Galatians and Romans

This slim volume is well written for the purposes of this series. With the text of the letters on the upper half of the pages (New American Bible) and Karris’s commentary on the lower half of the pages, lay readers and undergraduates will have maximum exposure to the texts of these two letters of Paul while being guided by the wisdom of a solid exegete and master teacher. In both the Galatians and Romans sections of this commentary, Karris consistently identifies Paul’s use of pathos, ethos, and logos in his argumentative strategies. Karris’s Galatians section (5–34) follows Martyn in viewing the letter as driven by an apocalyptic worldview and is open to the insights of Dunn’s new perspective. Karris goes with a North Galatian destination for the letter and uses Martyn’s “teachers” and Nanos’s “influencers” as descriptors for the opponents whose teaching Paul confronts. Throughout the Galatian section there is a healthy emphasis on how Paul is writing for a community of believers, such as “Christians are free to form an inclusive community (3:26–28).” The reader is thus helpfully pushed beyond an individualistic reading of the letter. While utilizing the new perspective, Karris does not limit himself to this perspective. [Full Review]