2 out of 4 stars
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The Stipulations of the New Covenant: An Exegetical Study in the Sermon on the Mount by Dr. Ralph E. Bass Jr. is a difficult book to summarize, as its summary is essentially the passage of the Bible it studies: Matthew chapters 5-7. It is an exegetical commentary, which means the author walks through each verse of the chosen passage providing historical background and linguistic and traditional interpretation. Biblical commentaries are typically written as scholarly works, difficult for those without previous knowledge of the subject to follow, let alone enjoy. This commentary is no exception.
The premise of The Stipulations of the New Covenant is that the book of Matthew is the contract terms of the New Covenant, and the Sermon on the Mount (what biblical scholars call Matthew 5-7) calls those who believe in Christ to live a certain way. These chapters describe the “stipulations” or “terms” the Christian must follow. This passage is filled with practical directives that are easily misunderstood, and Dr. Bass seeks to explain these directives clearly so that the believer can live a counterculture and more Christlike life.
I was drawn to this book as I attended the same university as the author (albeit several years removed) and we have similar advanced degrees. I found it very interesting to compare where our theology differed, and I enjoyed learning a new perspective, even if I didn’t completely agree with every one of Dr. Bass’ points. The best thing I can say about this book is that it made me think. The discussion regarding Matthew 5:17, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it,” especially encouraged me to review my ideas of the Old Testament Law.
Another thing I like about The Stipulations of the New Covenant is its level of research. When discussing a book as old as the Bible, it is wise – even necessary – to include the thoughts of other scholars. In addition, Dr. Bass was careful to include cross references (other verses in the Bible that corroborate or shed more light on the passage in question) as often as possible. Yet despite the great amount of input on this book (the bibliography is ten pages long!) Dr. Bass somehow maintains personable, conversational tone.
Unfortunately, however, there are several things I dislike about this commentary as well. Without touching on the finer points of theology (on which I believe Christians can forgiveably disagree), the book itself has grammatical, formatting, and functional errors.
First, as a scholarly work I expected a high level of professionalism, yet I found 10 grammatical errors within the first 80 pages (of 398 pages), and the grammar did not improve over the course of the book. The author’s treatment of quotations are a particular struggle, which I will address in a moment. Second, the sections are quite long and not clearly defined. I would have preferred the more logical division of sections, subsections, and chapters that is typically used in such works. Third, a personal preference, perhaps, but in his thoroughness I find Dr. Bass tends to make simple things more complicated than necessary, and he is a bit longwinded. He also tends to insert his own opinions regarding American society in irrelevant places, which I found to be an unpleasant intrusion on the biblical discussion.
My final and largest issue with this book is how it handles quotes from other scholars. First, there are so many of them! If you took away all of the content within quotation marks, there would be no book! Perhaps the author’s intent was to show wisdom in corroboration, but my concern is that Dr. Bass has little to say for himself. I consider it lazy writing to merely quote everyone else and include few of your own words. He needs to paraphrase rather than quote so often. In addition, the author does not follow the grammatical rules of using quotations correctly. For example, each quote is footnoted properly, but whole paragraphs of others’ words are left in-line rather than properly indented. This makes it difficult to follow who is speaking when.
I would like to give this book 3 stars as I believe the content is extremely valuable to the biblical scholar, but I cannot. I rate The Stipulations of the New Covenant 2 out of 4 stars due to its lack of original text and need for an editor. I don’t think this book will have a wide audience, but I do recommend it to Christians who want to study the Sermon on the Mount in great detail.
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The Stipulations of the New Covenant
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