Which Commentaries? Why?

A quick question to the informed out there... which would you select? 1. Upgrade Baker Exegetical, 2. Purchase the Interpretation Series, 3. Purchase the Pillar Series or 4. Purchase the New International Biblical Commentaries. All these are roughly in the same ballpark price wise. I'm just interested in your thoughts quality/scholarship wise. Thanks!

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Clifford Kvidahl

A quick question to the informed out there... which would you select? 1. Upgrade Baker Exegetical, 2. Purchase the Interpretation Series, 3. Purchase the Pillar Series or 4. Purchase the New International Biblical Commentaries. All these are roughly in the same ballpark price wise. I'm just interested in your thoughts quality/scholarship wise. Thanks!

James,

All of the sets that you mentioned are excellent in one way or another. Answering your question can be somewhat difficult. Because users have different needs and areas of study, they may prefer one set over the other. If you were to ask me as an employee, I would say get them all. But if you were to ask me as a longtime users of Logos and a student, I would rank them in this order:

Pillar
Upgrade BECNT
Interpretation
NIBC

Each of these has there strengths-and their limitations. But this is how I would rank them in terms of exegetical strengths.

I hope this helps.

Cliff

Dan Francis

Personally I fined most of the time the New Interpreter's Bible much better done than the Interpretation series, both are fine series and each has strong and week points, but at $489, you get a far better set than Interpretation, and you can use some of that money to get other items. New Interpreter's Bible (12 vols.) is less than a quarter a page (they are pretty big pages too compared to the Interpretation volumes. I am no knocking the JKP series it is good, I just think NIB is better.

-Dan

PS:http://community.logos.com/forums/t/45235.aspx has numerous examples linked there...

Mike Childs

I agree with Cliff. I would put Pillar number one of the options you gave.

Edwin Bowden

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/341843#Comment_341843

I agree with Cliff. I would put Pillar number one of the options you gave.

I agree with the order, except I have not used Interpretation.

Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/341934#Comment_341934

I agree with Cliff - it really depends on what you want. For me, I prefer NICOT/NT, WBC, and Tyndale to be my top three depending on how deep I want to go in the text. With any series, however, there is not one complete commentary that has every book done to the same quality of level. So, with Cliff again, I'd say buy those commentaries that complement each other well (NICOT/NT and WBC complement each other very well if you want a very high quality mix of conservative reading).

Josh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/341790#Comment_341790

I own both Pillar and BECNT. They both have been fantastic resources. I like BECNT slightly better though. Bock did an amazing job on Luke.

BillS

I have the Baker NT & Baker Exegetical NT & I'm learning to appreciate the Bake NT (though you didn't mention it) even more than the Exegetical version... more applications. Both are spot on. But for preaching I find I only need one good exegetical commentary, whereas I need many commentaries that help me see new applications... Many of the Scriptures, we're going to preach more than once. It really helps to have new applications each time. :-)

James Thompson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/342027#Comment_342027

I have the Baker NT & Baker Exegetical NT & I'm learning to appreciate the Bake NT (though you didn't mention it) even more than the Exegetical version... more applications. Both are spot on. But for preaching I find I only need one good exegetical commentary, whereas I need many commentaries that help me see new applications... Many of the Scriptures, we're going to preach more than once. It really helps to have new applications each time. :-)

That's exactly what I'm looking for Bill: a very good blend of exegetical and the application. I, too, have some very good exegetical material but I'm always looking for good application material. That's why I was leaning toward the Interpretation Series. I also have NIVAC, which I like, and Preachers Commentary. I hadn't considered Baker NT so I'll look at that series too.

Thanks to all who commented. Appreciate your thoughts!!! [Y]