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A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story.
The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike.
Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's
LISTEN to the Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story.EXPLAIN the Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting.LIVE the Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students.
—Proverbs—
It's true that God never speaks in Proverbs, but the text is represented as the wisdom of Solomon, which he receives from God in response to his request. We have to come to the book in light of the theology that anchors all its that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.
The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike.
Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's
LISTEN to the Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story.EXPLAIN the Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting.LIVE the Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students.
—Proverbs—
It's true that God never speaks in Proverbs, but the text is represented as the wisdom of Solomon, which he receives from God in response to his request. We have to come to the book in light of the theology that anchors all its that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.
- GenresBiblical Studies
466 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 10, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 17, 2025
O'Dowd's commentary is interesting. On the one hand, he has the facility to alert his readers of many Egyptian parallels, which are at times illuminating. He also discourses in the "Living the Story"/Application about issues pertaining to worldview and contemporary living. Given the volume of actual proverbs in the book, one sometimes wishes for more.
Nevertheless, his comments are judicious and helpful! Good for preaching, leading a Bible study, or personal reading.
Nevertheless, his comments are judicious and helpful! Good for preaching, leading a Bible study, or personal reading.
February 18, 2026
The Story of God Bible Commentary: Proverbs by Ryan P. O’Dowd is part of a commentary series with the goal of offering “a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts” (back cover). Ryan P. O’Dowd is the pastor of Bread of Life Anglican Church in Ithaca, New York, and Senior Fellow at Chesterton House at Cornell University. The format of the series is a chapter by chapter analysis in the following format: (1) “Listen to the Story”, which includes the biblical text in the NIV translation and with references to others texts connected to each passage; (2) “Explain the Story” goes deeper into each text and connects it to its canonical and historical setting; and (3) “Live the Story” offers insight on how the text can be applied today and includes stories to help connect the exposition to the application.
O’Dowd begins his commentary with an acknowledgement that a casual study of the book of Proverbs results in a lack of depth of understanding of the book as a whole, and in turn he positively explains that seemingly contradictory sayings can reveal the wonder and beauty of life when time is taken to wrestle and ponder the proverbial sayings as a collection. He provides all the expected introductory material, including authorship, date, occasion, canonicity, genre, structure, historical background, theological message, and reading Proverbs in the context of the Old Testament. Throughout the commentary he reminds the reader that there is a progression taking place throughout the book and that “the focus of the journey in Proverbs is a matter of developing the skills to wisely and faithfully walk before the Lord” (p. 115). As the theme of the book of Proverbs is “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7), O’Dowd appropriately keeps that development the focus and also states that, “I argue throughout this commentary that wisdom provides insight into the created and moral order of God’s world” (p. 41).
The strengths of the commentary include the clear writing style of O’Dowd and the accessibility of the content for an audience not trained in the Biblical languages. The exposition of the text is not encumbered by in-depth analysis which makes the commentary reader friendly. In his final paragraph of the introduction, O’Dowd notes that he has tried to serve his readers “without weighing down the text with footnotes” and “I have been particularly careful to leave a trail where further research is required or where I assert my own opinions about debatable matters” (p. 46). That being said, O’Dowd does at times take a stand and provide footnotes where critical scholarship gets things wrong. For instance, he rejects the cry that women in Proverbs are treated as inferior and are victims of the patriarchy. Interacting with Carol Meyers article, “Was Ancient Israel a Patriarchal Society?”, O’Dowd concludes that “women held notable economic, family, cultural, religious, and political roles in ancient Israel. These were positions with significant power at many levels of society” (p. 147). While this issue could be argued to be a debatable matter, his interaction with scholars and the text of Scripture support his conclusion. Here, O’Dowd’s goals are met as he takes a position, but the reader is provided with the footnotes needed to follow the trail.
Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of the commentary is the support of the affinities between Proverbs and Deuteronomy. O’Dowd explains that most nineteenth and twentieth century scholars abandoned the correlation between wisdom and Torah, but that modern research has turned back to connecting Deuteronomy and Proverbs, and O’Dowd is in this camp. O’Dowd is also intentional in his connecting wisdom and the prophets and wisdom to the distinct ways wisdom is present in the New Testament through the life and ministry of Jesus and the life of the believer. As he concludes the introduction, he states, “It could be said that wisdom has the broadest applicability of the genres in the Bible. It is concerned with everything” (p. 46).
Some weaknesses of the commentary are conclusions he asserts as he interacts with critical scholarship. As O’Dowd deals with authorship, he concludes that Solomonic authorship is an honorific. “The name Solomon most likely serves an honorific purpose, just as Moses does for the Pentateuch and David for the Psalms…As a final note, upon closer inspection we should notice that Solomon is less of a grand author of wisdom in Proverbs than a kind of literary character who had much wisdom and yet failed to live up to the instructions that bear his name” (pp. 18-19). O’Dowd also asserts that parts of Proverbs, chapters 1-9 for instance, were written in the post exilic period, stating that “it would be naïve to claim that Proverbs does not engage its readers doubts about the covenants after the exile” (p. 78). Further, he makes parallels in other chapters of Proverbs to post exilic Israel (i.e. Proverbs 11:5-10 to lessons from Esther) which reinforces his dating of the content in the book (pp. 193, 195), and places Agur in post exilic Israel (p. 404).
Overall, the commentary can provide an aide to a cursory study of Proverbs, especially as it draws connections between wisdom and Torah. However, problems with dating and authorship tend to follow a more critical scholarly viewpoint, as well the “Live the Story” portion throughout the commentary is colored by the author’s personal application that ventures into a more progressive interpretation of the text.
O’Dowd begins his commentary with an acknowledgement that a casual study of the book of Proverbs results in a lack of depth of understanding of the book as a whole, and in turn he positively explains that seemingly contradictory sayings can reveal the wonder and beauty of life when time is taken to wrestle and ponder the proverbial sayings as a collection. He provides all the expected introductory material, including authorship, date, occasion, canonicity, genre, structure, historical background, theological message, and reading Proverbs in the context of the Old Testament. Throughout the commentary he reminds the reader that there is a progression taking place throughout the book and that “the focus of the journey in Proverbs is a matter of developing the skills to wisely and faithfully walk before the Lord” (p. 115). As the theme of the book of Proverbs is “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7), O’Dowd appropriately keeps that development the focus and also states that, “I argue throughout this commentary that wisdom provides insight into the created and moral order of God’s world” (p. 41).
The strengths of the commentary include the clear writing style of O’Dowd and the accessibility of the content for an audience not trained in the Biblical languages. The exposition of the text is not encumbered by in-depth analysis which makes the commentary reader friendly. In his final paragraph of the introduction, O’Dowd notes that he has tried to serve his readers “without weighing down the text with footnotes” and “I have been particularly careful to leave a trail where further research is required or where I assert my own opinions about debatable matters” (p. 46). That being said, O’Dowd does at times take a stand and provide footnotes where critical scholarship gets things wrong. For instance, he rejects the cry that women in Proverbs are treated as inferior and are victims of the patriarchy. Interacting with Carol Meyers article, “Was Ancient Israel a Patriarchal Society?”, O’Dowd concludes that “women held notable economic, family, cultural, religious, and political roles in ancient Israel. These were positions with significant power at many levels of society” (p. 147). While this issue could be argued to be a debatable matter, his interaction with scholars and the text of Scripture support his conclusion. Here, O’Dowd’s goals are met as he takes a position, but the reader is provided with the footnotes needed to follow the trail.
Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of the commentary is the support of the affinities between Proverbs and Deuteronomy. O’Dowd explains that most nineteenth and twentieth century scholars abandoned the correlation between wisdom and Torah, but that modern research has turned back to connecting Deuteronomy and Proverbs, and O’Dowd is in this camp. O’Dowd is also intentional in his connecting wisdom and the prophets and wisdom to the distinct ways wisdom is present in the New Testament through the life and ministry of Jesus and the life of the believer. As he concludes the introduction, he states, “It could be said that wisdom has the broadest applicability of the genres in the Bible. It is concerned with everything” (p. 46).
Some weaknesses of the commentary are conclusions he asserts as he interacts with critical scholarship. As O’Dowd deals with authorship, he concludes that Solomonic authorship is an honorific. “The name Solomon most likely serves an honorific purpose, just as Moses does for the Pentateuch and David for the Psalms…As a final note, upon closer inspection we should notice that Solomon is less of a grand author of wisdom in Proverbs than a kind of literary character who had much wisdom and yet failed to live up to the instructions that bear his name” (pp. 18-19). O’Dowd also asserts that parts of Proverbs, chapters 1-9 for instance, were written in the post exilic period, stating that “it would be naïve to claim that Proverbs does not engage its readers doubts about the covenants after the exile” (p. 78). Further, he makes parallels in other chapters of Proverbs to post exilic Israel (i.e. Proverbs 11:5-10 to lessons from Esther) which reinforces his dating of the content in the book (pp. 193, 195), and places Agur in post exilic Israel (p. 404).
Overall, the commentary can provide an aide to a cursory study of Proverbs, especially as it draws connections between wisdom and Torah. However, problems with dating and authorship tend to follow a more critical scholarly viewpoint, as well the “Live the Story” portion throughout the commentary is colored by the author’s personal application that ventures into a more progressive interpretation of the text.
September 6, 2022
It had an interesting format for a commentary, briefly addressing grammar/textual issues, giving more time to structure and flow, and than finally a section focusing on application. There are pros and cons. Overall I found the commentary helpful, but some of the decisions regarding structure seemed almost arbitrary. Commentary focused more on broad cultural moires than personal holiness it seemed.
June 5, 2025
Read it in small doses.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews