 66 page introduction (bibliography included) this volume begins to track the excellent format of the ZEC series. There is a section discussing the literary context, both immediate and wider, with attention paid to discourse and functional markers and their interrelationships. Following that is the exegetical outline for the passage at hand, then a sentence or two where the author attempts a main idea of the passage. A functional outline and a discussion of the structure of the passage follows before the commentary on each passage. The functional outline (in English) breaks the passage into its main clause structures, shows subordination and identifies the function of each main clause. The structure explains the choices made in the diagram and also explains the connections of lexical, grammatical and thematic connections within the passage and the rest of the book. The commentary continues the emphasis on structure, literary and text linguistic analysis often using the insights gained in the opening discussions to make exegetical decisions in the commentary. Arnold should not only be commended for his excellent work of filling in this excellent format, but also for his editorial role in bringing this commentary series to bear.
In his overall approach to the text, Arnold is right on the cutting edge of Ephesians scholarship. He understands Ephesians as a description of the spiritual powers being engaged by God’s power with his people. In addition, he understands the relationship of Gentiles to the new people God and the eschatology of the new creation and humanity as key to the purpose for Paul’s writing. Having said this he does hold to Pauline authorship, seeing “in Ephesus” as authentic and seeing the provenance as Roman.
In terms of comments on the text, Arnold handles the Greek text brilliantly. He discusses the important grammatical issues as well as the key lexical issues. Arnold brings his excellent knowledge of Greco-Roman magic and spirituality as well as Greco-Roman rhetoric to his commenting. On some of the key texts in Ephesians, Arnold not only comes does a great job explaining the text but also comes to what I believe are the best conclusions. In chapter one he understands Paul to affirm election, but not making any explicit statement on rejection. At 4.8 Arnold follows Gombis as seeing Ps 68 as a whole in Paul’s thought. Finally in 5.19-21, he understands the four participles as expressing the means of the finite verb.
In addition, the commentary does not spend much time on text-critical issues (but when necessary gives an adequate discussion) or other critical matters. He simply explains the meaning of the text. And in my opinion, he does an excellent job. His exegesis is sound as he lays out the possible exegetical options when a problem arises. His use of the variety of exegetical tools is commendable, especially that of rhetorical and linguistic analysis. In addition, there is not a lot of theological work, but just enough to show that there are theological considerations in making exegetical decisions.
As with Blomberg’s James and Osborne’s Matthew (review forthcoming), I cannot think of a better commentary on the book of Ephesians. Arnold gives you everything you need and leaves out everything you don’t. My advice is, if you are a pastor and want to preach Ephesians you cannot do any better than Arnold’s Ephesians.
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April 11, 2011
Review of ZEC Ephesians by Clinton Arnold
Posted by Reformed Humanist under Books, Commentary, Discourse Analysis, Ephesians, Greek, Literary Structure, New Testament, New Testament Theology, Paul, Prison Epistles, Psalm 68 in Eph 4.8Leave a Comment
I would like to thank Zondervan for providing this review copy.
Clinton Arnold is professor of New Testament language and literature at Talbot School of Theology.
The ZEC commentary series now has four volumes out and looks to be taking the lead as the go-to series for exegetically minded pastors who are looking to prepare expository sermons.
Beginning with a strong 66 page introduction (bibliography included) this volume begins to track the excellent format of the ZEC series. There is a section discussing the literary context, both immediate and wider, with attention paid to discourse and functional markers and their interrelationships. Following that is the exegetical outline for the passage at hand, then a sentence or two where the author attempts a main idea of the passage. A functional outline and a discussion of the structure of the passage follows before the commentary on each passage. The functional outline (in English) breaks the passage into its main clause structures, shows subordination and identifies the function of each main clause. The structure explains the choices made in the diagram and also explains the connections of lexical, grammatical and thematic connections within the passage and the rest of the book. The commentary continues the emphasis on structure, literary and text linguistic analysis often using the insights gained in the opening discussions to make exegetical decisions in the commentary. Arnold should not only be commended for his excellent work of filling in this excellent format, but also for his editorial role in bringing this commentary series to bear.
In his overall approach to the text, Arnold is right on the cutting edge of Ephesians scholarship. He understands Ephesians as a description of the spiritual powers being engaged by God’s power with his people. In addition, he understands the relationship of Gentiles to the new people God and the eschatology of the new creation and humanity as key to the purpose for Paul’s writing. Having said this he does hold to Pauline authorship, seeing “in Ephesus” as authentic and seeing the provenance as Roman.
In terms of comments on the text, Arnold handles the Greek text brilliantly. He discusses the important grammatical issues as well as the key lexical issues. Arnold brings his excellent knowledge of Greco-Roman magic and spirituality as well as Greco-Roman rhetoric to his commenting. On some of the key texts in Ephesians, Arnold not only comes does a great job explaining the text but also comes to what I believe are the best conclusions. In chapter one he understands Paul to affirm election, but not making any explicit statement on rejection. At 4.8 Arnold follows Gombis as seeing Ps 68 as a whole in Paul’s thought. Finally in 5.19-21, he understands the four participles as expressing the means of the finite verb.
In addition, the commentary does not spend much time on text-critical issues (but when necessary gives an adequate discussion) or other critical matters. He simply explains the meaning of the text. And in my opinion, he does an excellent job. His exegesis is sound as he lays out the possible exegetical options when a problem arises. His use of the variety of exegetical tools is commendable, especially that of rhetorical and linguistic analysis. In addition, there is not a lot of theological work, but just enough to show that there are theological considerations in making exegetical decisions.
As with Blomberg’s James and Osborne’s Matthew (review forthcoming), I cannot think of a better commentary on the book of Ephesians. Arnold gives you everything you need and leaves out everything you don’t. My advice is, if you are a pastor and want to preach Ephesians you cannot do any better than Arnold’s Ephesians.
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