Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
The Bible stands in a category of its own among the world's literature. How you view the Bible, however, depends on what spectacles you are wearing. Like statistics, the Bible can be used to prove almost anything. As a result Bible commentaries are notorious for giving the author's particular angle on the Bible as if it is the only viewpoint. In the case of The Oxford Bible Commentary the angle is "objectively academic." John Muddiman and John Barton are the pair of Oxford dons who have put together the latest weighty book of Biblical scholarship. Happily, they are aware of the limitations of academic comment and don't pretend the book is more than it is. Contributing scholars are mostly British and American and most of them come from a mainstream Protestant background. The articles are therefore polished, precise, and professionally pedantic. No one can fault the meticulous scholarship and wealth of detailed content. That's just what you want from a hefty Bible commentary. On the other hand, what struck me from dipping into this tome is how slippery Biblical scholarship has become. At the turn of the last century Biblical criticism shot fundamentalism full of holes, but the new generation of scholars have now shot the certainties of old fashioned Biblical criticism full of holes. As a result the articles exhibit an odd mix of solid content with honest supposition, guesswork, and shoulder shrugging. This actually makes the book better. It's refreshing to read academics who admit their uncertainties. Their honesty allows some questions to remain open-ended, and that's exciting for any serious Biblical student. --Dwight Longenecker, Amazon.co.uk
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Concise, Very Concise
Customer Rating:
If you want a very short overview of some (not all) Bible verses, this is for you. If you desire a fundamental commentary that goes out of its way to be "religiously correct," this one's for you. If you need a commentary geared more toward simplistic, short, opinionated comments nearly devoid of scholarship, this one is for you.
A good companion to the Bible
Customer Rating:
This book is a gold mine if you have interest in the Bible. It is very helpful with understanding specific scriptures and learning about the people of it's time.
Impressive scholarship, uneven results.
Customer Rating:
Here's the problem with liberal scholarship for the conservative student: you're not going in looking for theological enlightenment, because liberal scholars tend to devalue the objective truth value of the documents. So what's left in terms of value is to understand the liberal theories, explanations, etc. That said, a one-volume commentary isn't always sufficient for this.
The people who contributed to this represent a pretty good piece of liberal Christian intelligensia. And I'm not saying the book isn't useful - it is. It's just that I find it most useful as a tool for understanding how the other half thinks, and to that end, it's not deep enough. Still worth having in your library, I guess.
An impressive work
Customer Rating:
I was looking for a source of detailed biblical information that is scholarly, and without nuance towards any particular persuasion. This commentary has met my needs admirably. While it may have been written with the needs of the practicing clergyman in mind, for a lay person like myself it's not difficult to read. Indeed for me it has provided a totally new level of biblical insight. I've been most impressed and can recommend it to anyone who wants to extend their biblical knowledge.
Excellent: highly recommend.
Customer Rating:
What do you expect when "Oxford" is in the title of the book?This is a large, heavy and intimidating book. However, this is its only drawback. It is a wealth of information; it contextualizes the scripture in a concise format and presents a multitude of expert scholars' opinions in a verse-by-verse format.
This is an authoritative reference: I highly recommend this for anyone interested in a modern commentary of canonical books. Well researched, well written, with a wide range of scholars input.
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