McCann Reviews Minor Prophets II by Goldingay and Scalise

Review of Biblical Literature recently posted J. Clinton McCann Jr's review of Minor Prophets II by J. Goldingay and P. Scalise (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2009), pp. xiv + 392.  I recommend this review to you (and the NIBC OT & NIBC NT series).

Read the Review
Published 9/8/2010
J. Clinton McCann Jr. (Eden Theological Seminary)

Earlier this week I read the introduction to Goldingay's commentary on Isaiah in this same series and found it to be very insightful.  McCann's description of the purpose of this series and assessment of Goldingay's success at fulfilling this purpose is also true for the Isaiah commentary.

The hope is “to enrich the life of the academy as well as the life of the church” (xii).

This series is often found discounted as though it is sub-par, but the handful of volumes I've used, so far, have been very useful.
With regard to Minor Prophets II, McCann concludes,

In short, as suggested above, there are rich resources here for believers, nonbelievers, and anyone in between who has an interest in the books of Nahum–Malachi. As both an ordained minister and seminary professor, I am particularly appreciative of Goldingay’s and Scalise’s application of rigorous critical inquiry in the service of both academy and church.

McCann Reviews Minor Prophets II by Goldingay and Scalise

Hendrickson Classic Biography Series

Church libraries and most home libraries ought to be filled with well-written Christian biographies. I have highlighted this series before, and I would like to do so again. Hendrickson Publishers have been reprinting classic texts for a long time and here is a bright new feather in their cap. It is the Hendrickson Classic Biographies Series, and it contains some of the best stories that have blessed the greater part of the church for years. The titles included in this series are as follows:

Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Retail Price: $16.95
Publication Date: June 2008
ISBN: 9781598562491
ISBN-13: 9781598562491



George Müller of Bristol (1805–1898)
Author: Arthur Tappan Pierson
Retail Price: $17.95
Publication Date: April 2008
ISBN: 9781598562521
ISBN-13: 9781598562521



Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret
Author: Howard and Geraldine Taylor
Retail Price: $14.95
Publication Date: April 2008
ISBN: 9781598562538
ISBN-13: 9781598562538



The Hiding Place
Author: Corrie ten Boom
Retail Price: $17.95
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 9781598563399
ISBN-13: 9781598563399



And God Came In: The Extraordinary Story of Joy Davidman
Author: Lyle W. Dorsett
Retail Price: $17.95
Publication Date: June 2009

ISBN: 9781598563566



Born Again
Author: Charles Wendell Colson
Retail Price: $17.95
Publication Date: April 2008
ISBN: 9781598562514
ISBN-13: 9781598562514



Saint Francis of Assisi
Author: Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Retail Price: $14.95
Publication Date: September 2008
ISBN: 9781598562828
ISBN-13: 9781598562828



Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
Author: Roland H. Bainton
Retail Price: $19.95
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 9781598563337
ISBN-13: 9781598563337



Fanny J. Crosby: An Autobiography
Author: Fanny J. Crosby
Retail Price: $14.95
Publication Date: July 2008
ISBN: 9781598562811
ISBN-13: 9781598562811



The Heart of John Wesley's Journal
Author: John Wesley
Editor: Percy Livingstone Parker
Retail Price: $18.95
Publication Date: October 2008
ISBN: 9781598563009
ISBN-13: 9781598563009


All of these volumes are hardback (cloth) with dust jackets and have been freshly typeset. These are absolutely beautiful volumes which will not only look spectacular on the shelf but will provide rich spiritual benefit to all who will read and consider God's mighty works among the children of men. In these volumes are contained portraits of lives molded by God.

The object of reading biography, it cannot be too earnestly or too often said, is not imitation but inspiration.

Therefore, to the lives of other men you must carry a true life of your own—convictions, intentions, resolutions, a true character. Then your career will not be swamped by theirs, though theirs may give to yours color and direction; then they will make you wiser, stronger, braver, but they will leave you still yourself. Here is the only danger which I know in the reading of biographies, lest he who reads shall lose himself, shall come to be not himself, but the feeble repetition of some other man. It is the danger which attends all friendship, all personal intercourse of man with man. Your own responsibilities, your own chances, your own thoughts, your own hopes, your own religion, which are different from those of any other man who ever lived, those you must keep sacred, and then summon the inspiration of the greatest and most vital men whom you can find to touch your life with their fire, and make you not what they are, but more thoroughly and energetically yourself.

- Phillips Brooks "Biography" in Essays and Addresses Literary and Social (Dutton, 1894), 446-47.

Closely associated with this series is the Hendrickson Christian Classics Series. These, too, are beautiful, substantive volumes.

Hendrickson Classic Biography Series

Great Book Buys at CBD

Many have commented on AbeBooks' Most Expensive Sales in 2008 which is mind-boggling, but I love (and I'm sure you do, too) book deals even more. Here are a few that I found a couple of weeks ago, and the deals appear to be still available.

I have, at other times, seen volumes in the New International Biblical Commentary series marked down, but after reading a notice from Chad at The Road to Emmaus, I decided to give this series a closer look. Besides I had a $30 gift certificate to spend and I wanted to get the most bang for my buck.

From my experience the NIBC series is, like most series, hit-and-miss. In other words, while all of the volumes are more than likely very helpful, they probably would not be your first pick. However, many of these volumes will serve the majority of readers very well. As I have used Gerald Wilson on Job, Peter Davids on James, and Christopher Wright on Deuteronomy, I have found them to be similar in some respects and a bit more thorough than the Tyndale Commentary Series (which has been a long-time favorite series). I am very glad to have had this opportunity to become more familiar with this series because I have found a handful of useful volumes by very able commentators.

To this, it must be noted that whereas Hendrickson Publishers previously printed this series in hardback, all of the latest printings and some of the newest volumes are only available in paperback. CBD is offering a very nice selection of these commentaries in hardback at prices less than $5 a piece. Here are the ones I purchased:

• Ian Provan, 1 and 2 Kings
• F. F. Bruce, Philippians
• John Goldingay, Isaiah
• Christopher Wright, Deuteronomy
• Craig Broyles, Psalms
• Craig Evans, Luke
• Leslie Allen & Timothy Laniak, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
  

Other volumes listed at the same low price are as follows (I didn't purchase these because I am not as familiar with the authors):

• W. H. Bellinger, Leviticus, Numbers
  
• J. Gordon Harris, Cheryl A. Brown & Michael S. Moore, Joshua, Judges, Ruth
• Mary J. Evans, 1 & 2 Samuel
• R. Murphy & E. Huwiler, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
• Robert Mounce, Matthew
• Larry Hurtado, Mark
• James Scott, 2 Corinthians
• L. Ann Jervis, Galatians (Fab Friday Deal at $1.99)
• David Williams, 1 & 2 Thessalonians
• Robert Wall, Revelation

Two other books I picked up at excellent prices are:

• Brevard S. Childs, Biblical Theology: A Proposal (a small paperback booklet) for $1.49. (I've been wanting to read this little booklet for some time now.)
  
• Craig Bartholomew, Mary Healy, Karl Moller & Robin Parry (eds.), Out of Egypt: Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation for $6.99. (I cannot tell why they have marked this at such a low price, considering the content and the fact that two other volumes in this series are marked at $16.99 each. Whatever, the reason it is a fantastic deal.)

Check them out! And if you find any other great deals, please pass a note to us.

Great Book Buys at CBD

Martyrdom of Jim Elliot and his missionary team, 1956

Yesterday evening I browsed through a local LifeWay bookstore with my children. Just before we left I noticed a display stand that had a number of beautifully reprinted classic biographies. Upon further investigation I discovered that they were Hendrickson's Classic Biographies Series. This is a series I had overlooked during 2008 but would have gladly been included on my list of Noteworthy Book Recommendations 2008. In this series is a reprinting of Elizabeth Elliot's Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot. The story of Jim Elliot was a great inspiration to me during my college years, and while I contemplated service on the foreign mission field. This book truly is a classic and it ought to owned and read by every Christian family.

Fred Sanders has written another fine article (Today Jim Elliot Was Killed [1956]) on the martyrdom of Jim Elliot and his friend on January 8, 1956.

_______________
Other titles in the Hendrickson Classic Biography Series are as follows:

• Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor
  
• Saint Francis of Assisi by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
• George Müller of Bristol by Arthur T. Pierson
• Fanny J. Crosby an autobiography
• Born Again by Charles W. Colson
• The Heart of John Wesley's Journal selected and edited by Percy Livingston Parker

forthcoming:

• Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton
• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
• A Love Observed: Joy Davidman's Life & Marriage to C. S. Lewis by Lyle W. Dorsett
  

All of these volumes are hardback (cloth) with dust jackets and have been freshly typeset. These truly are beautiful volumes, some of which I only own in paperback editions. At very affordable prices this series of biographies would serve the Christian home very well. I can think of other biographies that ought to be in this series, but they may be in the works already.

Martyrdom of Jim Elliot and his missionary team, 1956

Update: Two Reader's Bibles

I would like to thank Hendrickson Publishers and Zondervan for sending review copies of The UBS Greek New Testament: Reader's Edition and A Reader's Hebrew Bible, respectively. For about three weeks, now, I've been using these tools with profit. For me, these tools are nearly perfect. I say "nearly perfect", not to fault the tools, but the laborer. I took four semesters of NT Greek during my undergraduate years (nearly 12 years ago), and two semesters of Hebrew on the seminary level (nearly 6 years ago). In other words, I've forgotten much of the vocabulary. However, these appear to be the right tools to help me get back up to speed as I consider resuming my seminary studies.

I've begun using RHB by reading through Jonah & Judges. Yesterday, I spoke with Bryan Smith about this and he also suggested the first few chapters of Genesis. One other profitable practice is carrying RHB to church (especially if you know that you will be considering an OT text). The size of RHB is such that I carry a smaller English translation.

This morning I read with joy an email update from Zondervan Academic which included the following note from Jesse Hillman, Associate Director of Marketing, Academic and Reference Resources:

We just ordered our third printing of A Reader's Hebrew Bible! Numerous professors are writing us to express their excitement. Last week, Professor Michael Williams (Calvin Theological Seminary) wrote us, commenting that the RHB "is clear, attractive, and uncomplicated ... I will be highly recommending it to all of my Hebrew students."

With regards to UBSGNT:re, I've been reading through Romans as I study for preaching opportunities. One point I would like to stress about using Reader's Editions is that you use the vocabulary and parsing helps as a guide only. I've already found one instance in Romans 6 where a verb glossed on a previous page as an imperative was glossed again as an imperative when it actually is an indicative. I don't expect that to happen often, but a Reader's Edition is not intended to make one a lazy student. It is simply to help you increase your familiarity with the language and your speed of reading. I'm very pleased with the format of the UBSGNT:re. It is larger than my UBS4 edition but the same size as my hardback Literary Study Bible. I can carry them both together very comfortably.

I hope that you, too, will consider these new tools. Here are links to some posts that are packed with comparative details and descriptions of these tools.

Hebrew Reader -

• Forthcoming: A Reader's Hebrew Bible edited by Philip Brown & Bryan Smith
• Q&A with Philip Brown: A Reader's Hebrew Bible | Part One
• Q&A with Philip Brown: A Reader's Hebrew Bible | Part Two
• Q&A with Bryan Smith: A Reader's Hebrew Bible
• A Reader's Hebrew Bible: Preview
  

Greek Readers -

• 3 Readers Editions of the Greek New Testament (RGNT1, RGNT2 & UBSGNT:re)
  

Update: Two Reader's Bibles

Review: The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition

Today, I received a review copy of The UBS Greek New Testament. A Reader's Edition (courtesy of Hendrickson Publishers). Having had a chance to handle this volume I've been able to complete my comparison chart (click here and/or see below)

Here are a few observations.

1. It is larger than my UBS4, but it is about the same size as my English Bibles. Comparing it to my ESV Literary Study Bible, it is nearly the same height and width and about 1/4" thinner.
2. The page thickness is excellent. It is not the thin onion skin paper found in many other Bibles. There is very little bleed-through. This is tolerable!
   
3. The font is very readable. Chapter numbers are large and bold. Verse numbers are bold and easily distinguished from the footnote reference numbers. (See this excerpt.)
   
4. The page formatting is crisp and clean. I feel at home here because the formatting is so similar to my UBS4. There is approximately 7/8" margin on the outside edges.
5. The supplemented lexicon is simple and easy to use.
6. The maps take up the final four pages and, thankfully are not used as endpages as they are in the UBS4 standard text edition.

I'm very pleased with this edition and have already begun reading in it. I recommend this to intermediate students of Biblical Greek.

• Purchase:
• List Price: $69.95
• WTS ($43.37) | CBD ($42.99) | Amazon ($44.07)

Reader's Greek New Testament Comparison

		RGNT1	RGNT2	UBS:RE

Cover Leather Italian Duo-Tone leather Hardcover Ribbon NO NO YES Size Height 9.2" 10" 9.33" Width 5.9" 7" 6.22" Thickness 0.7" 1.1" 1.3125" Nbr of Pages 587 576 732 Paper Weight very thin very thin thin Color White White White Weight 1 lb 1.415 lb 2 lbs Text Underlying text for NIV Underlying text for TNIV USB4 Font Italic Non-Italic Non-Italic Stroke thin thin thick, clear English Section Headings NO NO YES Footnoted Glosses Format Paragraph Paragraph Two Columns Number of Occurrences 30x or less 30x or less 30x or less Repetition on Same Page YES YES NO Names Included YES YES NO

Parsing NO NO YES Declension NO NO YES OT References YES YES NO Comparison with UBS4 YES YES NO Apendices Maps NONE 4 pages full-color Std UBS full-color Lexicon (words 30x or more) NO 6 pages 22 pages Cost (List Price) $29.99 $34.99 $69.95

____________________
See also my previous post entitled 3 Reader's Editions of the Greek New Testament.

Review: The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition

3 Reader's Editions of the Greek New Testament

While discussing Zondervan's A Reader's Hebrew Bible with Philip Brown and Bryan Smith, I noticed that comparisons were drawn between RHB and Zondervan's A Reader's Greek New Testament. The more we discussed the benefits of RHB the more I came to realize how useful these tools will be for students and pastors.

I have done a good bit of research on the reader's edition Greek New Testaments available on the market and have found the following information:

1. Thus far, Zondervan has published two editions of RGNT.
1. A Reader's Greek New Testament (RGNT1), edited by Richard J. Goodrich & Albert L. Lukaszewski (April 2003)
• Features:
• Leather Bound
• The underlying text of the NIV
• Italic Greek font (click on the pic to enlarge)
• Footnoted definitions of all Greek words occurring 30x or less
• As you will see from the previous pic, the editors chose to include names as vocab. For an intermediate student, the target audience of this tool, this is unnecessary. (The UBS edition skips these names.)
  
• Footnotes offering comparisons with UBS4 (click on the pic to enlarge
• OT references are noted in a separate apparatus at the bottom of the page (click on the pic to enlarge)
• 608 pages
• 9.2" x 5.9" x 0.7"
• 1 lb
• 4 page excerpt
  
• Purchase:
• List Price: $29.99
• WTS ($18.89) | CBD ($21.99) | Amazon ($29.99)
  



2. A Reader's Greek New Testament, 2nd Edition (RGNT2), edited by Richard J. Goodrich & Albert L. Lukaszewski (November 2007)
   
• Features:
• Italian Duo-Tone cover
• The underlying text of the TNIV
• Non-italic Greek font
  
• Footnoted definitions of all Greek words occurring 30x or less
• A superscripted number follows each word to be found in the footnotes
• This superscripted number follows every appearance of every word occurring 30x or more (click on the pic to enlarge)
• According to this strategy, as seen in the previous pic, words situated close together share the same footnote number. However, words appearing a few words apart or more are assigned a new footnote number. (click on the pic to enlarge)
  This is carried over into the footnotes section where the same definition will be repeated multiple times. To me, this is an unfortunate redundancy. (The editors of the RHB sought to remedy this problem. The UBS edition also has a solution.) (click on the pic to enlarge)
• Footnotes offering comparisons with UBS4
• OT references are noted in a separate apparatus at the bottom of the page
  
• Includes a mini-lexicon of words occurring 30x or more
• Based on Warren C. Trenchard's Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament
• Four pages of full-color maps
• 576 pages
• 7" x 10" x 1.1"
• 1.415 lb
• 7 page excerpt
  
• Reviews:
• Rick Mansfield (The Lamp) - A Reader's Greek New Testament, 2nd Edition: Hands On Review
• Rick Brannan (ricoblog) - Reader's Greek New Testament Smackdown!
  
• Purchase:
• List Price: $34.99
• CBD ($27.99) | Amazon ($23.09)



2. Hendrickson has also published a Reader's NT with the standard UBS text.
1. The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition, edited by Barclay Newman (December 2007)
• Features:
• Burgundy Hardcover
• UBS 4th edition text edited by Barbara Aland, et al.
• Word definitions adapted from Barclay Newman's Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament
• Two-column, footnoted definitions of all Greek words occurring 30x or less
• Some parsing and declension provided
• Translations given according to context (click on the pic to enlarge)
• Section headings
• An appended dictionary of all words occurring 30x or more
• Maps from the UBS Greek New Testament
  
• 732 pages
• 9.33" x 6.22"
  
• 6 page excerpt
  
• Reviews:
• Rick Mansfield (The Lamp) - The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition (A Hands-On, Comparative Review)
  
• Rick Brannan (ricoblog) - Reader's Greek New Testament Smackdown!
• Purchase:
• List Price: $69.95
• WTS ($43.37) | CBD ($42.99) | Amazon ($44.07)

Here is a chart comparing the features of these three Reader's. (click on the pic to enlarge)

3 Reader's Editions of the Greek New Testament