The Second Letter To The Corinthians

Newest volume in the acclaimed Pillar New Testament Commentary series The question that Paul set before the ancient church in Corinth -- Do you not recognize that Jesus Christ is in and among you? (2 Cor 13:5) -- remains a critical question for the church today. This commentary by Mark Seifrid seeks to hear Paul’s message afresh and communicate it to our time. Seifrid offers a unified reading of 2 Corinthians, which has often been regarded as a composite of excerpts and fragments. He argues that Paul’s message is directed at the “practical atheism” of the Corinthian church -- the hidden heresy that assumes God’s saving work in the world may be measured by outward standards of success and achievement. Like all of the Pillar volumes, Seifrid’s commentary on 2 Corinthians offers careful grammatical analysis and exegesis with clear pastoral application.

This second edition of An Introduction to the New Testament provides readers with pertinent material and a helpful framework that will guide them in their understanding of the New Testament texts. Many new and diverse cultural, historical, social-scientific, sociorhetorical, narrative, textual, and contextual studies have been examined since the publication of the first edition, which was in print for twenty years. The authors retain the original tripartite arrangement on 1) The world of the New Testament, 2) Interpreting the New Testament, and 3) Jesus and early Christianity. An appropriate book for anyone who seeks to better understand what is involved in the exegesis of New Testaments texts today.

This careful, sometimes innovative, mid-level commentary touches on an astonishingly wide swath of important, sensitive issues - theological and pastoral - that have urgent resonances in twenty-first-century life. This thorough commentary presents a coherent reading of 1 Corinthians, taking full account of its Old Testament and Jewish roots and demonstrating Paula's primary concern for the unity and purity of the church and the glory of God. Those who preach and teach 1 Corinthians will be grateful to Ciampa and Rosner for years to come and scholars will be challenged to see this letter with fresh eyes.

The Second Letter to the Corinthians is one of Paul's most intriguing epistles. In reality, it comprises two documents. In the first, Paul cautiously attempts to repair the damage done to his relations with the Corinthians by an earlier letter (1 Corinthians) and to deal with the upset caused by the presence in Corinth of rival missionaries from Jerusalem. In the second, he reacts angrily against an unexpected further deterioration of the situation at Corinth. The resonances in the dialogue between Paul and the parties in question cannot be detected easily without some awareness on the reader's part of the social, religious, and economic situation of the Christian community to which Paul was writing. The aim of this book is to integrate such background information into a flowing exposition of the apostle's thought, and thus to bring Paul's theology to life by highlighting the complex interplay of factors which prompted him to write in the way he did. Father Murphy-O'Connor is an experienced New Testament scholar, and his lucid survey - while providing an accessible introduction to the epistle and its central concerns - brings new insights into the relation of Christ to the ministry of the church.

Handley C. G. Moule (1841-1920), evangelical Anglican bishop and academic, was one of the foremost New Testament scholars in the Church of England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author of more than sixty books and pamphlets, Moule followed in the English scholar-bishop tradition of Lightfoot and Westcott. The H. C. G. Moule Collection brings together volumes of commentary on the Pauline epistles. Moule was the first principal at Ridley Hall Theological College, Cambridge, as well as the Norrisian Professor of Divinity. His writings are informative, yet accessible, making them useful both to scholars and laity. The works included in this collection contain verse-by-verse exegesis on Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Moule also includes practical lessons for daily living, gleaned from the epistles. Each of his works provides notes, indexes, and appendices to make these studies even more valuable.

The reputation of the NIGTC series is so outstanding that the appearance of each new volume is noteworthy. This book on 2 Corinthians is no exception. Master New Testament exegete Murray J. Harris has produced a superb commentary that analyzes the Greek text verse by verse against the backdrop of Paul's tumultuous relations with his converts at Corinth. Believing that Scripture cannot be understood theologically unless it has first been understood grammatically, Harris provides a careful, thoroughgoing reading of the text of 2 Corinthians. He gives special attention to matters of translation, making regular references not only to the standard modern English translations but also to influential older versions such as "The Twentieth Century New Testament" and those by Weymouth, Moffatt, and Goodspeed. His close attention to matters of textual criticism and grammar leads to discussions of the theology of 2 Corinthians that show the relevance of Paul's teaching to Christian living and church ministry. Other notable features of the book include a comprehensive introduction in which all the relevant literary and historical issues are discussed, an expanded paraphrase of the letter that conveniently shows Harris's decisions on exegetical issues and indicates the flow of Paul's argument, a chronology of the relations of Paul, Timothy, and Titus with the Corinthian church, and an excursus on Paul's "affliction in Asia" (1:8-11) and its influence on his outlook and theology.