Pentecost Sunday (Cycle A) - Mass during the Day

-
Pentecost (Day) Lectionary:  63 Reading 1 -  Acts 2:1-11 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34 Reading 2 -  1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 Alleluia Gospel -  John 20:19-23 Receive the Holy Spirit LESSON: The Church's Work: Reuniting Mankind Today our 50 day Easter season concludes with Pentecost Sunday, commemorating that day in the early Church … when the Father and the Son poured out the Holy Spirit in a special way upon the Apostles … who then took up the mission of proclaiming the Gospel throughout the whole world.  This makes Pentecost one of the most significant moments in our Christian faith. However, before it was a Catholic feast, it was a Jewish feast … and when we look at Pentecost in that context, we add a deeper and richer understanding of what it all means for us today. In its Greek origin, the word “Pentecost” means simply “fifty” … and … for Christians … occurs 50 days after the Easter Resurrection of our Lord Jesus and marks ...
Post a Comment

Review: Revelation: (A Paragraph-by-Paragraph Exegetical Evangelical Bible Commentary - BECNT)

-
Revelation: (A Paragraph-by-Paragraph Exegetical Evangelical Bible Commentary - BECNT) Revelation: (A Paragraph-by-Paragraph Exegetical Evangelical Bible Commentary - BECNT) by Thomas R. Schreiner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a new addition to the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (BECNT) series and will eventually end up replacing Osborne’s 2002 contribution. It weighs in at a hefty 896 pages; although less that Osborne’s commentary of 1536 pages, it still represent approximately 30 pages or so of commentary for each page in the Book of Revelation. By design, this is supposed to be a serious exegesis for “busy” pastors and in general keeps it short enough to accomplish that. Given the extensive amount of symbolism and other literary devices within Revelations, it is not surprising that they can be a lot more that what is covered here, so as expected, there is not a lot of exploration of heterodox positions or interpretations.

There are ten (10) parts that each over a small section of Revelation, with the extensive opening Introduction providing a solid look at the history and perspective of Revelation to give a good context to what follows. Each Part represents a topical transition; although many Bibles may be organized slightly differently (generally combining some of the Parts provided here and using a more general title). At the beginning of each part is a quick recap of the contents with a pointer should where you are in Revelation, followed by a quick summary of the part. Each sub-part does the same before adding the Exegesis and Exposition that walks through each verse/pericope ending with additional notes that has more information on translations aspects. The commentaries are generally clear and fairly detailed with references to others books of the Bible as well as external academic works; a few times I would have likes a more thorough contextual discussion in addition to the more concise interpretive comments and concerns. Finally the author is a self-professed premillennialist, so you also get a couple of Excursus that goes into that idea a little. Over all this is a very solid reference book.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Introduction to Revelation

Part I - Introduction and Seven Letters (1:1 - 3:22)
A. Prologue
B. Vision of the Son of Man
C. Letters to the Seven Churches

Part II - Visions in the Throne Room (4:1 - 5:14)
A. God as the Holy Creator
B. The Lamb as the Slaughtered and Risen Redeemer

Part III - The Seven Seals (6:1 - 8:5)
A. The First Six Seals
B. Interlude
C. The Seventh Seal and the Seven Trumpets

Part IV - The Seven Trumpets (8:6 - 11:19)
A. The First Four Trumpets: Cosmic Destruction
B. Fifth Trumpet: Demonic Locust Plague
C. Sixth Trumpet: Demonic Cavalry
D. Interlude
E. The Seventh Trumpet: Kingdom Come

Part V - Signs in Heaven and Earth (12:1 - 15:4)
A. The Woman and the Dragon
B. The Beast from the Sea
C. The Beast from the Land
D. The 144,000 on Mount Zion
E. Declarations from the Three Angels
F. Two Harvests
G. Praise of the Conquerors

Part VI - The Seven Bowls from the Sanctuary (15:5 - 16:21)
A. The Seven Plagues from God’s Temple
B. The Seven Bowls

Part VII - The Judgement of Babylon and the Wedding of the Bride (17:1 - 19:10)
A. The Harlot Babylon Destroyed
Excursus: Babylon in the History f Interpretation
B. The Declaration of Two Angels
C. Lamentation over Babylon’s Fall
D. Rejoicing over Babylon’s Fall
E. Rejoicing over the Marriage of the Lamb

Part VIII - The Triumph of God in Christ (19:11 - 20:15)
A. Defeat of the Beast, the False Prophet, and Their Adherents
B. Reigning with Jesus a Thousand Years
Excursus: The Millennium
C. The Last Battle
D. The Last Judgement

Part IX - The New Heavens and New Earth (21:1 - 22:5)
A. Making All Things New
B. The Bride and the Holy City

Epilogue (22:6-21)

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

#Revelation #BECNT #NetGalley

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dominican Inquirer

-
Image
  Technically speaking, this is really more of an independent, unstructured, investigation of a particular Lay Dominican Fraternity, where you can attend meetings as a guest with no particular commitment ... sort of a "try it before you buy it" approach to see if you and the fraternity members are even remotely compatible.  Given some of the conflict within the American Church today ... this might not be a given.  As might be expected, there can be strong personalities and intense beliefs about how to approach the faith within the fraternities that can reflect the same divisions that are seen in the Church at large.   However, there are also some additional questions to contemplate to see if you might be a fit for the Dominican Family in general.  Each of the Major Orders that have tertiaries (third orders) share their specific charisms (gifts) with their lay members, so in addition to a general desire for a deeper spiritual devotion to the faith, there are elem...
Read more

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector   Lectionary: 150 Reading 1 -  Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 [sic] Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23 Reading 2 -  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Alleluia -  2 Corinthians 5:19 Gospel -  Luke 18:9-14 '... for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.' In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. This story is closely connected to the one which comes just before it about the persistent widow who secures a just decision from a dishonest judge. While the first encourages us to pray and never give up. The second reminds us how, and in what manner, we ought to pray. However, to fully understand the example Jesus gives us, we should look more closely at first the century audience that He initially spoke to. A faithful Jew at that time would have assumed two things: That the Pharisee was a very holy and devout man.  And that...
Read more

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
Lazarus and the Rich Man (Dives)   Lectionary: 138 Reading 1 -  Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10 Reading 2 -  1 Timothy 6:11-16 Alleluia -  Cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9 Gospel -  Luke 16:19-31 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.' Justice, both socially and spiritually, is at the heart of today’s readings. Social Justice is about seeing the “unseen”… remembering the “forgotten” in our society. It’s about the men, women and children who only want a better life in a world that God has given to all of us, just not a select few. In our first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear from Amos, the prophet of social justice. God called him to speak to the rich of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The country was about to be destroyed by the Assyrians while the wealthy “lie on beds of ivory” and “drink wine from bowls,” confident that “the ruin of Joseph” ...
Read more

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
Teach Us To Pray Lectionary: 111 Reading 1 -  Genesis 18:20-32 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8 Reading 2 -  Colossians 2:12-14 Alleluia -  Romans 8:15bc Gospel -  Luke 11:1-13 Today we’re celebrating the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time; and our readings for the Mass invite us to reflect deeply upon the power and nature of prayer. From Abraham's bold intercession on behalf of Sodom, to Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray, we are called to a renewed understanding of our relationship with God. But first we should probably talk about what is prayer … If we look up “prayer” in the English dictionary, we see prayer defined as: a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God .   It come to us from a French word that is based on the Latin precarius, which means ‘obtained by entreaty.’ For many of us, this is what first comes to mind when we pray … we are asking for something from God; after all, it was easy for the Israel...
Read more