Recommendations for Commentaries

Recommendations for Commentaries

by
William Arnold III
WmArnold@gmail.com

Question:

Greetings in Christ! I am writing concerning the use of commentaries. I have several but I am looking for better ones. What is a good set of commentaries worth purchasing? Furtermore, what about individual commentaries? Many times entire sets are not necessary but only certain volumes. I especially enjoy expositional commentaries such as Martyn Lloyd-Jones works, and the works of J.M. Boice, and the Preaching the Word series. However, I would like a good commentary that deals with the technical issues, with good introductions and contextual information. Where should I look?

Response:

I have been planning to put together a "Recommended Books" list on the site but haven't gotten around to it. There are two commentary sets which I reccomend that combine value, scholarship and are not overly technical The first is the Expositor's Bible Commentary on CDRom, which I got for $95. It covers the whole Bible, just about verse by verse and reflects good scholarship. I love it because it goes wherever my laptop does. I give this one my highest recommendation. I think the hard copy set runs about $300. The second is Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, which I got for $70 from CBD. They are paperback, not quite as thorough and not quite as technical as the Expositor's, but a pretty good buy nonetheless. They also have an OT series, but it costs much more. If you want to spend money, the New International Commentary of the NT / OT series is a really good one that the pros use. I don't own any of them myself but have used some from Western Seminary's library. They are a little more advanced. Finally, Word Biblical Commentary is one the most advanced sets which is still somewhat conservative. It is available indivually or also on CDRom. I think the CDRom is now down to about $650, which is still much more than I want to spend.