In 2010 I shared my top five books on the letter of James and interviewed Chris Morgan on the theology of James.
Now I’d add this book to that top-tier list:
Chris A. Vlachos. James. Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2013. 225 pages.
This sample 53-page PDF includes
- Endorsements by Craig Blomberg, Darrell Bock, Peter Davids, Rob Plummer, Tom Schreiner, and Bob Yarbrough
- The table of contents
- Doug Moo’s foreword
- Other front matter
- The introduction and notes on James 1:1–4
I recently received this book for Christmas last year and I must admit that exceeds my expectations. Although it is not a commentary in strictest sense it fulfills its goals by walking the student/scholar though the more advanced issues related to grammar, syntax and structural issues and gives exegetical options for disputed issues in the Greek text.
Overall it is refreshing to see a new volume in this series (The last one was published in 1991) and to also see that many other scholars have been commissioned to write subsequent volumes to be released later. My hope is that this series will reach its goal as originally set forth by Dr. Murray J .Harris.