Classification of commentaries / study Bibles

I was making collections of my commentaries into the groupings suggested by Morris Proctor. I've got it down to 26 resources tagged as type:"Bible commentary" in Logos - have weeded out some obvious errors. I then realized that with notes separated from the Bible text itself, I don't know the difference between a study Bible and a one volume Bible commentary. I'm curious as to what others see as the distinction.

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Mark Barnes

The wiki says:

Bible commentaries vs Bible notes: Resources that
comment on every verse of the Bible should be tagged as commentaries,
those that comment briefly on some verses only, or which title
themselves “Study Bible” should be tagged bible-notes.

Logos’ use of these types is primarily functional rather than
descriptive. The Commentary type is used for many different kinds of
resources that are indexed by Bible verse and that the user may want to
appear in the Passage Guide. Bible Notes are used for the Notes from a
Bible, as, for instance, most of our “Study Bible” resources. Further
breakdown of the Commentary category would be somewhat arbitrary, so
it’s better left to user discretion via tags.

The first paragraph was written by a user, the second paragraph by a Logos employee.

Mark Barnes

But more clearly, from my own perspective a Bible Commentary should:

Comment fully (though briefly) on every unit of thought.
Be primarily concerned with meaning, and see background or critical issues as a means to an end.

Whereas Bible notes:

Don't need to comment on every unit of thought, but only where the meaning could be unclear, or when non-Biblical data or distance cross-references can shed important light on the verse in question.
Are primarily concerned with critical issues and with background, with a view to helping the reader reach their own conclusions regarding meaning.

Obviously in the middle, it gets fuzzy. Titles to books are often given by marketing departments. Personally resources such as Bible Background commentary I see (and treat as) notes, not commentaries.

Simon’s Brother

I was making collections of my commentaries into the groupings suggested by Morris Proctor. I've got it down to 26 resources tagged as type:"Bible commentary" in Logos - have weeded out some obvious errors. I then realized that with notes separated from the Bible text itself, I don't know the difference between a study Bible and a one volume Bible commentary. I'm curious as to what others see as the distinction.

One volume commentaries can very broadly in in their content. I would not put Bible Knowledge Commentary or New Bible Commentary in the same category as a Study Bible, but Tyndale Concise commentary, for instance, I could be comfortable grouping with Study Bibles. So for me it really comes down to the content of one volume commentaries if I wanted to make a group of some sort between them and Study Bibles.

At the moment I am thinking about better arranging my commentary materials, feeling at the moment I've broken them down too much and Passage Guide is less useful as a result. Just trying to find a medium between functional classification and collections for use in passage guide. In addition to MP's list I am looking at Glynn's book on Google books for some further thoughts on this process. The crux of his classification system can be found on pages 22-23. http://bit.ly/aa30dM and is a different approach to MP's. MP's I think is great for the average user of Logos which is MP's target audience I would expect. Glynn's is a little more scholarly. I working finding a happy medium between the two approaches that works for me. Utlimately I would like to probably use broader categories of collections (ie combinations of multiple user classification tags, but when I hover over a commentary in the passage guide I would see the tags and rating I have applied to the individual resource.

Logos very much blurs the lines on Study Bibles with there being three different resource types for the ones I have in my library: Bible Notes, Bible Commentary and Monograph

This last classification of Monograph is particularly concerning and thankfully only 1 falls into that class and its not major one I use but this should be fixed all the same. I think type bible notes would be more appropriate and descriptive across the board but I know others think they should all just be bible commentary. Ultimately whatever the classification it should be consistent and that currently is not the case. If you look closely at that list a great example of this inconsistency is the Macarthur Study Bible, the NKJV version is bible notes and the NASB95 versions is bible commentary. Its the same resource just adapted to a different base translation and yet it receives two different type classifications.

EDIT NOTE: MP describes study bibles as mini bible handbooks.

Bible Reader's Companion which is treated as a commentary really falls more into this mini-hand book / study notes category.

Dave Hooton

I don't know the difference between a study Bible and a one volume Bible commentary

Or between a Study Bible classified as a Commentary and one that is classed as Bible Notes! There are only two "Study Bibles" I reject as commentaries but I reject many one volume Bible Commentaries; purely because of insufficient coverage eg. some with "summary", "outline", "handbook", "guide" or "concise" in their title.

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/171864#Comment_171864

reject many one volume Bible Commentaries; purely because of insufficient coverage eg. some with "summary", "outline", "handbook", "guide" or "concise" in their title.

I place "summary", "outline" & "thematic" to there own category in PG. I have another one that is bible notes which gets its own section because its really a chronological arrangement of the bible rather than pure notes.

Michael McLane

MJ, where can I find the reference info you describe from Morris Proctor? I am always looking for tips to better organize myself. Thanks.

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/171936#Comment_171936

If its the same one MJ is using the link can be found on the Help Page of MP Seminars...

This is the direct link to download it without going to the site:

http://www.mpseminars.com/images/images_A3010/Commentary-Collections.pdf

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/171951#Comment_171951

Andrew has provided the correct link.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas. The Study Bibles I am most familiar with are The Catholic Study Bible, the Ignatius Study Bible (NT only), the Orthodox Study Bible, the Access Study Bible and the Renovare Study Bible. Unfortunately none of them are in Logos although the last two especially should be. So I was stuck trying to find "consistency" in Logos resources in which as I only slightly familiar.