Location for Resource Overviews? (e.g., recommended Commentaries, Lexicons, pros & cons)

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I'm absolutely thrilled with Logos 4. I've done some inductive study in the past and have leveraged MacArthur resources in the past. I do have a question that I can't quite get to after a brief search of the forums.

I'm new to the vast commentaries and was recommended the Silver package for a few of the commentaries. The "problem" is that I was hopeful someone might be able to provide some general recommendations for me.

Is there a place where I can find recommended/most commonly used Commentaries, Lexicons, etc.?

Perhaps something that can provide an overview of the pros/cons of each of the key resources in the libraries to help (1) prioritising resources & (2) focusing the initial-sources for research?

The resources are great, but without a bit of focus I could be being a bit inefficient (let alone overwhelming!)

Camp Logos is great, and I understand navigating the software - and how building "collections" are key; but it does presume some underpinning knowledge to know what is preferred from those resources.

Primarily Looking for an overview for ...

Commentary Recommendations/Guidance (e.g. Holman vs New American ...)
Lexicon Recommendations
Dictionary/Encyclopedia Recommendations

Any thoughts or references to guiding what an overview of each is would be very beneficial.

Thanks!

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Room4more

Brandon, Welcome.

Whilst many of us have a preferred resource by choice, I do not know of any dedicated webpage or place for that matter that has any formal listing of most widely used.

As towards the overview, there are reviews listed under each resource per resource on the Logos listing of that resource...

I know it is not much but hope this helps...

fgh

Assuming you're Evangelical like most people here you can start with

The latter also includes a number of links to earlier forum discussions.

Ken McGuire

There is some basic information in http://www.logos.com/greek/nt

While information about seting up Libronix keylinks is not the same as Logos 4, the information about the lexicons is good: http://www.logos.com/support/lbs/greekkeylink

And there are parallels to this for Hebrew as well...

NB.Mick

Primarily Looking for an overview for ...

Commentary Recommendations/Guidance (e.g. Holman vs New American ...)

Lexicon Recommendations

Dictionary/Encyclopedia Recommendations

Any thoughts or references to guiding what an overview of each is would be very beneficial.

Brandon,

fgh has already pointed you towards two of my tips. Her second link are Logos wiki pages that try to capture meaningful resource discussions from forum threads. They are far from complete, unfortunately, but you can still ask here in the forums. This will give you the opportunity to better explain what you already have and for what purpose you need the resources. E.g. it may be different if you want to prepare a weekly sermon or generate a doctoral thesis on Patristic Exegesis. Also, your theological position and your appetite for challenge and/or confirmation will play a role and that of the recipients of your study results.

Bestcommentaries.com gives you some hints for commenatries (and some other books) from evangelical reviews. They in turn aggregate reviews from seminaries and from users, but also from survey books such as DA Carson's NT Commentary Survey .

Carson, btw., will tell you that the series have great and not so great volumes, so he may prefer NICNT on one book, Pillar's on another and so on.

Gary O'Neal

Any thoughts or references to guiding what an overview of each is would be very beneficial.

If there is a seminary/Bible college you admire, see if they have commentary recommendations. A number of biblical scholars publish these for the guidance of their students and often put them online. They'll be biased but at least you'll know where their biases are.

JJ Miller

Is there a place where I can find recommended/most commonly used Commentaries, Lexicons, etc.?

Brandon,

That is a tougher question than you might think. FGH gave you two good links to get more info. BestCommentaries is a very useful site... especially when looking at the book-level for resources. They will also tell you which resources are available for Logos (and which are not).

That being said, most chose their preferred resources based on theology. I suppose that makes sense. We all tend to think we have certain things figured out in regards to certain issues, so theological positions of the authors become important to us. Therefore, since you are fairly new to using Logos' resources, I suggest the best person for good recommendations is your pastor. For instance, if he says that a certain theologian or pastor is very good, then that can lead you to those resources. It will also allow you to pick up on other authors (through the first several) that are in the same theological camp. It really is a good way to start.

Unfortunately, some of our favorites, might not be the same ones that deal with the Scriptural text well (at least at times), so when you start seeing that, you can broaden your selections to include authors that you may not agree with theologically, but do excellent work with the text of Scripture, for example. Logos is great for examining several works on a passage and you will soon be finding which books you really find useful.. the type of insights provided that you find helpful in a resource. I could give you ideas, but I think it would merely distract at this stage.

Lexicons: This should prove easier. Go to your favorite Greek and Hebrew equipped pastor and find out what he/she used in Seminary. There are not all that many... but your level of ability in the languages will be a determining factor. Also not that there are a series of great Lexham (Logos branded) resources in Logos. Many use these Lexham language resources nearly daily. If you don't have any Greek and Hebrew then there are plenty of English resources... .and the Lexham High Definition New Testament ESV is a great addition for study and to start to see how language works... while using English.

Dictionaries: Yes. They are good. If I told you (like many would) that the Anchor-Yale Bible Dictionary (6 volumes) is best, then you might assume it is good for any type of study. It is a great set, but we would soon point out that the set is not the most conservative dictionary out there! Therefore, have several good ones to choose from. Since I mentioned Yale, I should also recommend the newest Eerdman's Bible Dictionary as well as the New Bible Dictionary or even the Mark Powell Haper Collins edition (and for something more conservative? Hard to beat Ungers). You get the idea. As soon as one starts mentioning titles, however, people are going to wonder why I didn't include ABC or why I DID include XYZ!

I should also mention that there are books (resources) that are available to help with book choices and lexicon preferences. One such guide is Multi-Purpose Tools for Bible Study (Available for Logos also). Mo Proctor has some available resources for getting started with Bible Study. LearnLogos has some very nice resources (online or DVD) that can help with this. And of course there are other books of recommendations... from the older Minister's Library to John Glynn's Commentary & Reference (or the volumes by Tremper Longman and DA Carson called OT (or NT) Commentary Survey.) But start with your pastor.

God richly blesses,

Brandon P

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/369860#Comment_369860

Thanks so much to each of you for the prompt and very thorough responses!

I will be spending this coming weekend trying to do some research on the multitude of resources and overview you all have provided. I really do appreciate the time and look forward to learning more and participating in the forum community as well. As I find any questions, I'll definitely check back in - but the points with regard to understanding what it is I'm indeed looking for in addition to the research are indeed spot on. Thanks again.

All the best!!!

--bP