The Family
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 49, No. 1 – Fall 2006
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
Philippians. By Moisés Silva. 2nd ed. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005. xx + 248 pages. Hard- cover, $29.99.
This commentary is an update of the volume originally in the Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary in 1988. Four years later it was reprinted with a few corrections as the inaugural volume of the excellent Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (xi). This second edition in 2005 updates the volume to reflect the last thirteen years of scholarship on Philippians as well as conforms it to the style of other BECNT volumes.
Moisés Silva is a noted scholar with an expertise in Pauline writings as well as hermeneutics. He has taught New Testament at Westmont College, Westminster Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. A real strength of this commentary is that Silva’s interpretation of each passage is carefully connected to the context of the letter—which, importantly, Silva views as a cohesive whole (104, 117, 134–35, 143–44). This interpretive method is especially helpful in dealing with highly-de- bated passages such as Phillipians 2:5–11 (92–3).
While this commentary delves deeply into textual matters, it is geared both to the pastor/teacher as well as the scholar. Common to the BECNT, when Silva addresses the text, it appears in Greek, English transliteration, and English translation throughout the “Exegesis and Exposition” sections (e.g., on almost every page of 38–53). However, there is no transliteration in the “Additional Notes” sections (e.g., 53–58), presumably because one should know Greek to take this deeper step. The Works Cited and four indices are very helpful (214–48).
Silva stays within the objective of the BECNT, dealing with important textual and theological matters, but not giving a verse-by-verse exegesis nor an exhaustive treatment of any textual question (ix). Silva uses “exegetical essays” (xiii) to accomplish this mandate, but the reader may feel slighted, desiring more comments than the “Additional Notes” afford. Another weakness of this volume is the lack of application, which would certainly have been of benefit to pastors and teachers.
The exegesis and exposition is excellent, the interaction with other important commentaries on Philippians is admirable, and the handling of difficult passages is careful and commendable. Silva does not hesitate to differ with other scholars, but he does so respectfully, and he stays within an evangelical framework (e.g., his disagreements with Fee: 139, n. 6, 147, 159, n. 8, 164, n. 17, 178, n. 10). Unfortunately, most references to scholar- ship since the first edition (1992) appear only in footnotes, so this was not a thoroughgoing revision of the commentary. The one excursus (211–13) is short but excellent; one wishes there were more. Yet, this book remains an excellent commentary on Philippians and is worthy of the BECNT series.
