Any better NT commentary than AYB w/ "Gnosticism" ref.?

I know that AYB references Ptolemy's letter to Flora just once. I don't know how much it references "Gnosticism" in general but it does from time to time and I don't know whether it does in most of the NT volumes.

Unix is looking for an alternative to the AYB NT, which he doesn't have but is considering. He said that the volumes: Mk (2 vols.), 1 Cor, Gal, Col, Philem, Jas, Jude are of interest to him out of the fairly recent ones and he's been discussing on Christianforums in One Bread, One Body - Catholic (currently the thread "Practical Commentary" is at page 2), Christian Scriptures and at yet another academic site without response other than PM:s. He also has little coverage of 2 Cor 8-9 but very few commentaries split up 2 Cor. (For 2 Cor 1-7 he uses A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Vol. 1 which is btw on Feb. 2014 sale right now.)

Unix wishes for a lower price than the ¢11 a page in electronic format or lower than ¢10 a page as printed matter - because those are the average prices for the interesting volumes in the AYB NT.

Sometimes various volumes or sets are on a sale bringing down the price but usually not by so many % that it would "help deciding" as buying commentaries tends to get expensive.

Non-transliterated Greek and/or printed matter (preferably hardback) would also be fine.
Commentaries using a somewhat academic vocabulary are OK.

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DMB

Recognizing 'gnosticism' is a later concept with 'gnostics' being the earlier, and if I understand your question correctly, Hermeneia is your better choice (and of course cheaper). For example Ptolemy's letter comes into play in three volumes (Mat, Mar, Odes). Here's a portion of the discussion from Matthew 5:17

'a. Marcion wanted to eliminate this verse. He was opposed by the church’s interpretation in Irenaeus and the Christian Gnostic interpretation in the Valentinians. The two are closely related. For Ptolemy, the teacher of Flora, Matt 5:17* means the completion of the law that by nature is incomplete (ἀτελής) and in need of being perfected (ἐνδεὴς πληρωθῆναι) and only in a limited sense corresponds to the perfect God. Ptolemy develops this idea by making a distinction among the commands of God, of Moses, and of the leaders.'

Of course AYBD is good for many discussions of the specific post-NT writings (along with Nag Hammadi, etc).

Dan Francis

Gnostic & Apocryphal Studies Collection (10 vols.) Might be the best option for an intense study on Gnostic teachings.

-Dan

PS: I realize this is far past the 10 cents a page mark but thought it might fit the bill.

Unix

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/570659#Comment_570659

EDIT: added emphasis
EDIT2: there's a brief review of the AYBC by Dan Francis: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/72809/570464.aspx#570464 ... he also said to me by PM that AYBC would suit me better than NIB.

Eh, I'm truly sorry that despite Your effort these advice didn't help me the way I wanted, because You see:

I already have Hermeneia. It's great but I'm wondering if some other set would complement it, plus many of the Hermeneia volumes are quite old. (If You wonder what books I have, check out the A-forum where I list them.)
If the price goes a little bit over the limit it's OK if it's a magnificent resource way better than AYB and can be used in the same way, but I can't tolerate a lot higher price. I used to have one volume from the Gnostic Studies collection but returned it and have since bought another introductory work as printed matter from 2013 which is really good that I'm pleased with.
I wouldn't buy another expensive dictionary besides the NIDB which I have both as printed matter and as a pre-pub order. Not even with a deep discount.

If no-one can find an alternative set that they are sure references "Gnosticism" it's OK - You can advise me anyway. I'd like to hear what good options in general there are. Please advise soon!
One thing that bothers me about AYB commentary is that it dedicates such a large percentage of the pages to historical-criticism. I've read The Bible in Human Transformation: Toward a New Paradigm in Bible Study by Walter Wink ... and it talks about that "historical criticism is dead". I'm wondering if much more can be achieved with more commentary sets with a whole lot of historical criticism focus.

I realize that I'm demanding a lot, it's just that when I would use less than half of the volumes in AYB commentary and almost all of the volumes I wouldn't use are from the 60's, 70's or early '80s and would therefore not even be recommended reading/sources, I start to think whether AYB commentary as a set has been surpassed. For example regarding the Gospel of John, I have one pretty new commentary (as printed matter, also available in Logos in a collection) on the Gospel of John which cites everything of bigger importance in the Gospel of Jn volume by Brown in AYB.

Non-transliterated Greek would be nice, but series such as ICC are very expensive even if You buy just the volumes You want (I look for discounted individual volumes but so far I've been out of luck on books of the Bible that would be highly interesting and that I haven't sufficiently covered with other commentaries), and NIGTC is said to be conservative. Other sets such as the WBC just never have appealed to me so I haven't even bought individual volumes.

If You can't recommend a set, are there a lot of individual volumes You can recommend me?

One thing that I like about AYB is that it's inter-denominational but can still be used by someone who doesn't believe all the explicit teachings of the Roman-Catholic or Evangelical protestant Church.

Once again I'm sorry to bother forumites with my decision-making, but I found very little reviews or recommendations about AYB commentary from the past few months so hopefully, especially if more replies come, this thread will fill an information void and be found in searches later on too.

What do You think about the price ¢11 a page, should I feel comfortable with it - does it sound like the right price-level for a tagged, transliterated commentary? (Even though most of the tagging is rendered unusable with a very limited library.)

Dan Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/570688#Comment_570688

PM that AYBC would suit me better than NIB.

I said that based on your desire to focus on Gnosticism, and a belief you were seeking a deeper academic work. Gnost* is used many many more times in anchor than in NIB, and I will not deny that in most places Anchor by shear size is going to give you greatest depth of academic study of the text. NIB offers a decent level of critical study of the text and good theological reflections and is more consistently even than Anchor (for me anyway there seems volumes of Anchor that are extremely weak, not much more than a new translation with too few notes. For me I think of the NIB as a good balance to either Hermeneia or AYBC because of the vastly different approach to the texts, but ultimately you must decide what commentaries best fills your needs.

-Dan

Unix

I bought AYBC NT in Accordance, and have since bought more commentaries in both Accordance and Verbum although not sets in the latter yet. (I have some Logos commentaries purchased previous years.) I saw references in my paper copy of What Is Social-Scientific Criticism? to monographs by Neyrey, so I guess his commentary on Philippians in AYBC ads a bit of value to the set also.

The thread Practical Commentary on Christianforums, has moved to the sub-forum: Bibliology & Hermeneutics. The direct link is: Practical Commentary on Scripture:

Unix is looking for an alternative to the AYB NT, which he doesn't have but is considering. He said that the volumes: Mk (2 vols.), 1 Cor, Gal, Col, Philem, Jas, Jude are of interest to him out of the fairly recent ones and he's been discussing on Christianforums

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/570688#Comment_570688

I've read The Bible in Human Transformation: Toward a New Paradigm in Bible Study by Walter Wink ... and it talks about that "historical criticism is dead". I'm wondering if much more can be achieved with more commentary sets with a whole lot of historical criticism focus.

The usual reason that a paradigm dies is that the limits of what it can do have been reached. That doesn't negate the value of what has been done - it merely warns you that if you are to do original research it is unapt to be a productive path to take. That said, I think you might be better served by original texts and commentaries on them. Basic texts without commentaries that I would expect you have read:

The Gnostic Bible by Willis Barnstone et. al.
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures by Marvin Meyer et. al.
Gnosis on the Silk Road by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit

If you've not read it Lost Christianity by Jacob Needleman. Then start picking up translations and commentaries by the authors of the books already listed.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/640692#Comment_640692

Unix have you seen The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions by (Anchor Bible Reference Library) by Bentley Layton?