What are your favorite commentaries?

UBS Handbooks and NICOT/NICNT

It obviously depends for what use.  But generally I love turning to New American Commentary series and also Pulpit commentary series first stop devotionally or as I begin deeper prep.

What commentary sets do you find most useful?

In order: Hermeneia, Word, Interpretation, and Social-Rhetorical

So far my favorites are USB and Pillar for the New Testament. Both of these sets are available in Platinum. I do not own the WBC or NICOT/NICNT (yet).

• Hermeneia, I have Mt 1-20 (of which 8-20 as printed matter), Mk, Acts
• [url="http://www.amazon.com/James-Testament-Readings-Richard-Bauckham/dp/0415103703/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340839986&sr=1-1&keywords=richard+bauckham+james"]James by Richard Bauckham (not available in Logos, expensive) - New Testament Readings -series[/url]
• the new Interpretation volume on Ezekiel comming in September 2012
• Brill (I have none yet, I want to get on the history of the early Church, Logos hasn't released any on that topic yet)
• Translations of early documents -series, The first epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, ed. W. K. Lowther Clarke D.D., London, Society for promoting Christian knowledge (1937)

Word, UBS, NIGTC series.

• Hermeneia
• UBS
• Anchor
• Reading the New Testament
• Social-Rhetorical Commentary
• JPS Tanakh Commentary

It varies by book of the Bible. But for sermon prep:

1. Pillar

2. NIGTC

3. Baker Exegetical

4. NIVAC

5. NAC, TOTC/TNTC,

6. Bible Speaks Today, Opening up . . . , Preachers

Special Usage:  UBS Handbooks, New Testament Use of the Old Testament, Ancient commentary

Meyer

Anchor Bible

Hermenaeia

NICOT / NICNT

Ancient Christian Commentary

Word Biblical 

Pillar

New International Greek Commentary

Preachers' Commentary

Boice Expository

1. Pillar

2. UBS

3. WBC

4. NIGC

5. Baker Exegetical Series

6. JPS

7. Tyndale

8. NAC

Here You can see that I and Soulgazer had communication: http://www.christianforums.com/t7664842-post60751598/ The topic was:
"if you go into the study with a firm grasp by what is historically meant by the "indwelling Christ", "Perfect Man" and "Son of God", your faith can be greatly enhanced."
... and that's the topic the Brill commentaries he recommends, discuss. Commentaries that are not (yet) made available in Logos. Is here someone else who is interested in this type of historical information? Browse amazon for historical information in Brill commentaries, and You'll see the titles!

There are of course all kinds of commentaries with historical information, but Soulgazer is good at early Church, he has read in college or university and/or read/aquired a lot of books on comparative historical information regarding the early Church, to study those topics in depth. He needed to do that to be a good pastor and be able to teach.

I hope this could interest other's, and I think I'm going to start a separate thread somewhere on Brill commentaries (theological discussions are not allowed on Logos User Forums, so some of the discussion will have to take place on Christianforums), but not quite yet, first I have some grounds to cover so I that I'll have better all-around knowledge to be able to participate in the discussion. (So it's going to take a while before I start the thread, but I think I'll post the link here when I do.=

Brill (I have none yet, I want to get on the history of the early Church,[...]

theological discussions are not allowed on Logos User Forums, so some of the discussion will have to take place on Christianforums

Actually you could create a discussion group on Faithlife, the benefit is its interaction with your Logos library. You can share and have community notes on what you are reading/studying directly from the book. I think this might be even more helpful.

I would add a commentary with only one volume out right now!

High Definition Commentary: Philippians

Romans is on pre pub...its a great commentary with discourse analysis, but also included slides that can illustrate a sermon or lesson.

What commentary sets do you find most useful?

Josh, (by the way, I absolutely love Love LOVE your Questions That Have Groups Talking, and How To Double Your Class resources!  Fabulous stuff, and I'm an appreciative and grateful subscriber!!) in order of typical study preference:

• The Summarized Bible and Outline Bible for broad brushed overiews
• BKC for its background and conservative perspective (still not much in-depth material yet)
• NAC for its readability and and approach
• WWSGNT again for it's conservative approach and deeper word study content for (selected) NT books
• ESVSB love the concise analysis, surprising charts/maps/summaries, etc. Though, of course, its a study Bible vs. commentary... meh, its full of commentary
• WBC, JFB, IVPBBC, PC, and PNTC

Here are mine in no particular order:

1.  PNTC

2.  NIGTC

3.  College Press OT/NT

4.  Expositor's Bible Commentary

5.  Barclay's Daily Study Bible (I only have the original version in Spanish).

6.  BECNT

7.  USB Handbooks

8.  Meyer's is becoming a favorite too.

Hermeneia

Smyth & Helwys (not available in Logos)

Many others

Faithlife doesn't seem to be designed for serious study, it's limited to very few Bible versions (when I'm actually waiting for the 1989 REB to be released in Logos 4 or 5) and provides a very basic study Bible (if it's comprehensive at times doesn't matter to me anyway, I don't agree with Logos's official theology). (I never use study Bibles, I have none.) So I can't see how it would be possible to find opinions on and readers of Brill historical information?!

Actually you could create a discussion group on Faithlife, the benefit is its interaction with your Logos library.

• I just discovered [url="http://www.logos.com/product/17146/biblical-performance-criticism-series"]Biblical Performance Criticism -series (4 volumes, 2009-2011)[/url] - how good do You think it is?
• The ones I make most frequent use of, are Hermeneia (for example Mt 1-20).
• I'm considering placing an order on [url=http://community.logos.com/forums/p/51717/380279.aspx#380279]Hermeneia and Continental Commentaries[/url] just because they've cut the prices during July 2012. (Even though I just said I won't.) Most of the titles I don't actually need (at all, that is). It's really hard to find the coupon code, and I would need to negotiate further with customer service for a discount since I have some items from it.
• You can see with this search how hard it is to navigate between books published by Brill: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=historical&field-author=&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=brill&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=After&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=1981&sort=reviewrank_authority&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=35&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=11
  EDIT: search by category Church History yields: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_47%3A1981%2Cp_46%3AAfter%2Cp_30%3Abrill%2Ck%3Ahistorical%2Cn%3A%211000%2Cn%3A12290%2Cn%3A12350&bbn=12290&sort=reviewrank_authority&keywords=historical&unfiltered=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1341647180&rnid=12290
  EDIT: search by category Reference (in Christian books & Bibles) yields: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_47%3A1981%2Cp_46%3AAfter%2Cp_30%3Abrill%2Ck%3Ahistorical%2Cn%3A%211000%2Cn%3A12290%2Cn%3A172810&bbn=12290&sort=reviewrank_authority&keywords=historical&unfiltered=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1341647180&rnid=12290

I just discovered Biblical Performance Criticism -series (4 volumes, 2009-2011) - how good do You think it is?

It's not released yet ... give us a little time to find out.[:)]

Unix wrote:

"I don't agree with Logos's official theology)."

I can't remember ever seeing a theology of Logos.  Where might I find this?

Welcome to the forums.

I can't remember ever seeing a theology of Logos.  Where might I find this?

http://www.logos.com/about/publishing-philosophy.

In addition to the great link fgh provided, I believe Bob has used the term "broadly evangelical" before in describing the company. 

To get an aproximation (importance and total page # of titles can vary), You can go to:
http://www.logos.com/products/search?q=
Down on the left You can see Christian Groups. Expand and You can see which denominations have the most releases. Although it seems like many resources are not cathegorized in denominations.

My favourite is the New Interpreter's Bible (12 vols.) 

I also use on Logos my favourites:

 Interpretation

Daily Study Bible NT/OT (OT no longer sold by LOGOS)

Word Biblical Commentary

Pillar NT series

Wesleyan Bible Commentary series

Bible Speaks Today NT

People's Bible Commentary (Christ centred Lutheran commentary) that I include among my favourites because even though i often find it less than helpful, once in a while it has some fabulous insights in it.

Augsburg Commentary on the NT

-Dan 

I have not seen it mentioned, and believe it is very underrated:

Cornerstone Biblical Commentary

Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Upgrade

I am surprised they are not more popular; I have really enjoyed these. A few years ago, Logos (or the publisher) gave away one volume (Mathew and Mark I think) and I went on to buy the rest. I hope they eventually get the rest of them out. There are still a few volumes that have not been converted to Logos.

Jerry

I have not seen it mentioned, and believe it is very underrated:

Cornerstone Biblical Commentary

Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Upgrade

I am surprised they are not more popular; I have really enjoyed these. A few years ago, Logos (or the publisher) gave away one volume (Mathew and Mark I think) and I went on to buy the rest. I hope they eventually get the rest of them out. There are still a few volumes that have not been converted to Logos.

Jerry

 

They're too simple in my opinion.  I did get the Matthew volume for free and I was doing a study on the beatitudes and it amazed me how simple it was.  Not too much information so I assume it's a basic set like (just my opinion) 21st Century Bible Commentary by DA Carson.  Maybe it would help if they were a little bit deeper in content but I would not buy them.  Again, it's just my opinion.

DAL

They're too simple in my opinion.  I did get the Matthew volume for free and I was doing a study on the beatitudes and it amazed me how simple it was.  Not too much information so I assume it's a basic set like (just my opinion) 21st Century Bible Commentary by DA Carson.  Maybe it would help if they were a little bit deeper in content but I would not buy them.  Again, it's just my opinion.

They're too simple in my opinion.  I did get the Matthew volume for free and I was doing a study on the beatitudes and it amazed me how simple it was.  Not too much information so I assume it's a basic set like (just my opinion) 21st Century Bible Commentary by DA Carson.  Maybe it would help if they were a little bit deeper in content but I would not buy them.  Again, it's just my opinion.

same here

I have all the volumes available, some are good others as pointed out are for to simple to be of much real help. And while in a similar boat to the People's Bible i mentioned above the strengths in the cornerstone do not seem to make up for it;s weaknesses IMHO. Some might say the same thing about PB but as I stated I do find it useful but then I was raised Lutheran and perhaps like the strong emphasis on Christ and grace.

-Dan

PS:I do believe cornerstone is worth owning but I would't put it in a top 5 resources to own.

1. Pillar

2. NIGTC

3. Baker Exegetical

4. NIVAC

5. NAC, TOTC/TNTC,

6. Bible Speaks Today, Opening up . . . , Preachers

This list from Pastor James is pretty much parallel to my own, though I'd move NAC up a notch.

There are some individual commentaries I like for specific books that rare not a part of a set, or in some cases are but stand out from an otherwise average set.  Sometimes I'm author-centric...I buy anything I can get on the OT from Dale Ralph Davis, for one example.

I also lean toward using expository commentaries and sermon series as-a-commentary more than toward academic titles in practical use, since I'm a SS teacher and not a seminary-trained pastor (I do Gk, no Hebr.)

My advice is, find some reviews of commentaries or commentary sets from some folks you trust, and build from there.  I started my Logos sets reading reviews on Ligonier.org and a couple others that were linked on Tim Challies' blog.  (And of course, duplicating some of the paper commentaries I'd used for years.)

While I am a bit of a redneck in some of my attitudes, one thing I've learned over the years is, even in a 'bad' commentary, there are useful insights, usually good references, and a smidgen of original thought.  By way of example, I'm not a big fan of N.T. Wright, but I always find useful stuff in his writings.  So don't write a bunch of them off just because they aren't perfect.

What commentary sets do you find most useful?

 

As far as sets here are the ones I use mostly:

1. Pillar
2. BECNT
3. NIGTC
4. Word
5. EEC
6. UBS

Individual books of the Bible I have prioritized every book with my favorite commentary. Some of those commentaries are my favorite, but does not make the commentary set favorite list I use. For concise quick renders I use the Bible Knowledge Commentary.

I just placed an order for a printed 2011 [url="http://www.christianforums.com/t7671654-new/"]Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible[/url]
(Anyone with an opinion about that one? If I quickly get to know that it's not good I can cancel the order.)

Unix wrote:

"I don't agree with Logos's official theology)."

 

I can't remember ever seeing a theology of Logos.  Where might I find this?

  Well, they didn't say it was YOUR official philosophy or theology.  It's theirs.