Customer Reviews

Acts

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been reading Acts in Greek. When I get stuck, I turn to my 7 commentaries on Acts: Barrett's 2 volume ICC, Bruce's 3rd ed. Greek text commentary, Bruce's English NICNT, Marshall's TNTC, Fitzmyer's Anchor Bible commentary, Witherington's commentary, and Williams' NIBC. Despite it's size and the scope of the series it is in, Williams' commentary holds it's own with these others. Not only so, it actually has some important insights and historical facts the others missed. He does a better job than the others offering theological insight, but this insight is based exegetically, not free-floating theological opinion. I really like this commentary a lot and recommend it. It's a strong entry into this series.

If you want to do serious study on Acts, you would need more than just this commentary. However, as mentioned, this provides some important theological insights the others do not. In the same way, it addresses some "real-life" questions Bible readers want answers to that the others don't address (they tend to be more scholarly and less practical). So, this is a good supplement to the other commentaries.

However, for the casual reader who wishes to learn more about the linguistic, historical, cultural, literary, and theological aspects of Acts, this would be a really good choice. The reason for four stars is that there are many outstanding commentaries on Acts, and this is by no means the best. Also, though it is packed with good stuff, he doesn't include some basic information the others do, but this is understandable given the size of this commentary. I wish I could give 4 1/2 rather than 4. However, if you are not a scholar or pastor, and you are a casual reader of Acts, or you are leading a small group, this is a 5 star commentary for you.