Philippians

Reumann had written extensively on Philippians before publishing this commentary. And his knowledge of the text and related scholarship is evident in this massive tome. But the reader should be warned that the style of writing of the commentary makes it more like a dictionary than a readable “commentary.” It serves best as a guide to a particular verse or section. I should also mention that Reumann treats canonical Philippians as a composite of three separate Pauline letters. [Full Review]

A treasure trove of information, but sometimes you must really dig! Ruemann is a Lutheran scholar with a liberal leaning who has written the most detailed commentary on Philippians to date. Essentially, the information in this commentary is massive and it’s a reference that a scholar or seminary student must use when studying Paul’s letter, but it is not as useful for the pastor or laymen (partly because the discussion is so technical and also because of the sheer time it takes to get through it all). Ruemann does think that Paul wrote the letter, but he argues idiosyncratically that Philippians is actually a combination of three separate letters that Paul had written to the churches in Philippi... [Full Review]

tandard liberal Protestant academic commentary. [Full Review]

The big kahuna for Philippians -- over 800 pages! -- is John Reumann. [Full Review]

John Reumann, who, sadly, died in 2008, was emeritus Professor of New Testament and Greek at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, where he taught for some fifty years. He became well known in the 1960s and 1970s as editor of Fortress Press’s Facet Book Biblical Series, which brought many fine lengthy essays to English language readership, and also for his participation in the ongoing Lutheran-Catholic dialogue on justification that climaxed in the Joint Declaration agreed in 1999. But his long term research focused on Paul’s letter to the Philippians, on which he worked for more than thirty years. This volume marks the climax of Reumann’s career, clearly attests the high quality of his scholarship, and reminds its users of how great a loss his death has been. As his own preface tells us, the length of time taken to produce the commentary resulted, perhaps inevitably, in a too-lengthy manuscript, which, at the publisher’s insistence, had to be cut almost in half. The result is a somewhat lopsided treatment that is sometimes frustrating to use. Following the Anchor Bible format, the body of the commentary is divided between Notes and Comment, Comment being divided into A, on sources and forms that shape the pericope, and B, Reumann’s own conclusions, “where the aim is to present what Paul meant, and the interpretation given to his words by the Philippians and others since then” (xviii). [Full Review]