Finding, Collecting, and Using the Best Bible Commentaries // Tips For Choosing The Best
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- čas přidán 17. 07. 2024
- Join me as I share some of the things I have learned about Bible commentaries, picking the best ones, and building a pastoral library.
Term Definitions:
Technical - These commentaries are primarily intended for those with advanced or intermediate knowledge of biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek).
Pastoral - These commentaries are primarily intended for pastors, teachers, and serious students of the Bible. Knowledge of biblical languages will be helpful but not necessary to benefit from these works.
Devotional - These commentaries are primarily intended for personal Bible study and edification, focusing on the meaning and practical application of the text.
(The definitions above are from Dr. Akin's Free PDF available at the link below)
Links from this video:
Best Commentaries: bestcommentaries.com/
Ligonier: www.ligonier.org/learn/articl...
TGC: www.thegospelcoalition.org/bl...
Dr. Danny Akin - Building your Theological Library: www.danielakin.com/building-a...
Section Titles:
0:00 - Welcome, Comments, Leave a Question
1:16 - Who is this video for? - The curious
1:55 - A word about Study Bibles
5:09 - FINDING THE BEST
5:17 - Best Commentaries
6:06 - Ligonier Top 5 List
7:09 - TGC
7:34 - Danny Akin - Building your Theological Library
8:19 - Logos Bible Software and Digital Commentaries
9:17 - COLLECTING THE BEST
9:37 - 1 Philosophy - diversify and get the best
10:40 - 2 Philosophy - Sinclair Ferguson (Latest Released, 1 or 2 of the best, one classical, one from a differing viewpoint.)
13:02 - H. B. Charles Jr. - On Pastoring Chapter 17 "Developing a Pastor's Library"
13:28 - Get the Best
13:48 - Date Before You Marry
14:32 - Buy Individuals and Not Sets
16:20 - Buy used books, they are tools
16:40 - Books will never leave or forsake you
17:11 - USING THE BEST
17:39 - Technical Commentaries
20:03 - Pastoral Commentaries
22:17 - Expositional/Expository
23:43- Devotional Commentaries
24:38 - Sub Categories
25:01 - Classical Commentaries
26:25 - Christ-Centered Exposition Series
27:05 - Final Words
(I am blessed to have the volumes I already have in my pastoral library and would love to hear from you. What is your favorite commentary author? What is your favorite commentary? And, do you have a favorite commentary series?)
#Back2theWord, Because #JesusIsENOUGH and Following Jesus is the Greatest Adventure!
you will have a LOT more time to spend in God's word once you are retired...now that I have retired I can spend 6 hours or more a day.. reading the word , commentaries.. or watching videos like this...woohoo!..PRAISE THE LORD>>>
When do you go witnessing?
@@johndisalvo6283
when I go to restaurants or at the store.... I try to witness... to people standing in the grocery line... I will make a comment.. like "thank God.. he has given me patience".. and then watch how the people around me will react.. some agree... and some will say.. "what God?" ..that is when I explain to them for as long as I can what God has done for me..
I do not have to convert them right there... just to get them to thinking about God...
Years ago.. every Weds night.. in lieu of the Wednesday night prayer meetings.. the men would go out in groups of 2 canvassing the neighborhood around the church.. about 200 homes.. we tried to cover a street or two in the hour or so we spent...depending on how much conversation we got into... I have very many interesting stories from Those days..
I spoke to non-'believers.. Mormons.. Catholics....people who were sloshed...
those were the ones.. who would try to tell ME what the bib le said. .the ones who could not hardly stand.. and houses with no one home we left tracts with the address and phone number of our church on them...
Me.too!😊
@@johndisalvo6283are you condemning someone for dedicating themself to scripture? 🤔 If he went from an 8hr work day to 6hrs of study, this would leave 2 additional hours for witnessing. How much of the day are you witnessing?
@@found.ernest. I was asking a question. Are you “ condemning “ me for that???
There is a dying world out there going to hell and I was asking if this person has time for the “Great Commission”. That’s all. Yes, we are commanded to “study to show thyself approved”, but also to not hide our light under a bushel, studying all day by ourselves. That is , unless you are a fatalistic Calvinite who believes God hand picks people for heaven and hell before they were born. Sorry if I triggered you!
It’s so helpful for me thank you 🙏
best video ever on bible commentaries!
Man, I’ve seen too many a video about this topic, I can say this is the BEST I’ve found.
Thanks brother for the encouragement! Glad to help!
Some people collect all kinds of different things my favorite collections are my Bibles and then my commentaries.
I use commentaries to help me prepare weekly studies for my family. They’ve been helpful to me.
Collecting commentaries is literally how I have fun 😄 Just got a couple of the new ESV Expository commentaries and they are great 👍🏻
For those new to the faith, keep in mind when he says he is 'Baptist' and equates that with 'reformed' he's not talking about your basic Baptist church theology. He's a Calvinist... and a lot of what he is recommending is going to teach you the Calvinist perspective on theology. If you don't know what that is I'd suggest studying both sides of that issue first before spending a lot of money on something you will regret.
I noted above he uses the ESV which supports Calvinism/Predestination, whereas the KJV/NKJV and CSB support Baptist's belief of free will, all of which have study versions.
Wait, do you actually *KNOW* he is a Calvinist, or are you just assuming that??
@@cassthompson3386 Like I said... when he equates the word "reformed" with "Baptist" he's saying Calvinism. That's what reformed theology is.
@@culpepper7665 I gotcha. I did some research after I left that comment. I didn't know what "reformed" meant.
(And I wasn't being rude with my first comment. I was just genuinely curious how you came to that conclusion). So thanks for the response.
I love commentaries.
Thanks for making this video!
This is so cool! Thanks for sharing such a video like this.
Keep doing amazing videos. You are truly doing the Lords work. Bless you ❤️
I was just looking for commentaries yesterday. Thank you for this video. It is perfect timing for me.
To much for me to grasp.Ill start with the esv study.Thank you much sir.
Thank you so much for your advice!
That was a nice and informative video, you should do more stuff like this. thanks, brother, I appreciate your work.
thanks, this information is very helpful for me
Thanks for the great review. It sounds like expository commentary is the right fit for personal growth! Appreciate the video!
Agree in theory that buying select "best" individual commentaries is ideal. Challenge though is cost since commentaries are expensive. Sets are cheaper, especially when you find sales on Logos, Olive Tree, Christianbook, etc. E-versions are IMO more practical because you can search and access passages quickly, and it saves limited shelf space. Btw, this is an excellent video IMO.
Great video, Joe. Thank you for the helpful information and links that you shared. In the last few years I've begun to really shape and fine tune my pastoral library. I appreciate what you said about not buying whole sets of commentaries, but rather concentrate on individual books and their own commentaries. When I was first starting out, I purchased the Bible Speaks Today set from IVP, and while the commentaries are good in general, some authors are way better than others. I should have been a bit more selective in the series.
Which ones of the BST Series would you recommend getting?
My favorite commentary so far has been John Stott’s on the sermon on the mount. It probably leans toward the devotional category but he has so many good expository insights as well
Love it! I am reading his Basic Christianity right now, plan to read between two worlds, and will have to add Sermon on the Mount to my list!
I looked it up and John Stott has done quite a few works on "The Sermon On The Mount" for different publishers. Which one do you have?
@@Back2theWord it’s the one in the Bible speaks today series!
@Nathan Baldwin ,, I am currently reading a novel ny John Stott now.. I have found it to be very technical.. ..heavily apologetic,... and a slant toward Lutheran/Catholicism.. as he talks about things in reference to the cross the way a Catholic may see them.. such as in regards to the Eucharist....he also references a lot of authors who have written things coming from Lutheran or Catholic backgrounds.. to support his apologetic arguments...
subscribed!
the ESV supports predestination/Calvinism and Baptists support free will.
Thanks for the comment… Just curious: ESV issue aside, is to be Baptist in your estimation to mean you hold a free will/non Calvinist position? If so, what about the historic distinction between particular baptists and regular baptists? And what about reformed baptists?
Lots of great help and suggestions here! Do you spend much time using concordances, dictionaries, or original language resources? If so, do you have any general recommendations? Thanks, brother!
I don’t spend as much time as I should or would like to honestly. And maybe I should tackle a video on those tools too. But yes, I have some great tools I use and can recommend.
Below are some tools I own and use. By no means have I bought many of them and picked only the best. But below is what I have picked up and found helpful over the years thus far:
ESV Exhaustive Concordance
Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
Greek NT UBS 5 with dictionary
The Treasury of Scripture knowledge (for cross reference and theme study)
ESV.org has both a Greek and Hebrew interlinear version of their Bible online for free that I use often
ESV and Greek NT from tyndale hous side by side (one page is Greek, and the opposite page is English of the same text)
With that being said. I have a Bible Dictionary and Atlas but use them rarely. I also have taken both Greek and Hebrew classes. So I have my text books from those classes. But I do want to get at least one or two more Hebrew tools in the near future.
I have made the mistake of buying entire commentary sets and really like the idea of completing a library “with the best.” With that said, if you could begin with one commentary to purchase, which would it be?
Thank you for the video my brother. Would you recommend instead getting digital commentaries? I live in Belize, and it's about double the price to get books from the USA down here. However, it's easier to get a tablet and buy from kindle.
In that case I would advise digital ones for sure! Nothing wrong with having them in a digital library, and that actually makes many things easier (including searching, copying text, etc). I just like physical copies personally because I like to feel pages. But for me in the US it only costs me $10 or so extra to get the physical copy. If I were in your shoes I would go almost completely digital and get the most for my money! - God Bless, and hope that helps!
@@Back2theWord Excellent, thank you! God bless you too!
I heard Donnie swaggart mention the George Williams Bible commentary this morning on TV . I was wondering do you have any experience with that particular commentary ?
How would you designate John MacArthur's new testament commentary series?
As pastoral commentaries (sometimes they are a bit devotional, and also go deeper at times into important exegetical considerations). But overall they are pastoral primarily.
I enjoyed this video but it is way too late for me... I have spent thousands over the years.. and have multiple complete sets...I am just a lay person that has taught some in the past.... but I have about 30 complete different commentary sets and a few I do Not know if I will complete before I die... I have found.. "The Word".. commentary books to be some of the most expensive.. as most of them run 40 dollars or better a piece.. the Anchor commentary.... is less expensive.. but they are updating many of thses volumes now.. so.. in total this set may have 200 books when it is finished.. I only have about 90 right now.. I do not know if I will continue to pursue this one or not..also their numbering for volumes is sort of hard to follow.. they may have like number 38 A... 38 B and ...38 C.. for just one book and anither book may be listed as 37 then 37 A.. for part 2.. then if another author releases a commentary on the same book in this set it may be labeled as Volume 37 C.. or just volume 37...yjos may have something to do with Yale University actually publishing these on campus now.... I am currently working on completing my R. Kent Hughes set..I can find many of these starting at 10 dollars used....also working on the NICOT and NICNT series.. but this is getting to be like the Anchor bible series... new editions by new authors are being released.. and the newer ones are more costly... my NICNT Romans is by Douglas Moo.. but I believe there are a couple others out there on Romans in this title...one of My favorite commentary sets.. is by .. JAMES BURTON COFFMAN.. he is very straight forward.. along the line of J. Vernon McGee... but goes thru each verse of the bible..
I have the moody commentary
Are you a Calvinite?