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What is your favorite commentary on a New Testament book?

What is your favorite commentary on an Old Testament book?

Do you have a favorite monograph?

Written by Mike Aubrey

March 31, 2008 at 10:24 am

Posted in Books

22 Responses

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I admittedly haven’t read a whole lot of commentaries but out of the ones I have read I would have to say:

NT:
Wright’s NIB Romans commentary (Fee’s Philippians NICNT a close 2nd)

OT: John Walton’s NIVAC Gensis Commentary.

Monographs:
Fee’s God’s Empowering Presence Francis Watson’s Paul and the Hermeneutic of Faith a close 2nd or Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God)

The monographs are hard to choose!

Bryan

Bryan L

March 31, 2008 at 10:31 am

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That’s a tough one!

I think Brown’s work on all things John is fantastic and indispensable. I also like Dunn’s and then Byrne’s work in Romans.

For OT I like Mays work on Psalms, Von Rad on Genesis (old but a classic), and Fretheim’s work on Exodus is great.

Schnackenburg’s Jesus in the Gospels is fantastic as well as Child’s Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments.

Drew

March 31, 2008 at 11:31 am

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What is your favorite commentary on a New Testament book?

I’ve only read commentaries on Luke and Romans through Ephesians so far but by far my favorite is O’Brien’s Ephesians. I’ll be reading Fee’s Philippians next so Bryan has me looking forward to that.

What is your favorite commentary on an Old Testament book?

I’ve yet to read a real commentary on an OT book. I will after I get through the NT. But the book The Gospel of Job by Mason was good enough to read two times.

Do you have a favorite monograph?

I’m not exactly sure if this would be classified as a monograph but Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Lloyd-Jones was pretty life changing.

Scripture Zealot

March 31, 2008 at 11:42 am

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My fave NT Commentary is Anthony Thiselton’s commentary on 1 Corinthians – but that’s hardly surprising given that I love all things Thiseltonian and all things Corinthian… don’t you wish you had a surname that could be made into a theological term?

Matthew R. Malcolm

March 31, 2008 at 11:58 am

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NT Commentary: A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. — Bruce M. Metzger*

OT Commentary: Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 1: Pentateuch — Keil & Delitzsch

Monograph: Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity — Larry Hurtado

* But if you mean on an individual book then it would be The Gospel of John: A Commentary (2 vols.) — Craig Keener

Nick Norelli

March 31, 2008 at 12:26 pm

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What is your favorite commentary on a New Testament book?

William Barclay’s “Daily Study Bible”. Pick your book.

What is your favorite commentary on an Old Testament book?

Calvin Seerveld’s “The Greatest Song, in critique of Solomon”

Do you have a favorite monograph?

Garry Friesen’s “Decision Making and the Will of God”

ElShaddai Edwards

March 31, 2008 at 1:07 pm

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I’m yet to have found “the perfect” commentary on Ephesians.

My favorite NT commentary is either RT France on Matthew (NICNT, not TNTC) or perhaps Fee on 1 Cor. Fee is *always* an enjoyable read. But I also like Barrett on 1 Cor and Moo on Romans (I haven’t read Wright).

In the OT world, there are a few I’ve really enjoyed. Gerald Wilson on the Psalms is a delightful read and theologically stimulating (I wish he had finished volume 2 before he died – our loss, his gain). Bruce Waltke’s commentary on Proverbs was the first commentary I read – or at least volume one was. I’m still working on volume 2.

Monographs…that’s a tough one. Either Schnabel’s Early Christian Mission or the highly pastoral and exegetically delight, Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor (NSBT) by Trevor Burke. It was the first book review I wrote – and actually it was for class. Burke was my professor for Hermeneutics, Greek, & Romans.

Mike

March 31, 2008 at 2:47 pm

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Nick, for some reason, wordpress thought your comment was spam.

Mike

March 31, 2008 at 3:03 pm

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WordPress has done that with Nick’s comments on my blog too (and only his). weird.

What I’ve read of Fee’s 1 Corinthians commentary I like even more than his Philippians commentary. I just haven’t read enough of it to list it as a favorite.

I also really like what I’ve read of Thiselton but I find myself disagreeing with him on certain things (especially if he is at odds with Fee : )

Bryan

Bryan L

March 31, 2008 at 5:10 pm

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It’s a conspiracy! Not too many people know this, but WordPress is run by the SBC and they have been trying to censor me for years!

Nick Norelli

March 31, 2008 at 5:14 pm

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I’ve only perused Thiselton slightly, definitely not enough to make a decision about it – other than its a mammoth commentary!

Mike

March 31, 2008 at 5:15 pm

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Nick’s comments get dumped to spam on my blog as well…

Unfortunately I only use commentaries for reference; where do you all find the time to read an entire commentary!?!

Nathan Stitt

March 31, 2008 at 11:35 pm

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Before I go to bed, I’ll read the exposition of a paragraph or two of Biblical text. I’ve been doing that for a couple years now. My wife likes it when I read it out loud to her, too.

Mike

April 1, 2008 at 12:00 am

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Our wives sound nothing alike, hahaha!

I’ll probably start reading the WBC commentaries once my dad drops them off on Saturday. Though they’ll likely take me awhile to actually get through completely.

Nathan Stitt

April 1, 2008 at 12:07 am

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Word Biblical doesn’t read quickly at all. Its quite a technical commentary. I’ve never read one from that series all the way through, though I plan on it at some point…

Mike

April 1, 2008 at 12:24 am

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If you’re going to start with the WBC you might want to try Bauckham on Jude and 2 Peter. I hear great things about that one and it’s small. Other than that most of them seem kind of dry to me because of their format. Although I was enjoying Hartley on Leviticus.

I don’t really read commentaries much anymore. I’ll probably start after I make a significant dent in my other non-commentary books.

Bryan L

April 1, 2008 at 8:19 am

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Lincoln on Ephesians is also good, as are the two volumes on Mark, Longenecker on Galatians, and O’Brien on Colossians and Philemon – which is a shorter one.

Smalley on 1-3 John is also good, I’ve read parts and my mother has said good things about it too.

Mike

April 1, 2008 at 8:34 am

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Dang Mike!! Your mom too? So let me get this straight your dad, mom and wife all read commentaries?!! Man you’re lucky : )

Bryan L

April 1, 2008 at 9:50 am

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Well, my parents don’t read them straight through the way I do. She uses them to prepare teaching and my dad is a pastor.

But yes, its true.

Mike

April 1, 2008 at 10:11 am

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Wow, you are blessed. My pastor and father both learned Greek & Hebrew in seminary but have voluntarily let it go. The only good thing about it has been that I have free access to most of their books since they aren’t using them. I really wish there were more people around with these interests, but I guess I’ll be content with those online.

Nathan Stitt

April 1, 2008 at 10:41 am

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Don’t worry Nathan, I’m here for you.

Mike

April 1, 2008 at 3:47 pm

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[...] frankly, I’m not sure my mental curiosity could stand the focus of such a text, or any other theological monograph. And certainly none of the application-level tripe being published today would be worthy of such a [...]

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