James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude - (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) by Gerald L Bray & Thomas C Oden (Hardcover)

About the Book

Because the Catholic Epistles focus on orthodox faith and morals, the Fathers drew on them as a means of defense against the rising challenge of heretics and as a manual for spiritual warfare. This ACCS volume opens up a treasure house of ancient wisdom that allows these faithful witnesses to speak with eloquence and intellectual acumen to the church today.

Book Synopsis

Christianity Today Award of Merit winner

Because the Catholic Epistles focus on orthodox faith and morals, the Fathers drew on them as a means of defense against the rising challenge of heretics. Many of the Fathers saw in these letters anticipatory attacks on Marcion and strong defenses against the Arians. They did so quite naturally because in their view truth was eternal and deviations from it had existed from the beginning.

Above all, the Fathers found in the Catholic Epistles a manual for spiritual warfare, counsel for the faithful in the cosmic struggle between good and evil. In them was sound instruction in the ways of self-sacrifice, generosity, and humility, through which the cosmic forces could be defeated.

Allusions to these letters go back as far as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, but the first commentary derives from Clement of Alexandria. Didymus the Blind was the next significant Greek-speaking commentator, though his commentary is fully extant only in Latin translation. Many of the comments from the early centuries have been passed on to us through Latin catenae, or chain commentaries, in which a later commentator collected comments from a variety of sources and chained them together in a fashion much like that of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture in English. Among Latin commentators on these letters, pride of place must be given to Bede the Venerable.

This volume opens up a treasure house of ancient wisdom that allows these faithful witnesses, some appearing here in English translation for the first time, to speak with eloquence and intellectual acumen to the church today.

Review Quotes

"A 'must' for all theological libraries."

--International Review of Biblical Studies, Vol. 55, 2008-2009

"A wealth of information for the classic Bible scholar."

--Ravonne A. Green, American Reference Books Annual, 2006, Volume 37

"Contemporary Christians would do well to draw the hermeneutical circle broadly enough to include not only cross-cultural voices from around the world but also the voices to be found in the Ancient Christian Commentary series. This is an excellent sermon-preparation resource for pastors."

--Christian Century, May 2, 2006

"Composed in the style of the great medieval catenae, this new anthology of patristic commentary on Holy Scripture, conveniently arranged by chapter and verse, will be a valuable resource for prayer, study and proclamation. By calling attention to the rich Christian heritage preceding the separations between East and West and between Protestant and Catholic, this series will perform a major service to the cause of ecumenism."

--Avery Dulles, S. J., Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, Fordham University

"This volume continues the valuable exploration of patristic interpretation."

--Mark Bilby, Religious Studies Review, September 2009

About the Author

Thomas C. Oden (1931-2016) was a pioneering theologian and served as the architect and general editor for the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. He was also the general editor of the Ancient Christian Doctrine series and the Ancient Christian Devotional series, as well as a consulting editor for the Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity. A prolific writer and seasoned teacher, Oden also served as the director of the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in Pennsylvania and was active in the Confessing Movement in America, particularly within the United Methodist Church.

Gerald L. Bray (PhD, La Sorbonne) is a professor at Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and director of research at Latimer Trust. He has written and edited a number of books on different theological subjects, including Galatians, Ephesians in the Reformation Commentary on Scripture series, Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present, and The Doctrine of God. A priest of the Church of England, Bray has also edited the post-Reformation Anglican canons.