Hebrews

The past two decades have witnessed a welcomed, steady stream of new commentaries on the New Testament book of Hebrews. A number of these commentaries have been thorough, aware of the latest Hebrews research, insightful in their reflection on the Greek text, and demonstrative of the fruit of a variety of critical methodologies. Yet commentaries and commentators of any era are given to certain patterns (and dare we say ruts) both of style and interpretation. As C. S. Lewis noted in his essay “On the Reading of Old Books,” “Every age … is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes.” Thus we need “to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds.” Enter the Hebrews volume in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ACCS) series from InterVarsity Press, an attractively produced, contemporary book of ancient readings edited by Erik M. Heen and Philip D. W. Krey, both of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. This commentary presents collected reflections on Hebrews from fifty early church fathers whose lives and ministries spanned nine centuries, drawing from 129 of their works. [Full Review]