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Thoughts on Socio-Rhetorical Commentary?

Matthew

Between base packages being 15% off and a $20 birthday credit that I am obsessively checking to see if it has arrived yet, I am planning on a small base package upgrade this month. I was hoping to get some feedback on the value of the Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, as it may impact which package I get. Some sets I already own include WBC, NAC, NIGTC, Pillar, UBS, BNTC, and BECNT, among others. I have had up to Platinum on a past version of Logos, but only have Starter for 6. Do you like/use Socio-Rhetorical more than the sets I listed? Why or why not?

PS - Really good deal on IVP Essential Reference 3 right now with purchase of base package. Planning on getting it as soon as that magical email comes through! Thank you Faithlife for your generosity!

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Comments

Dan Francis

I believe i have all the Socio-Rhetorical Commentary volumes and i have found some very insightful, others I have found far less useful, over all I think I can say for me I have found more of the volumes not useful to me than useful. That said I have gone there and found amazing insights at time but usually, and this is just me, I am not finding it all that helpful.

-Dan

Friedrich

I have a generally favorable view of Witherington (who authors many of this series) and like the idea of this approach to the commentaries: getting at meaning by focusing on rhetorical methods used in that day/age as well other cultural factors. I know little about that as a field, so it is nice to have input from scholars who do. It would be a nice set to balance perspective with your other commentaries that take different approaches. Personally, I like having different perspectives at my disposal to expose blind spots of other commentaries and to give more elaboration on various points of the text/context. This is a respected set. Some (like DA Carson) have suggested that this narrow S-R approach sometimes hijacks the meaning of the text. Maybe. But I would counter that multiple approaches to "get at the meaning" of a text from 2 millenia ago will expand, rather than limit, our understanding. DA Carson has his own limitations, but I sure like consulting him along with all the sets you mentioned above. It is a worthy set.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/777171#Comment_777171

I have a positive view of it as well along with the Reading the New Testament series. They both serve as a counter-balance to getting to hung up on linguistic nitty-gritty that would have never occurred to the original authors. If you're going to get to the meaning you have to look at the things the author would have been more aware of - culture, rhetoric, literature. Note I have a linguistic (philology) background and would never push it aside ... just supplement it.

John Kaess

I have all of the S-R commentaries as well as most of the other sets you mention. The S-R commentaries will never substitute for the others as a primary commentary. What they do is add insight and perspective. They add to what you find in your other commentaries by giving you a good feel of how the text would read and feel to its original recipients based on their culture, society, and the type of writing and genre and idioms used. It is a worthwhile supplement to the other commentaries you already have.

Matthew

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/777179#Comment_777179

Thank you all for the feedback so far (but by all means, keep it coming!). Money is tight right now and honestly I was contemplating the cheapest base package I could find so that I could take advantage of the special price on the IVP Reference set. Right now the cheapest package for me is Reformed Bronze, which will cost $28.02 with the 15% discount. The next cheapest is the standard Bronze, which is $57.94 with the discount. I am slowly but surely leaning toward spending the extra $30.

Mike Childs

I find it is usually not the type of commentary, but the skill of the commentator than determines the usefulness. I find Ben Witherington's Socio-Rhetorical Commentaries quite useful, especially the Acts volume.

I would not just use Socio-Rhetorical Commentaries. Some of them seem to restate the obvious. But they are great to supplement traditional commentaries.

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/777222#Comment_777222

Not all of them are useful but they are definitely cheaper as part of a base package than by themselves. Acts and Hebrews are my top two in that series.

DAL

Allen Browne

Do you like/use Socio-Rhetorical more than the sets I listed? Why or why not?

I certainly use BW3's S/R commentaries, in conjunction with (not as a replacement for) the other sets you use. They present another (complementary) angle that is very much worth considering.