This is a theological commentary on the Greek text; on the foundation of linguistic detail is based a doctrinal exposition. The first section of the Introduction is on the religious ideas of the epistles, and frequent allusion is made throughout the commentary to works on New Testament theology. There are special notes on many of the important theological terms such as 'knowledge', 'mystery', pleroma, as well as on linguistic points, such as the use of the reflexive pronoun. But attention is devoted also to critical and introductory matters, and this is, it is believed, the first commentary on Colossians and Philemon to discuss in some detail the theories of Professors E. J. Goodspeed and J. Knox. The commentary is documented with references to works in English, French and German, for those who wish to follow up the study in greater detail. But the aim has been to make the exposition as far as possible self-contained and intelligible to a reader with no other books before him than the
The student or translator of the New Testament will often find difficulties which can only be solved by considering the syntax of the passage concerned. Professor Moule here provides a reference book which gives guidance on such problems of exegesis. It is a work which presupposes a knowledge of Greek and makes frequent allusions to the standard works; it is intended primarily for theological students. After an introductory section on 'The Language of the New Testament' Professor Moule considers in turn particular syntactical divisions (tenses, moods, voices, cases), certain parts of speech and types of clauses, and idiosyncrasies in usage. The last four chapters are 'The order of words', 'Semitisms', 'Latinisms', and 'Miscellaneous notes on style'. In each section New Testament usages are defined and distinguished. A number of examples of each type of problem are discussed. They were chosen as being sufficiently representative to provide a guide to the treatment of similar
This volume on Mark's Gospel is one of the series of commentaries on the New English Bible designed for use in schools and training colleges, and for the layman. Each volume will comment on one book, or two or three short books, of the Bible, beginning with the New Testament, already published. In each the text will be given in full. Sections of text and commentary alternate, so that the reader does not have to keep two books open, or turn from one part of the book to the other, or refer to a commentary in small type at the foot of the page. Great care is being taken to see that the commentary is suitable to the student and the layman: there is no Greek or Hebrew, and no strings of biblical references, but the commentary does convey the latest and best scholarship. The general editors all have experience of teaching or examining in school and working with adults. There will also be a general introductory volume, Understanding the New Testament, and a volume of maps and plates, The New
Few twentieth-century scholars have made so broad and deep a contribution to our understanding of the New Testament as the former Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, the Rev. C. F. D. Moule. This selection of his essays, almost all already published in specialist journals and Festschriften, represents in one volume the whole range of Professor Moule's contribution to New Testament studies. Two are studies in linguistic matters, several concern aspects of the theology of the New Testament, some are concerned with matters historical and literary. They deal with such central Christian themes as punishment, forgiveness, sacrifice, death and resurrection. Making more accessible Professor Moule's work, this book will be of value to all serious students of the New Testament, whether they are professional scholars, undergraduates, clergymen or interested and informed laymen.
This book is about the processes by which Christians of the first century came to understand Jesus as they did. Some writers represent these as 'evolutionary', as though a merely human teacher came to be thought of as a divine figure (a new species, so to speak). Professor Moule suggests that 'development' is a preferable analogy, implying not the evolution of a new species of figure, but the development of understanding of what was there in Jesus from the beginning. The author re-examines four familiar characterizations of Jesus as 'the Son of Man', 'the Son of God', 'Christ' and 'Lord'; then he considers the reflexion in the Pauline epistles of an experience of Jesus as more than individual. In his concluding chapter Professor Moule speculates, in dialogue with Dr Haddon Willmer, about the implications of his findings for Christian doctrine. The book, which earned for the author the Collins Biennial Religious Book Award in 1977, embodies his 1974 Moorhouse Lectures in Melbourne
