564 - II Corinthians (The Anchor Bible)

II Corinthians (The Anchor Bible)
By Victor Paul Furnish
Garden City, Doubleday, 1984. 619 pp. $18.00.

The author, professor of New Testament in the Perkins School of Theology, has produced a comprehensive work showing remarkable exegetical insight, abetted by an impressive command of secondary sources, including periodicals. In II Corinthians, the interpreter faces a monumental task, for example, the social and ecclesiastical realities, the new situation(s) addressed with regard to the background of I Corinthians, the identity of the offender (chaps. 2 and 7) and opponents (cf. 11:22), concepts such as gospel, ministry, old and new covenant, suffering, and the haunting problem of authenticity (one letter or more). Furnish penetrates into all of these areas allowing maps, drawings, and photographs to enhance extensive interpretative material. Each section of the letter is treated similarly: translation, detailed notes, general and detailed comment. The author argues cogently that canonical II Corinthians consists of two main parts, an earlier letter (1-9) and a later one (10-13), the two being wedded together ca. A. D. 96-125 (pp. 35-40). The commentary will serve serious interpreters for many years.

Cullen I K Story
Princeton Seminary
Princeton, N.J.