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Originally posted by Wannabee
Quote: | Originally posted by blhowesWhat commentaries do you and others find most useful in providing this kind of information?
| Tough call. It depends a lot on how much work you're willing to do and which book you're studying. Alford and Robertson deal well with the text, but may leave you scratching your head on occasion if you have no understanding of the Greek. I like Alford better. He simply has more information. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament is excellent for digging into the meaning of the words. This isn't a commentary either, but more of a lexical/theological aid. Hendriksen is helpful with the NT as well. MacArthur would be more expository - easy to read and deals with language enough to be helpful, but not so much as to overwhelm someone with no basic knowledge.
For the OT The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament is very helpful. So is the New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE - The NT set is helpful as well). But these deal with individual words, which often requires at least some understanding of the language. You could learn how to use any of these effectively though, with just a little bit of study. For the Psalms you need Spurgeon. Regardless of what some people say, he does have some good exegetical information in The Treasury of David. But you need the unabridged version. The re-edited versions take out a lot of the exegitcal information. Spurgeon used books that we can't find today. Some of these observations are extremely valuable (like his discussion on "Selah"). There will be a commentary on the Psalms coming out soon from Dr. William Barrick also. I expect it to be very thorough and very good. You can check out a little bit of his work at his website, www.drbarrick.org. He has teaching outlines of most of the psalms there, as well as some other information that is helpful.
One of the better commentary sets, though I don't care for the NIV, is the NIVAC. The layout makes sense and is easy to use. They're generally very helpful. Word Biblical Commentary has some excellent commentaries. So do the NIGTC, Pillar and NICNT. But many of these sets have sort of a mixed bag, with a liberal scholar thrown in here and there. That's why you want to be careful in who you read. I like Hiebert on the NT books. He deals with the language, but in terminology that isn't too difficult to follow. He also deals with some of the desagreements in translation, without bogging down. And his contextual and expositional observations are very valuable as well (I sound like a commercial).
It really depends on which book you're studying though. Often there is an excellent work on one book by one person who really didn't do much in other areas. Hoehner has an excellent commentary on Ephesians. It's really a valuable tool. Carson's commentary on John is excellent as well (though he has other excellent books). Also, there is often a good commentary within a set that is not so good, a gem amongst the pebbles.
I know this may be overwhelming, and doesn't answer your question definitively. That's because I don't know that there is a definitive answer. It's simply too subjective, depending on how much work the individual is willing to put in; how much they know; what book they're in; and of course there are theological conisiderations as well.
So, if you have a few thousand bucks laying around, buy all the sets mentioned, plus a few favorites on each book, and enjoy yourself. But if you're like me, buy the aids you can afford, focus on one book at a time and buy the best aids you can find on that book, and start digging. You could do this the rest of your life and never get through the Bible.
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Ditto.
You're not going to read them all at once, so no point in buying them all at once. Even if you got a discount for one a whole series at once, I don't know if the savings would cover the individual books you wouldn't have bought.
I get a lot of use out of my Logos. It has TDNT & TWOT. I bought it a while ago, so I don't what current configuration gets you that. The "leader books" mostly stink and the commentaries are single volume, so if you can get the good stuff without them, that's the way I would go. Then start buying commentaries 2 or 3 at time as you study or teach a book.
I was suprised by the NIVAC. I almost didn't buy it because of the cover - front is dorky and back has endorsement quotes by Rick Warren and Billy Graham. I really like the Thess. & Eze. ones, haven't read 2 Cor., but like other Hafemann works. There are some good New American Commentaries like the one on Samuel, as well as duds like the one on Ezekiel. Carson's commentary on John is GREAT.
Figure out where you want to start and ask what people like and why they like them.