Obadiah

The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries

by Paul R. Raabe

Provides a translation and commentary drawn from analysis of the book's grammar and philology, literary forms and context, religious and social situation, and historical context

Genres: Reference

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Jimmy]

I am reviewing this commentary from the perspectives of the need and desire of an expositor of the Scriptures. For anyone going through the book of Obadiah exegetically I would say that this is a must read commentary. Bound in these pages are really thorough syntactical and grammatical analysis. The author was not kidding when he said in the introduction that since Obadiah is a smaller book, this afford the opportunity for him to go more in-depth in his analysis of Obadiah. This works ended up being a thick work for a part of the Bible that’s only 21 verses! There are good lexical data given in this work. The author holds to the unity of the book of Obadiah which might seem somewhat unusual to run across something like this for this Bible commentary series, which dabble so heavily on historical critical method. The author is to be commended. I like the way Raabe note other interpretation then offers the reason for his interpretation by showing how a word or construct operates a certain way in another passage of Scripture. I wish more commentaries would argue for their position this way! Furthermore, I appreciated the extended discussion as an excursus on the topic of the metaphor of drinking and the wrath of God, with lexical studies on the word cup, drink, drunk and wine, followed by the study of it’s metaphorical use of relevant passages that suggests God’s wrath.

[Michael Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you only buy (or consult) one commentary on Obadiah, this should be the one. An exhaustive and rich study of this shortest of OT books. His detailed treatment of the Hebrew text and numerous related texts (both biblical and extra-biblical) present a compelling understanding of Obadiah's vision, demonstrates great breadth of scholarship, and the excursuses are invaluable, especially the extended treatment of the Cup of Wrath in the OT and its specific use in Obadiah. This volume proves something that many Bible students fail to grasp: any commentary that's worth reading is not a reference work to be consulted for the interpretation of troublesome passage. It's a holistic treatment of an ancient text that presents a unified understanding of an author's intentions and the way those are carried out in the text. It deserves to be read, from beginning to end, for a complete and comprehensive grasp of the work in its entirety.