1 Corinthians: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators
Judith L Kovacs
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, one of the earliest Christian writings, had enormous influence on the formation of Christian teaching. In this Church’s Bible volume Judith L. Kovacs weaves comments from all the commentaries and sermon series written in Latin or Greek between the years 250 and 800, illustrating the historic Christian understanding of this crucial text.

The church fathers gathered here include Augustine of Hippo, Irenaeus, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius, Origen, John Chrysostom, and many more. Preceding the line-by-line exegesis are a lucid essay by Robert Louis Wilken on how the church fathers interpreted the New Testament, an informative introduction to 1 Corinthians by Kovacs, and two chapters of general patristic commentary on Paul and on this letter. Completing the volume are several helpful appendixes and indexes.

Freshly translating many passages into idiomatic English for the first time, Kovacs does not merely excerpt random quotes from the church fathers but instead produces a sustained interaction with their direct comments on 1 Corinthians. This soaking in the wisdom of the past is sure to spiritually refresh and intellectually sharpen contemporary readers who seek to better understand this part of Scripture.

Contents:
Series Preface
Acknowledgments
Interpreting the New Testament
An Introduction to 1 Corinthians
On the Author: Saint Paul
General Comments on the Letter
1 Corinthians 1
1 Corinthians 2
1 Corinthians 3
1 Corinthians 4
1 Corinthians 5
1 Corinthians 6
1 Corinthians 7
1 Corinthians 8
1 Corinthians 9
1 Corinthians 10
1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians 12
1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 14
1 Corinthians 15
1 Corinthians 16
APPENDIX 1: Authors of Works Excerpted
APPENDIX 2: Sources of Texts Translated
APPENDIX 3: Glossary of Proper Names
Bibliography: Editions of Patristic Works
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Index of Scripture References

Reviews

Paul J. Griffiths
— University of Illinois at Chicago
“Judith Kovacs has done a magnificent job with this second volume of The Church’s Bible. Her translations are always fluent and sometimes inspired, and the extracts she has chosen range from the merely interesting to the arresting. Many of them repay not only study and thought but also prayer and meditation, showing abundantly that commentary on Scripture was, for the church fathers, always at least as much a matter of the heart as of the intellect.”

Robert Morgan
— University of Oxford
“This distinguished work is a model of how to bring patristic exegesis alive for a new generation. Judith Kovacs’s selection of passages and her lengthy, fresh translations will yield new theological and exegetical insights to readers not familiar with pre-Enlightenment criticism and should persuade them that this field deserves far more attention than it has until now received. This volume sets a standard for the Church’s Bible series that other scholars will want to emulate.”

ISBN: 9780802825773
Catalogue code: N/A
Publisher: WM B EERDMANS PUB CO - published 15/11/2005
Format: Hardback  

£20.99
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