2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Book 8)

Tyndale New Testament Commentaries #8

by Colin G. Kruse

The Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament (EGGNT) closes the gap between the Greek text and the available lexical and grammatical tools, providing all the necessary information for greater understanding of the text. The series makes interpreting any given New Testament book easier, especially for those who are hard pressed for time but want to preach or teach with accuracy and authority. 

Each volume begins with a brief introduction to the particular New Testament book, a basic outline, and a list of recommended commentaries. The body is devoted to paragraph-by-paragraph exegesis of the Greek text and includes homiletical helps and suggestions for further study. A comprehensive exegetical outline of the New Testament book completes each EGGNT volume. 

Genres: Reference, Theology, Biblical Studies, Scripture, New Testament

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Colin G. Kruse (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is senior lecturer of New Testament at Melbourne School of Theology. In the twenty years following his ordination into the Anglican ministry, Kruse gained practical experience in parishes in Australia and the U.S. along with five years of missionary service as a theological lecturer in Indonesia. Besides journal articles on the New Testament, Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Kruse has authored several books including Paul, the Law and Justification and New Testament Models for Ministry: Jesus and Paul. He has also written the Tyndale New Testament Commentary on 2 Corinthians and the Pillar New Testament Commentary titles The Letters of John and Paul's Letter to the Romans.

Reviews

[Todd Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good commentary on 2 Corinthians. If you plan to preach the book, this one is worthy. Certainly not the deepest commentary on the market. But it really does well.

[Isaac Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this and it serves its commentary purpose.

I’m giving it a three however because it doesn’t seem to “fit” the rest of the Tyndall series’s. I’ve read through several others as a supplement to my daily devotional time and this seems to break from the medium length level of detail. Whereas the others in the series may have 3-5 sentences per verse, this was much lengthier at 5-15+ sentences per verse.

Again, helpful, accurately and helpful - but misleading when held against the series standard and stated purpose.

[Josh Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not exactly a Greek scholar. Languages were never my forte and I’ve been quite content in my ministry to leave the job of parsing the Greek to people more qualified. Besides, every time I opened up a commentary based on the Greek NT, I just found myself overwhelmed. Seminary degree or no, it was all Greek to me…even the parts that weren’t.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but still—I needed something that would be challenging but not overwhelming. And with the Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament: 2 Corinthians, I think I’ve found that. I’m not really at the level needed to critique Colin Kruse’s parsing of the Greek text, but I can tell you that I understood it.

The design and breakdown of the text is absolutely top-notch. Kruse will go through the overall structure of a piece, then break it down verse by verse. This was particularly helpful and enabled me to better keep my focus as I read through the text. I did keep an English language Bible beside me at all times to help me better reference the text, but that’s more due to my lack of confidence in my Greek. Just doing that, though, gave me some insight into certain translational differences in various English translations.

The further reading section is also an absolute goldmine. Rather than litter the text with various references and footnotes, this series has chosen to tuck them neatly into a fairly comprehensive list of further resources. It’s a good way of showing the background for certain decisions without getting bogged down in explaining them.

The pastoral side of me also loves the homiletical suggestions. Those sections really help bridge the gap in making the Greek accessible to the average layperson. I think too often, when I really study a passage in Greek, I end up liking to preach about the Greek instead of the Scripture. This section takes me from being a linguist and reminds me why I was reading Greek in the first place.

In the end, I don’t have the time or the skill to do all the work myself. This volume puts enough of the pieces together and does enough of the work that it makes it worthwhile for me to dive into it. It’s like a box cake mix. Is from scratch better? Well…it’s a lot harder, takes a lot longer, and is only better if you’re a good baker. With a box mix, pretty much anyone can bake a cake. That’s what I needed here.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 Corinthians can be difficult in that it is largely a letter challenging an ancient church and presenting the credentials of the evangelist. Rarely have I been more aware that I am reading someone else's mail.
Colin G. Kruse does a good job untangling questions of the timeline of the two letters to Corinth in the Bible and why the ending of 2 Corinthians seems in some ways to be tacked on. The commentary on the verses is competent but not particularly insightful or inspiring. This might be a commentary better suited to preparing a sermon on a difficult book rather than reading for personal growth.

[John Hayward · Rating 4 out of 5]

On 5:21 led me to see something of Christ the man which I hadn't seen before; I have a strong understanding and appreciation of Jesus as God, but here and in the enigmatic Mt 27:46, do we see something that no doubt contributed to the Nestorian difficulty of reconciling His deity and manhood, and parallels the Islamic heresy that Jesus as God didn't die on the Cross (sort of), of the heresy addressed in 1 Jn 4:2 etc.

[Anna Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a really good job zooming in but not a good job zooming out. Rarely, Kruse actually points back to the gospel. Isn't this the whole reason we actually study God's Word?

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another helpful volume in this great commentary set. It contains enough exegetical explanation and Biblical cross-references for weekly sermons & Bible study, though it is lighter on application.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tyndale Old and New Testament Commentary Series is going through a major revision many of the oldest volumes are in desperate need of updating as well as adhering to the series expanded vision of a more in depth introductory commentary. Colin G. Kruse is one of the major forces behind this revision having tasked with two revisions of R.V. G. Tasker previous volumes, previously John and now 2nd Corinthians. Needless to say Colin G. Kruse had his work cut out for him to replace Tasker’s commentary on the epistle of 2nd Corinthians for the spectacular Tyndale New Testament Commentary series. Tasker was the standard for introductory commentaries for 2nd Corinthians and Kruse’s commentary replaces a legend with one of equal caliber.

Kruse is a distinguished scholar and is no stranger to commentaries in the New Testaments, and his academic credentials shine in this studious commentary. The Tyndale New Testament commentary is a great introduction commentary for pastors and laymen alike and requires no knowledge of the Biblical Greek language. Yet this commentary is part of a growing trend of added girth in the Tyndale New Testament Commentary series. Weighing in at just under 280 pages this commentary is almost the length of a mid-range commentary. Yet the accessibility of this commentary makes it a wonderful introduction to the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians. I own and have read many commentaries on this epistle and this new commentary is one of the greatest additions to that lineage. Furthermore this commentary shows great potential in giving phenomenal application combined with superior exegesis.

2nd Corinthians, begins with the typical study into the introductory matters of this book of the Bible, yet while introductions are common, is atypical for Kruse is so through with his research and interaction with recent scholarship. In a day where these matters are either glossed over to get to the exegesis of the text or are so cumbersome that they become useless, Kruse found a good balance in being thorough, communicating depth and attention to recent scholarship, without losing the message of the text.

With reference to the commentary sections on 2nd Corinthians, Kruse, expertly navigates the text showing the original context of passage while applying it directly to the modern day reader. He also uses a pastoral tone in many of his comments yet never sacrifices his scholastic approach. The outlines that he provides are also of great use for a pastor looking to preach though the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians.

In recommending, 2nd Corinthians, to others I would whole heartily recommend this commentary to students of scripture, with one caveat. By this I mean I recommend this work to Pastors, Bible Teachers, Bible College Students, and to a limited extent educated Laymen looking to teach a Sunday school class, there is enough scholarly weight to this work to understand a particular issue in the text while giving aid to pastors in preaching the text. There are many commentaries about the Epsitle to the 2nd Corinthians available at this moment but, Kruse, of the TNTC series is a giant leap above the rest.

This book was provided to me free of charge from IVP Academic in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

[Dave Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Located within the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries series, "2 Corinthians" by Colin Kruse is informative while not being an overwhelming read. At 224 pages, it is brisk as commentaries usually go but still packed with quality information relating to interpreting the Pauline epistle. A real strength of the book is Kruse's historical set up of 2 Corinthians. He not only describes the history and culture of the area as well as going into Greece's philosophical ideas at the time, he delves fairly in depth to the textual critiques of 2 Corinthians. For instance, our 1 Corinthians is probably actually the second letter to the church (the true 1 Corinthians being lost to history). Our 2 Corinthians is more than likely the fourth letter to the church as Paul references a "severe letter" (as the potential third) that he regretted sending. As Kruse explains in his vital setup, many scholars believe that the severe letter (3rd Corinthians) is perhaps an appendix to the 2 Corinthian letter (perhaps chapters 10-13 and maybe mixed in elsewhere). Chapters 10-13 of the letter represent a tonal shift in Paul's narrative in comparison with the rest of the book. Anyways, for anyone studying this famous epistle, I highly recommend Kruse's commentary on the historical and textual background.

Kruse walks through the epistle verse by verse bringing out the meaning of the words as well as the contextual and historical backdrop. This isn't a technical commentary and bridges the gap between a more inspiration based commentary and a technical (must- know-Koine-Greek in order to understand) commentary. He is not afraid to bring out Greek words and discuss the scholarship but all of this is easy to understand for the reader.

The minor thing that annoyed me while reading the commentary (while studying for multiple sermon messages in 2 Corinthians) is that Kruse doesn't always quote the verse before launching into his explanation. Sometimes he just lists the verse number. I suppose that Tyndale probably did this because they realize that people studying this commentary would be using multiple translations. I still would have liked to seen the whole verse quoted out every time.
For me, this is pretty close to the epitome of what a commentary should be. The reader isn't lost in trying to parse Greek words and sentence structures but is being informed about the cultural climate and the use of the words as it is important to understanding the epistle.

[Wes Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good commentary for what it is for. It is does not go into very much detail but is a helpful guide when it isn't clear what exactly Paul is talking about. I used it while I studied through the book this summer.

[Ryan Micheal · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent commentary on the Gospel of John. It is readable and easy to comprehend.