<p>The<i style=""> Global Bible Commentary</i> invites its users to expand their horizon by reading the Bible with scholars from all over the world and from different religious persuasions.<span style=""></span>These scholars have approaches and concerns that often are poles apart.<span style=""></span>Yet they share two basic convictions:<span style=""> </span>biblical interpretation always matters; and reading the Bible “with others” is highly rewarding.<span style=""></span></p><p><span style=""></span>Each of the short commentaries of the <i style="">Global Bible Commentary</i>is a readily accessible guide for reading a biblical book. Written for undergraduate and seminary students and their teachers, as well as for pastors, priests, and Adult Sunday School classes, it introduces the users to the main features of the biblical book and its content.</p><p>Yet each short commentary does more. It also brings us a precious gift, namely the opportunity of reading this biblical book as if for the first time. By making explicit the specific context and the concerns from which she/he reads the Bible, the scholar points out to us the significance of aspects of the biblical text that we simply took for granted or overlooked.</p><p></p><p></p><p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.75in"><span style=""></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:'Times New Roman'"><span style=""><strong><em>If any book demonstrates the value of cultural criticism and the importance of particularity in interpretation, this is it! Scholars from diverse social locations in every continent bring their distinctive context to bear on the act of interpreting. In so doing, they shed eye-opening light on the biblical texts. The resulting critical dialogue with the Bible exposes the oppressive as well as the liberating dynamics of the texts while at the same time showing how the Bible might address the social, political, cultural, and economic dynamics of our world today. This collection can change the way you read the Bible—scholars and students, clergy and laity alike.</em></p><p><em>-</em><span class="x_534541416-20042004"><font face="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="2">David Rhoads,</font></span><span class="x_534541416-20042004"><font face="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="2">Professor of New Testament,</font></span><span class="x_534541416-20042004"><font face="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="2">Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago</font></span><span class="x_534541416-20042004"><font face="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="2">, IL</font></span></p></strong></span></span><p><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:'Times New Roman'"><span style=""><strong></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:'Times New Roman'"><span style=""><strong>Contributors:</strong></p><p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Daniel Patte,</b> Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.<span style=""></span>A French<span style=""> </span>Huguenot (Église Réformée de France), he taught two years in Congo-Brazzaville, and “read the Bible with” people in France, Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, the Philippines, as well as in the USA.<span style=""></span>His publications include books on hermeneutics and semiotics (such as <i>Early Jewish Hermeneutics,</i>1975;<span style=""> </span><i>The Religious Dimensions of Biblical Texts, </i>1990); on Paul and Matthew (such as <i>Paul's Faith and the Power of the Gospel</i>, 1983;<i>The Gospel according to Matthew: A Structural Commentary on Matthew's Faith</i>, 1987), as well as, most directly related to the GBC,<span style=""></span><i>Ethics of Biblical Interpretation </i>(1995),<span style=""> </span><i>The Challenge of Discipleship</i> (199