NEW! Feasting on the Word (22 volumes)

Today we are releasing all 22 volumes of the Feasting on the Word commentary series on the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for the Accordance Digital Library. This incredible resource has been long requested by Accordance users and will be of interest to many beyond the clergy whose churches who follow the RCL.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines feast as “a plentiful supply of something enjoyable, especially for the mind or senses.” That definition of feast perfectly describes the Feasting on the Word (FotW) series. For those who may not be familiar with the RCL, every Sunday includes four readings from the Scriptures—a reading from the Old Testament, Psalms, Epistles, and Gospels. FotW acts as a commentary on those readings, in order of the RCL, according to the three-year cycle of years A, B, and C. However, FotW goes far beyond providing a one-perspective commentary; rather, it comes at each passage from four different perspectives!

Clergy who are preaching or delivering homilies on any of the readings from the RCL have a variety of needs in regard to their sermon preparation. Although many good commentaries exist, most focus on being one particular kind of commentary. And most commentaries do not take into account how a passage is used in the lectionary cycle. In the FotW commentary, each of the four lectionary passages is approached with four different commentary perspectives: Theological, Pastoral, Exegetical, and Homiletical. Each of these commentary sections are written by a vast number of clergy and scholars from a variety of faith backgrounds. Considering that there are four separate readings for any given Sunday, if you’re doing the math, you will realize that’s 16 separate commentary passages for the week—Feast, indeed!

Although you probably wouldn’t lay out your Accordance workspace this way, in the image above, I opened up four sessions of FotW, Year C, Volume 3, Proper 9 (Sunday between July 3 and July 9—or this coming Sunday) to show an excerpt of all four perspectives on the Old Testament reading from 2 Kings 5:1-14. You will need to click or tap on the image to see it in detail, but it should give you a flavor of the different perspectives.

FotW has been so well-loved by pastors and non-pastors alike, the publishers commissioned a series in the same format (four perspectives on each passage) for all four Gospels titled Feasting on the Gospels. This results in the same kind of commentary as the standard FotW but also incorporates the Gospel passages that aren’t included in the lectionary reading cycle.

Also included in this release for Accordance is The Daily Feast, a daily devotional with excerpts from the regular FotW series as well as new material. As a daily devotional, it allows clergy to reflect on the four readings throughout the week leading up to the coming Sunday. We have also “spun-off” a separate Accordance module of our own that lists the daily readings of the RCL—hyperlinked, of course—for each Sunday allowing quick access to the passages themselves. Both The Daily Feast and Feasting on the Word Readings can be used in Accordance’s Daily Reading mode or independently.

The entire 22-volume Feasting on the Word series, conveniently divided into six Accordance modules, will be of interest to many users beyond clergy as well as beyond those who follow the RCL cycle. The fourfold approach to each passage offers a virtual feast (pun intended) of content to any who study the Bible.

Feasting on the Word, the Gospels, and Devotionals
(All 22 Volumes)
$499

In addition to the complete 22-volume Feasting on the Word lectionary commentary series, the individual products are also available.