The Concordia Commentary series, which is dedicated to the theological exposition of Christian Scripture, is not well known, and in fact Gregory Lockwood’s commentary on 1 Corinthians is only the third volume to appear in the series. Because this commentary series is relatively unknown and is somewhat unusual in its strongly confessional and theological orientation, it is worth considering the features and goals of the series as a whole and the way in which these have shaped Lockwood’s commentary. The editors’ preface indicates that the series is directed to pastors, missionaries, and Bible teachers, with a view to assisting them in communicating “God’s word with greater clarity, understanding, and faithfulness to the divine intent of the text” (xii). Behind this goal is an understanding of Christian Scripture as being Christ-centered, as having law and gospel as its overarching doctrines, as providing God’s means for communicating the gospel, and as the sacred text of the church intended to benefit all humanity. The series is intended by the editors to pay attention “to the smallest of details” of the text because it is committed to the verbal inspiration of Christian Scripture (xiii). The editors also state that they and the authors whom they have commissioned stand firmly in the historical Lutheran tradition and look to the hermeneutical methods of Luther for an example for how Christian Scripture should be approached. What this means in practice is that Lockwood’s 1 Corinthians does not stand in the modern critical-commentary tradition. Lockwood shows little interest in interacting with contemporary critical studies on 1 Corinthians in a systematic way. [Full Review]

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