The Commentary: For the Person in the Pew

 I've written a commentary on the entire bible along with a few of the apocryphal books.  The Commentary is worth looking into, in my view, if you are a lay reader looking for a straightforward explanation of the biblical text. 

It can be yours, in PDF, for a lowly $75. That's right- get the only complete commentary on the Bible written by a single person in the last 100 years or more for a ridiculously low price and feed your soul and your mind. 

It is highly respected for a lay readership. Check out some of the reviews: 

These highly readable, but commendably erudite, commentaries are more than worth the full price. — Heather Anne Thiessen, M.Div., Ph.D. 

The best commentaries. – Kevin Wilkinson, Singapore 

I got the commentaries Memorial Day weekend and started with Genesis 1:1. This week I started the Book of Joshua. Never have I ever read the books of the Bible with such understanding. It has opened the scriptures in a way I’ve never before experienced. Lois told me about the commentaries ages ago. I wish I had gotten them sooner. Thank you Dr. Jim West for making them available. – Judy Byrge 

Jim West is a man of very decided opinions. However, and this is much to his credit, in the Commentary I’ve read he does not advocate his opinions about Scripture. What he does is explain and simplify, working from the original language, without being simplistic. And this is to be commended. – Athalya Brenner 

“Seriously, … It is a really great commentary, and I’m enjoying and learning quite a bit from it.” – Ken Leonard.

Saint Paul knew more than I can ever imagine about Christians living in tension with the Gospel and with each other, and his several letters to the Church in Corinth are pivotal to the entire New Testament. Which is why I am so pleased to mention here some recent commentaries by a friend of mine, Jim West, on I and II Corinthians. Subtitled ‘for the Person in the Pew’, and published by Quartz Hill Publishing House of Quartz Hill School of Theology, California, these two commentaries are in fact part of a much larger project by West to write similar commentaries on every book of the Bible, and to make them available in print and electronically for everyone to read. 

That project is now nearly completed and the results are tremendous. I think there are three main reasons why these commentaries are so successful. First, West is a first-class Biblical scholar, one who makes the intelligent critical study of the text central to his theological interpretation. That commitment is rarer than one might imagine and to have it realized across the entire Bible is an astonishing feat that gives us now a unique resource. 

Second, and delightfully, Jim West is a great writer: his pages fizz with sharp words and phrases and he appears incapable of saying anything boring about these texts. This ability keeps us reading along with him and, more importantly, reading along with Saint Paul. I have rarely come across any Christian writing project, aimed at ‘the person in the pew’, that has succeeded so brilliantly in bringing alive its subject matter. 

Third, West couldn’t dodge an issue if his life depended on it, which can be an uncomfortable position for a Christian theologian. Corinth, as with most churches in most places, had some strange people believing and practising some odd things. The knack, as West points out, is to engage them endlessly with love and grace rather than self-righteous anger, but to engage them: ‘Paul lived with a purpose. And he urges the Corinthians to do the same. As we all who name the name of Christ must’ (West on I Cor. 9:27, p.60). 

I am going to be talking to Jim about making these commentaries available through Ming Hua’s website, but inspect them for yourselves if you have the time: you will find them a superb companion to your own reading of the Bible and, as importantly, a great reminder of just how much the early Church struggled with some of the same problems we face now.   - Gareth Jones, Principal, Ming Hua Theological College, Hong Kong