The Psalms have long served a vital role in the individual and corporate lives of Christians. The church fathers employed the Psalms widely—as hymns, Scripture readings, counsel on morals, forms for prayer, and apologetic and doctrinal wisdom. In this ACCS volume readers will find rich comment and theological reflection from more than sixty-five ancient authors.
The book of Job presents its readers with a profound drama concerning innocent suffering. Surprisingly, the earliest church fathers showed little interest in the book until Origen in the early third century and more intense interest at the end of the fourth. This ACCS volume offers a great feast of wisdom from the ancient resources of the church with fresh relevance for today.
The church fathers, as they did in earlier books dealing with Israel's history from the time of Joshua to the united monarchy, found ample material for typological and moral interpretation in 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. This ACCS volume includes comment from Greek, Latin, and Syriac theologians, some of which is available in English for the first time.
The early church fathers readily found parallels, or types, in the narratives of the historical books that illumined the New Testament. This ACCS volume features a rich treasure trove of ancient wisdom, including homilies of Origen, commentaries from Gregory of Nazianzus and Bede the Venerable, and question-and-answer works from Augustine, Theodoret of Cyr, and Bede.
Christians read the Jewish Scriptures in the light of what God did in Jesus the Christ. This ACCS volume on Exodus through Deuteronomy bears ample witness to this new way of reading these ancient texts. Varied in texture and nuance, the interpretations included in this volume display a treasure house of ancient wisdom, speaking with eloquence and intellectual acumen to the church today.
Genesis 12–50 recounts the history of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—and the early fathers used these passages to draw out the spiritual significance of the patriarchal narrative for Christian believers. In this ACCS volume, ancient commentators provide a wealth of ancient wisdom to stimulate the mind and nourish the soul of the church today.
The creation narrative in the early chapters of Genesis proved irresistible to the church fathers. Following the apostle Paul, they explored the six days of creation and the profound significance of Adam as a type of Christ, the second Adam. With comment from Basil the Great, Ambrose, and Augustine, this ACCS volume on Genesis 1-11 opens up a treasure house of ancient wisdom.
How did the books of the Bible come to be recognized as Holy Scripture? After nearly nineteen centuries the canon of Scripture remains an issue of debate. Adept in both Old and New Testament studies, F. F. Bruce brings the wisdom of a lifetime of reflection and biblical interpretation to bear in addressing the criteria of canonicity, the canon within the canon, and canonical criticism.
Do the writings of the church fathers support a literalist interpretation of Genesis 1? Young earth creationists have maintained that they do. But are we correctly representing the Fathers and their concerns? This study from Craig Allert resets our understanding of early Christian interpretation and considers whether contemporary evangelicals may be more bound to modernity in our reading of Genesis 1 than we realize.
For the first time in English, this ACT volume translates Cyril of Alexandria's surviving New Testament commentaries. Abounding with insights from one of the most significant figures of the early church, these commentaries explore themes such as the triune nature of God, Christ's sacrificial death, and justification, and are essential tools for understanding Cyril's reading of Holy Scripture.