The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship. Overview of Commentary Organization Introduction—covers issues pertaining to the whole book, including context, date, authorship, composition, interpretive issues, purpose, and theology. Each section of the commentary includes: Pericope Bibliography—a helpful resource containing the most important works that pertain to each particular pericope. Translation—the author’s own translation of the biblical text, reflecting the end result of exegesis and attending to Hebrew and Greek idiomatic usage of words, phrases, and tenses, yet in reasonably good English. Notes—the author’s notes to the translation that address any textual variants, grammatical forms, syntactical constructions, basic meanings of words, and problems of translation. Form/Structure/Setting—a discussion of redaction, genre, sources, and tradition as they concern the origin of the pericope, its canonical form, and its relation to the biblical and extra-biblical contexts in order to illuminate the structure and character of the pericope. Rhetorical or compositional features important to understanding the passage are also introduced here. Comment—verse-by-verse interpretation of the text and dialogue with other interpreters, engaging with current opinion and scholarly research. Explanation—brings together all the results of the discussion in previous sections to expose the meaning and intention of the text at several levels: (1) within the context of the book itself; (2) its meaning in the OT or NT; (3) its place in the entire canon; (4) theological relevance to broader OT or NT issues. General Bibliography—occurring at the end of each volume, this extensive bibliographycontains all sources used anywhere in the commentary.

When the Bible refers to Jesus as a “cornerstone,” what was the intended meaning behind this symbolic expression? Other literary references to rock and stone pervade the biblical narrative and provide metaphorical value to numerous subjects, including God, the temple, and the eschatological kingdom, to name a few. Does the use of a common metaphor reveal a theological connection between these various referents? Is there a progression of thought upon which each additional use of the metaphor expands? This book explores the stone testimonia of Scripture and provides insight into how the connective tissue of the rock metaphor informs the Christology and ecclesiology developed within the New Testament canon. Through examining the way in which New Testament authors interact with Old Testament passages, this study reveals a more comprehensive way in which to understand Christ and his church in relation to stone imagery.

In some language groups, Bible commentaries and translations are of lesser quality, often due to the lack of training in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic for their authors and translators. Additionally, many commentaries are authored by those who are unfamiliar with the language, church, and culture of the target audience. Further, some language groups struggle with the quality of translations even of the biblical text itself. A translation may not be based on the biblical languages but on a Bible translation in another modern language. This can result in the theological perspective of the previous translators being unwittingly written into the subsequent translation. How can these challenges be addressed? In this volume of the Tyndale Theological Seminary Theses Series, two brothers, Bogdan and Alexandru Costea, address these types of biblical studies issues in Romania. Bogdan writes about the importance of having a Romanian commentary series that compares the biblical languages with the Romanian Bible versions used by Evangelicals and interacts with the Church Fathers. Alexandru evaluates the meaning and implications of σῴζω as translated in the Romanian Orthodox Bible, a word commonly translated as “save” in many English contexts. These two men thus grapple with the core issues related to commentary production suitable for the Romanian context as well as provide a model for other language contexts. Their interest, in conjunction with that of Dr. Octavian Baban and Dr. H. H. Drake Williams III, has helped to produce the Seria Comentarii Exegetice Româneşti (Oradea, RO: Decenu, 2023–).

This book investigates the role of works in salvation in the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus was all too aware of people who claimed to believe in Him and yet proved to be not truly born again (e.g., John 2:23-25; 8:31-46). A profession of faith made at some point during one's life is no guarantee that heaven awaits that person. Such professions or conversion experiences must be followed by changed lives if faith is to be shown to be genuine saving faith. Hence Jesus teaches that regardless of one's profession, if one does not demonstrate a changed life produced by God, one will not enter into heaven. Such a judgment will be made when Jesus returns and judges every person according to his or her works. While this may seem contradictory to some more well-known passages ruling out the role of works in salvation (e.g., Rom 3:21-4:25; Gal 2:16-21; Eph 2:8-9), there is every good reason to understand that Jesus' teachings complement such passages. The works that admit one into heaven are not works produced by the flesh before conversion but works produced by God after conversion. They will fundamentally be characterized by a life of discipleship, love for others, and endurance in faith and obedience, and will therefore serve to confirm that one indeed did have a relationship with God during one's life. Hence Jesus did teach salvation by works. However God is the one who produces the works and they occur after conversion. Thus salvation is not one's initial conversion but one's final entrance into heaven.

Effective evangelism. Many scholars and theologians and pastors and teachers have sought to deal with the issue of effective gospel witness or biblical evangelism. Have we really followed Jesus in the realm of reaching others for Jesus? That is the question that drives this new book for effective evangelism in our day.

The book seeks to explore what is sin and the law. It explains how the law was broken by Adam and had to be codified in the form of the Ten Commandments. It started with sin in the angelic realm and then mankind. It also explores man solution in the person of Jesus Christ, and demonstrate God's love for mankind in the codified message of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

This is an approach to Christ's impeccability and temptation through exploring and evaluating the theological models that have been developed from the early church to the present day. Drawing from tradition and the relevant biblical evidence, John McKinley argues that Jesus was truly tempted in ways that are closely relevant to the temptations common to us. Having been tempted for us in this way, Jesus can provide true help as the credible example to follow and truly sympathetic ally in the fight against sin. Key to understanding how Jesus remained unable to sin and sharply vulnerable to temptation is the role of the Holy Spirit.

The thesis of this book is that virtue ethics is key to understanding Trinitarian progressive sanctification. The thesis is supported by four reasons why virtue ethics is key to understanding Trinitarian progressive sanctification: (1) the Trinity, virtue ethics, and sanctification are historically and conceptually interconnected in the tradition and Scripture, (2) virtue ethics based on metaphysical realism is the most biblically consistent ethical framework for Trinitarian progressive sanctification, (3) Jesus’ active roles as a teacher and example of virtue play an important part in Trinitarian sanctification, and (4) Jesus’ priestly heavenly intercession aimed at manifesting virtue in believers is crucial to understanding how the Trinity progressively sanctifies believers. The active roles of Jesus in sanctification, ordered by the Triune premise, indicate that the Trinity sanctifies such that: (1) the value having its source from the Father, is revealed through the teaching of the Son to motivate believers, who are empowered to be motivated by the Spirit, (2) the character that is from the Father is revealed through the Son’s example that is to be imitated by the believer through habituation and reciprocity, by the Spirit’s leading, and (3) believers are led by the Spirit’s intercession into prayer (Rom 8:14-16, 26-27), to be helped through the Son’s priestly intercession, in order to receive an answer from the Father, with the aim of manifesting the virtues of endurance and hope in the lives of believers.