Exodus: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture Volume 2

Exodus (The New American Commentary) I found this book to be extremely informative and helpful in leading a small group study of the book of Exodus.

I am very pleased with the book and the time that it took that i got it. Not to mention if you are interested in the Book of Exodus this is a good commentary to look through. he (Stuart) is very interested in the event of the exodus.

This is a wonderful commentary. He writes in an easily understandable style. The commentary is very thorough. A good evangelical commentary.

Exodus is a pivotal book, a key volume not only in the Pentateuch but in the whole of the Hebrew bible. And Douglas Stuart is a first rate evangelical Old Testament scholar (who has already penned commentaries on Ezekiel and some of the Minor Prophets). Put the two together and you have an important and powerful combination. There have been a number of good commentaries on the book of Exodus. Many consider the 1974 volume by Brevard Childs (Old Testament Library) to be the best written, albeit by a non-evangelical. Good volumes of a somewhat more conservative and evangelical variety have been penned by Enns (NIV Application Commentary, 2000) and Durham (Word Biblical Commentary, 1987). But this is the newest and perhaps best treatment of the book. Part of the New American Commentary series, this just released volume will long serve as the first port of call for evangelical assessments of this important Old Testament book. Good commentaries offer a balance of two things: the technical, grammatical, cultural and other background material, along with sound theological analysis. Both exegesis and exposition are required. This volume fulfils both requirements nicely. Stuart has clearly done his homework. (He says he consulted over 1700 items, not all of which are featured in the bibliography.) He is up on all the relevant literature, and is aware of the current debates. He also writes well, and is able to provide the theological sense of the book, and individuals passages throughout. Given the constraints of the series, his introductory remarks do not occupy much space (only 50 pages out of an 800 page work). But more detailed discussions of important points are scattered throughout the commentary. Thus a number of excurses into various disputed issues, difficult topics, or theological hot potatoes are interspersed in these pages. Surprisingly however one such item, the Divine name YHWH as revealed in Exodus 3:14, receives no separate excursus, but just a half page discussion (along with a half page footnote, leading the reader to further study). While acknowledging that extra-biblical evidence for Exodus is thin, he is more optimistic than writers like Durham about the book's historicity. He also ascribes Mosaic authorship to the book. His thematic approach to this book is to highlight the servant theme: Israel's' exodus from Egyptian servitude is replaced by servitude to Yahweh. The transition from being servants of a bad king to being servants of a good king is the overriding motif of the book, although Stuart lists eight other key themes, including the necessity of law, the promised land, and covenant relationship. The commentary itself is a nice blend of giving the sense of the text along with the various technical considerations that need to be addressed. More scholarly discussion is reserved for the footnotes, which are plenteous and lengthy. Thus the main body of the text can be easily followed, but the numerous excurses and footnotes

The thing that most impressed me about Douglas Stuart's commentary on Exodus for the New American commentary series (Broadman & Holman) is the easy proficiency with which Dr. Stuart exegetes how a particular Hebrew word or phrase should be taken in context, weaves in the ANE background, and demonstrates the way the theology not only relates to Exodus and the rest of the Pentateuch, but to entire biblical corpus. Those familiar with Dr. Stuart's prior work will not be surprised by the depth of scholarship undergirding his insights here. For a conservative commentary that is sufficiently meaty but still easy on the eyes, one could do no better.