EBC good first "premium" commentary?
Comments
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Ronald S Keyston Jr said:
I had forgotten that I looked into the Tyndale set a month or so ago and had dismissed it due to my eschatological leanings. If I'm not mistaken, the Daniel commentary is written from an amillenial perspective and both Matthew (specifically chapter 24) and Revelation come from a preterist perspective. As a futurist, premillenialist who spends a large chunk of my study time studying prophecy, do those of you familiar with the set think that I can still get enough other benefits out of the set to overcome these rather large downsides (downsides being relative based on my own leanings of course...for others these same points may be viewed as "pros" for the set)?
Ronald,You can get a lot from the Tyndale series. We share the same broad perspective on those books of the Bible. However, I believe that it is important to hear what the other side has to say, especially within the parameters of evangelical faith. The goal is not so much to uphold and defend one's theological position but to arrive to a proper interpretation of scripture wherever it might lead us. The Daniel commentary does a good at covering key issues regarding the interpretation of the book and regardless of your theological leanings.
The set is also more than just commentaries in Daniel and Revelation, it does a good job covering the rest of the bible with many outstanding volumes in both the OT and the NT. This is important since even a personal focus on prophecy must be done in a canonical context as the rest of the Bible must inform out understanding of prophecy.
The set is not technical and as such is not appropriate for in-depth studies as it will at best summarize the major arguments concerning specific issues. for its range, the Tyndale series is unsurpassed
Alain
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Thanks for the insights both. I agree about studying the other side of the issues. I've never been one to only study the problem issues only from my side of the debate.
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Ronald S Keyston Jr said:
Thanks for the insights both. I agree about studying the other side of the issues. I've never been one to only study the problem issues only from my side of the debate.
Nice response, and I hope my own did not seem condescending. Was just trying to be quick and concise, and had no idea of your own approach. It really is a nice "little" standard set.
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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I would come at Dan and Rev from the same point of view that you do. I actually have copies of both sets of commentaries.
Knowing where you come from and from the stand point of this being your first set, I would chose EBC over the Tyndale. Part of the reason is as you stated this would be your first set, and I really believe it is important to understand all sides of the issue, and a better understanding of your position is a good place to start.
To be truthful, I would not want to be without either set of these commentaries, they are both very solid starting points on any passage. They both give a person a foundation for further studies.
Inspite of all of the pro Tyndale comments I find both sets to be equal but different, the question in my mind is where do you want to start, with a set of commentaries that will help you better understand your position or a do you want to start with a set that will help you to better understand other positions.
In Christ,
Jim
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Not to worry, no offense taken. I do appreciate the insight offered
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JimVanSchoonhoven said:
I would come at Dan and Rev from the same point of view that you do. I actually have copies of both sets of commentaries.
Knowing where you come from and from the stand point of this being your first set, I would chose EBC over the Tyndale. Part of the reason is as you stated this would be your first set, and I really believe it is important to understand all sides of the issue, and a better understanding of your position is a good place to start.
To be truthful, I would not want to be without either set of these commentaries, they are both very solid starting points on any passage. They both give a person a foundation for further studies.
Inspite of all of the pro Tyndale comments I find both sets to be equal but different, the question in my mind is where do you want to start, with a set of commentaries that will help you better understand your position or a do you want to start with a set that will help you to better understand other positions.
In Christ,
Jim
Fantastic, thanks for the comments Jim. That's pretty much the conclusion I've come to as well, both for the current pricing reasons (not missing the prepub price on EBC) and for the position of the commentaries as well. I will pick up EBC before the prepub finishes and then hopefully grab Tyndale within the next month or so.
Thanks
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Ronald,
I have had the Expositor's Bible Commentary on my shelves and used it in sermon prep for ten years now and found it very helpful overall. I agree with the previous commentators about the "uneven" quality of some of the particular books, but I have found that to be true with all commentary sets. I have a handful of volumes of the Tyndale commentaries that I have purchased over the years to study individual books and found them to be very good. Like you, I intend to buy them in the future. However, the EBC is the first commentary set that I reccommend to young ministers who are looking to buy something beyond a one or two volume commentary. In fact, I just bought the EBC for the pre-pub price yesterday in order to have access to it in Logos - even though I am looking at it on my shelves right now! It's worth $120 to have access to it in Logos for me. I am guessing that the final price will be at least double that in the very near future. Hope you enjoy.
Greg Corbin
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Greg Corbin said:
Ronald,
I have had the Expositor's Bible Commentary on my shelves and used it in sermon prep for ten years now and found it very helpful overall. I agree with the previous commentators about the "uneven" quality of some of the particular books, but I have found that to be true with all commentary sets. I have a handful of volumes of the Tyndale commentaries that I have purchased over the years to study individual books and found them to be very good. Like you, I intend to buy them in the future. However, the EBC is the first commentary set that I reccommend to young ministers who are looking to buy something beyond a one or two volume commentary. In fact, I just bought the EBC for the pre-pub price yesterday in order to have access to it in Logos - even though I am looking at it on my shelves right now! It's worth $120 to have access to it in Logos for me. I am guessing that the final price will be at least double that in the very near future. Hope you enjoy.
Greg Corbin
I ordered the pre-pub last week and am waiting anxiously! Thanks for the comments Greg [:)]
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Quite often users recommend commentaries for young ministers, as a first "premium" commentary, etc. I would like to phrase the question a bit differently. If one already has NIC, NAC, NIGTC, Word, BECNT, Pillar, Tyndale, and all the other commentaries in the Platinum package, how likely is it that one would find new perspectives in the EBC commentaries?Greg Corbin said:Ronald,
However, the EBC is the first commentary set that I reccommend to young ministers who are looking to buy something beyond a one or two volume commentary. Greg Corbin
Michael
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Michael, are you being philosophical, or is this for you to weigh a potential purchase?
Carson's is a "classic." (Matthew). You would probably want to purchase the series just for his volume, so you could refer to it first hand. But I have found other volumes helpful: Philippians, Hebrews, and I think Thessalonians. It also covered me in the OT when I had less to choose from, but I can't tell you which I found helpful. Some were, some were not.
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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A bit of both... When I look at my pre-pub orders, I think that it may be time to reign in a bit. Then it becomes a question of which of many options may be most beneficial - given the commentary sets that I already have, would I get more use from one more commentary or from the NIDOTTE? As a layperson, I am unfamiliar with these resources, and even trying to read as much as I can find about them it is difficult to know. Hence my question...Dan DeVilder said:Michael, are you being philosophical, or is this for you to weigh a potential purchase?
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12-volume EBC for $78 for the Pradis-owner pre-pub price. It's hard to beat that - i.e., nearly 1/2 the $148 Tyndale Libronix price from that unmentionable Website/vendor. So it's in my account to buy and ship 3/15.
Maybe when the Revised EBC set is done we who bought this old version will get an "upgrade" discount on the Logos version (probaly Logos 5 by then!). Not holding my breath, though, and it will be quite some time before Zondervan releases it to Logos. Plus, with Zondervan's GLO Bible program, they may want to keep some of their products restricted to Zondervan, though the new EBC would be a rather expensive purchase for a GLO user.
Optimistically Egalitarian (Galatians 3:28)
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Michael,
I have the NAC, Word Biblical, a few individual volumes of Tyndale, and have the NIC volumes on John and 1 Corinthians (excellent by the way) - all on my bookshelves. Got NAC and in Logos when I upgraded to Silver back in November. I only say that to let you know that I have used many of the commentaries you mentioned.
To answer your question, no I do not believe that you will likely find very many "new perspectives" in the EBC - it will be very similar to the perspectives you will find in the NAC, the NIC, and to a somewhat lesser degree, Word Biblical. Since you already have these excellent commentaries (and many more) the primary advantage of having the EBC for you would be having it available as a respected resource when you do not have time to "plow through" a longer, more detailed commentary. While not a new perspective, it would give you a largely conservative, evangelical perspective quickly - with much more depth than devotional commentaries but much more concise than Word or BECNT.
In addition, the Matthew commentary in EBC is considered a classic - one of the all-time bests. It is tremendous. Hebrews is also very good and helpful as well. That's my thoughts. Hope they help you. Keep studying, Michael!
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Thank you, Greg... That was very helpful!
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How you guys actually knows which commentaries series is famous for certain books? E.g. how you know that EBC is great on Matthrew?
Another example, if I want to study Zech, which of the commentaries mentioned you would suggest?
Thanks.
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Kolen, one good source of information is the website www.bestcommentaries.com. It has ratings/reviews for many commentaries...Kolen Cheung said:How you guys actually knows which commentaries series is famous for certain books? E.g. how you know that EBC is great on Matthrew?
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Great website!
Thanks.
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I was having a similar situation with the original author of this article. So, if I want to buy a first set of commentaries, no matter the price range, which of those will you guys suggest me to use first? e.g. The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (NICOT/NICNT 40 Vols.) seems very good. But will it be too technical for first time reader?
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Michael said:
one good source of information is the website www.bestcommentaries.com
I construct a stat. about the "Top 2 commentaries" in the site you give: (the number in the second column is representing the number of occurrence that it appears in the top 2 commentaries of each book in the Bible)
OT NICOT 20 WBC 13 TOTC 11 AB 7 NAC 6 NIVAC 4 NIBCOT 2 BCOTWP 1 BST 1 FB 1 HERM 1 JPSTC 1 OTL 1 NT NICNT 8 NIGTC 8 WBC 6 PNTC 5 BECNT 3 TNTC 3 ICC 2 NIVAC 2 EBC 1 SRC 1 NAC 1 IVPNTC 1 So, it seems that NICOT/NICNT is really great! It is the single sets that has most count on the top 2 commentaries. BUT, Tyndale is the only one in the top of the list that is completed.
By the way, here is the one that covers the whole Bible:
OT&NT NICOT/NICNT 28 WBC 19 TOTC/TNTC 14 AB 7 NAC 7 NIVAC 6 NIBCOT/NIBCNT 2 ICC 2 BST 1 FB 1 HERM 1 OTL/NTL 1 EBC 1 0 -
Kolen Cheung said:
How you guys actually knows which commentaries series is famous for certain books? E.g. how you know that EBC is great on Matthrew?
Kolen, we "know" which commentary books are famous because of the many times they are referred to by other commentaries. We might also "know" because of the reputation we hear about in seminary or college classes. I might also experience how good they are by actually reading them and forming my own good (or bad) impression of them.
Carson is just well-known as a good and careful scholar. I don't always agree with him but I find his commentary very detailed, and he engages many authors and viewpoints. You could see he doesn't leave too many stones unturned (do you know that idiom? It means he examines nearly everything/issue).
Kolen Cheung said:if I want to study Zech, which of the commentaries mentioned you would suggest?
I have heard that the Tyndale Comm. OT is one of the better ones. Of course, some here may disagree if they prefer a different way of interpreting apocalyptic literature. I specifically bought the Tyndale series for all the good recommendations in the OT that I have had for that set. Your own calculations from bestcommentaries shows that TOTC is quite well thought of--yes, lower marks than NICOT, etc, but also much lower price!
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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Kolen Cheung said:
The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (NICOT/NICNT 40 Vols.) seems very good. But will it be too technical for first time reader?
well, it is not 'fluff', but it is not like wading through the ICC series with loads of Greek, either. You seem rather smart. I would recommend it.
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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Kolen Cheung said:
I was having a similar situation with the original author of this article. So, if I want to buy a first set of commentaries, no matter the price range, which of those will you guys suggest me to use first? e.g. The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (NICOT/NICNT 40 Vols.) seems very good. But will it be too technical for first time reader?
I would not recommend NICOT for the first time reader. I would highly recommend it for those with some seminary or teaching experience. I'd recommend Tyndale to those who are starting out in serious Bible study.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Kolen, you can look into these books if you want to have an idea how the commentaries differ and what people think of them: Old Testament Commentary Survey, New Testament Commentary Survey, Commentary and Reference Survey. The last one's actually got a section on bible software and of course you can find some good words about Logos in it. [:D]
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Yes, I think that it should be a good place to start too!Dan DeVilder said:Your own calculations from bestcommentaries shows that TOTC is quite well thought of--yes, lower marks than NICOT, etc, but also much lower price!
What is teaching experience? And for the seminary, the question becomes: Which one is the "best" seminary? There are comments on best commentaries. How about the "best" seminary? Could any of you suggest some of them? And a related question: what is the eligibility to enter it? Will there be scholarship/assistantship/fellowship so that I could still make a living? To be honest, I would like to go to a seminary but the only difficulty is the financial one. Thanks.Mark Barnes said:I would highly recommend it for those with some seminary or teaching experience.
Thanks so much.Amy Leung said:Old Testament Commentary Survey, New Testament Commentary Survey, Commentary and Reference Survey
The books seem very good!
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Kolen Cheung said:Mark Barnes said:
I would highly recommend it for those with some seminary or teaching experience.
What is teaching experience? And for the seminary, the question becomes: Which one is the "best" seminary? There are comments on best commentaries. How about the "best" seminary? Could any of you suggest some of them?
What I meant was that if you had been to seminary, or you had good experience in teaching the Bible to others then I would recommend NICOT. If you haven't then I would recommend TOTC as a better start.
As for which seminary, that is a very big question that depends on many things. My seminary is http://www.west.org.uk/ but whether that is the best for you, I cannot say.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Mark Barnes said:
My seminary is http://www.west.org.uk/ but whether that is the best for you, I cannot say.
So, do you have any form of sholarship/assistantship/fellowship to help you to make a living?
Thanks.
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Which Seminary is the best? lol, time to put on the boxing gloves, everyone!
It all depends on where you live, your financial resources, your desired educational and ministry goals, etc. Too open-ended of a question. The one I went to, few have heard of, but we do have some resources in Logos by some of the professors. But they train well, are quite good at equipping, and balancing theology and ministry. And the cost is relatively inexpensive, compared to more famous seminaries. But it is not cheap. Seminary costs and arm and a leg. Sometimes two.
Peace.
Dan
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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Kolen Cheung said:
So, do you have any form of sholarship/assistantship/fellowship to help you to make a living?
If only... No, I work full-time in addition to my studies.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Kolen Cheung said:
And for the seminary, the question becomes: Which one is the "best" seminary? There are comments on best commentaries. How about the "best" seminary? Could any of you suggest some of them? And a related question: what is the eligibility to enter it? Will there be scholarship/assistantship/fellowship so that I could still make a living?
Why the School of Theology of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but of course! [;)] I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. Well, I could have but didn't try very hard!
Financial difficulties are often experienced by going to a seminary, especially if one has to transplant oneself to attend. Most students, at least that was my experience, have to work in order to support themselves and their families, but it was worth it to me. Then again, there are some good distance education opportunities. Many top-notch seminaries have courses that can be competed off campus. IIRC, Reformed Theological Seminary offers a Master of Arts in Religion via distance education.
Pastor, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Clinton, SC
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Dan DeVilder said:
Seminary costs and arm and a leg. Sometimes two.
Since it costs an arm and a leg, so, people will spend half their life to earn money to go to it? And are there any age limit to enter it?
Thanks.
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Bill Moore said:
Most students, at least that was my experience, have to work in order to support themselves and their families, but it was worth it to me.
So you work full time to support the family, then you learn part time, right? How many years then one need to get a ThD?
By the way, even ThD do not have scholarship/assistantship/fellowship to support the students? In the world, PhD program nearly always have scholarship and an assistantship (which means you need to teach in the campus) to make a living.
Thanks.
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By the way, do you guys think that this website is a good place to start?
I know Mounce is very famous. How about the others? If I finish all the things here, would it in any sense comparable to a Master of Arts of sth like that?
The good thing is that it is free. So, compare it to a distance learning program, might be this one is better?
Thanks.
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Kolen Cheung said:
By the way, do you guys think that this website is a good place to start?
I know Mounce is very famous. How about the others? If I finish all the things here, would it in any sense comparable to a Master of Arts of sth like that?
The good thing is that it is free. So, compare it to a distance learning program, might be this one is better?
Thanks.
Yes, that is a great site. Some of the professors there, Robert Stein and Bruce Ware, to name a couple, were my profs at SBTS.
Pastor, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Clinton, SC
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Kolen Cheung said:
By the way, do you guys think that this website is a good place to start?
I know Mounce is very famous. How about the others? If I finish all the things here, would it in any sense comparable to a Master of Arts of sth like that?
The good thing is that it is free. So, compare it to a distance learning program, might be this one is better?
Thanks.
Never heard of it, but I have heard of Mounce. Btw, what is your connection with the Christian Witness Theological Seminary?
For me, seminary was a terrific experience, and much offset the cost, yeah, even the arm and the leg. Although I often wished I were Episcopalian so I would earn more. [:P]. I learned a lot about digging in to God's word. I formed many lasting relationships. I learned to grapple with how one translates academic interests into "real life." It was great being in a setting with other ministers-in-training. In fact, many/most WERE in ministry already.
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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Kolen Cheung said:Bill Moore said:
Most students, at least that was my experience, have to work in order to support themselves and their families, but it was worth it to me.
So you work full time to support the family, then you learn part time, right? How many years then one need to get a ThD?
By the way, even ThD do not have scholarship/assistantship/fellowship to support the students? In the world, PhD program nearly always have scholarship and an assistantship (which means you need to teach in the campus) to make a living.
Thanks.
When I did my PhD at SBTS, I had a part-time job at the seminary and a bi-vocational pastorate. I also went to school full time. Let's just say I didn't have to worry about what to do with my free time. [;)]
Seminary doctorates are a different world than university doctorates when it comes to stipends and such.
Pastor, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Clinton, SC
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Dan DeVilder said:
Btw, what is your connection with the Christian Witness Theological Seminary?
Interesting question! Why would you ask that? And what do you think about it?
It is the first time I heard the name. And when I did a Google search, I found that I know it in Chinese. And I actually been there once to see my friend's friend graduating there. And that is the "connection".......
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Bill Moore said:
Seminary doctorates are a different world than university doctorates when it comes to stipends and such.
Then are there any good University ThD program?
Thanks.
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Kolen Cheung said:Dan DeVilder said:
Btw, what is your connection with the Christian Witness Theological Seminary?
Interesting question! Why would you ask that? And what do you think about it?
It is the first time I heard the name. And when I did a Google search, I found that I know it in Chinese. And I actually been there once to see my friend's friend graduating there. And that is the "connection".......
lol, i know nothing about it. I googled you. And that led to your xanga website, and a video you took at the graduation. i was trying to see if I could figure out what country you were in. Seminaries are all over the world.
I like Apples. Especially Honeycrisp.
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Dan DeVilder said:
lol, i know nothing about it. I googled you. And that led to your xanga website, and a video you took at the graduation. i was trying to see if I could figure out what country you were in.
CYBER STALKING ALERT!!! [:O]
(Disclaimer: this post is an attempt at humor)
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LOL. interesting
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I just make another statistics. It is from bestcommentaries.com:
TOTC/TNTC EBC Genesis 5.2 5.1 Exodus 4.9 4.6 Leviticus 5.4 5.2 Numbers 7.7 4.6 Deuteronomy 5.2 0 Joshua 7 0 Judges 5.4 0 Ruth 5.1 5.3 Samuel 5.6 4.6 Kings 6.4 0 Chronicles 6.6 0 Ezra/Nehemiah 6.6 4.6 Esther 7 0 Job 7.1 4.3 Psalms 6.4 5.7 Proverbs 6.1 4.6 Ecclesiastes 5.1 5.2 Song of Songs 5.4 0 Isaiah 6.1 4.6 Jeremiah 5.6 5.2 Lamentation 6 4.6 Ezekiel 0 5.1 Daniel 6.8 0 Hosea 4.5 0 Joel 5.4 5.2 Amos 5.2 4.1 Obadiah 6.4 0 Jonah 6.4 0 Micah 6.6 4.6 Nahum 5.4 0 Habakkuk 5.4 0 Zephaniah 5.5 0 Haggai 6.2 0 Zechariah 6.2 5.2 Malachi 6.2 0 Matthew 0 7.8 Mark 5.1 0 Luke 6.1 5.3 John 5.5 0 Acts 6.6 5.2 Romans 0 0 1 Corinthians 5.6 4.6 2 Corinthians 5.1 5.3 Galatians 5.3 0 Ephesians 5.2 0 Philippians 4.6 0 Colossians 6.5 0 Thessalonians 5.2 5.2 Timothy/Titus 5 0 Philemon 6.4 0 Hebrews 0 5.2 James 6.2 0 1 Peter 6.1 0 2 Peter/Jude 5.6 4.3 John 7 0 Revelation 5.5 5.1 average 5.4 2.5 Standard
Deviation1.7 2.6 no. of title
w/o rating4 28 Tyndale better 48 EBC better 6 average means the averaged rating. Tyndale is a lot higher!
Standard deviation is a stat. measurement to see how varying the rating are. Obviously EBC is a lot uneven.
no. of title w/o rating indicates that the no. of the title that is "so bad" that don't even has a rating (zero rating). And EBC is "7 times" more than Tyndale.
"Tyndale better" and "EBC better" are the no. of books that Tyndale is better than EBC. Note that some of the books are combined (e.g. 1sam 2sam) so that there are only "56 books" in the whole Bible. The no. of books that Tyndale is better is "8 times" the no. of books that EBC is better.
So, in conclusion, Tyndale is much better (about "7~8 times" better) than EBC.
Obviously, I am a scientist.
By the way, the only 4 books that Tyndale receive no rating are: Ezekiel, Matthew, Romans, Hebrews. That means we can buy Tyndale plus 4 commentaries to each of these books to be the 'good first "premium" commentary'. Interestingly, the 3 NT books that Tyndale is not so good are all the first books of the divisions in the NT: Matthew, Romans, Hebrews.
P.S. I don't know how you interpret ". But what I mean is that "so bad" is not really so bad.
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Kolen Cheung said:
no. of title w/o rating indicates that the no. of the title that is "so bad" that don't even has a rating (zero rating). And EBC is 7 times more than Tyndale.
Interesting comparison Kolen, but I did want to point out that just because a title doesn't have a rating doesn't mean that it is "so bad"...it just means that nobody has yet rated it.
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Kolen, there is nothing scientific about those ratings they are very subjective.
These are both very good commentaries, do you really think the one is 7 to 8 times better than the other one?
I have both sets and would not put the ratings any where near what those ratings are, and I seriously doubt that anyone that has used both sets would say the one set is 8 times better than the other.
By the way in one of Bill Mounce's classes he covers the use of commentaries he highly recommends the EBC and the NIV Application Commentary of the NT and OT.
There are very few commentaries that should rate a zero, even if compared to the best commentary in the world.
Becareful of your conclusions, make sure you examine the sources you are reading, know what kind of background they come from and if they are using other peoples opinions you also need to know something about the back ground that those people come from.
I am a dispensationalist, and it hurts me to see other dispensationalist so cold heartedly knock commentaries just because they were written by a covenant believer, but it happens all the time, I have also seen the tables turned, both attitudes are short sighted.
By the way there are a number of free programs on the internet, Covenant Theological Seminary has one of their masters degree programs for free! The program by Mounce is good and so are a number of others, you can try them all and decide more about where you would like to go. If you want links and more information start a new topic and I will get your started.
In Christ,
Jim
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Well, I should put a " on the scientific to emphasize that it is just kidding.
And I should also put a " on the 7~8 to emphasize that it is an exaggeration. You, see, even from the average score, it is only a double of that.
And I did mention that the stat comes from bestcommentaries.com. So, it is up to the one who view the stat to justify if that site is biased or not.
P.S. I realize that I didn't mentioned that the method is scientific. A noun and an adj. make a huge difference. e.g. I am not a prophet but I can prophesy.
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JimVanSchoonhoven said:
By the way there are a number of free programs on the internet, Covenant Theological Seminary has one of their masters degree programs for free!
Are there any ranking among the seminaries (like what the world did for the Universities)? In the world, though we cannot tell which school is the best, we could tell which school are among the best. e.g. MIT, Yale, Berkeley, etc. So, are there such seminaries, that everyone can tell that it is among the best?
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Kolen, depending what group you are from there are schools that are looked down upon and those that are looked up to.
It is really very subjective. The question I would ask is does a school teach what I believe the scriptures teach or not.
The nice thing about living in the world of the internet, is that you can actually take classes for free form different schools or organizations and compare what they are teaching with the scriptures and with one another.
And if you don't mind paying some money you can try a lot of different schools out to get a feel for what kind of school you are looking for.
In the old days you just couldn't do that, in many cases you had to quit a job, leave a church, up root your family and move 100's or 1000's of miles to go to school. We are very blessed in this age we can keep our job, stay at the same fellowship, we don't have to move and we can try different schools out and find one that fits our needs. Plus you can take classes at more than one school at the same time. For example if you want to find out what a dispensationlist believes go to a dispensational school, not a covenant school, and if you want to know about Covenant theology don't go to a dispensational school to learn about it!
I have no degree, but many of my friends have Doctors Degrees, but I have no problem following what they are saying and they learn as much from me as I do from them. I don't need and don't want a degree, I want to know what the scriptures say and what they mean, I want to know Jesus more deeply and to share Him with others, having a degree does not help any of those goals, but I do like to study, so that I can give an answer to anyone that has a question.
Check out some different classes from different places for yourself, start with the free ones, free does not mean bad! But at times it does!!! And remember who lives inside you and who is your teacher and remember the answers are given to us in His revelation, the Word of God, trust God to direct your paths.
In Christ,
Jim
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Kolen, it seems that you live in the same city as I do (Hong Kong). [;)] Have you considered the local seminaries? Or maybe taken some ad hoc or evening courses to see how you like (or do not like) it?
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JimVanSchoonhoven said:
And remember who lives inside you and who is your teacher and remember the answers are given to us in His revelation, the Word of God, trust God to direct your paths.
Thanks for your encouragement.
I am open to any seminary as long as they train me to dig into the Word. It is ok to have different point of view as long as they are open minded to accept the other's view.
Might be I should share what I think:
““I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. ” (Acts 22:3, ESV)
Paul was under that strict training before he was saved. Though that training lead him to prosecute Jesus, but it is the same training lead him to be able to write 13-14 epistles.
What I am seeking is exactly today's Gamaliel. He might taught me the thing that I don't believe. But hopefully this strict training help me to know His word more. I read sth like this: "But they also knew their Hebrew better than most folks alive today, and
they have spent most of their lives studying these books in far greater
detail than I ever will." from "Which commentary is Best?" So, might be these group of people is today's Gamaliel. And I am still searching for that.0 -
Amy Leung said:
Kolen, it seems that you live in the same city as I do (Hong Kong).
How you know it?
But I am now in the US for further studies. And I actually have no chance to go to seminaries before I graduate. So I have several years to figure out which seminary is the best.
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http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2006/08/reno-best-schools-for-theology
This is the only website that I found, having comments on the best seminaries. What do you guys think?
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