Genesis (1) (The Story of God Bible Commentary)

This is a good lay commentary by one of the premier OT scholars in the US. Dr. Longman does an excellent job of connecting the lessons of Genesis to modern contexts. As a full time minister I would not use this as a stand alone commentary but it is an excellent addition to other resources I have on Genesis.

It's been said that true genius is the ability to simplify the complex, and foolishness is the tendency to complicate the simple. Longman demonstrates genius as he carefully simplifies the book of beginnings. Making it understandable and accessible.

Super Fantastic

one of the best commentaries on Genesis.

Meh, on it's good days. Is this really what passes for a serious commentary?

Longman has a special kind of brain to put this all together in an understandable way

Very reader friendly and useful!

This is part of a new Commentary series being published by Zondervan. Why a new and yet another commentary series when we have so many to begin with. Well as Graeme Goldsworthy states in his endorsement, "An extremely valuable, and long overdue series that includes comment on the cultural context of the text, careful exegesis, and guidance on reading the whole Bible as a unity that testifies to Christ as our Savior and Lord."That comment helps explain why. So, the next question is, does it live up to that explanation? Upon my reading of the introduction and the first several chapters I would say that so far I am impressed that it does live up to that explanation.The commentary uses what they call, "Three easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out god's story." 1) LISTEN to the Story 2) EXPLAIN the Story 3) LIVE the StoryOK, so far I have given information that you can gather by just looking at the cover and some of the first few pages. So, what truly is my review and not just the publisher's hype?As I began reading I found that I truly enjoyed the format that they were following. In listening to the story they quote the text of the scripture and then a brief summary (maybe a page or two) of the text. Then you get to the Explain The Story and find that this is where you will gather a lot of the cultural information that Goldsworthy said you would find. I really enjoyed in Chapter Five the history of Cainite and Sethite Genealogy. It was a good explanation of how things came about with Cain after his issues with God.The final section of Live the Story takes what has been read in scripture and briefly explained in the first two sections and gives some thoughts regarding application to our present day culture and lifestyles. How does the text really effect what we have.In this section the commentary reminds us that Civilization has two sides to it. The first being that it is good (thus civilized) but then there is the opposite and that is Barbaric (i.e. bad). Cain was part of mankind and thus made in the image (or likeness) of God and thus he was endowed with a "good" nature, or at least with a moral compass that God places within each of us. BUT, Cain chose to act on the Barbaric side and thus sinned.With that in mind how do you face your daily trials and issues? Do you follow the good, civilized side of your moral compass or do you follow the evil, barbaric side of that moral compass?I haven't finished the full commentary but I have so far been very pleased with the concepts and textual explanations.I think this commentary is excellent for the layperson in your congregation. Many Pastors will probably think it is not in depth enough for them, but that is OK, it wasn't written with the idea of being an in depth document on all the little nuances and arguments that theologians love.This is a great commentary for a quick read, understanding and overview of the text that you will be studying with others.Enjoy!