The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians

by F.F. Bruce

Book Overview

After a lifetime of work that earned him the appellation "Dean of Evangelical Scholarship," F. F. Bruce's legacy of defending the historical reliability of the New Testament and explicating its... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802824013
• ISBN13: 9780802824011
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 442 Pages
• Weight: 1.49 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Read it before before buying it

Surely there will be someone else writing about this book, so I'm going try to help you in another way. When you start reading biblical commentaries you will need to be aware that the thoughts expressed by the author deal with facts and speculations that should of happened. You can NEVER rely on only one commentary to affirm something about the Bible. You need at least three good commentaries. Try to read biblical commentaries from different confessions of faith (e.g., Calvinism vs. Arminianism; Pentecostal vs. non-Pentecostal; Catholic vs. Protestant; Egalitarian vs. Complementarian; Amillennialism vs. Premillennialism vs. Postmillennialism; etc). Look for their arguments: What do they agree or disagree on? Which of them is closest to the biblical text? It's not a sin to read commentaries written from other points of view. You will notice that what is fact or solid argument will be seen over and over on different commentaries, so you will start learning what is speculation and what is not. As Haddon W. Robinson said in his book, Biblical Preaching, (second edition, page 22), "In approaching a passage, we must be willing to reexamine our doctrinal convictions and to reject the judgments of our most respected teachers." Remember, a commentary is not the biblical text. Do not replace the authority of the Bible with a commentary. The same apply for Study Bibles. The study notes there are not written by "apostles and prophets," so never confuse the "gospel" with the teacher or preacher. Learn to separate it. Commentaries are important because nobody can get a poem from one language and translate it with the same structure to another language. This simply does not exist. Words, phrases, and sentences are rooted in a specific time, culture and custom. About Bibles, the best way is to check different translations, but be cautious about a very loose translation. For you to appreciate any biblical commentary you need to know what level of reading you are. I'm going call them beginner, intermediate and advanced. I recommend the following biblical commentaries that you can start from. All of them have both Old Testament and New Testament. (If you're thinking of buying the whole set, look for the CD edition; it's cheaper and you can take it with you where you go.) Beginner - NIV Application Commentary (NIVAC) by Zondervan. (or) The Bible Speaks Today Series (BST) by IVP (This is a growing series and not yet complete.) Intermediate - New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT) and New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT) by Eerdmans Advanced - Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) by Thomas Nelson These are basic commentaries on their own level, but there are a lot of commentaries today, so don't forget to look for more information. Maybe you can get information from one of these: (1) Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by John Glynn, (2) New Tes

Tempered with Balance Scholarship

The late FF Bruce has always been a thoughtful NT scholar. He is so thorough, and this volume reflects such. He has combined this scholarship of the NT world, his awareness of the relevant heavy hitters on the mentioned epistles, his adeptness of the biblical languages, and a pastoral flavor to produce a wonderful commentary.

Bruce on Ephesians

As a practicing pastor who tries to develop sermons from the Greek text, I've been working through Ephesians. When I started my series a couple pastor friends recommended Stott's commentary on Ephesians, which I purchased. I also picked up about four or five other commentaries including this one. Then I've borrowed about a dozen more commentaries. As I have worked through the text (I'm now in chapter 5) I've found that Bruce is more accurate in his handling of the Greek text than Peter O'Brien or John Stott. One case is Ephesians 2:1 where Bruce correctly identifies trespasses and sins as synonyms. Stott & O'Brien come up with various theories which sound good but don't hold water with the lexical entries or scholars I've been interacting with online. I've found this repeated again in Ephesians 4:22-24 where Bruce identifies aorist infinitives not as past tense verbs, but as verbs that tilt towards imperatives (as most translators agree). However, Stott unconvincingly argues that these aorist infinitives must be past tense, even though he is flying in the face of Greek grammars on aorist tense and most biblical translators. For these reasons I've learned to turn to Bruce first before I check my other commentaries. And if I don't have time to read several versions I tend to go to this one first. I guess I would recommend preaching pastors/teachers to use Bruce to make sure that any great sounding phrases or things that might preach well from other commentators are really accurate. If Bruce has a drawback it is in the very area that I love Stott for the most. Bruce doesn't always come up with great sounding phrases that would preach well. Stott does that all through his commentary. So I guess at least for Ephesians, I would use Stott for application and Bruce for exegesis. There are a few times where Bruce doesn't give a lot of detail. My assumption is that there's not much worth commenting on in the scope of theories out there. Having said that, I can't imagine studying Ephesians in depth without Bruce. It's fantastic. Get a copy if you can! For a minister's library, it might be the best commentary out there on Ephesians.

Expounding the essentials

In these admirable but relatively brief commentaries on Colossians and Ephesians (each is 190 pages or so) the late, great F.F. Bruce manages to say a great deal. Verse by verse, with discernment and economy of words, he weaves a web of exposition and theology. Brevity is achieved by applying in general what he writes specifically in connection with Eph. 3:18, that "it would be pointless to examine all the interpretations that have been offered." He does not dwell much on critical questions, either; but with a mature understanding of the texts Bruce has focused his attention on expounding their essential meaning. Satisfactory detail is provided by the footnotes, which treat textual issues, Greek words and phrases, the (often divergent) viewpoints of other scholars, and give Biblical and bibliographic references. The introduction to the commentary on Colossians includes good background information on the "Colossian heresy." One notable feature of the main text is Bruce's drawing parallels throughout to the other writings of Paul; it is remarkable how often he finds occasion to refer to Romans, for example (specially in the case of Ephesians). As he rightly points out (p. 326), "Paul is his own best interpreter." While many scholars doubt that Paul was the author of Ephesians and, to a lesser degree, of Colossians, Bruce's cited parallels of thought and language leave little doubt that these letters are thoroughly Pauline, whoever the actual author(s) may have been if not Paul himself. There are recognizable similarities between Colossians and Ephesians, but which one depends on the other and to what extent is not clear and has been the subject of much debate. Having commentaries on them in one volume, by one author, with one exegetical approach makes the comparison of parallel verses/expressions/thoughts convenient and instructive, even if it does not resolve the debate. That commentary on the short letter to Philemon is included too is a plus, not least because of the letter's association with Colossians at more than one point.

Thorough

Since I started seminary, I've enjoyed F.F. Bruce's commentaries. Having started a study of the letter to the Colossians, I've consulted this commentary extensively. His insight and text critical footnotes help the reader to get a better grasp of the content and meaning of this letter. Highly recommended.