MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Luke 1-5

I miss my husband at Bible Study. God has gifted him with the ability to teach, to understand theology, and to explain difficult Biblical concepts. Two weeks ago, the other folks in our small group and I were a bit stuck on how to answer one of the questions. Normally, the studies we have done come with a Leader's Guide and answers, but not this one. So, I went downstairs and grabbed the appropriate book from our Word Biblical Commentary series. I tried to find an answer, but it was difficult to sift through the words on the pages because of the formatting and how it was written. The Word Biblical Commentary is a very academic commentary which focuses a lot on linguistics.

For personal study, I really like Warren Wiersbe's commentary books. It is an expository commentary. He focuses a lot on what is in the Word as well as what isn't, without reading a lot into the Bible. They're easy to read and not super heavy.

Recently, I received one of the books from the MacArthur New Testament Commentary series by John MacArthur. I have always been curious about this commentary series but have never had a chance before now to spend time reading it.

This commentary is an expository one like Wiersbe's, but it goes much, much more in depth in its explanations of the Bible. This book was very different than I expected and I don't think I would have had any idea of what it would be like based on the reviews I'd read about it on Amazon. The book begins with a very short preface explaining what type of commentary this is--an expository one, rather than a linguistic or homiletical (more academic) one. An introduction to the book of Luke follows and then MacArthur begins to explain each verse/passage from the first five chapters of Luke. In the middle of the book was a sermon John MacArthur gave about premillenialism and amillenialism in 2007.

The explanations for each verse were easy to understand and give the reader a thorough understanding of the passage. MacArthur talks a lot about the settings in which the verses can be seen in--including the historical setting, geographical setting, world/national settings, personal setting, and more. As I read different chapters in this book, I became aware of how much I didn't understand about biblical times. An example is when MacArthur talks about Harod and the good things he did--he did a lot of bad things, but he did a lot of good as well. I had no idea he had done anything good. I realized how much I don't know even about the setting and life in the time of Christ's birth.

If you are looking for a commentary that will really help you as you dig into the scripture, then this commentary is very helpful. Commentaries aren't filled with questions for you to answer as you are reading the bible, but rather are meant (I think) to help you understand things that you wonder about or struggle to understand as you are reading the scriptures or are doing a Bible study.

One last note before I forget...with linguistic commentaries, I suppose it isn't as important whether someone is Reformed or Arminian in doctrine. But, with expository commentaries like this one, that perspective does matter. What I mean by Reformed is a belief in predestination and Arminian is a belief in free will when it comes to our salvation and how we are saved. MacArthur does write from a Calvinist and reformed theological perspective and is premillenialist in his perspective about Israel. These things particularly shape the sermon included in the commentary and what he chooses to write about in the commentary, but it only stood out to me especially in a few particular passages. MacArthur's explanations are very thorough and very good. Whether you are Arminian or Reformed in theology, this commentary is worth reading.

* Please note that I was provided with a complimentary with copy of this book by Moody Publishing for review. Thank you Moody Publishing! It is a very good book.

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