II Corinthians
II Corinthians
Technical
Critical

II Corinthians

in Anchor Yale Bible

by Victor Paul Furnish

4.63 Rank Score: 6.13 from 7 reviews, 6 featured collections, and 10 user libraries
Pages 648
Publisher Yale University Press
Published 1984
ISBN-13 9780300139839
Nothing speaks more highly for a commentary than how valuable it is to pastors and scholars, students, and interested readers. By all accounts, Victor Paul Furnish’s commentary on II Corinthians has become the standard by which others are judged. It is praised as “a quite superb commentary . . . everything that a good commentary should be” (Expository Times), “by any standard . . . an excellent volume” (Interpretation), and “perhaps the definitive commentary on the letter in English” (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society). In addition, Furnish has “accomplished a difficult task with remarkable skill and apparent ease” (Biblical Theology Bulletin), and has given us “one of [the Anchor Bible’s] finest studies” (Catholic Biblical Quarterly). In the internationally renowned tradition of the Anchor Bible series, this commentary is an excellent and indispensable tool for biblical study.

Scholars rarely posses both the gift of academic excellence and the ability to communicate their expertise in an extremely readable fashion; but Furnish succeeds admirably with the right balance of scholarship and practical application, offered in the most accessible prose. With a mastery of primary languages and sources, and a lucid discussion of the first-century context of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, the reader enters the worldview of the original recipients of this hard-hitting letter. In the end, Furnish successfully navigates the maze of difficulties faced by the commentator and, thankfully, helps the general audience understand what II Corinthians says and means.

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Nijay K. Gupta Nijay K. Gupta July 5, 2019
Furnish has a solid reputation as a Pauline scholar. He published this commentary in 1984, so it can feel rather outdated, but his work is still worth consulting. He has expertise in analyzing the social background and situation in Corinth, and he is also interested in theological issues in the text related to suffering and Christology. [Full Review]
Phillip J. Long Phillip J. Long June 7, 2012
This is the only commentary on my list that takes a multiple source seriously, suggesting five separate letters as sources for the compilation of 2 Corinthians, although two of his five sources are now lost, a first letter to Corinth prior to the canonical book and the “tearful letter” (letter C). Chapters 1-9 and 10-13 are two separate letters. Furnish also suggests Galatians and chapters 10-13 are composed and sent about the same time, helping to show that the opponents in 10-13 are the Judaizers of Galatians. But these matters should not distract from the value of the commentary, some of Furnish’s “expanded comments” are excellent and shed a great deal of light on the text. Like all Anchor volumes, Greek appears only in transliteration in a “notes” section. [Full Review]
Scot McKnight Scot McKnight May 28, 2009