Ephesians: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary (International Critical Commentary Series)

Rating:
Summary: One of the "Best" technical works on Ephesians
Review: This commentary is the fruit of Ernest Best's many years of study in this epistle. It is expensive, but very much worth it. It is one of the most readable volumes in the ICC series. Best has obviously read everything of importance on Ephesians as evidenced by his massive bibliographies. There are many excellent excursuses throughout the commentary. The excursus on "The Body of Christ" is tremendously insightful.The introduction is thorough and includes a lengthy treatment of authorship. Best sees Ephesians as pseudonymous, but he is not as dogmatic as some (eg., A.T. Lincoln). Some of his arguments make good sense, but I am still not convinced that Ephesians MUST be written by someone other than Paul (the high number of hapax legomena not withstanding). In my opinion, Best does not deal adequately with the autobiographical information (which weighs heavily in favor of Pauline authorship). See the Ephesians commentary by Peter T. O'Brien for good arguments in favor of Pauline authorship. Best's exegesis is of the highest caliber and evidences his many years of research. Best's interaction with other commentators is not overdone and neither are his text critical notes. However, there are some idiosyncratic interpretations, such as Best's view that the household codes in Ephesians (Haustafel), are "pastorally unrealistic" and "pastorally defective material" that was as irrelevant for the original readers as it is for us (pg.526). Best thinks that the writer probably culled the household codes from outside the Christian community and incorporated them into this letter.

Overall, Best's work is marked by careful scholarship and cogent exegesis. Last year I used Peter T. O'Brien primarily and Best secondarily when I studied Ephesians and I found Best to be extremely helpful at many points. More recently, I used the Word Biblical Commentary on Ephesians by Andrew Lincoln and found it to be even better than both Best and O'Brien, IMHO.