There are plenty of commentaries on the Bible today. There are the technical ones such as critical, exegetical, and expository types which can be rather academic. There are also the more practical types such as the Application and Devotional ones which are more appropriate for laypersons. We are spoilt for choice. Recently there has been a growing desire among many to incorporate spirituality into the heavier theological texts. This commentary is one such contribution. It not only incorporates theology with practical applications, but it also helps in faith formation. In other words, the commentary is a way to spur spiritual growth via constant communal conversation with the text. Due to the mysteries and lack of certainties, Hebrews is one of the most challenging books to understand. This calls for patient study and repeat readings. Genre awareness can also help the interpretive process. The way to learn from the text is to practice what it says. For instance, Hebrews spoke about endurance and perseverance. We should also cultivate these virtues in understanding and applying the text. It gives several warnings that we should heed diligently. Throughout Hebrews, we learn of the interplay between comfort and warning, and no matter what phase we are in, a Christological perspective guides us through the long and narrow way. Amy Peeler calls this book a "Christian sermon."

The commentary follows a passage-by-passage sequence from chapters 1 to 13. There is no rush toward spiritual interpretation. Peeler diligently applies exegetical and expository styles to describe and interpret the texts. She then describes the contexts and cultural awareness to illuminate the meaning. While the subtitle of the commentary says "Christian Formation," readers need to be patient to work through the texts properly. One shouldn't rush into faith formation without properly understanding the Word of Faith. No skipping basic rules of reading and interpretation.

My Thoughts
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This is a commendable effort to infuse spirituality into a regular commentary. There are pros and cons to the use of such commentaries. Let me first offer the pros. Peeler's singular conviction is that the Word of God is for those who want to know God deeper and trust God more. Only a love for the Word can one venture into such diligent work of excellent scholarship and deep spirituality. She teaches us to be patient in reading, diligent in studying the contexts, and comfortable in the mysteries that require waiting upon the Lord. This presents ample opportunities to infuse prayer moments amid the pauses. I like the Christological lens that Peeler has advocated. Even amid the uncertainty of authorship, audience, date, location, and other archaeological details, the Christological lens helps us see certainties of faith themes such as endurance, warnings, and mutual support. As we focus on the certainties of Christ, the mysteries's uncertainties will become strangely dim. The conclusion brings together the different themes mentioned in the commentary. It is a good summary of the spiritual formation themes mentioned in the book. Any reader wanting a quick overview of the themes should read this chapter first.

As for the cons, my main concerns are: Are such commentaries attempting to do too much? Is it biting off more than it can chew? Will readers in their search for explicit instructions on faith formation become unwittingly distracted from the meaning of the text? Such temptations are real, especially for an impatient generation. It would have been good for Peeler to present a chapter entitled: "Notes on How to Read this Commentary" to manage expectations and to provide reading guidance. As for commentaries that try to do too much, I think Peeler's commentary of over 453 pages in length is evidence of that. This is a big volume and should be a reference book in itself. It is not easy to understand Hebrews, which is why such commentaries are essential for many of us.

Overall, I think the author has given us much food for thought and resources for study. Apart from the concluding chapter, this commentary looks a lot like the many conventional commentaries we have in the market.

Amy Peeler is professor of New Testament and the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College. She also serves as associate rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Geneva, Illinois. She is the author of Women and the Gender of God and You Are My Son: The Family of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the coauthor, with Patrick Gray, of Hebrews: An Introduction and Study Guide.

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Wm. B. Eerdmans via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

The publisher's state: The Commentaries for Christian Formation (CCF) series serves a central purpose of the Word of God for the people of God: faith formation. Some series focus on exegesis, some on preaching, some on teaching, and some on application. This new series integrates all these aims, serving the church by showing how sound theological exegesis can underwrite preaching and teaching, which in turn forms believers in the faith.

The third entry into this series does just that. I would say those who would benefit from this are not those just in the ivory tower but those in the pew. Many can benefit from Amy Peeler's treatment of Hebrews.

In treating 6:20 Peeler says, "The tension between the Savior’s presence with God and his absence from the saved runs throughout the New Testament. Initially, it is helpful to recognize that the author does assert that they are fleeing forward to grasp, not that they have already done so. They are on the path to dwell in resurrected bodies with Jesus but are not there yet. Nevertheless, the author is aiming to give them the absolute assurance that as they continue on this path, they will arrive there. Much like he does in his treatment on faith, he is granting them assurance for what lies ahead by reminding them of what has come before. God has been faithful to their forebears, such as Abraham (6:13–15), and God has been faithful in the life of the Son, as other believers have told them (2:3)."

In the life of the recipients to the letter of the Hebrews and our lives are lived in the tension that Jesus has accomplished what we could not be we haven't received everything in full. It's like paying for a house but we still need to wait to for it to be built and move out of our old house. We as believers are still living in our old bodies waiting for the resurrected body waiting to live in the place Jesus is preparing for us. Yet Amy Peeler is so astute and comforting in her words to remind us of the hope and assurance we have.

The exegesis is there but what shines is the application for us to continue holding onto Jesus. She goes onto says regarding chapter 6, " In addition to this future dimension, it is true that they can hold on to Jesus now, even if not physically. With the imagery of an anchor of the soul, Jesus the forerunner serves not just as an example of possibility, nor only as a sympathetic and effective but distant representative, but as one to whom they remain deeply connected. They are tethered to him as a boat is connected to its anchor. Although it is not mentioned explicitly here, in light of other New Testament documents, the church will come to understand that intimate connection between Jesus and his people as the work of the Spirit. Christians may not be able to touch his resurrected body, but by the gracious power of the Spirit we are truly connected to him. Moreover, that connection is manifest in the tangible realities of baptism, Eucharist, fellowship, and service.

This is a highly recommended commentary on the book of Hebrews for the Church.

When reviewing a commentary, I tend to be reviewing the series as much as a specific volume. Recently I received an advance copy of Amy Peeler's new work on Hebrews in the Commentaries for Christian Formation series, and I'll provide my reflections on first the aims of the series and then second on Peeler's work with Hebrews itself.

Commentaries for Christian Formation
I'll let the series introduction speak for itself about its aims:

Some series focus on exegesis, some on preaching, some on teaching, and some on application. This new series integrates all these aims, serving the church by showing how sound theological exegesis can underwrite preaching and teaching, which in turn forms believers in the faith. ...If a commentary cannot help Christians negotiate a faithful path through life and deepen their love for God and all their neighbors, it is not clear that it is truly a theological commentary.

This description of other commentaries is self-evidently true; a focus on exegesis or linguistics or preaching or teaching or theology or historical retrieval or application or whatever else is often the selling point of a given commentary. As a pastor, scholar, student, etc., you'll find yourself studying a passage or a book of the Bible and a question arises in your mind such as:
- I wonder how other NT authors use this word...?
- What is the train of thought here? Why is the author bringing up angels? What role do angels play in his theology as a whole?
- What is the main verb in this sentence in the original language?
- I understand what this passage meant and why the author included it, but could someone please help me see how it's at all relevant to today?

These kinds of questions fall into exegetical or theological or linguistic or applicational buckets, and it's helpful to pick up a book off the shelf that doesn't try to be everything but instead has a singular focus. It can save hours of hunting when you have a linguistic question to have a linguistic commentary. If you're preparing a sermon and you're banging your head against the wall trying to figure out why the passage would matter to your people, it's helpful to grab an application-oriented commentary.

When I was a young pastor needing to prepare a brief homily every week on a given passage, I loved the NIV Application Commentary because it basically did my homework for me and allowed me to skip over the hard textual work straight to the part my audience would perceive as the payoff. This isn't how the NIV Application Commentary was intended to be used, of course—I share the story to my own shame—but the format of that series made it quite easy to do. I view the Commentaries for Christian Formation as something of an evolution on the same idea: aimed at the need for formation, but in a way that seeks to be theologically integrative rather than clearly separating out exegesis from theology from application.

The proof is in the pudding, though, and I admit that I'm always a bit skeptical of a book that tries to be all things to all people in a reasonable page count. Adequately addressing the linguistic and exegetical and theological and applicational issues for every single verse in an entire book is a very tall order. Consequently, I'll now turn to Peeler's volume on Hebrews and evaluate how well it covers issues of exegesis, preaching, teaching, and application.

Hebrews
Though I've never done it, I imagine the Book of Hebrews would be tricky to preach through for a few reasons:
1. It's a mystery who wrote the book, which has the knock-on effect of making it trickier to get a good idea of precisely what that author's intention was.
2. It leans heavily on the Old Testament references, and I wouldn't count on a modern American audience getting those references. You'd somehow need to be able to explain all that OT background and what Hebrews then does with it all at once.
3. If a church member does have familiarity with Hebrews, it's likely with the warning passages. As a result, you'd need a way to communicate that what the author is doing there is probably a little different than what the average Christian thinks is going on, but you'd need to communicate that in a way that doesn't completely remove the teeth from the warnings.

A Hebrews commentary aimed at formation, then, needs to be something that guides me through its use of the Old Testament, how that relates to its scheme of promise-fulfillment and its high christology, and how to make sense of the tone of warning in that context. It's a high bar!

For Peeler, a key theme of Hebrews is the notion of access to God. This access is the fulfillment of God's promises to his people, and is something that sits in a bit of a now/not yet tension—accessible now, but not fully. This access is for the community of God, and they persist in that faith together. The author of Hebrews is both teaching this didactically and affirming them in that they're already doing it. She sees the warning passages, then, as almost a portal into an alternate universe where the people have fallen apart and fallen away from Christ. This is not what these people have done, but it's a picture of what could be to a congregation that falls off course.

As Peeler progresses through the text, she takes it pericope by pericope, first offering her own translation and then a relatively brief explanation. She works both to explain how they fit into the overall flow of Hebrews as well as to address any incidental questions that may arise (e.g. when God swears, she examines the rightness or wrongness of swearing in both the Old and New Testaments).

She tries to maintain a relatively non-technical, accessible tone, keeping everything in English for the most part (and when she does need to share a Greek word, she uses only an English transliteration of the word). If you're a busy pastor and you've lost your Greek, or you're a layperson who never learned it, this commentary should not feel too intimidating. It mostly feels like the sort of conversation you'd get if you had the chance to sit down with a New Testament professor and ask questions about Hebrews.

At the top, this commentary promised to avoid being narrowly focused on exegesis, on theology, on preaching help, on application, etc., and instead to take an integrative approach. How well does this commentary execute on that vision? The results are mixed. Because the commentary takes a more conversational approach rather than a heavily structured approach, some sections are stronger in one area than others. At times, her treatment of a verse will major on what it implies for Christian formation today. At other times, her treatment instead majors on exegetical and theological matters to the exclusion of modern relevance.

To be honest, this is about what I expected—there are only so many words you can fit into a paragraph, after all—and it isn't even necessarily that big of a problem. It is worth being aware of this, though, so you can set your expectations well. You'll likely have questions that simply aren't addressed, and for best results you'll be reading this commentary in conversation with others. No surprise there, really—that's pretty standard practice for a pastor preparing a sermon. If you're a layperson, you've probably run into that feeling before when reading a study Bible. There's just no way to address every last detail that every last individual might be curious about, so read other commentaries too and keep digging!

Overall, I appreciate the commentary quite a bit. I think it will probably prove most helpful to preachers and teachers, though I could see a relatively fearless layperson picking it up for personal study and profiting from it. It provides helpful context on tricky texts while mostly sticking at a level that'll be helpful for preaching and application.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

The Commentaries for Christian Formation series have the expressed purpose of integrating exegesis, preaching, teaching, and application with the ultimate aim of faith development. This commentary by Amy Peeler is accessible to the average reader - it is serious and weighty in its treatment of the text, it is practical and applicable but not heavily technical. I particularly appreciate the series' commitment to engage with the broader canon of Scripture and the ancient Creeds. I found Peeler’s valuing of the Creeds encouraging to my journey and desire to connect my faith with the wider Christian community present and past.

The Book of Hebrews is challenging for skilled and learned minsiters let alone the average reader, with one of the most significant difficulties being handling the five warning passages. A casual reading of these passages can cause the most moral of us to question our salvation! Peeler treats these passages soberly but with pastoral care that integrates the entire narrative of Scripture.

A unique feature of this commentary is the conclusion section which gives a summary of key aspects and themes of the Book of Hebrews. I can see this being very useful in understanding the book's orientation for preaching and teaching. I recommend this commentary for all serious readers of Scripture along with ministers and teachers wanting to teach this book. I will recommend this commentary and will be using it extensively myself.