Galatians Through the Centuries

Riches is an outstanding reception-history companion to Galatians and adds a dimension that conventional exegetical commentaries usually cannot provide. Rather than simply tracing what Paul originally meant, he follows the ways Galatians has been read, debated, and appropriated from the Fathers through medieval interpreters, the Reformers, and modern historical criticism. Particularly useful is his attention to how commentators fill the ambiguities and gaps in Paul’s compressed argument from their own theological and social contexts, making the history of interpretation itself a form of hermeneutical self-examination. It should not replace a primary exegetical commentary, but it is enormously valuable for seeing how influential readings arose, what assumptions shaped them, and how apparently “obvious” interpretations often have histories of their own. For anyone writing a substantial commentary on Galatians, this is the reception-history volume I would most want alongside the exegetical literature.

Oxford: Blackwell, 2008. Pp. xvi + 336. Cloth. $100.00. ISBN: 063123084X. Martin Meiser Universität des Saarlandes Saarbrücken, Germany The history of reception of biblical texts is a topic of research whose necessity has been emphasized for several decades. It has been included already in some commentary series dealing with modern exegesis (e.g., Evangelisch-Katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament), but now it is established in some comprehensive projects dedicated only to this field: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; Blackwell Bible Commentaries; The Church’s Bible; Novum Testamentum Patristicum. The focus of these commentaries is inspired by the increasing insight that the rich variety of interpreting biblical texts in the distinct Christian communities is not an unavoidable evil but a wealth stimulating an ongoing effort to understand the possible challenges of the Holy Scripture for one’s own piety and for the life of distinct Christian congregations. Further, in an epoch in danger of losing its consciousness of Christian history, it is important to keep the roots of our culture in mind. The specific profile of the Blackwell Bible Commentaries among the above-named series is the presentation not only of the variety of interpretations within Christian communities but also of “the influence of the Bible on literature, art, music and film, its role in the evolution of religious beliefs and practices, and its impact in social and political developments” (ix). [Full Review]

Oxford: Blackwell, 2008. Pp. xvi + 336. Cloth. $100.00. ISBN: 063123084X. John Dunnill Murdoch University Murdoch, Australia This commentary on Galatians is part of a very exciting new project, a series of biblical commentaries (mostly one to each book) covering the whole of the Hebrew and Christian canon (and perhaps the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical writings?), from the point of view of reception history. Its focus is therefore less on the historical-critical question What did Paul, or this text, originally mean? than on how it has been understood by key interpreters down the ages. That is, of course, also a historical question, one that requires its own kinds of critical discernment, asking us to engage imaginatively and intellectually with writers from many different social settings as each in turn engages with the biblical text. It is a striking fact, which John Riches brings out repeatedly, that up until the middle of the nineteenth century it was taken for granted that theological and biblical scholarship (and the two were not easily separated) consisted in a knowledge of a stream of appreciation and critical discussion of biblical texts stretching back to the patristic period and integrated with reflection on the relevant strands of doctrine. It is true to this day in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, but it was true also in the otherwise divided communities of the West, Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican. [Full Review]