It attempts to treat the entire text of the Old and New Testaments on a phrase by phrase basis . . . The contributors to this commentary represent a total of more than fifteen denominational backgrounds. Among the forty-eight writers are professors in twenty-five schools of Christian higher education. With such a variety of backgrounds, it is to be expected that contributors will differ . . . in some matters of interpretation . . .The writers present the results of their own careful, personal Bible study. But also they have preserved some of the best work of the older commentators and have utilized the insights of contemporary scholarship."