This commentary, like each in the series, is designed to serve readers by demonstrating the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible.

Figures of the classical church such as Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Wesley interpreted the Bible theologically, believing Scripture as a whole witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Modern interpreters of the Bible questioned this premise. But, in recent decades, a critical mass of theologians and biblical scholars has begun to reassert the priority of a theological reading of Scripture.

The "SCM Theological Commentary" series enlists leading theologians to read and interpret Scripture for the twenty-first century, just as the church fathers, the Reformers, and other orthodox Christians did for their times and places.