The Church’s Bible | CB (4 vols.)

This addition to the Church’s Bible series makes available a remarkably rich selection from the great volume of Christian commentary on Isaiah written during the church’s first millennium. It is significant both historically, as a contribution to the history of biblical interpretation, and theologically, as an expression of faith nourished by an attentive and devout reading of ‘the sacred page.’

—Joseph Blenkinsopp, John A. O’Brien Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies, University of Notre Dame

The Isaiah volume in The Church’s Bible is as intellectually and aesthetically delightful as its predecessors in this series, and it is an essential resource for anyone who wants to see what this Hebrew prophet has meant to Christians. Isaiah is especially important among the prophetic books because of the explicitness with which Christians have taken it to speak of Christ, and this is amply represented in the commentaries collected here. So too is some of the anti-Jewish polemic sometimes practiced by Christians. Both threads are important for understanding the history of Christian perceptions of the Jewish people, and they are woven elegantly together in this fascinating book.

—Paul J. Griffiths, Warren Professor of Catholic Theology, Duke Divinity School

This outstanding volume opens a new window on the text of one of Israel’s most beloved prophets, Isaiah. I found myself continually entranced by the innumerable insights that the early Christian theological imagination was able to cull from its biblical source. The approach taken by these writers is often as hard-hitting as it is edifying. These classic thinkers took the biblical text seriously and wrestled with problems that continue to befuddle modern readers. This masterful collection of patristic interpretations gives the reader a powerful new lens with which to examine the sacred page. One of the real attractions of the volume is that the selections provided are long enough that one can take a favorite interpreter and follow him through the course of the whole book.

—Gary Anderson, Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Theology, University of Notre Dame

Robert Wilken offers us a treasure trove of gems providing insight into one of the most beloved biblical prophets, garnered from early and medieval writers, so enabling modern readers once again to approach this book of Scripture as Christians did for many centuries—as a witness to Christ. This volume is certain to stimulate further the contemporary renewed appreciation of the depths and riches of the traditional Christian approach to Scripture; for this, and for the series, we are truly thankful.

—Fr. John Behr, dean and professor of patristics, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

In short, this volume is an outstanding addition to the field of Isaiah studies and can be useful for both scholars and lay readers alike.

—Review of Biblical Literature

The Church’s Bible has already distinguished itself as the preeminent place to find the riches of patristic exegesis made available in a reliable and accessible form. J. Patout Burns’ volume, Romans: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators, is a welcome addition to this series. It provides a wide range of commentary on Romans from such ancient masters as Origen, John Chrysostom, Pelagius, Ambrosiaster, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Cyril of Alexandria, and, of course, Augustine. Burns’ judicious selections reveal the Church Fathers to be careful readers of the biblical text, striving to recover its meaning for their own time and place. This is an invaluable resource for a contemporary reading and recovery of Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

—David G. Hunter, Cottrill-Rolfes Chair of Catholic Studies, University of Kentucky

The Church’s Bible, a new commentary series on books of the Bible composed of quotations from patristic and medieval commentators, bears witness to the long, rich tradition of biblical interpretation within the church catholic. Such a series has always been badly needed. It also provides a welcome corrective to current fringe modes of interpretation that are more interested in rhetoric, style, or sociology than in the substance and content of the written Word of God. Recommended heartily to all pastors, preachers, and professors and students of theology.

—Joseph A. Fitzmyer, professor emeritus, Catholic University of America

This series rescues from the shadows the many penetrating insights of ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters. . . . They can continue to instruct us today with their perception into the perennial foibles of the human condition.

—Religious Studies Review

Serious students of the Bible will want to consider subscribing to the entire series, which holds the promise of powerfully enriching and recasting scriptural study in the twenty-first century.

—First Things

Here is an excellent contribution to this poignantly named series, which should prove a rich resource for libraries, preachers, and expositors.

—Theological Book Review

Judith Kovacs has done a magnificent job with this second volume of The Church’s Bible. Her translations are always fluent and sometimes inspired, and the extracts she has chosen range from the merely interesting to the arresting. Many of them repay not only study and thought but also prayer and meditation, showing abundantly that commentary on Scripture was, for the church fathers, always at least as much a matter of the heart as of the intellect.

—Paul J. Griffiths, Warren Professor of Catholic Theology, Duke Divinity School

This distinguished work is a model of how to bring patristic exegesis alive for a new generation. Judith Kovacs’ selection of passages and her lengthy, fresh translations will yield new theological and exegetical insights to readers not familiar with pre-Enlightenment criticism and should persuade them that this field deserves far more attention than it has until now received. This volume sets a standard for the Church’s Bible series that other scholars will want to emulate.

—Robert Morgan, emeritus professor, University of Oxford

Scholarly, but also accessible to the intelligent reader. . . Kovacs provides commentary from close to thirty patristic sources in all, and each selection is pertinent to the text at hand.

—Commonweal

Kovacs has, here, translated and edited some of the most important early commentary on 1 Corinthians. . . This book is an invaluable tool for any who are interested in the interpretation of scripture throughout the Christian era.

—Journal for the Study of the New Testament Booklist

The average pastor will find The Church’s Bible far more helpful for week-to-week study, preaching, and teaching of the Scriptures than the Ancient Christian Commentary.

—Concordia Journal

Deserves to be welcomed warmly, since it allows a wide readership to gain access to ancient biblical interpretations that are either difficult to find or that are so numerous that one easily drowns in the material.

—Review of Biblical Literature