Book Review: "The Acts of the Apostles: From Jerusalem to Rome"
It is a joy to teach the Bible. While I am nowhere near the teacher I would like to be, it is a thrill to try my best. One way I teach is through Faulkner University’s Military Education Program. This program is for students who are in the military and who want to earn a college degree. Faulkner has a series of classes throughout the state of Alabama where classes are taught at local armories.
Beginning this week, I will be teaching my third class for the program. I taught Christian Ethics and The Life of Christ. Now I get to teach The Book of Acts. What a privilege!
To help in my preparation, I have read Wayne Jackson’s commentary on the book, subtitled From Jerusalem to Rome. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I really enjoy brother Jackson’s work, so “leaning” on him through this book was a natural for me. To say that I will be borrowing from the commentary a lot in teaching this class is a great understatement!
To give some idea of how thorough brother Jackson’s study is, there are some 188 separate listings in the “Sources” list at the back of the book. Anyone who is familiar with brother Jackson’s work knows how he is a lover of books and of research, but just to have the fruits of his labor through that volume of books is truly a gem.
One of the best features of this commentary, in my mind, is that it breaks up the study into paragraphs (more on why in a moment). The student can simply read the paragraph, then take the time to walk through brother Jackson’s well-thought-out comments.
The comments are very helpful for all students, but there are at least two types of comments I found especially helpful.
First, brother Jackson continually points out the “force” of the original Greek word, so we can know whether an action was continuous, only for a while, tender, harsh, etc. Without a knowledge of the Greek language, we can miss these subtle lessons that add so much to the text.
Second, I was impressed with the number of false views that were quickly but expertly dismissed. Jackson, on the Christian Courier website, is almost famous for his numbered lists in refuting false teaching. The reader will find many of these throughout the commentary.
There were slight negatives in my mind (with emphasis on the word “slight”). First, the commentary is based on the American Standard Version–as is all of brother Jackson’s material. While I enjoy the ASV, it is difficult to read and many do not have a copy of their own. Also, there are several places in the commentary where the formatting is “off.” Sentences end with a quotation mark that never started with one; and things of this nature. While these are small negatives, they can be distracting for a student.
Overall, the value of this commentary is hard to describe. I simply cannot tell you have glad I am to have this book on hand for my own personal study and as I prepare to teach this college course. I have approximately 10 volumes on Acts, but I’m sure this one will be “off the shelf” more often than any other.
To order this book, contact Christian Courier or get in touch with any Christian bookstore. It is also available on Amazon.com, but the price is not good.
