International Critical Commentary

danmpem · #1 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 02:13 AM

I just heard about this commentary set, and when I checked it out on Amazon, it was really expensive! Does anyone know anything about it? How is it? Where can I read it online for free?

DMcFadden · #2 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 02:25 AM

The ICC is an old standard (a number of volumes have been updated) that is really expensive. Some of the volumes are amazingly good, others are virtually useless to anyone but a technical scholar. Besides, many of the volumes are from a very critical perspective that can be tedious to read.

I would not recommend it to a college student. You can get much more bang for you buck elsewhere. When I was in the pastorate and had 20-35 commentaries on many books of the Bible, there were only a small number of ICC volumes in my library.

greenbaggins · #3 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 11:38 AM

Like any set, the ICC is a hit and miss set. Don't buy sets of commentaries. In the ICC, I have found Cranfield on Romans invaluable, and Best on Ephesians is good, as is Marshall on the Pastorals, despite these three authors liberal slants on several issues. The ICC is an extremely technical commentary series. So, if you don't know Hebrew and Greek, don't buy any of them.

Bygracealone · #4 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenbaggins

Like any set, the ICC is a hit and miss set. Don't buy sets of commentaries. In the ICC, I have found Cranfield on Romans invaluable, and Best on Ephesians is good, as is Marshall on the Pastorals, despite these three authors liberal slants on several issues. The ICC is an extremely technical commentary series. So, if you don't know Hebrew and Greek, don't buy any of them.

I've got 30 volumes of this set that I picked up for a VERY good price years back; I hardly ever use them.

Lane, I must have the older set since Sanday and Headlam are the names for my commentary on Romans and I don't have Best or Marshall either... :-(

greenbaggins · #5 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 09:57 AM

I have every single ICC volume that has ever been published. The older ones are definitely hit and miss. Sanday and Headlam is actually still useful. The old Matthew commentary is hideous (the one by Allen), but the new one by Davies and Allison is extremely valuable. Here are the new volumes: Williamson on Isaiah 1-5; Goldingay/Payne on "Second Isaiah" (yeah, I know, yeach), McKane on Jeremiah, Macintosh on Hosea, Davies/Allison on Matthew, Cranfield on Romans, Best on Ephesians, Wilson on Colossians/Philemon, and Marshall on the Pastorals. Cranfield is the oldest of these volumes, and it was originally published in the 1970's, whereas the newest ones were just published last year. They intend to continue the series, although, like many series, it is being bought out by several companies. It is hard even to keep track of who owns the series. These commentaries usually come from a moderate to very liberal stance. The newer ones are much more inclined to comment on the final form of the text, and have many more literary insights than the older set.