Hebrews (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introductory Text to Hebrews
Review: The Abingdon New Testament Commentaries series provides "compact, critical commentaries...written with special attention to the needs and interests of theological students...as well as for pastors and other church leaders" (11). In this volume on Hebrews, Victor C. Pfitzner, Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in South Australia, does just that.

The commentary begins with a brief discussion of the literary and theological issues associated with Hebrews as well as the typical issues associated with authorship. Pfitzner contends that Hebrews was written by an unknown author no later than 64 CE to a group of wavering believers living in Rome.

The commentary itself divides Hebrews into six principal literary units (1:1-2:18; 3:1-4:13; 4:14-7:28; 8:1-10:31; 10:32-12:17; 12:18-13:25). The analysis of each section and subsection begins with a succinct overview of the section and an explanation of the various linking literary elements. Issues of interpretation are singled-out, lucidly explained and reference given to other sources for a more detailed explanation.

One of the real strengths of Pfitnzer's commentary is his ability to help the reader recognize and "appreciate the writer's literary skill" (13). Through out his commentary, Pfitzner consistently identifies significant literary elements such as chiasms, wordplays, parallelisms, inclusions in the form of parallel words or phrases, and a fortioi arguments which are often overlooked by older commentaries and unrecognized by an reader unskilled in Greek.

While Pfitzner's commentary has several strengths, his exposition of the central section of Hebrews (8:1-10:31) is the weakest part of the work. In this section of Hebrews, Pfitzner's commentary tends to be overly simplistic rather than lucidly concise. An example of this weakness can be seen in the discussion of the author's relationship between the earthly and heavenly tabernacles in 9:6-8. Pfitzner asserts that the "first tent" in v. 8 is equivalent to the first compartment in v. 2 and 6 (i.e., "not the tabernacles as a whole") (125). Pfitzner's exposition completely fails to acknowledge either the difficulty of this verse nor the differing viewpoint in v. 8 that refers to the whole of the earthly sanctuary (e.g., Ellingworth, 1993, Bruce, 1990).

Despite such weakness, Pfitzner's commentary makes a valuable contribution in helping the reader better understand the spiritual riches of the book of Hebrews. This book serves as an excellent introductory text to the literary and basic theological issues of Hebrews. Both its size and annotated bibliography alone make this book a good starting point studying Hebrews.