1 TIMOTHY ASIAN BIBLE COMMENTARY:
A Pastoral and Contextual
Commentary
By Paul Trebilco, Simon H. Rae, Deolito
Vistar
Langham Global Library. 188 pages.
£16.99
ISBN 978 1 839 738 135
Langham Partnership is to be congratulated for investing in the equipping of Biblical scholars from the Majority World. One of the fruits of this investment is the series of commentaries of which this helpful volume is a part.
Why do we need an Asian Bible Commentary? We don’t have a British or American commentary, do we? Well we do, but it is simply called a Bible Commentary.
Most commentaries that we read come from a limited theological social and geographical gene pool. This can tend to mean that when we read them, we are listening to an echo of our own voices. Sometimes it is helpful to be exposed to different cultural voices who are seeking to listen to Scripture within their own cultures. This can be of particular value when those cultures have a greater overlap with the cultures within which the Scriptures were written.
This commentary provides many fresh angles on 1 Timothy, especially in its insights concerning authority, leadership and community. The commentary offers a careful and full reflection on the passages on widows and slavery in the last two chapters of 1 Timothy. The writers have a feel for Eastern relational networks that are an antidote to Western individualism. The book displays a good command of the literature of the Pastoral Letters combined with a sense of how insights from an Asian cultural situation can enrich our reading of 1 Timothy. Not every detail of this commentary will suit every reader; the contested passage on women’s role in church and home, for example, but it is interesting to follow the trail of reasoning.
The whole series is worth checking out. It is always enlightening to view Scripture with a fresh pair of eyes.
GENESIS 1-11:
Bible Commentaries from Muslim Contexts
By Anwarul Azad and Ida Glaser
Langham Global Library. 316 pages. £19.99
ISBN 978 1 839 735 851
This is the first in a new series from Langham that aims to give contextualised resources to people from Muslim contexts.
I have never read a commentary quite like this one. It represents a non-white, non-Western reading of the opening chapters of Genesis. If you are white and Western, it probably seldom occurs to you how odd it is that we read a non-Western text through Western eyes. Could it be that there are points at which we monumentally miss the point?
It is fascinating to see the two authors using their background in Islam and Judaism to illuminate their comments on the Biblical text. This commentary speaks with a distinctive voice that will be welcomed not only by those ministering in Muslim contexts, but for anyone wanting to have a better handle on the opening chapters of Genesis.
This is a fresh reading of these seminal chapters that I have found to be very stimulating at many points. For example, I was particularly interested to hear that debates about the nature of the ‘days’ in Genesis 1 have also happened amongst Islamic scholars.
One of the authors uses to good effect his Bangladeshi background to make helpful observations concerning the dynamics of these ancient stories. Sometimes reading outside of our comfort zone helps us to see angles on the Biblical text that can lead us to view Scripture in a fresh way.
Preachers seeking to preach effectively in multi-cultural contexts will find this book useful when seeking to communicate with people from other religious back-grounds. As J.H. Bavinck so compellingly argued, we need to be aware of the prior understandings that people of other faiths have of some of the concepts we want to address in the gospel. Efforts made to understand their context will open doors.
