Joshua Greever Reviews Ephesians, by Clinton E. Arnold
Ephesians. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. By Clinton E. Arnold. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.
Reviewed by Joshua Greever
Clinton Arnold has provided the church with an excellent commentary on Ephesians. In keeping with the quality of the commentaries in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series, this volume is full of insights into the meaning and application of Ephesians.
The strengths of this volume are numerous. First, Arnold is a scholar who takes the text of Ephesians seriously. Against the mainstream view, he rightly holds to Pauline authorship of the letter (cf. 1:1), and he contends that it was written directly to the church in Ephesus but was intended for a more general and geographically widespread audience. The similarities between Ephesians and Colossians are due to the same author expounding similar themes within a brief time period (52-54). Furthermore, Arnold listens to the text well when he asserts regarding 1:4, “It is difficult to find within this text any notion of God foreseeing those who would exercise faith” (95). Also, he rightly holds that Paul thought leadership to be intrinsic to the notion of headship (405), a notion that is hotly debated today. Though one may disagree with Arnold on his interpretations at various points, he is to be commended for listening to the text. In an era in which hermeneutical inquiry often deteriorates into an exposition of one’s own presuppositions, Arnold provides an exemplary hermeneutical approach that seeks to take Paul on his own terms. . . .
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