Hebrews

Attridge is one of the indispensable modern critical commentaries on Hebrews and remains a benchmark for technical scholarship. His command of the Greek text, Hellenistic and Jewish backgrounds, literary questions, conceptual history, and previous scholarship is exceptional, but his greatest strength is often his analytical precision: distinctions between Christ’s once-for-all sacrificial death and continuing intercession, the various dimensions of perfection, and the development of Hebrews’ high-priestly Christology are handled with unusual clarity. Attridge is also admirably willing to allow difficult passages to remain difficult; his treatment of Hebrews 6, for example, takes the language of apostasy and the impossibility of restoration seriously rather than neutralizing it. I do not follow him everywhere, particularly where Platonic categories seem to carry too much interpretive weight or where he moves from explaining Hebrews to criticizing its theological conclusions. Nor is Hermeneia the most pastor-friendly format. Nevertheless, as a critical conversation partner and source of independent exegetical judgment, Attridge remains extraordinarily valuable.

Attridge’s commentary on Hebrews provides an excellent treatment of a notably difficult Greek text. Students looking for rigorous interaction with the text as well as parallels to the Greco-Roman context will not be disappointed by this commentary. [Full Review]

 

I didn't find this commentary very helpful. Attridge seems to be overly concerned with constructing a history of ideas behind the text, which while can be informative, in this case got in the way of actual interpretation of the text. Per the series, Attridge often had an excursus on relevant topics, which tended to be of more use than the surrounding exposition.

I begin with Harold Attridge, in part because I worked through it carefully with a class years back when it first appeared [Full Review]

[Full Review]