This is only my second post. It is really hard to start and even harder to finish a post. I have to constantly remind myself that I am not writing a dissertation.
It is only a matter of time before a question comes to the mind of any Christian after this question ("Why do I need a bible commentary?") is resolved: Which bible commentary should I get?
I had to wrestle with that question a couple of weeks ago when my small group decided to study the book of Genesis.
A few years ago, while I was going to purchase one of the commentary of a New Testament book by Kistemaker, I found out that one volume cost about $40. When I found out that the whole 12-volume set of that commentary--Baker NT Commentary Series (Hendriksen/Kistemaker) can be purchased for $150 from ChristianBook.com, I bought the whole set.
Mathematically, that made sense back then. Looking back though, I should not have made that decision to purchase the whole set for the simple fact that the best commentaries for each book are never found in one set of bible commentary. Having said that, I have just found out that the same set can now be owned for $100 plus shipping.
John Piper's ministry website, Desiring God (DG) has put out a helpful article on this very topic. It is worth reading, I would disagree on purchasing only electronic version of the commentary for reasons that are raised here by the producer of BibleWorks here. Unless you know that you will use it to search for keywords or absolutely sure that you will be using it daily before the electronic copy become inaccessible because the computer hardware becomes obsolete or the industry has moved on to new electronic format. Physical books, on the other hand, is going to be accessible longer. If you leads a nomadic life, now the idea of carrying all your library in a laptop computer suddenly becomes very attractive.
Anyway, the article from DG raised a few issues that I would like to summarize here. The most important question to ask yourself is: How am I going to use the commentaries? Pick the option that would fulfill your need now and years in the future.
Price would be a factor too. There are some freely available commentary sets such as: Matthew Henry, John Calvin, etc. If you live near a seminary that has a library, you might be able to access the collection there. Most likely, you have to be there to use it and will not be able to check it out.
These are some of the recommendations I found online:
Tremper Longman III - Top Rated Old Testament Commentaries:
here
Westminster Theological Seminary Bookstore Staff Picks: Commentaries:
here
I recommend buying the commentaries from a bookstore owned by a theological seminary top support the seminary even though its prices are not the cheapest compared to other online booksellers (Amazon--Amazon's prices on academic Christian books had not been the cheapest, Buy.com, ChristianBook.com, and others).
However, I found the bookstore operated by the Westminster Theological Seminary to be very professional and its prices are reasonable (I still do comparison shopping everytime): http://www.wtsbooks.com/
Another site that started out as providing links to Christian resources on the Internet and then started putting serious time into selling books online. It is my understanding that the guy only sells books and other resources he recommends, the online bookstore can be found here: http://www.monergismbooks.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hi Edy,
Peisy introduced me to your blog. Nice one. Keep one your good work. By the way, my better half (and he's absolutely better in some aspects, especially in theology and philosophy, than me) would recommend you to buy more than one set :D Have you got the set of Calvin Commentary since you're from GRII? And how about Matthew Henry or Believer's Bible Commentary by William MacDonald? By the way, I'm enjoying John Vernon McGee's commentary. It was on sale at Christianbook.com too. Hope this info is useful for you.
God bless you,
Loy
Post a Comment