In my education the focus for the sermon always was: 'text, text, text', so when I start my sermon preparations, I prefer to start with the original texts, lexicons etc. Only later, when I have been to the text, I pick up a commentary to read what others have thought and where I have to be alert for etc.
But now I am looking for something new in the proces. Sometimes I do need a commentary, just to determine the pericope or get a sense of the structure of the bible book etc etc. For this I would like to use a shorter commentary, not extensive pages, but a compact en structered start.
So what is your favorite compact and one-volume commentary?
