Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Raising of Lazarus Lectionary:  34 Reading 1 -  Ezekiel 37:12-14 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 130:1-8 Reading 2 -  Romans 8:8-11 Verse - John 11:25a, 26 Gospel -  John 11:1-45 Lazarus, come out! LESSON: The Power of God Through Those Who Believe We’re a week away from the start of Holy Week. Our Lord now has his sights set on Jerusalem, and the pace is quickening. In these next two weeks, we’re living just one part of the Gospel passage from today: an encounter with the reality of suffering and death. Jesus is asking us to have faith in him. In today’s First Reading the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of the Lord’s promise to not only to bring us back to life but to bring us home. The background of this passage is the famous "Valley of Dry Bones." The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They weren't just sad; they were spiritually and nationally "dead." Their common saying was: "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They d...
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Review: The Transforming Word Series, Volume 4: Jesus and the Church: Reading the Gospels and Acts

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The Transforming Word Series, Volume 4: Jesus and the Church: Reading the Gospels and Acts The Transforming Word Series, Volume 4: Jesus and the Church: Reading the Gospels and Acts by Mark W. Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book 4 of a five (5) volume set that tries to provide some context and commentary to the Bible with this book focused on the four (4) Gospels and Acts. Like the other books in the series, each chapter stands on its own, written by different authors from the point of view a scholars in the Christian Restoration (Stone/Campbell) tradition. The first three (3) chapters provide a contextual overview of the time of Christ before diving into the first five (5) books of the New Testament. Once there, each chapter is organized the same way with material groups into: Context, Commentary, Topical Exegesis, Theological Reflections, For Further Study and Works Cited.

It is important to know that this is still a summary commentary and each section generally provides a single interpretation (often with a mention of some of the stronger alternatives). The context and overviews are extremely helpful and you get an excellent feel for how each Gospel is organized and who the target audience was, but you don’t see any in-depth treatment of how the source Greek was interpreted, so this volume would actually be a good companion to a detailed commentary that walks through the Greek instead of something that stands on its own. Still, if you are at all familiar with the text, there aren’t any surprises or controversies here and I highly recommend the entire series.

1. Jesus and the Church
2. The Gospels & Acts
3. New Testament Theology
4. Matthew
5. Mark
6. Luke
7. John
8. Acts of the Apostles

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#JesusAndTheChurch #TheTransformingWordSeries #NetGalley.

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