Hermeneia is newly available for download, and on sale for 50% off!!

Wow! When did this happen? Was this announced in an email?

Rosie, did you get the special "Frequent Forum Posting" discount?

Hermeneia is pretty critical in its approach (for better and worse), and like most sets quite variable. It's not very theological, but will often pay close attention to historical background. Some of the volumes are quite old (though not as bad as ICC), and several are translations from German theologians. The problem with the older volumes is that they sometimes employed methods which have not stood the test of time. Sometimes they're surprisingly brief, other volumes (e.g. Romans) are very substantial.

Carson says of the NT volumes: "Hermeneia (SCM/Fortress) is a full-scale critical commentary series that devotes considerable attention to parallel texts. Unlike the ICC, allowance is made for readers without a classical education by providing translations (usually from the Loeb edition) of cited Greek and Latin authors. Several of the volumes are translations of German works, and initially this included some extremely dated books (e.g., Bultmann on the Johannine Epistles), but these are being replaced (in this instance by a major commentary written by Strecker). Haenchen on John, however, should have been put out to pasture long ago. “Parallelomania” (to use Sandmel’s famous expression) and a naive appeal to history-of-religions assumptions frequently surface in the volumes of this series, but the series remains invaluable for the serious exegete and expositor. A few volumes are outstanding (e.g., Attridge on Hebrews)."

Tremper Longman has a slightly higher view on the OT volumes.

Personally I find it useful for academic work, but with one or two exceptions only, not really useful for preaching (because it tends to answer questions I'm not really asking in sermon preparation).

Completely at random, here's the comments on Acts 13:8 from various technical commentaries (there happens to be two commentaries on Acts in Hermenia - t:

Hermeneia (new): As Susan Garrett shows, Paul and Bar-Jesus “represent superhuman figures.” In literary terms, their function is symbolic. The magus, now identified as “Elymas,” with the incomprehensible explanation that renders this name or title, took exception to the pair. The setting is utterly vague. Is the reader to envision an interview in the gubernatorial palace, with Sergius seated while Saul and Barnabas address him (in turn?), and the magus in his normal place, or a less formal conversation in private rooms? If the pair had no opportunity to speak, what was the ground of Bar-Jesus’s objection (and v. 12b*)? A discussion on a street-corner seems quite unlikely. There is no background; all is foreground, the confrontation, marked by “seek” (ζητέω [vv. 7*, 8*, 11*]), “proconsul,” “faith”/“believe” (πίστις, πιστεύω [vv. 7*, 8*, 12*]). Between these two pillars, Bar-Jesus is crushed. His attempt to dissuade results in persuasion. The favored magus becomes a blind beggar. The “change of names” evidently serves the same end. The good Jew Saul is also the good Roman Paul,67 while the barbarous appellation “Bar-Jesus” belongs to Elymas (or Hetoimas, etc.), who is better titled “Bar-Satan” (v. 10*).

Hermeneia (old): The magician’s new name is surprising. The word Elymas is obscure. Luke apparently understands it (in Diodorus Sic. 20.17.1; 20.18.3, a Libyan name) as an appellative, “magician”; or does he equate Bar-Jesus and Elymas?18 Some have proposed Semitic derivations: from the Aramaic אַלִּימָא = “strong,” or the Arabic alim, which is close to μάγος, “magician” (˓ālim, “learned”; ˓al̄im, “omniscient,” used only of Allah), or from the Aramaic חלמא, “expert in the interpretation of dreams.” In an inscription Ηλειμ is found as a name (in Tyre). Codex D has the form ΕΤ[Ο]ΙΜΟΣ, “Hetoimos,” by which many are reminded of the Jew ΑΤΟΜΟΣ, “Atomos,” who posed as a magician (Josephus Ant. 20.142). Jews enjoyed a certain fame as magicians (cf. 19:13*).21 At an early point μάγος, “magician,” had a derogatory connotation in Greek; Philostratus (Vita Apoll. 1.2) rejects this designation for Apollonius of Tyana. Again, we recognize the Lukan criticism of magic. Its style is not that of the philosophical criticism of miracles. Luke does not say that magic is a fraud (in the manner of Lucian, in his Philops.), but that it is destroyed by the power of Jesus (cf. Ignatius Eph. 19.3).

NICNT: But the sorcerer did his best to distract the proconsul’s attention from the gospel, opposing it for all he was worth; no doubt he suspected that, if the proconsul paid too much attention to the faith the missionaries were proclaiming, his own place at court was likely to be endangered.
The Greek word translated “magician” or “sorcerer” is magos. As Peter confronted Simon Magus in Samaria, so Paul confronts Barjesus in Cyprus. A Jew, even a renegade Jew (as this man evidently was), would not have been a member of the magian priesthood; he was a magos in the more popular sense. Luke calls him a false prophet, not (probably) in the sense that he foretold things which did not come to pass, but in the sense that he claimed falsely to be a medium of divine revelation. Elymas, the alternative name which Luke gives him, is probably a Semitic word with a similar meaning to magos; it cannot be an interpretation of “Barjesus.”

ICC: At this point the magus, who may perhaps be thought of as court astrologer, intervenes. ἀνθίστατο, middle; cf. 6:10, where in a similar context the active is used. If Luke intends any difference, which is doubtful — he may be following sources — the present verse will suggest that the magus spoke up on his own account; he was not representing the proconsul, who in fact turned out to be of a different mind. The magus is now called Ἐλύμας, and it is affirmed that so his name μεθερμηνεύεται. After an ὄνομα which is undoubtedly Semitic in form (v. 6) this word can mean only, is translated. It is however impossible to translate Bar-Jesus as Elymas, since Elymas (Ἐλύμας) is not a Greek word (at least, it is not listed in LS; ἔλυμος has several meanings: case, quiver, a kind of pipe, millet). It might be wise to cut short discussion of the problem that results by saying with Bengel, ‘Barjehu et Elymas, nescio quomodo, synonyma sunt.’ Failing this, the simplest and probably correct solution is that both names were, in the tradition (or traditions) that Luke used, applied to the man in question, and that Luke assumed that the form that appeared to be Greek must be a translation of the Semitic; cf. 4:36. The assumption is a natural one, though Luke might have reflected that the Latin Paul is not a translation of the Semitic Saul (v. 9). There are however other possibilities; for much detail see P. W. Schmiedel in EBib, s.v. Barjesus; Clark (350–4); Metzger (402f.); Hemer (227f.); and all the commentaries. One line of attack is to reconsider the meaning of Βαριησοῦς (with the textual variants) in the light of Ἐλύμας, or rather of the variant Ετοιμας which appears in D, supported, with not a little variation, by a number of Old Latin MSS and Lucifer. This form of the name, which suggests the adjective ἑτοῖμος, ready, has given rise to the suggestion that behind Βαριησοῦς should be seen the Aramaic and Syriac root š-w-ʾ which, among other things, signifies (according to Driver, quoted by Clark; the Aramaic שוא does not appear in Jastrow, though the corresponding Syriac word is in Payne Smith) to be equal, sufficient, worth, deemed worthy, hence perhaps ready for some purpose. Another suggestion rests upon a variant in Josephus, Ant. 20:142, which is often read Σίμωνα ὀνόματι … Ἰουδαῖον, Κύπριον δὲ τὸ γένος, μάγον εἶναι σκηπτόμενον. In this passage there is substantial evidence for reading, instead of Σίμωνα,Ἄτομον (printed in the text e.g. of L. H. Feldman) and this form of the name is not unlike Ἐτοιμᾶς; either could be a corruption of the other, and J. R. Harris (Expositor, fifth series, 5 (1902), 189–95) thought that Ἕτοιμος should be accepted as the original text of Acts. F. C. Burkitt (JTS 4 (1903), 127–9) conjectured that the text had suffered corruption and that Bar-Jesus was originally glossed by Luke ὁ λοιμός, the pest, the pestilent fellow. On the assumption that Elymas represents not the name Bar-Jesus but the occupation of the magus it has been suggested that we should think of the Aramaic חלמא an interpreter of dreams, or of אלימא, strong, powerful; alternatively, there is the Arabic ‘alim, wise, learned. See L. Yaure (JBL 79 (1960), 297–314). But ‘Why should a Jew in Cyprus at the court of a Roman consular governor be called by an obscure Arabic nickname?’ (Begs. 4:144). A simple error seems the best explanation. Apparently the proconsul was inclined to look with favour on the message of Barnabas and Saul: ἥδιστα ἤκουεν αὐτῶν (D*(E)syh** mae). This the magus intended to discourage; acceptance of the Christian message would no doubt have meant the end of his employment (whether because the proconsul no longer believed in sorcery or because he thought the missionaries more powerful sorcerers). ἡ πίστις can here be hardly other than the faith, though it is noted in v. 12 that Sergius Paulus believed, that is, became a believer, that is, exercised faith.

Anchor: 8. Elymas the magician. MS D reads the name as Etoimas. (for that is what his name means). This is a Lucan explanation of the Greek name Elymas, but that that name means magos, “magician,” is far from clear. No one knows what it means. Ancient versions have simply transliterated the name: thus, Vg Elimas; Pešitta ʾEllumas; Bohairic Elumas. Some modern commentators (e.g., J. Lightfoot) have invoked Arabic ʿalîm, “wise man, magician,” but that too is problematic, because its relationship is still unexplained. L. Yaure (“Elymas—Nehelamite—Pethor,” JBL 79 [1960]: 297–314) interprets it as a form of Aramaic ḥālômāʾ, “dreamer,” which is no better, pace Schneider, Apg., 2.122, because ḥālôm is the Hebrew word for “dream,” not Aramaic.
opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. I.e., from Christianity. Luke uses pistis in the content sense of what Christians believe, what later theologians have called fides quae (see NOTE on 6:7).

Rosie Perera said:

I've been waiting for this one for a while because $1200 was just too much to shell out, and it was available on CD only. But I just noticed today on the "new ebooks" feed (http://www.logos.com/ebooks/new) that it has just been released as a downloadable product. And they've slashed the price to $598!

Hermeneia (43 vols.)

Maybe it will be the next Blog posting after the excellent one about Barnes.....

This is a good news...

Rosie Perera said:

I've just been told by my Sales Rep that $598 is the best price ever offered, even better than it was in pre-pub. The 40 volume pre-pub price was $500, and the 3 volume upgrade pre-pub price was $129.95.

I wonder what happened to the claim "The Pre-Pub price today is the lowest price you’ll ever pay"....

Will we see other sets reduced to less than the pre-pub price?

Damian McGrath said:

Rosie Perera said:

I've just been told by my Sales Rep that $598 is the best price ever offered, even better than it was in pre-pub. The 40 volume pre-pub price was $500, and the 3 volume upgrade pre-pub price was $129.95.

 

I wonder what happened to the claim "The Pre-Pub price today is the lowest price you’ll ever pay"....

Will we see other sets reduced to less than the pre-pub price?

I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to buy some other titles and less than pre-pub prices. [;)]

Rosie Perera said:

I've been waiting for this one for a while because $1200 was just too much to shell out, and it was available on CD only. But I just noticed today on the "new ebooks" feed (http://www.logos.com/ebooks/new) that it has just been released as a downloadable product. And they've slashed the price to $598!

Hermeneia (43 vols.)

The publisher offers new packages that includeThe Odes of Solomon and the Continental Commentary with a 50% discount. 

Mark A. Smith said:

Interesting. I count 62 volumes that will be in this new release with the addition of the Continental Commentaries.

Mark, where are you finding this information?

Ted Hans said:

Damian McGrath said:

I wonder what happened to the claim "The Pre-Pub price today is the lowest price you’ll ever pay"....

Will we see other sets reduced to less than the pre-pub price?

I was wondering the same here! I don't begrudge folk who have got a great bargain price deal, that being said, what about the Logos Pre-Pub Price claim? Is this the new way forward - just asking?

I don't begrudge it either. I have had a lot of use out the Hermeneia commentaries since I received them 3 1/2 years ago. My use has exploded since they became available on my iPad this week.

Nevertheless, if the claim quoted above from the Logos site is no longer true, it should be removed.

Mark Barnes said:

It was only $500 on prepub (though that was for 40 volumes), so PrePub was the cheapest way to buy.

The 43 volumes cost $643 on prepub.

Mark Barnes said:

Really? I guess that just shows what a great deal with 40 volumes were originally.

That said, I'm not sure it's fair to Logos to expect them never to go cheaper than prepub, even three and a half years later. A lot can/has changed in that time.

They were a fantastic deal and have proven very useful.

Nevertheless, one of the big selling points of the prepub program was always that the price of the items was the cheapest it would ever be.

Perhaps, Logos oversold that point (which is why they have now removed it from 99% of available prepubs).

Whatever one's opinion, the remaining couple of prepubs which contain this claim should be modified.

David Knoll said:

The new Hermeneia package that includes Continental is now sold with a 50% discount at the website of Augsburg Fortress Press. Just type Hermeneia in the search box on the left and you find it.

That's what I did and it doesn't show up as part of any collection with Hermeneia.  All I can find on their site referencing Continental is print copies of individual volumes. No electronic version at all.

Andrew McKenzie said:

That's what I did and it doesn't show up as part of any collection with Hermeneia.  All I can find on their site referencing Continental is print copies of individual volumes. No electronic version at all.

http://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/item.jsp?clsid=207057&productgroupid=0&isbn=0800697804

http://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/item.jsp?clsid=207063&productgroupid=0&isbn=0800697790

If you look at the contents tab all those CC titles are Continental (Obviously as Hermeneia does not include a commentary on Genesis for instance).

I was wondering about this, as I saw the Hermeneia/Continental OT set show up in my pre-pub rss feed. I'm considering the OT set, as it seems like you get quite a bit more that way. (Even if you bought both the OT and NT, buying it in the two-part set saves you like 600 bucks!) The NT set doesn't seem to add as much, because there are far fewer Continental books...plus I already have a good number of NT commentaries.

Any thoughts on the OT bundle?

Thanks,
Jason