Collection rules for sorting commentaries (updated for Logos 9 Libraries)

updated

Just wanted to say a quick "Thank you!" to Mark and abondservant for their work in keeping these collection rules up to date... it is most helpful! [Y]

Just wanted to say a quick "Thank you!" to Mark and abondservant for their work in keeping these collection rules up to date... it is most helpful!

How do I create rules for the following, regardless of intermediate, technical, historical, etc...:

Complete Series that include Old and New Testament Commentaries

Complete Series by Old and New Testament

Thanks for any help. 

Complete Series by Old and New Testament

1. OT  commentaries:

type:commentary subject:bible-.O.T.

2. NT commentaries:

type:commentary subject:bible-.N.T.

These will include individual OT or NT volumes in a series and single-volume OT or NT commentaries, but a "complete" NT or OT corpus is not guaranteed e.g. it will include a single-volume commentary on Revelation.

Complete Series that include Old and New Testament Commentaries

A dynamic rule for series that include both the OT and NT corpus is difficult to define, so you might have to name each series  e.g. series:Barnes OR series:Expositors

A rule for single-volume commentaries with both OT and NT books is:

type:commentary subject:bible-commentaries

Thank you, very helpful!

I've updated the rules to add Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible to "Expository".

I've updated the rules to add:

• Intertextual Bible Commentary / Mellen Biblical Commentary to "Special"
• Osborne New Testament Commentaries to "Intermediate"

Thanks Mark

Appreciate your work on this, Graham 

Mark

could it be that this Rule is wrong?

Historical Commentaries (Reformation)

type:bible-commentary (series:("Calvin’s Commentaries", "Luther’s Works", "Reformation Commentary on Scripture", "The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori", "The Great Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide", "The Works of Rev. John Lightfoot") OR mytag:commentary-reformation OR (series:"Crossway Classic Commentaries" AND author:(Calvin, Henry, Leighton, Luther, Manton, Owen))

I just get Calvin with it if i change it to

Historical Commentaries (Reformation)

type:bible-commentary (series:("Calvin’s Commentaries", "Luther’s Works", "Reformation Commentary on Scripture", "The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori", "The Great Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide", "The Works of Rev. John Lightfoot") OR mytag:commentary-reformation OR (series:"Crossway Classic Commentaries" OR author:(Calvin, Henry, Leighton, Luther, Manton, Owen))

I get also Luther I gues he belongs here ;-)

I just get Calvin with it if i change it to

If you change it in that way, it will include commentaries from anyone called Henry, Owen, etc. even if they're not in the Crossway Classic Commentary series, and it will include modern commentaries from that series.

Anyway, the rule already includes Luther, etc:

If you change it in that way, it will include commentaries from anyone called Henry, Owen, etc

that's what I find out ;-)

But why is this Resscource not there?

I see! It' bound to the Serie (series:"Crossway Classic Commentaries" AND author:(Calvin, Henry, Leighton, Luther, Manton, Owen))

so it will work if I put OR author:luther behind

But why is this Resscource not there?

The rules only work for commentaries that are in a series. You still have to tag commentaries that are not in a series.

[Y]

updated

Thanks for keeping these up to date, abondservant. 

I just ran a comparison in my Library of the rules on Mark's first post, with the collections in the Faithlife groups, and found quite a few groups where Mark's rules were more accurate and/or correctly found more results. Some of Mark's groups are also missing.

Maybe it would be time to give them all a refresher just in case? The ones for sure that I found that were different were Background, Intermediate, Expository, Study Guide, and Textual. Thanks.

Any thoughts on where one should put Courson's Application commentaries?  I just bought them recently and noticed they didn't sort into the lists.  Wiersbe's commentaries are in expository but I don't know if these would fit there.

https://www.logos.com/product/8649/the-jon-courson-essential-bible-study-library

$35 for 3!

Any thoughts on where one should put Courson's Application commentaries?

Others will question, but I classified this work as a "commentarydevotional." I am open to criticism here, but my opinion is that it fits best in your studies as a work of devotion with a goal towards application.

Any thoughts on where one should put Courson's Application commentaries? 

His commentaries would be devotional.  He is also dispensational. 

Any thoughts on where one should put Courson's Application commentaries?

Others will question, but I classified this work as a "commentarydevotional." I am open to criticism here, but my opinion is that it fits best in your studies as a work of devotion with a goal towards application.

Can't see how anyone would question you, as you are absolutely correct. Devotional, towards application. [Y]

Thanks, Myke! [:)]

Any thoughts on where one should put Courson's Application commentaries? 

His commentaries would be devotional.  He is also dispensational. 

Thank you all. I don't have an application commentary collection. Besides Courson, what other commentaries would you put in that group. I noticed there is no application/devotional collection in this thread

I've updated the collection rules on the first page to add the following:

• Ancient Christian Writers to Historical (Antiquity)
• Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars Study Series to Expository
• An Open Your Bible Project to Intermediate
• The Tyndale Commentary Series to Intermediate
• Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament to Technical

And to rename the following to reflect updated metadata:

• Social-Science Commentary (from "Social-Science Commentaries")

Hi Mark, thanks again for updating those. 

Just a note, I could not get some of them to work when I first used them, until I changed the last part of some of the lists from 

... -series:"The Church Pulpit Commentary"

to

... ANDNOT series:"The Church Pulpit Commentary"

I'm not sure why, I tried both the numeric - and the normal keyboard - (beside the , but neither worked. 

Just mentioning this in case it helps others.

Historical Commentaries (Antiquity)

type:bible-commentary (series:("A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church", "Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture", "Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on John", "Early Church Fathers", "The Church’s Bible", "The Fathers of the Church") OR mytag:commentary-antiquity)

Mark, for some reason I noticed that five commentaries by Origen in "The Fathers of the Church" series are failing to appear in this collection even though I've used the rule above. I have also tagged those with "commentary-antiquity", but still no success. Obviously, I could just drag them there, but don't see why the above rule isn't working. Some other books from the series, i.e., Jerome, Augustine and Chrysostom (I don't have the entire series yet) are showing up, but not Origen. After doing a search for the series in my library, I have noticed that a commentary by Hilary of Poitiers also isn't appearing.

Any thoughts?

Mark, for some reason I noticed that five commentaries by Origen in "The Fathers of the Church" series are failing to appear in this collection even though I've used the rule above. I have also tagged those with "commentary-antiquity", but still no success.

Short answer: Logos has them as type=monograph, rather than type=bible-commentary.

Long answer: Most of these missing books are not really commentaries. For example, were Origen's Commentary on the Gospel according to John published today, we would probably call it "A theology of John", rather than a commentary on John.

That's less true with his commentary on Romans, but even there he doesn't refer to specific chapters and verse numbers as he works through the text (even though he is actually working through the text verse-by-verse). I think you could make a case that Logos should include verse milestones, and update the metadata to a commentary for Romans. Perhaps it would be helpful to start a new thread, requesting that they do so for that and any similar volumes. If they do so, it would then appear in the collection (and in the commentaries section of the passage guide).

Long answer: Most of these missing books are not really commentaries. For example, were Origen's Commentary on the Gospel according to John published today, we would probably call it "A theology of John", rather than a commentary on John.

Thanks, that's a fair point.

Short answer: Logos has them as type=monograph, rather than type=bible-commentary.

Meant to ask why the collection didn't include those books when I tagged them myself with the the tag, "commentary-antiquity", which, according to the collection's rule, should have included those in the collection.

Meant to ask why the collection didn't include those books when I tagged them myself with the the tag, "commentary-antiquity", which, according to the collection's rule, should have included those in the collection.

I think the rule is written to include only type bible-commentary. You cite it as:

type:bible-commentary (series:("A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church", "Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture", "Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on John", "Early Church Fathers", "The Church’s Bible", "The Fathers of the Church") OR mytag:commentary-antiquity)

which translates to

type:bible-commentary AND (      series:(.....) OR mytag:commentary-antiquity   )

if you want your tagging to override the type, you need to change parentheses, like 

(type:bible-commentary AND series:("A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church", "Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture", "Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on John", "Early Church Fathers", "The Church’s Bible", "The Fathers of the Church")) OR mytag:commentary-antiquity

Thanks for the explanation.

I've updated the collection rules on the first page to add the following:

• Biblical and Judaic Studies from the University of California Series to Special

It would be nice to include all the commentaries from all the base packages — but as I don't own them all, that's currently not possible, although I think I'm only missing four series.

• Lutheran
• Fortress Commentary on the Bible (Platinum+) 
• SDA
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Gold+)
• Methodist and Wesleyan
• Thomas Summers' Commentaries on Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Platinum)
• Whedon's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (Silver+)

If you have these, perhaps you could post the exact series name and which category you think it falls into. I'm also missing the following sets, which are not in a base package:

• Septuagint Commentary Series
• New Beacon Bible Commentary (NBBC)
• The Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible
• The Commentators' Bible
• The People's Bible
• John Phillips Commentary Series
• New Collegeville Bible Commentary
• Northwestern Commentaries
• Courson's Application Commentary
• John Stott Bible Studies
• Sam Storms' Biblical Studies

There may well be others, too. If you know of any commentary series that are missing, and can let me know the details I'd be glad to add them.

(I'm NOT intending to update the collections with non-English sets, or commentaries that aren't part of a series.)

Thomas Summers' Commentaries on Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Platinum)

No series name is applied to this set

I haven't used it but from a quick look I would class it as Intermediate and "Historical Commentaries (1750-1950)"

Whedon's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (Silver+)

Series name is "A Popular Commentary on the New Testament" and I'd categorise it the same as Summers

John Stott Bible Studies

Series name is "John Stott Bible Studies" and I'd class them as "Study Guide Commentaries"

Graham

Does the series name for Whedon also cover the OT?  If memory serves me correctly only half the series had a name and I had to rename it myself

Whedon's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (Silver+)

Series name is "A Popular Commentary on the New Testament" and I'd categorise it the same as Summers

Graham

Does the series name for Whedon also cover the OT?  If memory serves me correctly only half the series had a name and I had to rename it myself

It's in two parts; the OT series name is Commentary on the Old Testament. Whedon is the not the author of any of the 9 OT volumes.

Hi Mattillo

Does the series name for Whedon also cover the OT?  If memory serves me correctly only half the series had a name and I had to rename it myself

Thanks for picking up on this - I missed that.

It does have a series name now - "Commentary on the Old Testament"

Graham

If you have these, perhaps you could post the exact series name and which category you think it falls into. I'm also missing the following sets, which are not in a base package:

• Courson's Application Commentary

This is labeled as: "Jon Courson's Application Commentary"

I guess I'd put it wherever you have the NIVAC or Wiersbe.  It is a little more in depth than say the Life Application Study Bible but I don't think it hit's the realm of Expository.  I am no commentary expert though.  See excerpt below

• The People's Bible
• New Collegeville Bible Commentary

These both belong in the Expository class. Probably Walk! Messianic Jewish Devotional Commentary Collection does as well.

• Fortress Commentary on the Bible (Platinum+) 

This is essentially one volume on OT/one on NT that I would place as "One volume" ... or "Expository" if you insist

Ancient Christian Writers has 8 volumes for Antiquity
Commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia has 2 volumes for Antiquity

Rick Brannan's Lexical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles is either Technical or Textual

Sorry - I've got to leave so this is incomplete

Series that appear to not be included:

• Open Door Commentary
• Bible History Commentary
• Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (not in type:Bible Commentary format)

Recognizing that many of the relevant resources are not type:BibleCommentary format I use the following collections:

For lectionary based commentaries:

series:("The Word for Every Sunday", "The Word for Every Season", "Series Ministeria", "Scriptures for the Church Season", "Lectionary Reflections (Jane Williams)", "The Lectionary Commentary", "Feasting on the Word","Scriptures for the Church Season","Lift up Your Hearts","Preparing for Worship","Fortress Resources for Preaching","Lent for Everyone","Sermons for the Christian Year","Timeless Homilies for Deacons")

A number of resources are not in series and are added manually - I'll list if anyone cares

For Bible study guide:
 I include your collection within mine and use:

series:("3E Ministries Study Guides", "30 Days to Understanding","Adult Bible Studies (ISSL) Cokesbury", "Africa Bible Commentary Series","Back Side","Bible Lessons International","Catholic Scripture Study","Come and See: Catholic Bible Study","Courageous nnnn","David C. Cook Bible Lesson Commentary","Elizabeth George Bible Studies for Women","Exploring the Bible Commentary","Exploring the Testaments","Good Questions Have Small Groups Talking","Hearts Aflame Scripture Study","The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible","Kingdom Series","Life Lessons","MacArthur Bible Studies","Made Easy","Men of Character","New Inductive Study Series","The New International Lesson Annual","Opening Up Commentary","A Revival Kinglings Bible Study Course","Simple Church Bible Study Guide","Scriptures for the Church Season","Spirit Filled Life","Standard Bible Studies","Standard Lesson Commentary","Stonecroft Bible Studies","Studies in Faithful Living","Studies on the Go","Turning Point","Walk Thru The Bible","Walk! Messianic Jewish Devotional Commentary","The Wiersbe Bible Study Series","Wiersbe's 'Be' Series","The Word in Life Bible Discovery Series","Adult Bible Studies","Daily Bible Study","Shepherd's Notes","Unlocking the Bible Story","The Wiersbe Bible Study Series","Do-It-Yourself Bible Studies","Everyman's Bible Commentary" )

Again there are a few items not in series.

Textual Commentaries

Textual commentaries focus on issues of textual criticism.

 type:(bible-commentary, bible-notes) AND (title:("The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible", "A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament", "A Textual Guide to the Greek New Testament"), mytag:commentary-textual)

Here's a title that should be added to the textual commentaries: "New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Commentary on the Variant Readings of the Ancient New Testament Manuscripts and How They Relate to the Major English Translations"

I know it's a ridiculously long title, but that's how it ships. If someone wants to shorten the title they can adjust the collection rule accordingly. Here's the link to the resource.

Edit: Perhaps the rule could simply account for the title ending at the colon. This should be plenty sufficient for uniquely identify the correct resource.

"Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the ??? Testament")

This rule pulls in ZECNT, but not ZECOT. Any ideas why?

Edit: Nevermind, I got it to work by changing "???" to "New" and back again to "???". Don't ask me why that worked!

Just a thought - the * gives an easier way to match words.

Sample: "Zondervan * Commentary * * * Testament"

Using ??? restrict you to 3 char's

Using * is for any word length.

Using ??? restrict you to 3 char's

Which is exactly the desired behavior. Both "old" and "new" are three characters, so that rule is as precise as possible without being redundant. Using "*" would open up the possibility of having ALL Zondervan Commentaries in the "Technical" section...not exactly desirable.

The Apollos Old Testament Commentary came out recently... not sure if it would be better in expository or technical though.  I remember someone somewhere on the forums compared it to the Pillar NTC. 

*I posted this in the beta forums by accident.  I tried to use the new rules in the beta forum but they didn't work so I figured I'd post this here... sorry for the double post

EDIT: These should go under technical... should have read the descriptions first!

Study Guide Commentaries

Typically, study guide commentaries will provide short introductions to each passage, and ask several questions of the reader.

type:bible-commentary AND (series:("Bryan Williams Bible Study Collection", "Not Your Average Bible Study"), mytag:commentary-study-guide)

For this group I have extended the rule (red text) to pick up the Irving Jensen Inductive Bible Studies which are or type:bible-notes.

type:bible-commentary AND (series:("Bryan Williams Bible Study Collection", "Not Your Average Bible Study"), mytag:commentary--study-guide) OR (author:"Jensen, Irving") AND type:bible-notes)

There is probably a better way to extend the rule but its effective in picking up these titles which, for me at least I think are worth adding to this grouping rather than creating another one for inductive studies alone at this point in time since the number of title in this combined grouping is reasonably small.

type:bible-commentary AND (series:("Bryan Williams Bible Study Collection", "Not Your Average Bible Study"), mytag:commentary--study-guide) OR (author:"Jensen, Irving") AND type:bible-notes)

author: has one parenthesis too many. Try:-

type:bible-commentary AND (series:("Bryan Williams Bible Study Collection", "Not Your Average Bible Study"), mytag:commentary--study-guide) OR (author:"Jensen, Irving" AND type:bible-notes)

type:bible-commentary AND (series:("Bryan Williams Bible Study Collection", "Not Your Average Bible Study"), mytag:commentary--study-guide) OR (author:"Jensen, Irving") AND type:bible-notes)

author: has one parenthesis too many. Try:-

type:bible-commentary AND (series:("Bryan Williams Bible Study Collection", "Not Your Average Bible Study"), mytag:commentary--study-guide) OR (author:"Jensen, Irving" AND type:bible-notes)

Thanks for picking that up Dave, not sure when the extra parenthesis slipped in there.

The syntax below is for those using Logos prior to version 7.15 or want a mobile-compatible version. It works fine, but can be slow and I won't be adding new commentaries to this syntax. For the most up-to-date version, see the first post in this thread.

Background Commentaries

Background Commentaries don’t commentate on the overall meaning of a passage, but provide insights from the historical and cultural background wherever that’s appropriate.

type:bible-commentary (series:("IVP Bible Background Commentary", "Lexham Geographic Commentary", "Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary"), title:("Has God Not Chosen the Poor?", "Manners and Customs of the Bible", "Background Commentary", "The Political Paul"), mytag:commentary-background)

Expository Commentaries

Typically, expository commentaries will discuss the meaning of the Bible text at a fairly simple level. They’ll be simple to read, with plenty of application and illustrations — a bit like a printed sermon. They’ll be hardly any footnotes, and hardly any Greek and Hebrew (which would be transliterated, if used at all).

type:bible-commentary (series:("3:16 Bible Commentary Series", "Africa Bible Commentary Series", "An Exposition of Ephesians", "An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible", "Analytical Bible Expositor", "Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars Study Series", "Barnes’ Notes on the Old and New Testaments", "Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible", "Boice’s Expositional Commentary", "Cecil Sherman Formations Commentary Series", "Clear Study Series", "Daily Study Bible Series", "David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible", "Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works", "Discovering Christ", "Essential Bible Companion Series", "Every Christian's Library", "Exploring the Bible Commentary", "Expositions of Holy Scripture (MacLaren)", "Expositor’s Bible", "Feasting on the Word", "Focus on the Bible Commentary", "Following God Workbooks", "For Everyone Bible Study Guides", "Gaebelein Selected Works", "Gaebelein’s Gospel of Matthew", "Gleanings (AW Pink)", "God’s Word for You", "Gromacki Expositions", "High Definition Commentary Series", "Holman New Testament Commentary", "Horae Homileticae", "J. C. Ryle Collection", "Knowing the Bible", "Life Application Bible Commentary", "MacArthur New Testament Commentary", "Manna in the House: or, Daily Expositions of the Gospels", "Old Testament for Everyone", "Opening Up Commentary", "Poor Man’s New Testament Commentary", "Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary", "Preaching the Word", "R. C. Sproul Exposition Collection", "Reformed Expository Commentary", "Romans: Donald Grey Barnhouse", "Roy Gingrich’s Commentaries in Outline Form", "Roy Gingrich’s Commentaries in Outline Form: Bible Themes", "Spurgeon Commentary Series", "St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary", "Standard Bible Studies", "Studies in the Book of Acts", "Summarized Bible", "Swindoll’s New Testament Insights", "Teach the Bible", "Teacher’s Bible Commentary Series", "Teed Commentary", "The Church Pulpit Commentary", "The Gospel according to the Old Testament", "The Lectionary Commentary", "The Life and Times of Gideon", "The Navarre Bible", "The New Daily Study Bible", "The Orthodox Bible Study Companion", "The Sermon Outline Bible", "Thru the Bible Commentary", "Transformative Word", "Treasury of David", "Walking with Jesus", "Welwyn Commentary Series", "Wiersbe’s Be Series", "Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines", "Works of H.A. Ironside", "Works of John Bunyan"), author:("Blanchard, John", "Chambers, Oswald", "Pink, Arthur Walkington"), mytag:commentary-expository) -series:("Expositor's Bible Commentary")

Intermediate Commentaries

Typically, intermediate commentaries will discuss the meaning of the Bible text, in a serious but not overly-academic way. If they discuss Greek and Hebrew words, those words will be transliterated, and there will be little grammatical analysis. They may acknowledge different interpretations of a passage, but probably only in footnotes. There may be some application for the contemporary church, but that won’t be a main emphasis.

type:bible-commentary (series:("A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition", "An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Owen)", "Ariel’s Bible Commentary", "Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament", "Baker Commentary on the Old Testament", "Baker New Testament Commentary", "Believers Church Bible Commentary", "Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry", "Bible Lessons International", "Black’s New Testament Commentary", "Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible", "Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture", "Charles Hodge Commentary", "College Press NIV Commentary", "Cornerstone Biblical Commentary", "Encountering Biblical Studies", "EP Study Commentary", "Everyman’s Bible Commentary", "Exploring the Old and New Testament Collection", "Expositor’s Bible Commentary", "Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Abridged Edition", "Founders Study Guide Commentary", "H. C. Leupold Commentary Collection", "Hearing the Message of Scripture Commentary", "Ignatius Catholic Study Bible", "International Theological Commentary", "Interpretation Commentary", "IVP New Testament Commentary", "Lenski’s Commentary on the New Testament", "Lexham Bible Guide", "Logion Press Commentary Series", "Matthew: A Commentary", "Myrtlefield Expositions", "New American Commentary", "New Covenant Commentary Series", "NIV Application Commentary", "Old Testament Survey Series", "An Open Your Bible Project", "Osborne New Testament Commentaries", "Orthodox Christian Reflections", "Pamphlet Bible Series", "Preacher’s Commentary", "Pulpit Commentary", "Reading the New Testament", "Sacra Pagina Series", "Social-Science Commentary", "Standard Reference Library Through-the-Bible Commentary", "Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures", "The Bible in Its World", "The Bible Speaks Today", "The Bible Speaks Today (US)", "The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges", "The New Testament for English Readers", "The Randall House Bible Commentary", "Rhetorica Semitica", "Rushdoony Commentaries on the Pentateuch", "Rushdoony New Testament Commentaries", "Teach the Text Commentary Series", "The New Testament Library", "The Old Testament Library", "The Story of God Bible Commentary", "The Two Horizons New Testament Commentary", "The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary ", "The Two Horizons Commentary Series", "Tyndale Commentaries", "The Tyndale Commentary Series", "Understanding the Bible Commentary Series", "United Bible Societies’ Handbooks", "Wesleyan Bible Commentary", "Westminster Bible Companion"), mytag:commentary-intermediate, title:"New Interpreter’s Bible, Volumes I–XII") -series:"The Church Pulpit Commentary"

Technical Commentaries

Typically, technical commentaries will be detailed, fairly academic, and emphasise aspects of language and grammar (often using untransliterated Greek and Hebrew). They’ll frequently discuss several possible interpretations of a passage, weighing the different views. They’ll concentrate almost exclusively on what the text would have meant to the original readers, and won’t be concerned about contemporary application.

type:bible-commentary (series:("A Commentary on the Book of Genesis", "Acts: An Exegetical Commentary", "An Exegetical Commentary: Revelation by Robert L. Thomas", "Anchor Yale Bible", "Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library", "Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha Commentaries (Charles)", "Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament", "Baylor Handbook on the Greek New Testament", "Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible", "Concordia Commentary", "Continental Commentary", "Eerdmans Critical Commentary", "Evangelical Exegetical Commentary", "Exegetical Summaries", "Forms of the Old Testament Literature", "Hermeneia", "Illuminations", "JPS Tanakh Commentary", "Kregel Exegetical Library", "Letters and Homilies", "Mentor Commentaries", "Minor Prophets Exegetical Commentary", "New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament", "New International Greek Testament Commentary", "Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament", "Pillar New Testament Commentary", "Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Series", "Study Guide Commentary Series", "The Book of Isaiah (Young)", "The Hebrew Bible and Its Versions", "Word Biblical Commentary", "Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the ??? Testament") OR mytag:commentary-technical OR (series:"International Critical Commentary" AND pubdate:>1950))

Historical Commentaries

These are commentaries written before (roughly) WW2. Exegetical methods have changed significantly since then, but these older commentaries give valuable insights into how the Bible has been interpreted in Church History. There are four bands, that coincide roughly with the post-Enlightenment period (late modern), the period of the Reformation, the Middle Ages and the Early Church. The way the Bible was interpreted changed quite significantly at each of those points, so the split is fairly useful (at least to me).

Historical Commentaries (Antiquity)

Commentaries written prior to the medieval period (i.e. up to the fifth century). 

type:bible-commentary (series:("A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church", "Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture", "Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on John", "Early Church Fathers", "The Church’s Bible", "The Fathers of the Church") OR mytag:commentary-antiquity)

Historical Commentaries (Medieval)

Commentaries written in the medieval period (i.e. from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries).

type:bible-commentary (series:("A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica", "A Commentary on the Psalms from Primitive and Mediæval Writers", "Catena Aurea", "Morals on the Book of Job", "The Bible in Medieval Tradition") OR mytag:commentary-medieval OR author:bede)

Historical Commentaries (Reformation)

Commentaries written in the period of the Reformation period (i.e. from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth century). Commentaries from both Protestant and Catholic writers are included.

type:bible-commentary (series:("Calvin’s Commentaries", "Luther’s Works", "Reformation Commentary on Scripture", "The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori", "The Great Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide", "The Works of Rev. John Lightfoot") OR mytag:commentary-reformation OR (series:"Crossway Classic Commentaries" AND author:(Calvin, Henry, Leighton, Luther, Manton, Owen))

Historical Commentaries (1750-1950)

Commentaries written during the late modern period (post-enlightenment).

type:bible-commentary (series:("A Brief Explication of the Psalms", "A Commentary on the Apocalypse", "A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews", "A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans with a Revised Translation", "A Commentary on the Vision of Zechariah the Prophet", "A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles", "A Devotional Commentary", "A Historical and Critical Commentary on the Old Testament", "A Historical and Critical Commentary on the Old Testament: Exodus", "A New Catena on St. Paul’s Epistles", "A New Translation of the Proverbs of Solomon from the Original Hebrew", "A Paraphrase and Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews", "A Popular Commentary on the New Testament", "A Practical Commentary upon the First Epistle General of Peter", "A Suggestive Commentary on the New Testament", "American Commentary on the New Testament", "American Commentary on the Old Testament", "An Attempt Towards an Improved Translation of the Proverbs of Solomon", "An Attempt Towards an Improved Version, a Metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Twelve Minor Prophets", "An Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians", "An Exposition of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews", "An Exposition of the First Epistle General of John, Comprised in Ninety-Three Sermons", "Beet Commentaries", "Biblical Manuals", "Billroth’s Commentary on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians", "Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges", "Catholic Standard Library", "Charles Ellicott Commentary", "Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament", "Clark’s Foreign Theological Library", "Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Fourth Series", "Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Third Series", "Clark’s Peoples Commentary", "Commentary on the Prophets of the Old Testament", "Commentary on the Psalms by E. W. Hengstenberg", "Constructive Bible Studies Secondary Series", "Contributions to Oriental History and Philology", "Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament", "Denton’s Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles", "E. Y. Mullins Commentaries", "Eadie’s Commentaries", "Ecclesiastes; A Contribution to Its Interpretation", "Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament", "Exposition of the Book of Proverbs", "Exposition of the Gospel of St. John", "Expository Discourses on the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter", "Gnomon of the New Testament", "Godet Commentary Collection", "Handbooks for Bible Classes", "Handbooks for Bible Classes and Private Students", "Harvard Theological Studies I", "Horæ Apocalypticæ", "Hosea: Translated from the Hebrew with Notes Explanatory and Critical", "Joel: A Translation, in Metrical Parallelisms, according to the Hebrew Method of Punctuation", "John Owen’s Commentaries", "Lange’s Commentary", "Lectures on the Book of Ecclesiastes", "Lectures on the Gospel according to Luke", "Lewis Sperry Chafer Collection", "Life and Service Series", "Literary Illustrations of the Bible", "Local Examination Manual", "MacEvilly New Testament Commentaries", "New Century Bible", "New Commentary on Acts of Apostles", "Nichol’s Series of Commentaries", "Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Exodus", "Philips’ Series of Scripture Manuals", "Plain Commentaries", "Posthumous Works of the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D. D.", "Psalms of the Pharisees, Commonly Called the Psalms of Solomon", "Publications of the Society of Hebrew Literature", "Scripture Primers", "St. Edmund’s College Series of Scripture Handbooks", "St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: A Practical Exposition", "Studies in the Gospel of John", "Text-Books of Religious Instruction", "The Acts of the Apostles Explained", "The Annotated Bible (Gaebelein)", "The Apocalypse", "The Bible for Home and School", "The Biblical Cabinet", "The Book of Psalms (Cheyne)", "The Book of Psalms (Horsley)", "The Book of Psalms (Perowne)", "The Book of Ruth in Hebrew", "The Book of the Prophet Hosea", "The Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets", "The Book of Wisdom", "The Books of the Bible", "The Century Bible", "The Church of the First Days", "The Churchman’s Bible", "The Complete Commentary on the New Testament", "The Convention Series", "The Earliest Gospel: A Historical Study of the Gospel according to Mark", "The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Romans", "The Epistle to the Hebrews in Greek and English with Critical and Explanatory Notes", "The Expositor’s Greek Testament Commentary", "The Gospel according to Saint Matthew with an Explanatory and Critical Commentary", "The Hebrew Text, and a Latin Version of the Book of Solomon, Called Ecclesiastes", "The Holy Scriptures with Commentary", "The Indian Church Commentaries", "The Lutheran Commentary", "The Messages of the Bible", "The Modern Commentary", "The Moffatt New Testament Commentary", "The New-Century Bible", "The Oxford Church Biblical Commentary", "The People’s Bible: Discourses upon Holy Scripture", "The Practical Commentary on the New Testament", "The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary", "The Prophets of the Restoration", "The Proverbs of Solomon", "The Psalms, with Introductions and Critical Notes", "The Revelation of St. John", "The Sacred Books of the Old and New Testaments", "The Sacred Books of the Old Testament", "The Short Course Series", "The Spiritual Interpretation of the Scriptures", "The Standard Series", "The Student’s Commentary", "The Temple Bible", "The Twelve Minor Prophets", "The Westminster New Testament", "The Wisdom of Ben Sira", "Theological Translation Fund Library", "Translations of Early Documents: Series II: Hellenistic-Jewish Texts", "Westminster Commentaries") OR mytag:commentary-historical-modern OR (series:"International Critical Commentary" AND pubdate:<=1950) OR (series:"Crossway Classic Commentaries" ANDNOT author:(Calvin, Henry, Leighton, Luther, Manton, Owen) OR (pubdate:=>1750 AND pubdate:=<1950))

This collection tries to use publication dates to increase the number of volumes, but in so doing catches a few earlier commentaries that were republished in this period. You can either remove the dates from the filter, or add the other historical collections into the "minus these resources" section.

One Volume Commentaries

Commentaries that cover the whole Bible, or at least one Testament, in a single volume. 

type:bible-commentary ANDNOT series:* AND (((subject:"Bible—Commentaries" ANDNOT subject:"Bible—Commentaries—Collected works") OR (subject:”Bible. O.T.--Commentaries” AND subject:”Bible. .N.T.--Commentaries”) OR subject:"bible handbooks" OR subject:"bible introductions") OR mytag:commentary-one-volume) ANDNOT title:volumes

Study Guide Commentaries

Typically, study guide commentaries will provide short introductions to each passage, and ask several questions of the reader.

type:bible-commentary AND (series:("Bryan Williams Bible Study Collection", "Not Your Average Bible Study"), mytag:commentary-study-guide)

Textual Commentaries

Textual commentaries focus on issues of textual criticism.

 type:(bible-commentary, bible-notes) AND (title:("The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible", "A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament", "A Textual Guide to the Greek New Testament"), mytag:commentary-textual)

Special Commentaries

'Special' commentaries are those that don't fit into any other category. Typically, they won't look at the text as a whole, but focus on a very narrow aspect of the text.

 type:bible-commentary (series:("Biblical and Judaic Studies from the University of California, San Diego", "Biblical Theology of the New Testament", "Intertextual Bible Commentary", "Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael", "Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai", "The Mellen Biblical Commentary", "New Studies in Biblical Theology", "Pastorum Series", "Philo & Holy Scripture", "Studies in Biblical Theology") OR mytag:commentary-special OR title:("Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament"))

The first post is now updated with new rules, using the latest syntax. One advantage of the new syntax is that it's allowed me to greatly extend the historical commentary collections by filtering by author as well as by series. This adds another 1,000 volumes or so into the collections. I couldn't do that before because performance suffered too much. The collections now cover about 4,500 volumes.

Please continue to report any bugs or problems here.

• The People's Bible
• New Collegeville Bible Commentary

These both belong in the Expository class. Probably Walk! Messianic Jewish Devotional Commentary Collection does as well.

• Fortress Commentary on the Bible (Platinum+) 

This is essentially one volume on OT/one on NT that I would place as "One volume" ... or "Expository" if you insist

Ancient Christian Writers has 8 volumes for Antiquity
Commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia has 2 volumes for Antiquity

Rick Brannan's Lexical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles is either Technical or Textual

Mark, had you seen this post? I see several appear to still be missing. The new collections picked up only 8 additional titles for me.

Other series I'd place in expository are:

• The Passion Series
• Open Door Commentary

Mark, had you seen this post? I see several appear to still be missing. The new collections picked up only 8 additional titles for me.

I had already added:

• The People's Bible
• Walk! Messianic Jewish Devotional Commentary
• Ancient Christian Writers
• Commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia

I couldn't add the others as I wasn't sure of the exact series names, and without that being 100% exact I couldn't add it to the rule. However, I now have a method whereby I can check the series names of resources I don't own. That's allowed me to add:

• The Passion Series (Intermediate)
• The New Collegeville Bible Commentary (Intermediate)
• Lexical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (Technical)

I can't add Open Door Commentary series, as there doesn't appear to be a series in the resource metadata (at least not for Mark and John).

I added New Collegeville and the Passion Series to Intermediate, rather than Expository as although they're simple (especially New Collegeville), I couldn't see anything by way of application or illustrations in the volumes I checked.