Craig S. Keener PDF
Preview Craig S. Keener
This book is dedicated to our brothers and sisters on the frontline of evangelism in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the inner cities of North America and the many other places where followers of Jesus are paying a high price to proclaim his gospel in truth. Many of them have not had the time or opportunity to pursue the original cultural context of the New Testament, but I pray with all my heart that this book will be useful to them in their service to our Lord Jesus Christ. The list of scholars in New Testament, Judaic studies and Greco-Roman antiquity to whose writings I am indebted could fill many pages, and for this reason I forgo it. The list of scholars with whom I have studied personally is shorter, but still I list only a few of my academic mentors: Ben Aker, Mary Boatwright, Morna Hooker, Dale Martin, Eric Meyers, Ramsey Michaels, Jim Moyer, E. P. Sanders, D. Moody Smith, Wesley Smith and Orval Wintermute. More direct acknowledgment must be made to my faithful and patient editors at InterVarsity Press, Rodney Clapp and Ruth Goring Stewart. About two years after I had decided that IVP would be the ideal publisher for a commentary like this one if I ever got the time to write it, Rodney contacted me and asked if I would be interested in writing a book for IVP. Since that time I have appreciated not only the editorial help but also the spiritual encouragement my friends at IVP have provided. Finally, I must thank my students and members of congregations over the years who have afforded me the opportunity to test out the ideas in this commentary. They are the ones who helped me sift through which elements of background were genuinely important to communicating the message of the biblical text and which were only peripheral. In this connection, I should mention especially my undergraduate students at Duke and my seminary students at Hood Theological Seminary. I should also thank the various campus ministry groups (InterVarsity, Raptures, Crusade and Koinonia at Duke, and New Generation at Livingstone College) that have allowed me to test out this commentary's material in smaller group settings and in personal discipleship. The story of how the Lord provided financially while I was working on the commentary full time-to the exact dollar amount I had prayed for to pay rent and buy groceries that year, and within twenty-four hours of the prayer-is another story in itself. But I have seen the Lord's special hand of providence in the undertaking of this work, and I hope that, in the end, this work owes far more to his input than to mine. ABBREVIATIONS 8 HOW TO USE THIS COMMENTARY 9 THE NEED FOR A CULTURAL-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY 22 GOSPELS 38 MATTHEW 43 MARK 132 LUKE 185 JOHN 259 ACTS 320 NEW TESTAMENT LETTERS 407 ROMANS 411 1 CORINTHIANS 451 2 CORINTHIANS 491 GALATIANS 517 EPHESIANS 538 PHILIPPIANS 556 COLOSSIANS 568 1 THESSALONIANS 583 2 THESSALONIANS 597 1 TIMOTHY 605 2 TIMOTHY 622 TITUS 634 PHILEMON 642 HEBREWS 647 JAMES 686 1 PETER 705 2 PETER 723 1 JOHN 734 2 JOHN 747 3 JOHN 750 JUDE 752 REVELATION 757 GLOSSARY 822 MAPS & CHARTS 833
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