Luke: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (Volume 24) (The New American Commentary)

So I would recommend this book for its usefulness in Bible study lesson prep, personal study, or sermon prep. On content: a drawback to the book includes some sections in the verse by verse parts are a bit light on what I would consider is sermon / lesson new info besides what is already clear. On the other hand, about every section of verses, there are some excellent points that are gold nuggets that challenge you and make you consider points you were going to teach all over again. That is well worth the time of buying and reading this in itself! These are rooted in years of his experience studying. One example of this is Stein brings out verb tenses properly handled that are impacting your teaching. Or differently, he will reference research showing an interesting point that does the same challenging of your preconceived ideas. This volume does have a great deal of useful referencing how a passage fits in a biblical context of Scripture. This part is great. I did have Stein while in grad school and a lot of the expertise of what this volume offers is what you would get from sitting under a serious conservative scholar on applying Scripture practically. Stein is the kind of scholar who would come into the library to double check on something he was writing, which I see as really backing up his points here. Much of what Christians use for "Bible study" is done by ghost writers who are not scholars. Stein however, I've seen it personally, the real deal, and actually digging into the text himself. Occasionally Stein weirds me out with some comment (such as how he dates Luke using Mark, personally not a fan of that), but then he is back to doing such a great job with the text I just ignore those far and between things. So you can get the sense that overall this is a study tool to have around. Also, Stein shows the historical reliability of the Bible as relates to Luke in this volume.

I have purchased most of these books for my husband and they are all very good and helpful.He is a religion major and all of these have been super helpful and chalk full of information.

Great book

This is the closest I've ever come to reading a commentary cover to cover. Stein's contribution to the NAC series is a helpful intermediate level work. The commentary for each text unit is structured by three categories.1. Context2. Comments3. Lukan MessageThough the Comments section usually occupies the most space, the context and Lukan message section are most helpful.The author does not pay a lot of attention to grammar and syntax except in obvious places. The footnotes are often the location for his discussion of the latest scholarly controversy at hand and were almost always worth reading. Though you never felt like you exhausted a passage like with NICNT, you felt moderately informed about the major issues involved in the text at hand.To sum it up, I feel the need to read, though no longer buy, any more commentaries on the Gospel of Luke and thus recommend it to you.

Reliable commentary and well worth the price

Have several and they are all great.

Robert Stein has written a quality volume for the New American Commentary series. I have long felt that the NAC series is a top choice for pastors in terms of content and price. Though the volumes are slightly shorter than some of the other exegetical commentary series, the help these volumes provide is still top-notch. This volume on Luke is one of the better volumes in the series.The Introduction is succinct, power packed, and covers an amazing amount of information in its pages. In just a few pages he covers the authorship of Luke by examining internal evidence, church tradition, and the “we” sections and, to my mind, unanswerably proves that Luke was the author. He surveys well the various opinions on the date of Luke. He reminds us that Acts was never intended to be either Paul or Peter’s biography, but sought to tell the story of taking the gospel to the world. Though such things are highly suspect to me, he covers scholarly opinion on the sources of Luke. Though he finds outlines rather arbitrary, he provided a good one.I fully agree with his conclusion that the purposes of Luke ought not be pigeonholed into a single purpose. He explains what he believes to be the four main purposes of Luke and provides a great deal of detail in explaining his case. I thought it was effective. His section on the theological emphases in Luke was also highly suggestive. By the time you get to the fine map that ends the Introduction, you may feel as I did that it was the kind of Introduction that really helps a pastor.I found help in the many passages I reviewed in this volume. He was never trite, and he provides real assistance to one who preaches the Gospel of Luke. I highly recommend this volume to all my fellow pastors out there. You won’t be disappointed.I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Stein does a good job at keeping the forest visible as he addresses the trees also. In other words he does not get bogged down in too many details but delivers relevant commentary on what is there.