As a senior pastor who has been preaching for twenty years on a weekly basis this series is a welcome contribution for the preacher or teacher of God’s Word. As I have preached through Colossians verse by verse this past year I have continually been helped and my people have been helped through the exegetical insights of Murray in this excellent commentary. For those who have had a year of more of Greek it will help bring to memory much that has been forgotten.
The Guide assumes the following:
1) You have completed an introductory New Testament Greek Course
2) You have learned the meanings of words occurring in the New Testament more than 25 times
3) You have been introduced to New Testament Textual Criticism
4) You own or have access to a copy of The Greek New Testament, fourth rev. ed. B. Aland, K. Aland, J. Karavidopoulos, C.M, Martini and B.M. Metzger (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, New York: United Bible Societies, 1993)
The stated purpose of this book (and the commentaries in this series) is “to close that gap between stranded student (or former student) and daunting text and to bridge that gulf between morphological analysis and exegesis.”
I found this commentary to be particularly helpful in helping me understand Paul’s logic, grammar, argumentation, and insights into the author’s original intentions in brining out the “big picture” of Colossians – The Supremacy of Christ Sufficient for All things. Along with a good devotional like Sam Storms, “The Hope of Glory”; a good English and Greek Based Commentary like Douglas Moo’s, or F. F. Bruce; and an application based commentary like David E. Garland’s – you should be set to study and teach Colossians with great effectiveness.
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