The Oxford Bible Commentary is a completely new Bible study and reference work for 21st century students and readers. It offers verse-by-verse explanation of every book of the Bible by the world's leading biblical scholars. It provides everything any reader needs to understand the text of the Bible. From its inception, OBC has been designed as a completely non-denominational commentary; contributors have been chosen from every faith and none. The OBC will enlighten readers with no religious background, as well as Jewish readers and those from all Christian traditions - Protestant, Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox. Written for all readers, expert and novice The OBC has been carefully written and edited to provide the best scholarship in a readable style, Details are not introduced for their own sake but to make the explicaton clearer and to bring insights from various critical approaches to clarify the meaning of the text. A commentary on the Bible in its entirety The OBC includes comment on all the books recognized as canonical in Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Churches, as well as those books regarded as Apocryphal in the Anglican tradition, and extracts of books found only in the Ethiopic or Coptic canons. Written by a team of 70 respected biblical scholars from all over the world The OBC contributors include scholars from Jewish, Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions. The best combination of scholarly approaches for each individual book The OBC uses the traditional historical-critical method to search for the original meaning of the texts, but also brings in new perspectives and insights - literary, sociological, and cultural - to bring out the expanding meanings of these ancient writings. Everything you need There is a full Bibliographical Guide to Biblical Studies providing a much-needed up-to-date reference guide to key works, and there are bibliographies contained in each article. An index to the introductory articles is provided, whilst the commentaries themselves can be accessed through the use of any standard concordance. OBC also contains 11 full-colour maps. A resource that can be read with any modern version of the Bible. The perfect reference work for a multitude of needs The OBC serves readers wishing to explore the religious, cultural, and historical significance of the Bible; students looking for an authoritative but accessible introduction to the scholarly issues involved in understanding the biblical text; and professionals, clergy or lay peoole, who teach or preach. Offering greater insight into the meaning of this complex and many-faceted work, the OBC brings this ancient text alive for a new generation in the third millennium. 'Our aim has been to make a commentary that would provide everything the 21st-century reader requires to engage quickly and immediately with the text. Of primary importance has been finding the best approach. In the Oxford Bible Commentary the traditional historical-critical method in Biblical studies sits alongside other ways of reading which bring their own rewards. We have not abandoned the search for the original meaning, but have given individual contributors freedom to explore for the modern reader new perspectives and insights into the evolving meaning of the Biblical text. We hope that a wide readership will be helped by the Commentary. From those who seek a clearer perespective on a text which they hold in reverence - pastors preparing sermons, those reading the Bible together in study or discussion groups or in private meditation - to readers for whom the Bible is a highly significanct document from the ancient world and a major classic of world literature- each should discover a clearer understanding of this complex and many-faceted work. If it also stimulates plenty of discussion and further enquiry, we will consider our job of editing this 21st-century commentary well done.'