that achieves every desirable end.5 If as Hans Urs von Balthasar observes “truth is symphonic,” then so too are commentaries.6 Third, my commentary is distinguished by how it approaches the meaning of history itself. As commonly understood, history is the study of the linear progression of time. History therefore seeks by means of archeological, philological, and other tools to understand how the biblical writings correspond to the linear historical timeline reconstructed from biblical and nonbiblical