Customer Reviews

Proverbs: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching & Preaching)

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The subtitle for the individual volumes in the Interpretation series of commentaries is, "A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching." The volumes I have read do an excellent job of providing basic discussion on the meaning and interpretation of the biblical text and then offering suggestions for how to teach or preach that text to a contemporary audience.

The volume on Proverbs is more concerned with discussing historical issues involving the proverbs. How were they collected? How did they make it into the book of Proverbs? When were they written? What was the social and political concerns of the day? This discussion is often elucidating and helpful. But, I think the commentary is weak in two areas.

One, there is not much discussion of individual proverbs and what they might mean today.

Two, there is not much direction in how to teach or preach the message of the proverbs today.

If you want historical background of the proverbs, buy this book. If you want interpretative discussion and teaching/preaching direction, look instead to Dave Bland's commentary (College Press, 1 vol), Murphy's (Word, 1 vol) or Waltke's (Eerdman's, 2 vols). (See my reviews on each of these).

My daughter who is a minister uses this commentary all of the time. I bought the whole set for her.