As graduation draws near, I am thinking about investing in a good commentary series. I would like to build up mostly individual commentaries, but also a series, to have some continuity from one book to another. Any suggestions on the best overall OT and NT commentary series for expository preaching, as well as individual commentaries that stand out?
Subscribe to our newsletter and get information about new videos, content and events.
I’m excited to be teaching an online cohort on arguments for Christianity. We will dive deep into 6 topics, with a view to real conversations and the pressing questions of our culture. Lots of time for interaction. This will be fun! You’re invited to join us!
6 Responses
Gavin,Not sure if you remember me from Athens, but I’m thinking of the same thing right now and I’ve found that the Pillar and NIC(OT and NT) series, overall, are really helpful commentaries that are semi-technical. You’d be pretty safe to buy one of those series, though I’m not sure if they’re complete yet.Also, bestcommentaries.com is a great place to go for recommendations (probably more than you want). Blessings,Paul Cable
Paul, I remember you well, its great to hear from you. Hope your studies at Southern are going well. Thanks for the advice – everyone I have asked thus far has recommended the NICNT especially – I think thats definitely the one I am leaning towards.
I’ve recently worked on building up my commentary resources and find that the the series from which I have the most volumes are three: Tyndale NT/OT Commentaries, NICNT/NICOT, and the NAC series.There are several other good series (BECNT, Pillar for example) but they are NT only and only have some volumes out so far.NICNT and NAC are similar while the TNTC/TOTC are much more brief. I expected to lean more heavily on the NIC and NAC but the Tyndale series is so consistently helpful that I frequently turn to it alongside the more detailed commentaries.One other option: Expositor’s Bible Commentary. As a set for the whole bible, I think it would be noticeably cheaper than NICNT/OTbestcommentaries.com is an excellent resource that you might want to check out.
Thank you Dylan, very helpful!
Gav – I get asked this sometimes, and always have to say that (in my opinion) every commentary series varies widely from book to book in helpfulness. But I always tend to check NICOT, Word Biblical Commentary, Hermeneia, Anchor Bible.
Thanks Eric – I am thinking about getting the NICOT to complement NICNT.