As always, Witherington's exhaustive knowledge of New Testament background, along with his easy-to-follow writing style produce an excellent work for the serious Bible student and teacher. I was really impressed with the historical background of Crete and how it related to Paul's rhetoric in his epistle ("You have heard that all Cretans are liars!"). Paul's more private letters to Titus and Timothy also bring out the fact that many of Paul's instructions for these pastors were situation specific, rather than general theological blanket-statements. I was persuaded that Paul was speaking specifically about the problem of women in Ephesus not being trained and taught correctly, which resulted in them teaching incorrectly. That is why Paul instructed them not to speak in the Church--much like Eve misspoke to the Serpent in Eden because she was not instructed correctly. So whereas before I thought Paul's statement was gender-based in a universal sense, Witherington did an excellent job in providing evidence that qualified women should be able to teach in the Church (examples: Priscilla and Aquila, other women being called Prophetesses [those who speak for God], etc.).
In the Johanine Epistles, Witherington suggests that the false teachers that came from the community were probably Jewish teachers who doubted that Jesus was THE Messiah to come and that references to Gnosticism is doubtful. He suggests this mostly on an internal basis but his historical evidence is also helpful, although it is impossible to know for 100% certainty (although Gnosticism was not prevalent until much later). One area that Witherinton did not convince me was his opinion that Lazarus is the beloved disciple who penned these epistles and John's Gospel. His best argument to me was the fact that John should have specifically used his apostolic authority in 1 John to authenticate his teachings against the apostates. It's possible that John was just being humble and that his community already knew that information, so it wasn't explicitly necessary. The external evidence for John being the author is so overwhelming, and the lack of mention of John of Zebedee is so absent from the Gospel (the language of the epistles being also so similar) it would take much more evidence than Witherington has provided to persuade me otherwise (see also Keener's introduction to John's Gospel).
So other than his radical notion of Lazarus being the Johanine author, this commentary set is an excellent resource for Timothy, Titus, and the Johanine Epistles. I am much better off in my understanding now than I was before, and I can teach these writings much more effectively through the Socio-rhetorical art of Scriptural interpretation. This is a must-read for all who are interested in teaching and expository preaching.
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