Friday, May 21, 2004

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

I've just been surfing around the InterVarsity Press web site and came across a large section of it devoted to this series:

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

The project is described in the following way:
The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture does what very few of today's students of the Bible could do for themselves. With the aid of computer technology, the vast array of writings from the church fathers--including much that is available only in the ancient languages--have been combed for their comment on Scripture. From these results, scholars with a deep knowledge of the fathers and a heart for the church have hand-selected material for each volume, shaping, annotating and introducing it to today's readers. Each portion of commentary has been chosen for its salient insight, its rhetorical power and its faithful representation of the consensual exegesis of the early church.
You can read more about the project on the site; it is now about three-quarters complete and most of the NT volumes are out. It is a very useful site and a good example to other publishers on how to catch an academic's interest. There are not only full details of each of the volumes but also lots of excerpts from them, for example these PDFs:

Christopher A. Hall and Thomas C. Oden, Introduction to Mark

Arthur Just, Introduction to Luke

For the full list of what is available, go to the Volumes and Editors page and then click on individual titles to read the excerpts, which always include the introductions and some sample commentary. Also on the site is a nice list of useful web sites:

Links to Related Web sites

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