Recommending the “best” biblical commentaries from the hundreds available in a well-stocked library is complicated by their diversity of purposes, formats, theological or denominational orientations, and the level of your expertise in biblical interpretation. In our
Religion and Theology Research Guide we've recommended a number of commentaries for each book of the Bible:
Old Testament and
New Testament. Calvin Seminary's
Center for Excellence in Preaching also makes similar
recommendations.
There are several excellent print resources for commentary recommendations:
Tremper Longman,
Old Testament Commentary Survey, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 157 pp. ThRef Z7772 .A1 L64 2007
Longman describes himself as representing "an evangelical approach to the Old Testament." He gives a brief annotation for each commentary mentioned and categorizes each as suitable for the Layperson (L), Minister (M), or Scholar (S) (or some combination of these categories). He also rates each commentary on scale of one to five.
D. A. Carson,
New Testament Commentary Survey, 6th ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), 160 pp. ThRef BS2341.2 .C33 2007
Carson's commentary recommendations take the form of brief bibliographic essays (4 to 8 pages); one for each New Testament book. He avoids a formal rating system, but his comments give one a good feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the commentary literature on each book.
John Glynn,
Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources, 10th ed. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007). ThRef Z7770 .G59 2007
Glynn's book is more ambitious than the above two, with a more comprehensive coverage of other biblical reference resources. For each book of the Bible, he classifies commentaries as either "Technical/Semitechnical" or "Exposition." He also assigns one of four different classifications to each commentary (See p. 17 for his explanation of these criteria):
- "Evangelical"(E)
- "Evangelical/Critical"(E/Cr)
- "Conservative/Moderate"(C/M)
- "Liberal/Critical"(L/C)
Additionally, he highlights (in bold type) those commentaries he highly recommends. For some (though not all) commentaries he gives a few descriptive phrases, but overall his evaluative comments are few. For each biblical book he also includes a list of "special studies" which cannot be classified as commentaries.
Look for a new collection this fall at Hekman Library. On third floor we're adding a special collection of graphic novels . This isn't my project, and I'm not a great graphic novel fan, so I'm not sure what we'll be collecting. The Calvin English department will offer a course on graphic novels in the spring. Something that comes to mind in the biblical area is J. T. Waldman's Megillat Esther ( 4th floor BS1373 .W35 2005 ) (See the graphic below for a preview) . But stay tuned for further information. I couldn't resist posting the cover at left, but don't spend too much energy trying to find it; I'm fairly certain the book doesn't exist.
