Customer Reviews

The Epistle to the Romans (New International Commentary on the New Testament)

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Douglas Moo, professor at Trinity Evangelical School, gives the most thorough treatment of the book of Romans to date. Moo's commentary has much to recommend it. His bibliography is extensive and his numerous notes are almost always quite helpful. The layout of this massive tome is surprisingly easy to follow. And his interaction with the history of interpretation is fair and forthright, while his compelling exegetical prowess exposes the flaws in other approaches.

Moreover, Moo shows a unique sensitivity to the eschatological Christ-event as the center of Paul's theology and the basis of his ministry. This dynamic undergirds the whole of his exegesis, and leads to page after page of inspiring insights. Moo treats Paul's use of the Old Testament in depth and does a fair job of it. Writing from an Evangelical perspective, Moo defends the classic creeds of the Protestant faith ably from the text.

Moo's idiom is scholarly, but not inaccessible to the moderately well-read layman. For the sheer size of the volume, Moo is surprisingly economic in his style, and the mass of material collected here becomes a testimony to Moo's thoroughness and the Apostle's richness of thought.

If you are a pastor and there is one commentary on Romans you are going to pick up, this is the place to start.

In every way, Moo's commentary on Romans is the best one can find today. Conservative without being anti-intellectual. Exhaustive without being pedantic. It took over a decade for this commentary to see the light of day, and we should all be thankful it did.

Moo's arguments in Romans 6-8 are cogent, thorough, and brilliant. His understanding of "flesh" in Pauline theology ought to be sent straight to the translation committee of EVERY NT translation board that has ever said (wrongly) "sarx" should be translated "sinful nature." (The NIV, anyone?)

Even on the rare occasion one ends up disagreeing with Moo's exegesis, you will understand how and why he said what he did. And, IMHO, that is the mark of a well-written commentary. He lets the text speak to him before he speaks to us. And I cannot give higher praise to a commentator than that.

Moo's commentary on Romans is simply the best one-volume commentary available. He is extremely thorough and spends a considerable amount of space discussing all viewpoints before drawing his own conclusions. His analysis of opposing viewpoints is fair and balanced - often discussing all the points in favor of the interpretation before discussing its flaws.

Much of this work was originally written for a more technical commentary. For this book, Moo moved most of the technical discussion of the Greek to the footnotes. This makes the main body of text much more accessible to readers without a knowledge of Greek, but still provides the technical analysis for those who want it. He basis his discussions on the Greek text but uses the English words in the main text.

Many scholars of the New Testament at some point in their scholarship write a commentary on the book of Romans. Romans is one of those very coherent books to read in the New Testament.

However, this commentary by Douglas Moo, professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, appears to be a thorough and magnificent work on the book of Romans. Moo makes comments on both the English and Greek text of Romans. Moo's commentary on Romans seems to excel other commentaries on Romans in these three categories:

1. It has the deepest exegetical notes on the Greek text of Romans by using thousands of footnotes dealing with the Greek text.

2. It has the deepest theological explanation on Romans including many additional excurses on serious points of theology.

3. It give the most complete consideration of alternative interpretations of the text.

I have read many other commentaries on both the Greek and English text of Romans and I can tell you that this commentary on Romans by Dr. Moo will probably not be superceded by any for decades to come. It well worth the price since this commentary will provide material which the reader can chew on for a long, long time.

I have approximately 20 commentaries on Romans and have been teaching Romans in my church for the past year. Moo's commentary is clearly the best that I have found on Romans.

The greatest strength I have found is that Moo does a solid job of exegesis and sticks to the actual text. Opinions are voiced, but only after throughtful exegesis. The book is rather technical, but easily readable. It's one of the few commentaries where both scholars and novices can come away with something substantial. Moo also does a good job of keeping passages in their proper context to give an accurate interpretation. I don't agree with all of his conclusions, but I respect his opinion and agree with at least 90%.

By the way, I was at first leary of purchasing this book because it was part of the NICNT. I have several of the revised volumes from this series and most of the older volumes. On both series, quality is very spotty. Several great books and several that are so lame that they are useless. This is not only a great Romans commentary, but I believe this is the best volume in the NICNT series.

Moo's commentary on Romans is, in a word, "outstanding." I really appreciate the manner in which he presents the numerous interpretational options and concisely articulates their strengths and weakness (while providing the rationale for his own interpretative decisions). I also appreciate all the scholarly information contained within the footnotes (but certainly not limited to the footnotes). Also, the footnotes are clear and easy to read. Also, I love the way Moo provides a brief but rich introductory overview of each pericope, and then goes into a rich, full verse-by-verse exegetical exposition of the pericope under examination. It's nice the way he gives you "the big picture" and then gets down to an in-depth examination of the "details" of the text. Excellent format!

It's clear that the publishers have realized their purpose--to produce a commentary for both the serious layman as well as the serious scholar. That is, this commentary is not so scholarly, pedantic and academic as to leave average readers in the dust (or bored to tears), while providing the kind and quality of scholarship expected and demanded by serious Bible scholars.

In terms of the published product, the text is extremely readable (neat and clean). And the paper used is thick enough so that it lends itself for highlighting and marking (even colored markers). It is nicely bound and appears to be a commentary that will hold up nicely even with heavy use.

Anyone studying Romans cannot afford to ignore this work. It is a MAJOR contribution to New Testament scholarship. But realize, this is primarily an "exegetical" commentary. One will have to look elsewhere for applicational principles. But the devotional quality shines through as Moo tastefully articulates the marvels of God's grace thoughout this commentary. If you can only afford one commentary on Romans, I would encourage you to purchase this one. It's simply a great commentary by an outstanding (and obviously devoted) New Testament scholar.

In a nutshell: This commentary is by far my favorite one on Romans. As a preaching pastor who uses the Greek text for sermons, the footnotes in this volume are a God-send. He makes common sense out of the sometimes difficult to understand apparatus of the different Greek texts. At the same time Dr. Moo respectfully handles each major view all the way through the volume (yes I've read most of the book). Usually he demonstrates with clarity why he favors what view he does. If there is a tough call, he usually states that and then gives why he favors a certain view.

For example, I do not agree with Moo's view on water baptism in Romans 6. However, he carefully reviews the different positions on water baptism, and presents his case, a pretty good case, directly appealing to the bible's text. If one doesn't agree with Moo, as I don't on that point, one must agree that his point is definately a reasonable view that may be correct. He's like this all the way through the commentary.

Of all my commentaries on any book, this one is the best one I own (I have hundreds of commentaries). Just for his handling of chapter seven or chapters nine through eleven the volume is worth owning. So if you are working through Romans, you cannot afford to skip this volume.

I took Romans in English as an undergrad student many years ago and then in 2005 I took it as a grad student with Dr. Moo via distance learning. His course at Wheaton is worth taking. I found him to be exceptionally well seasoned on every nuance of the text that I looked into. If you don't agree with his conclusions in a particular section, it is almost impossible to scoff at his view (unless one is just unreasonable). He's a careful exegete. He also heads up the doctoral program in biblical studies at Wheaton, which is pretty hard to get into from what I hear. So his scholarship is at the top generally speaking.

I think he is probably one of my favorite scholars and his commentary on Romans is definitely my favorite Romans commentary. I noticed a lot of comparison between Schreiner and Moo on the comments. Since I have not purchased Schreiner yet, I cannot say anything about that point.

Others I like on Romans, but are not as complete in their analysis are E. Kasemann, Peter Stuhlmacher (it's excellent, but short), Stott (for sermon phrases and presentation terminology), and James Edwards is really a great shorter commentary.

Moo's commentary is by far one of the best new commmentaries on Romans available today. Any serious student of the Word will appreciate his thoroughness and excellent in-depth research into the word. Moo interacts with all of the major issues that arise in Romans as well as interacting with other prominent authors and their positions. As a student in seminary I have relied heavily upon this commentary for my personal as well as academic study and research. I am sure that you will find this a great resource in your own study!!

Moo is officially classed as a dispensationalist, however, it is known that he disagrees with a lot of traditional dispensational thought, as he is more progressive than most. For one, he is post tribulational in end time thinking, and believes in the 'now and the not yet' of the Kingdom. This book clearly shows that.
I am not a dispensationalist at all and yet I was amazed at the clarity and balanced thinking of this commentator. As he, himself states - he believes more in 'fullfillment' theology. And that's where this book is at especially in the murkey waters of ch 9, 10 and 11.
If he was as dispensational as one reveiwer above says, then Fee or the NIC committee would not have had him, as the niether the series or Fee are at all dispensational.
What Moo does do is bring traditional reformed / replacement thought toward a more Christocentric understanding of Israel as a people, who together with gentiles form God's one fulfillment people, and yet he also deals with the traditional dispensational thought that says Israel are God's earthly people and the Church His heavenly people ( or less in some cases).
I think Moo deserves credit for this book - it is outstanding, and will hopefully clear up a lot of the terrible dispensational mess in the West, and bring Christocentric fulfillment views rather than dual covenant views into people's understanding.

If you only can afford one top flight commentary on Romans, get Moo's. Much more useable than Schreiner, much more thorough than Morris. Great introduction material, and understandable handling of the text. In-depth footnotes on every page, for those who want to dig even deeper.

Moo is solid on the key doctrines of inspiration, sovereignty, election, the future of Israel, Paul's view of the Law, etc.

Make room on your shelf for the best modern commentary on Romans.