Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews

Due to his methodological commitment to socio-rhetorical criticism, deSilva’s commentary brings a fresh perspective to the letter. The result is sometimes theologically light, but the commentary is persuasive and fruitful overall. [Full Review]

For my money, the most interesting commentary on Hebrews out there. The writing is passionate and the analysis is convincing. This is fundamentally a theological commentary. Anyone preaching or teaching Hebrews will find a lot here to ponder.

[Full Review]

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. Pp. xix + 560, Paperback, $40.00, ISBN 0802841880. Moschos Goutzioudis University of Thessaloniki 54632 Thessaloniki, Greece DeSilva’s book is the first socio-rhetorical commentary which appears in New Testament Hermeneutics. The author applied the socio-rhetorical analysis on the epistle to the Hebrews as he had already made in the past with his two published books (Despising Shame: Honor Discourse and Community Maintenance in the Epistle to the Hebrews, SBLDS 152, Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995 & The Hope of Glory: Honor Discourse and New Testament Interpretation, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999). It’s true that the cultural world of the recipients of Hebrews is combined with analysis of the author’s rhetorical strategy. The book is divided in two parts. The first is an introduction to the epistle to the Hebrews. It presents the basic problems of the text of Hebrews and then the author describes what is socio-rhetorical analysis. The second and larger part of the book is the commentary. The principal interest of DeSilva’s book is to present and analyze the rhetorical strategy of Hebrews. For this aim, rhetorical analysis, social-scientific approach and cultural anthropology perspective are used in an inter-cultural model of interpretation. More specifically, structural, literary and narrative strategies come into play, to bring into light aspects that remain unknown to modern research. We will not find a commentary to the kind that we have already seen by H. Attridge or W. Lane, because the interest of the author is not to present us all the philological and theological data of the text, neither to numerate all the sources that probably the author of the epistle made use. The author focuses on the rhetorical devices and the way by which the author of Hebrews communicates with his audience. [Full Review]