Zondervan’s EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT series is a really user-friendly and illuminating look at the biblical text, using the original Greek. Clinton E. Arnold is the General Editor of the series and the author of the Ephesians commentary of the series. Since I first heard a series of sermons from the book of Ephesians when I was a high school student, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians has been my favorite book of the Bible. It’s the one book of the Bible that I gravitate to over and over again.
I love Arnold’s commentary on Ephesians. Arnold carefully lays out the context of the community that Paul was writing to. He describes how the church started, the idolatry they had to turn from in turning to Christ, and the idolatrous context the Ephesian church had to continue to live within. There have been some widespread debates on whether Ephesians was even written specifically to the Ephesian church because there are some ancient manuscripts that omit the words “in Ephesus” from the letter. Arnold tackles this subject head-on and presents some compelling reasons for believing that Paul did write the letter to the Ephesian church and that “in Ephesus” were original to the letter.
Ephesians is a beautiful letter about God’s work in and love for the church, and it’s great to explore the details of the letter. Any discussion of Ephesians will inevitably lead to discussion of the subject of God’s election of believers. Arnold handles it expertly, pointing out that in writing to believers Paul says nothing about the non-elect, so the subject of reprobation isn’t even a teaching thought in Ephesians.
Bible students and teachers, whether they know New Testament Greek or not, will benefit greatly from this commentary and all the others in Zondervan’s commentary series.
I received this book for free for review from Zondervan, and the opinions contained in this review are completely my own
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