`The Book of the Acts, Revised' in `The New International Commentary on the New Testament' series, written by F. F. (Frederick Fyvie) Bruce, is an excellent addition to this series, and a worthy follow-up to Joel Green's commentary on `The Gospel of Luke' in the same series. I once made two mistaken statements about this series, commonly abbreviated as NICNT. The first is that the editors tend to commission relatively junior scholars to do their commentaries, often as revisions of their doctoral dissertations. The second is that the series uses the relatively old `American Standard Version' translation of 1901. Both Professors Green and Bruce are distinctly senior, highly qualified commentators, both of whom contribute their own translations. As I always use the NRSV as a primary translation, I look forward to a commentator's own personal translation, based on a deep knowledge of the particular scripture. And, Professor Bruce has a deeper knowledge than most, as he finished a commentary on the Greek text of Acts before doing this commentary.
The separate commentary on the Greek has a salutary effect on the current work, as it separates out all the tedious philological and text critical findings for those who are primarily interested in such things. That leaves only professor Bruce's commentary on the literary, historical, and theological matters we find in Luke's Acts.
Acts does not have quite as many interpretational difficulties as Luke's Gospel. Therefore, some commentators' approach, such as the more recent work by Darrell Bock, tends to obscure the relatively cleaner text by discussing many different interpretations, including many from this volume. Like many of the commentators in `The New Interpreter's Bible (NIB)', Bruce focuses on a clean and illuminating organization of the text, with excellent material for applying the text to modern church and pastoral questions. Unlike the NIB, Bruce has excellent references to Hebrew sources, primarily the Mishnah. If fact, it was Bruce's commentary which pushed me to finally get a copy of the Mishnah as an aid to understanding references to Jewish practice in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
It may not count for much in many reviewers' evaluations, but I also find the design of the NICNT volumes' typesetting to be superior to many other series, especially to the Word Biblical Commentary volumes. It does little good to have excellent material if aging eyes find it difficult to read it.
Like Green's commentary, I would suggest Bruce's volume over many others, with the one caveat that it is at least ten (10) years older than several important new commentaries, such as the Anchor Bible contribution by Joseph Fitzmyer and at least five (5) years older than Luke Timothy Johnson's Sacra Pagina volume, and both are important and useful for the lay or pastoral user. So, I strongly recommend this volume, used together with Fitzmyer's volume or some other recent commentary. For those reviewers who do not find much new, I sympathize with their observation, but suggest that this is more evidence for the fact that this is a very good first (but not only) commentary on Acts for the pastoral or lay user.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2008
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Top reviews from other countries
Samuel
One of the Best commentary!
Reviewed in India on January 18, 2023
Samuel
Reviewed in India on January 18, 2023
The book looks like a new without any marks or defect, though I ordered used one.
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Alex
FF Bruce is recognised as a very good Bible expositor so I knew what I was buying
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2015Mrs. S. Thorne
An excellent, scholarly work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2013