Randolph O. Yeager. The Renaissance New Testament: Matthew 1-7. Pelican Publishing Company. Reprinted 1986.

The The Renaissance New Testament is written for those who do intensive in-depth Bible study. The reader should be sure to read "The Plan of the Work" and "The Grammar and Syntax of the Greek New Testament" in the introductory pages before endeavoring to use this study guide. Even after reading through this material, I have little understanding of Greek grammar.

Verses are given in English. They are followed by the appropriate Greek words (written in Greek letters) and a detailed explanation of that word and its meaning. Other verses using the same word are listed for further study.

The author states in the introduction:

Each of us brings to his study of the Bible his own wealth of past experiences. No two people have the same background. The Holy Spirit, who knows the background of each of us, may be able to relate a verse of Scripture to you in a way that He could not relate it to me. In order, therefore to give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to illumine His pages for you as you study what He wrote, you must do your own research. [Page xxvi]

Recommendation

This book is not for the faint of heart. It takes nearly 600 pages just to explain the first seven chapters of Matthew. I doubt most Christians are willing to devote the time it takes to understand the Greek. Therefore, I must conclude that this series of books is written primarily for the "Bible scholar".

I am passing this book on to my pastor because I know he does this type of study for his sermons. I also know that I would not take the time to analyze each passage in Greek and compare it to other passages using the same words. Maybe I'm lazy but I have difficulty just reading through the Bible in a year. I am afraid most of us fall into this category.

Copyrighted by Diana Pederson, 2005-2009