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RomansRoman treasureROMANS (NT Commentary Series) With the publication of this fine volume on Romans, this excellent commentary series is nearing completion (only three volumes remaining). Dr. Osborne, the author and series editor, teaches New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the USA and this major contribution to the series is the fruit of first-class scholarship, worn lightly but everywhere informing his judgements. Noting the many quality commentaries on Romans in English, he affirms his distinctive intention to steer between the 'too technical' and the 'too shallow', to make the insights of godly scholarship accessible, but also to apply the letter to life today. In this, he is remarkably successful and has produced a tool that will be of enormous help to the pastor-teacher, full of suggestions and ideas for the preacher. In accessing a commentary like this, one tends to go to the test cases and the hard places to see what the author makes of them. The danger, of course, is that when we agree with the author, it becomes a quality work! But, at every turn, I was impressed by the clarity of the exegesis, the honesty with which differing views are represented and weighed, and the practical and pastoral inferences drawn. There are many helpful footnotes explaining translation issues and exegeting the Greek vocabulary. Perhaps the greatest strength, however, is the way in which the line of argument of the text, in both its immediate and wider contexts, is always in the driving seat, so that we really do come to understand the letter as an integrated whole and not just to examine the detail of the individual leaves on each tree. With an extensive bibliography of 26 pages, this volume represents real value for money and an extremely worthwhile investment as an addition to any preacher's library. David Jackman,
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