DanW

When I took the Romans class at seminary I regularly consulted Moo along with other top commentaries on Romans. As good as the others were, Moo was consistently the most complete and helpful. What I really like about Moo’s commentary is that he gives all the options for interpreting a given passage and then tells us which option he goes with and why.

Many beneficial things are found in Fee’s commentary on Philippians: 1) There is no one better than Fee at tracing Paul’s flow of thought. Fee is always thinking contextually. His is the opposite of atomistic exegesis. 2) He shows how Greco-Roman friendship sheds light on much in this letter. 3) Fee has caught the true spirit of the Apostle, emphasizing that Christ is the center of Paul’s existence and that the advance of the gospel is always Paul’s primary concern. 4) Fee gives helpful explanations of the difficult words in the Christ narrative (2:6-11). 5) He has memorable phrases like “living a cruciform lifestyle” and “in Paul’s hands everything turns into gospel.” 6) Fee clearly lays out the difficulties that confront us in a given passage and then offers reasonable solutions to those difficulties. 7) Preachers and adult Bible class teachers will appreciate Fee’s contemporary applications. There are many other little gems along the way. I frequently found my Christian faith being edified by reading this commentary. There is only one thing that makes reading this commentary difficult: The footnotes are so extensive that it is difficult to decide whether to skip them (and thus miss much good information) or read them (and thus make the reading experience cumbersome). I guess I would recommend skipping the footnotes if you are reading the commentary through cover to cover, but reading the footnotes if you are doing intensive study on a particular passage. However you decide to use it, this commentary will enrich your reading of Philippians.