Global Readings: A Sri Lankan Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Galatians

Reading Scripture with a view to hearing its significance and challenge within its original foreign context is the essence of exegesis and an anchor point for responsible hermeneutics. Reading Scripture alongside others from a significantly different social location also helps us see fresh aspects of the meaning of the text itself as well as fresh angles on its challenge to Christian discipleship. This innovative commentary by respected New Testament scholar David deSilva is grounded in both approaches: a careful exegesis of Galatians as a basis for discerning the challenge of Scripture in any social location; and a reading of Galatians from the viewpoint of the challenges to living out its message among the churches in Sri Lanka the result of extensive interaction with Christian leaders in Sri Lanka. Seeing the text afresh from within its ancient context and a different modern social location will challenge readers in the West to consider once more Pauls message of transformation through the Spirit with implications for Western Christians in their own context and in the larger global matrix of the Church universal. True to the spirit of Paul David deSilva in his creative work Global Readings allows the Christian church to relive Pauls theology in his Letter to the Galatians and to participate in the challenges faced by the Sri Lankan church today. Davids bold move in the Reading with Sri Lankan Christians sections of the commentary allows the ancient text to speak across space and time--a sacred task of an apostle. -K. K. Yeo author of The Spirit Hovers: Journeying through Chaos with Prayers DeSilvas commentary on Galatians reflects engagement with Galatians scholarship yet remains easy for readers to use. It also reflects both careful consideration of the various historical issues in Galatians and also (albeit less extensively) explicit sensitivity to concrete readings of the text that supplement the usual Western applications. -Craig Keener author of Romans in the New Covenant Commentary Series The miracle of biblical hermeneutics is that Christians around the world understand passages of the Bible differently yet at the same time manage without equivocation to affirm the same gospel. David deSilva shows us one example of this by reporting on his engagement with Sri Lankan Bible students in understanding the book of Galatians. It is a brilliant model of learning from one another and at the same time standing together in the affirmation of scriptural truth. -Terry C. Muck coauthor of Christianity Encountering World Religions: The Practice of Mission in the Twenty-First Century David A. deSilva is Trustees Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary and an ordained minister in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is the author of numerous books including Seeing Things Johns Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation (2009) An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts Methods & Ministry Formation (2004) and Introducing the Apocrypha (2002).