New Testament Commentary Survey by
Highly respected New Testament scholar D. A. Carson provides students and pastors with expert guidance on choosing a commentary for any book of the New Testament. The seventh edition has been updated to assess the most recently published commentaries. Carson examines sets, one-volume commentaries, and New Testament introductions and theologies, offering evaluative comments on the available offerings for each New Testament book. This is an essential guide to building a reference library.
Old Testament Commentary Survey by
Leading Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman III provides students and pastors with expert guidance on choosing a commentary for any book of the Old Testament. The fifth edition has been updated to assess the most recently published commentaries, providing evaluative comments. Longman lists a number of works available for each book of the Old Testament, gives a brief indication of their emphases and viewpoints, and evaluates them. The result is a balanced, sensible guide for those who preach and teach the Old Testament and need help in choosing the best tools.
Commentary and Reference Survey by
Now in its tenth edition, this reliable, acclaimed guide lists and ranks approximately 900 commentaries and 1,600 other biblical resources for the benefit of professors, Bible students, and pastors. Two new chapters on exegetical software round out this comprehensive guide.
A Guide to Biblical Commentaries and Reference Works by
A Guide to Biblical Commentaries and Reference Works, by John F. Evans, summarizes and briefly analyzes all recent and many older commentaries on each book of the Bible, giving insightful comments on the approach of each commentary and its interpretive usefulness especially for evangelical interpreters of the Bible. A Guide to Biblical Commentaries and Reference Works is essentially an annotated bibliography of hundreds of commentators. More scholarly books receive a longer, more detailed treatment than do lay commentaries, and highly recommended commentaries have their author's names in bold. The author keeps up on the publication of commentaries and intends to update this book every three to four years.
The New Testament Commentary Guide by
An indispensable map to the often intimidating world of biblical commentaries. For many beginning students of the New Testament, looking for a commentary seems like a simple process: identify the book you're studying, search for a commentary, and pick one. However, the reality is far from simple. With new commentaries being published every year on every book of the Bible, the student of Scripture can quickly become overwhelmed with an inexhaustible amount of resources. What is the student to do? In this short, accessible resource, Nijay Gupta helps beginning Bible students understand the various available commentaries--their strengths, unique contributions, and ultimately, how to use them. Through The New Testament Commentary Guide, readers will understand how to incorporate commentaries into their learning and be enriched in their study of the Bible.
When searching the JFL main page for a Bible commentary, select the Books tab, then enter Commentary, and the biblical book in question.
Another search tactic is to pick a popular series and enter that name along with the biblical book of choice.
There are 4 Types of Bible Commentaries:
For an introduction to these various types of Bible commentaries see the tutorial below.
A Good Scholarly Exegetical Commentary;
For additional help on what makes for a good commentary see Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, 2014.
Note - The author alone is not the best way to determine if a work is an exegetical or scholarly commentary. And, sometimes a scholar may produce two versions of a commentary, one that is more technical and one that is more applicational or aimed at a general audience. Find your passage in the commentary, and then look for footnotes, in-text citations, use of original languages, and other forms of documentation. Pick a problem passage, one that is often debated, and examine how the author works through the difficulties and interpretative debates. Once a commentary has been identified as scholarly, the others in that same series can safely be deemed scholarly too.
To identify a commentary as 'devotional' or non-scholarly is Not a statement about its theological perspective or truthfulness. Some very academic commentaries have questionable viewpoints, and some devotional works are solidly biblical. The distinction is about how the author documents their own resources, how they openly engage other viewpoints and perspectives, and how they provide the reader with quality resources that were used within the commentary or that can facilitate more research.
How to Find Commentaries;
As you look through the results, be on the lookout for noted scholars in the field and reputable academic publishers (B&H Academic, Brazos, Eerdmans, Baker, IVP, Zondervan, etc.).
For additional help in how to find commentaries watch the tutorial below.
Bible Commentary Genre Search
Click here to do a genre search of Bible commentaries in the Jerry Falwell Library. A variety of Bible commentaries will show up in the search results covering books in the Old Testament and New Testament.
