Commentaries

I am a seminary student and I wanted some advice on which commentaries to buy and why. I was instructed by one of my professors to buy one at a time trying to buy the best ones. What I would like to do is add to my library slowly in this way, however I have run into a problem. How do you really know which ones are good scholarly works? Experience? Additionally, can anybody suggest some good resources for background/historical studies? I am particularly interested in the first several books of the bible esp. Joshua as I am writing a sermon brief on it later this semester. I appreciate all the help I can get, thank you.

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Comments

Ron Cook

The answer to this questions depends on a large number of factors such as your theological background and whether you are looking for devotional, pastoral, or critical commentaries. However, I suggest checking out www.bestcommentaries.com to begin your search.

Joshua Peeler

Mostly what I am looking for are critical commentaries. I have found that devotional and pastoral are much easier to find in logos.

Chris White

Echoing Ron's comments, I found bestcommentaries.com to be very helpful. I started seminary a year ago and have since purchased NICOT/NICNT, Pillar NT, EEC (only two out so far) and NIVAC NT in addition to the commentaries I received as part of my base packages (started out at Silver; upgraded to Gold at Christmas mainly to get NIGTC). NAC comes with Silver and I have found that to be scholarly as well.

I think a lot depends on what you intend to use the commentaries for. I'm starting my Greek studies this year and have found the commentaries that really delve into the language augment my studies. However, I have yet to take a class that required a commentary (although my advanced exegesis classes have a choice of the intermediate to advanced commentaries as their textbooks).

My guess is you'll get a lot of different answers but in addition to the ones I mentioned you'll also hear about WBC and BECNT. Bang for the buck WBC seems like a great deal, but I know some don't like the format. I used the Judges commentary last summer and preffered Block's NAC commentary.

Another thing to consider is that many of the commentaries require you to purchase the series and don't have the option to purchase individual volumes. You can take that approach through print editions, but not necessarily in Logos.

Evan Boardman

Your school must have a library? I would suggest getting familiar with books first before spending alot on something you know nothing about. I would also suggest checking out community pricing as this will be the best way to build your collection while spending little. http://www.logos.com/products/search?Status=Community+Pricing

Ken McGuire

Your school must have a library? I would suggest getting familiar with books first before spending alot on something you know nothing about.

Unfortunately I know of no shortcut to actually using one, and as I have found in school, the best way to really judge a commentary is the way one of my professors forced us to do. He had us rotate through a bunch of of commentaries and then discuss passages. It rapidly became obvious which commentaries prepared us for the discussion by informing us about the issues involved with interpreting the text and which commentaries just had their axe to grind. Now, don't get me wrong - sometimes that axe can be important or even vital for the church. But for anything like academic use, or even for just being aware of all the interpretive landmines out there, much more is useful.

One other problem is that publishers like to sell full sets, and as your school rightly points out, all sets have stronger and weaker volumes. For electronic publishing, some things are only available as sets. Others give such a price break on the set that it is an easy decision to get the full set (eg. WBC esp. when on sale)

Alain Maashe

Your school must have a library? I would suggest getting familiar with books first before spending alot on something you know nothing about. I would also suggest checking out community pricing as this will be the best way to build your collection while spending little. http://www.logos.com/products/search?Status=Community+Pricing

This is a good idea. Choose a few difficult passages and compare they way various technical commentaries deal with them.

The above in combination with reading reviews should allow you to establish a list of the most useful commentaries.

As some have noted, your theological persuasion (conservative, moderate, liberal) should dictate what series you prioritize as you begin to build your library .

BillS

Hi Joshua,

If you're headed for a pastorate, your needs after you graduate will be a bit different after you graduate (a little more emphasis on application & a little less on textual criticism--predominant in the "good scholarly works" you'll need during seminary). While you're still in seminary, I'd look for recommendations from your profs on which ones would help you most for their classes. And the counsel to pick up one good one for each Bible book is good in several ways. Since the really good ones all cover the same textual issues with an even hand, you don't need more than one. That'll save you money.

When you arrive at a church, you're going to find that textual criticism doesn't preach. What your hearers will want to know is what it means to them & how they should apply the text. Admittedly, you'll need to be able to take a stand on each textual issue (meaning you'll need access to a good scholarly commentary), but you won't need more than one. Whereas, I believe you'll find that you never have enough "application" commentaries. :-)

Many blessings on your studies.

Mark Smith

A web site many of us here make use of for general guidance is: http://www.bestcommentaries.com/

For the New Testament, Logos has available D. A. Carson's New Testament Commentary Survey which has much helpful information.

I recommend Word Biblical, New American, NICOT/NICNT, New International Greek Testament Commentary, Baker Exegetical, Pillar, Tyndale, a few of the Socio-Rhetorical series, Black's NT Commentaries, Tyndale, selected ICC volumes, and selected Hermeneia volumes. I personally don't think Yale-Anchor Bible is worth it. If they broke it up, I'd buy a few volumes.

Room4more

Joshua.

Personally myself I really got tired of reading commentaries. I.E.: when MacArthur puts into a longer paragraph basically the same words that Abbot, Barnes and or Clark said about 200/400 years earlier, then I find that not much has really been learnt.

Nowaday’s, you can find most somewhere on the net that someone has taken the time to type into a pdf/html or another source that can be freely perused. If you only need it for a particular passage, there are other ‘freebies’ available on the net as well…..there are some schools that have an e-library with many in readable pic/jpg format as well……………

That’s my star-bucks $1.50$

mab

I am a seminary student and I wanted some advice on which commentaries to buy and why.

Buying print volumes readily allows you to cherry pick the best works in select books of the Bible. I have always liked doing that. However there are problems with this approach. When you study a given book, you will repeatedly come across cross references throughout the canon. So you will find the need to verify each reference in a commentary to see if it really says what the commentator implies. It might sound good, but it may not prove their argument.

My recommendation is to have a base series, the Expositor's Bible Commentary from Zondervan is a fine beginning and has more than a couple of all-star works among it, such as Carson on Matthew. Beyond that, you might as well enjoy the overall economy of buying full series in Logos--you get the most bang for the buck electronically by investing in those series that are most helpful to you. WBC is excellent and not horribly expensive.

I still value my print books that were cherry picked. At the same time, I am going to suggest this: More than any commentary, you need to sit there with the text and read. Read it, read it, read it. You can't really exegete a single verse in a given book until you have read that book in its entirety, preferably more than once. If you are working in Revelation, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the Gospel of John and the Letters of John and then read Revelation over and over. The same is true of the Pentateuch. Every verse/passage comes back to Genesis and the whoie Torah is intricately woven.

Now if you think that I believe the Bible is its' own best commentary, you'd be absolutely correct. When I find a good commentary, it's usually because they know precisely where the Bible reinforces that understanding.

Unix

Do You recommend the ICC 2 Cor 1-7 (by Thrall, M.) and Eph (by Best, Ernest) -volumes?

selected ICC volumes,

Which ones? I have the whole set in Logos (and Mt 8-20 as printed also) except Upgrade 2 and printed volumes that have come out since such as 2 Mc. I'm selling individual volumes from it: http://www.christianforums.com/t7672959/
So that's why I'm asking which ones are keepers? (For example any among those I'm selling?) Do You think all the minor prophets in Hermeneia are good (except the Joel and Amos -volume from 1977 (which I also sell btw.) since there is a new volume for Amos, and a new volume on Joel has been contracted)? How good do You think these are?:

Psalms 51-100
Jeremiah -volumes
Enoch 1st volume (I'm not planning on keeping it, just asking so that I can set the right price because there is someone who is interested in buying it from me - do You think I have set the right price $12?)
Mk -volume
Ignatius of Antioch -volume
and selected Hermeneia volumes.

Dan Francis

http://www.logos.com/product/8803/new-interpreters-bible is a critical commentary with pastoral/devotional reflections for each section covered. This is one of the most respected sets out there. Other good critical ones are anchor and hermenia although none of the sets i have mentioned have many individual volumes for sale and in my experience the quality of anchor varies wildly. Word Biblical commentary while done from a slightly more conservative perspective is also a fine critical series.

-dan

Jack Caviness

Word Biblical commentary while done from a slightly more conservative perspective

Why is it that some posters on these forums seem to equate conservative with stupid? It seems that the prevailing opinion is that no conservative can possibly exhibit scholarship. My first year out of the Navy was spent in a seminary filled with intellectual bigotry, and this has irritated me ever since.

Mike Childs

A web site many of us here make use of for general guidance is: http://www.bestcommentaries.com/

For the New Testament, Logos has available D. A. Carson's New Testament Commentary Survey which has much helpful information.

I recommend Word Biblical, New American, NICOT/NICNT, New International Greek Testament Commentary, Baker Exegetical, Pillar, Tyndale, a few of the Socio-Rhetorical series, Black's NT Commentaries, Tyndale, selected ICC volumes, and selected Hermeneia volumes. I personally don't think Yale-Anchor Bible is worth it. If they broke it up, I'd buy a few volumes.

I completely agree with what Mark Smith advised. Except that I would put NICOT/NICNT at the very top of my want list. However, such commentary sets are not cheap, If money is a big factor, I would first buy Word Biblical, which can now be found for $400 to $600 if you shop carefully. It is excellent, 2nd only to NICOT/NICNT in my opinion. Some think it better. If money is a bigger issue, dollar for dollar the Tyndale set is the best buy that I know. It is not as detailed as NICOT/NT or Word Biblical, but the scholarship is top notch.

Unix

Here is someone who recommends Thrall (ICC) or Furnish (AB) first:
http://www.amazon.com/Epistle-Corinthians-International-Testament-Commentary/product-reviews/0802823939/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_three?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addThreeStar&showViewpoints=0
on July 11. 2005.

On Nov 19. 2011, in:
http://community.logos.com/forums/p/41036/306796.aspx#306796

... Mark Smith is saying that the Ro Cranfield -volume is one of the few volumes in ICC he'd be glad to have in Logos, but I'm not going to buy that one, I allready have a Ro -commentary that I'm fully pleased with (Paideia by Frank J. Matera, 2010, as printed matter, I have only that volume).

Do You recommend the ICC 2 Cor 1-7 (by Thrall, M.) [...] -volume?
selected ICC volumes,

As I've found out the other day that I stand very far from Calvinism (I'm still closest to the RCC and second closest to Anabaptism)...
http://www.christianforums.com/t7663680-post61076898/
..., and as Ernest Best seems to have been a Church of Scotland Reverend:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23583145.html
... I'm skipping the Ep ICC -volume!

Mark Smith

Unix,

The ICC volumes I own are Matthew, Acts, Romans (Cranford and Sanday and Headlam), Ephesians, and The Pastoral Epistles. I own no OT volumes. I have used Romans and Ephesians the most and find both helpful but neither would be tops for either book. Mark, Acts, and The Pastorals are new to me and I havn't used them much.

I haven't made much use of Hermeneia/Continental since buying them. Attridge on Hebrews is an exception to that. He is quite worth having. Can't comment at this point on the Minor Prophets in that series (I believe there are only 4 volumes covering 4 prophets). Westerman on Genesis in the Continental Series is valuable.