Ebook: The First Epistle to the Corinthians (The New International Commentary on the New Testament)

I read this entire book cover to cover. I have not read any other commentaries on 1 Corinthians, but I have read many other commentaries on other NT books. This is undoubtedly a powerful and very scholarly presentation and my understanding is that Fee was able to redirect the contemporary academic focus back in the right direction with this very well received commentary. I have no problems with that. Even so, I thought Fee was sometimes too "academic" in his writing style. Very often just one read through was insufficient to fully understand Fee's points - this is not obtuseness on my part, but rather that Fee seemed to be addressing a Board of Deans at a University instead of a "fairly well-versed in theology" student audience. I often had to go back and re-read certain portions several times to see if I truly understood what he was saying. It was as if Fee expected you to already have a very deep understanding of the issues at hand - not so! My expectation was that I would be able to gain that understanding from reading this book! I often found myself asking, "so, does he hold to position "A" or to position "B"? Several times I just had to move on without fully comprehending what Fee was trying to convey. Maybe it is partly due to the nature of the material, but I do honestly think Fee could have focused more on clarity.

I did find this commentary to contain many nuggets of truth, but surprisingly not a few of those nuggets came from a better appreciation of how little we really do know about what Paul actually meant in many problem passages - I appreciated that Fee did not try to soften those weak areas with a false confidence. I also appreciated Fee's honesty in upholding what the text actually does say. For example, in terms of speaking in tongues; while I am not in favor of the charismatic movement, I did have to agree with Fee's assessment of what the passages actually said. I do not like the implications, but I had to concede to Fee's conclusions.

Overall, this was often a tough read of admittedly tough material. Perhaps this is not where a novice would want to start, but I am glad I did get through the entire book. I also found Fee's introductory background material on what we know about the Corinthians to be clearly written, excellent and very enlightening.