Customer Reviews

The Gospel of Luke (New International Greek Testament Com (Eerdmans))

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

 

 

This is a great commentary, if you can make what for with all of the Greek in it. I love it. It was my favorite commentary on Luke for a long time. But it is long on exegesis and theology and short on practical stuff. And it doesn't have much of an introduction at all! Marshall's "Luke: Historian and Theologian should be purchased with this to compensate for a lack of an introduction. But the great thing about this commentary is how accurate Marshall is on his interpretations of the passages.

I am puzzled by the poor reviews this commentary is getting. The reviews follow the logic of giving a wrench a 2 star rating because it doesn't work with my philip screw. Not all commentaries are written for the same purpose. The title to this series makes it's purpose very clear. If you're looking for comments on the Greek Text this is for you.
If you're looking for a commentary that is easy to read and will give you sermon application material this is not for you.

I was looking for a technical commentary on Luke -- like the earlier reviewer from Sweden, I prefer the in-depth works. I am also interested in the Greek language aspects of the New Testament. I have first-year+ greek but am not a professional theologian...just a keen amateur.

But like the Swedish reviewer, I too found this commentary to be a disappointment. It is difficult to read, and abounds in discussion on textual variants and Luke's sources ("Q" etc). I find myself picking through the commentary looking for the theological and linguistic nuggets -- which are there to be sure, but as said, hidden behind discussion on aspects that frankly do not interest me. I read this commentary with rising frustration, struggling to concentrate -- in fact, I got so fed up, I put the book down to write this review! I will search out alternatives.

CONCLUSION
This is undoubtedly a solid technical commentary that will please those who like lots of detail on Luke's source material, textual variants therein, where he might have got it from, and how he or Matthew may have changed elements of their material etc. etc. It also has emphasis (and useful information) on the Greek text but is somewhat short on theology. It is a difficult read and, in my view, of limited value to those wanting the "big picture" on Luke for preaching or teaching or theological study. It answers questions those interested in those subjects would probably not be asking.

I do not consider myself to be a Greek scholar, but there are times when you have to dig deeper into the Greek text and this commentary is a huge help in that regard. I appreciated the way the book gave a history of the language as well as the historical context of the culture. Since language and culture often progress at different paces, it was helpful to see both in the same book.

This book is based on the UBS Greek New Testament, edited by Kurt Aland.

I appreciated Marshall's emphasis that the theory that Luke drew his material from the Q documents was improbable. I also appreciated his references to materials that were found with the Dead Sea scrolls.

This is not a book for casual readers, but important for those who want to dig deeper.

This commentary provides a thorough analysis of the Greek text of the Gospel of Luke and is geared toward the serious reader of the New Testament who wants to understand the nuances and complexity of the Greek.
Enormously learned, detailed in its textual, literary, redaction and tradition criticism, Marshall displays his customary grasp of the full range of contemporary scholarship and does excellent work in putting forth
the various positions held by numerous scholars; but he nevertheless is pointedly dismissive of twentieth century liberal criticism. The vast majority of his insights prove reliable, helpful, and incisive, however, in a thoroughly conventional vein. These features, together with the orderly manner in which the material is presented, render the book a valuable contribution for the understanding of the Gospel of Luke. Furthermore, if you want to find consistently conservative views on the authorship, dating and textual integrity, then this is the place to go.

I am sorry, but I cant give this commentary a high mark. I am not unused to technical commentaries, I use the Word- and NIGTC-series alot. But I am always disappointed with this one. He puts alot of effort into synoptic questions and textvariants (which I am not interested in), but not much into what Luke really meant, the theology of the text and how it fits into the doctrinal big picture. I like technical commentaries because they analyze the meaning of important greek words, but this one does not. So now I am still lacking a good commmentary on Luke (Geldenhuys and Ellis wont do either). Thinking of getting the NICNT one.

Among Evangelical New Testament Scholars, I. H. Marshall is among the best. His works continue to provide important opportunities for reflection. However, here in his commentary on Luke Marshall leaves his remarks on the text incomplete. His exposition on the greek text is good, yet for the pastor who is looking for help as Sunday draws ever more close, Marshall is less helpful. Written before narrative approaches became in vogue, Marshall's historical/ redaction approach is somewhat dated. His comments are thorough, his remarks evangelical and orthodox, his outlook on Luke, all good, however, this commentary could have been better.

Although this "book" represents great erudition on the author's part, is therefore full of valuable information, and thus cannot be avoided by anyone who wants to study the Greek text, it remains irritating nonetheless. It reads like a series of notes taken as the author reads the text, compiled and shelved for future reference or for some future book that the author may have had in mind but was yet to write. It is often therefore tedious to read, and, apart from the sequential presentation, it is simply a catalog of comments. It is also dated. Perhaps some of its limitations owe to the fact that it was the first in this series to be written, so that helpful conventions for the presentation of the subject matter in this context had not yet been established; R. T. France on Mark provides a much better model. But the author is also obsessed with issues of the day that now seem stale. Sentence after sentence lists theory after theory and interpretation after interpretation that appear to reflect little more than the indefatigable ingenuity of scholars' quest for university tenure. It is enough to make one wonder whether one should ever study the New Testament with anyone credentialed in an academic setting at all. Can professional scholars really have thought these things? Marshall's own approach has to do with where the bits and pieces of the text come from: Do they come from Q? Do they come from another of the synoptic gospels? Are they Lucan, are they Marcan? Are they altered from one of those texts as a prior literary source? Do they suggest another source? Are they invented out of whole cloth or based on some popular myth? Are they a rendering of Aramaic? Etc. Etc. This sort of thinking suggests traditional Germanic philology and source criticism: Things are felt to be explained if only one can come up with a precedent out of which they were somehow generated, especially a putatively written precedent such as Q, the existence of which to this day has yet to be proved. And often this tells us very little. So what if a sentence comes from the purely hypothetical Q? The real question is, What does it mean, What does it say? As for the discussion of the Greek, it is helpful, but most students will want to know much more about the Greek than Marshall offers. Difficult constructions are often glossed over or ignored; grammatical points and principles are intermittently addressed, but only as minutiae as the author rapidly scans the text with a magnifying glass. This book is the product of an author who knows very much, but is lost reveling in the details.

I purchased a commentary of Luke. I got everything I could expect regarding quality. An easy way to get a book I don't manage to get where I live. I'm thankful. However, I got a slight damage to the corners of the cover. Probably caused by the shipping. No big deal, but can be good to know when you buy books from a Internet-company, and want perfect quality.