The books of Ezekiel and Daniel are rich in imagery taken up afresh in the New Testament. Echoes of Ezekiel--with its words of doom and promises of hope, the vision of a new temple and its scroll-eating prophet--are especially apparent in the book of Revelation. Daniel is most notable in supplying terminology and imagery for Jesus of Nazareth's favored self-description as "Son of man," a phrase also found in Ezekiel and one which John the seer employs repeatedly in describing the exalted figure of his vision on the island of Patmos. The four beasts of Daniel find their counterparts in the lion, ox, man and eagle of Ezekiel and Revelation. It is no wonder these books, despite the difficulties in interpreting them, took hold on the imagination of the early church. Over forty church fathers are cited in the commentary on Ezekiel, some of whom are here translated into English for the first time, but pride of place goes to four significant extant works: the homilies of Origen and Gregory the Great, and the commentaries of Jerome and Theodoret of Cyr, thus bridging East and West, North and South. A similar array of fathers are found within the commentary on Daniel. Extensive comments derive from the works of Theodoret of Cyr, Hippolytus, Jerome and Isho'dad of Merv and provide a wealth of insight. Valuable commentary attributed to Ephrem the Syrian and John Chrysostom is also found here, though the authorship of these commentaries is indeed questioned. Michael Glerup and Kenneth Stevenson edit this collection.
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Editors:
Kenneth Stevenson (Ph.D., Southampton University) is the bishop of Portsmouth in England. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is the author of numerous publications, including Worship: Wonderful and Sacred Mystery, The Mystery of Baptism in the Anglican Tradition, The Lord's Prayer: A Text in Tradition and Rooted in Detachment: Living the Transfiguration. With Geoffrey Rowell and Rowan William, he edited Love's Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness.
Michael Glerup (Ph.D., Drew University) serves as the research and acquisitions director for the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and as the operations manager for the Ancient Christian Texts series. He continues his research in the history of exegesis as the director of the Early African Christianity Projects.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Thomas C. Oden (Ph.D., Yale University) recently retired as Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at The Theological School of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He is general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and author of numerous theological works, including a three-volume systematic theology.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Church Fathers on Ezekiel and Daniel,
By Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ezekiel, Daniel (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) (Hardcover)
"Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture" is a series of 26 books edited by Thomas C. Oden, a prominent Paleo-Orthodox Methodist.
Oden believes that the Bible should be interpreted through the lens of the Church Fathers, and thus places greater emphasis on Church tradition than evangelicals or Calvinists. "Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture" is based on this approach. Essentially, it's an encyclopaedia of patristic Bible interpretation. Each volume presents a verse by verse commentary on one or more Biblical books, all commentaries being taken from the writings of ancient or early medieval Church Fathers. This volume covers Ezekiel and Daniel. I found it interesting to compare the approaches of the Church Fathers with those of modern fundamentalists of the "dispensationalist" variety. The difference is particularly sharp when expounding the meaning of Ezekiel's visions and prophecies. The patristic commentators tended to interpret these figuratively rather than literally. Thus, the four strange beasts seen by Ezekiel when encountering the chariot of God are symbols of the four gospels or the four evangelists. The future temple is heavily allegorized as well. The water pouring forth from it is said to represent baptism, the main gate symbolizes Christian teachers and the closed eastern gate is the perpetual virginity of Mary. Concerning the four tables for the burnt offerings, Gregory the Great offers this interpretation: "The tables have a width of one and a half cubits, because the heart of the saints are spread in breadth of charity for the neighbour they love and see, and they measure one cubit." The literalists won't like this one! The interpretations of Daniel, on the other hand, are more literal but also more complex. Some prophecies are said to refer to both Antiochus Epiphanes and the future Antichrist. The prophecy of the 70 weeks is interpreted in a non-dispensational manner. The man who makes a strong covenant for one week is Jesus, not the Antichrist. Most patristic commentators believed that the "prince who is to come" was Titus whose Roman legions destroyed the temple during the Jewish War. However, one commentator, Primasius, actually believes that the 70th week is still in the future (!). As already mentioned, "Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture" has the format of an encyclopaedia. If you want to know the traditional interpretation of Daniel 9:24, you look up that particular verse, and get a number of commentaries to it from various Church Fathers. While this makes these volumes interesting to leaf through, it also means that you never get to see the patristic commentaries as a unified whole. You only see bits and pieces of them, in this case the bits and pieces commenting specifically on Daniel 9:24. The footnotes and introductions are scanty, so there is very little context. I sure would like to know more about Primasius... The 26 volumes of this series might be good as reference for a specialized theological library, but I don't think the general reader will appreciate them. With the risk of seeming stingy, I therefore give this work three stars.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Source,
By Iarfhlaith Benjamin (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Ezekiel, Daniel (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) (Hardcover)
Like all the other editions in this collection of writings from the early Church Fathers it sheds new light with ancient wisdom and teachings on Scripture.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
