Which Commentary

[Mike Wilson]

For a long time now I have been looking for a particular kind of commentary, not one that comments only on the text but one that supplies the missing explanation or background. Let me give an example. Reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell recently, he provided what I found to be really helpful explanations as the the origin and meaning of several words and phrases in Matthew's Gospel, including 'yoke': a Rabi's particular interpretation of scripture, ie his 'yoke'; to be given 'the keys of the kingdom of heaven': was in Jesus' day the approval for a rabbi teach his own 'yoke'; 'bound' and 'loosed' was to do with how scripture was interpreted in one 'yoke' compared to another, and so on. As I am sure you all realise, it makes such a difference to understanding when these snippets are made known. It does to me anyway.

 

Several commentaries come close to doing a good job on this kind of information but most merely seem to comment on what is written, and not much by way of background information.

 

Now I have a lot of Accordance non-original-language modules and perhaps I'm just not looking hard enough. Or is there one particular commentary that you believe is what I am looking for?

 

Most grateful for any suggestions or comments.

 

Mike

[RobM]

Mike,

 

I kinda depends on whether or not you're looking for a series that accomplishes this or for a list of good individual commentaries (which may be part of a set). Every commentary series is going to be mixed bag. There will be some excellent volumes and then there will be some that just take up space on your shelf. If you are looking for a commentary series (especially in light of the sale going on right now), then I would recommend looking at the stated purpose a given series has sought to fulfill. In general, I think the NAC series would be a good fit for what you are looking for. It can be technical, but is also concerned with exposition of scripture and development of the theme/message/argument citing background issues along the way. Something to keep in mind is that inclusion of background material in a commentary is a decision the commentator has to make. Sometimes there is no pertinent background information to include whereas at other times there is but including it would be extraneous to the purpose of the series.

 

If you are looking for a commentary that focuses exclusively on background material you could look at ZIBBCOT (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary on the Old Testament) and its NT counterpart.

 

The EBC would also be a good one to look at.

 

However, commentaries that deal more with the original languages would also be helpful (I don't know how much you work in the languages...). For this you should also look at Word Biblical Commentary (has OT and NT commentaries), Hermeneia (OT, NT, and others), NIGTC (NT only), and Pillar (NT only).

 

Hope that helps!

[Mark Allison]

Mike,

 

You might also want to look at "The Bible Speaks Today". It has a lot of good background info too.

[Timothy Jenney]

I've been very impressed with the IVP Essentials bundle. It contains several "background" commentaries, plus a Bible dictionary and "hard sayings," a commentary on just the hardest sayings of the Bible. I purchased it myself several years ago and have found it very helpful.

 

[As you can see, commentaries are difficult to recommend, as everyone has their favorites!]

[Helen Brown]

I highly recommend the commentaries and dictionaries in the IVP Essential Reference Library. In particular there are Bible Background commentaries and dictionaries.

[mikes]

I would strongly recommend two things:

1. The IVP bundle - great start for this kind of background

2. NIDOTTE and NIDNTT - New and Old Testament word-based dictionaries that pull from BDAG and other sources to give you insight into the original language as it was used in the NT, OT (hebrew and LXX) and in "the world" (Classical Greek usage for the NT, ANE usage for the OT).

 

If you have the money, I would also suggest the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

 

I realize that these are not all necessarily "commentaries", but I believe they will provide you with the resources you're interested in digging into.

 

If you have further question, please feel free to message me privately and I can share more with you if you like.

[B Tan]

Mike, I'm really glad that you've asked this question, because it helped me shape one that's been fermenting for some time. I think just depending on one commentary won't fulfil your needs -- you'll need a combination of good dictionaries and commentaries, and make use of Accordance's search functions to help you dig out the information you need. Maybe this site might help you: http://www.bestcommentaries.com/, and specifically the pages http://www.bestcommentaries.com/library/481/d-a-carsons-best-buys/ and http://www.bestcommentaries.com/best.aspx.

 

As for my question:

 

From how-to books like RC Sproul's Knowing Scripture and Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart's How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Mike, these two books might help you assess which commentaries are worth your time too), I understand that commentaries and other study tools are best used for understanding context and should really be the last resort when it comes to understanding content for ourselves.

 

Accordance puts all the commentaries, dictionaries, etc. at my fingertips, though, so it's become a sort of composite authority figure, especially when I encounter odd-sounding claims. I run to Accordance to help me assess their truth (rather than 'truthiness'!).

 

For example, just last week, I heard a sermon on how, having read 2 Corinthians 9 '100 times', the preacher was convinced that he had the true interpretation of it -- that giving to the church means securing financial success for oneself. Alarmed by this possibly being a manifestation of the much-maligned 'prosperity gospel', I ran a Search All on my commentaries, and found a mention on 'theology of prosperity' in The Bible Speaks Today that blew the preacher's interpretation to smithereens.

 

But here's something that's been worrying me -- a while ago, I came across this line in a guide on leading a small group Bible study (the line is a quote from The Big Book of Small Groups by Jeffrey Arnold, published by IVP in 2004):

Jesus’ words in John 14 about his Father’s house having many rooms were in reality the words used when a young man asked for a woman’s hand in marriage.

I ran a Search All Tools on John 14:2, but none of the commentaries, dictionaries, etc. I have seem to support this claim. Can I then assume that it's absolutely wrongheaded? If the body of knowledge in Accordance represents a good selection of the best and brightest and saltiest (as in, salt-of-the-earth salty) of Christian thought, then support for this claim shouldn't be so hard to find, right? Or did I go about it the wrong way?

 

I'm attaching my Search results as a reference.

[R. Mansfield]

But here's something that's been worrying me -- a while ago, I came across this line in a guide on leading a small group Bible study (the line is a quote from The Big Book of Small Groups by Jeffrey Arnold, published by IVP in 2004):

 

I ran a Search All Tools on John 14:2, but none of the commentaries, dictionaries, etc. I have seem to support this claim. Can I then assume that it's absolutely wrongheaded? If the body of knowledge in Accordance represents a good selection of the best and brightest and saltiest (as in, salt-of-the-earth salty) of Christian thought, then support for this claim shouldn't be so hard to find, right? Or did I go about it the wrong way?

 

I found a reference to this custom in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary on the New Testament. I have the actual physical copy, but I hope to see this series and its OT counterpart in Accordance one day.

 

Anyway, here is a brief portion of the discussion of this verse that relates to what you said above:

 

In Jesus' day, many dwelling units (rooms) were combined to form an extended household. It was customary for sons to add to their father's house once married, so that the entire estate grew into a large compound (called insula) centered around a communal courtyard.

 

There's more there in the book, but that's the main part that touches on what you referred to. There was also a footnote in the text referring to J. McCaffrey's The House with Many Rooms: The Temple Theme of John 14:2-3.

[B Tan]

Thanks, R. Mansfield -- very useful to know more of the context. But I'm wondering why it is that a link between this custom of grooms building extensions to their fathers' houses not mentioned in any of the resources I searched; at the very least, there could have been a link drawn between the custom and the reference to the marriage of the Lamb (Revelations 19:7). It worries me that only the commentary you've used so far has the 'answer'! Doesn't there have to be some sort of universal consensus before an interpretation is deemed 'correct'? Anyway, I'm grateful for you thumbing through the Zondervan -- something else to put on the wishlist if and when it arrives in Accordance. Thank you!

[R. Mansfield]

Thanks, R. Mansfield -- very useful to know more of the context. But I'm wondering why it is that a link between this custom of grooms building extensions to their fathers' houses not mentioned in any of the resources I searched; at the very least, there could have been a link drawn between the custom and the reference to the marriage of the Lamb (Revelations 19:7). It worries me that only the commentary you've used so far has the 'answer'! Doesn't there have to be some sort of universal consensus before an interpretation is deemed 'correct'? Anyway, I'm grateful for you thumbing through the Zondervan -- something else to put on the wishlist if and when it arrives in Accordance. Thank you!

 

Well, this wasn't the only commentary I had used so far. When I saw your post above about Clinton Arnold's interpretation, I immediately double checked some of the same works in Accordance as you had, looking at a number of modules myself. At this point, we have two witnesses to this fact--Clinton Arnold in your IVP book and Andreas Kostenberger who wrote the Zondervan commentary. Since Arnold is more explicit, I'd still like to ask him for his source for this information. My hunch is that there's an article or book somewhere out there that has explored marriage customs of the period in great detail and this has been applied to John 14:2, probably very correctly. But I have no idea what that source is at the moment.

 

The problem with the other commentaries that you and I looked at is that they jump immediately from the text to a theological interpretation--an eschatological interpretation in every source I looked at. Now, it's not wrong to give the passage an eschatological interpretation--I think that's very correct in the context of John 14--but these commentators have seemingly sidestepped a major part of their exegesis--doing a background study of the text.

 

This kind of oversight is not uncommon and should spur us all not to stop with the commentaries (or even necessarily start with them), but to dig much deeper. In fact, it's a similar oversight that spurred the idea for my dissertation (which I should be working on right now!). I read a passage in the NT which I thought had incredibly strong ties to the OT, but when I looked at commentaries, no one else seemed to have picked up on this because they all rushed to the theological interpretation--eschatological, in fact, just as in the example of your text above.

 

Accordance is very beneficial here because we can check so many sources so very quickly. But this simply goes to show you that even Bible software can't simply hand you the answers in pre-defined form (although some seem to try). We have to have the privilege to search these issues out, mining the depths of Scripture for ourselves.

[B Tan]

The problem with the other commentaries that you and I looked at is that they jump immediately from the text to a theological interpretation--an eschatological interpretation in every source I looked at. Now, it's not wrong to give the passage an eschatological interpretation--I think that's very correct in the context of John 14--but these commentators have seemingly sidestepped a major part of their exegesis--doing a background study of the text.

 

Very thoughtful words, thank you. I'd hoped that the dictionaries and introductory bits of the commentaries would be able to help with the background study, so I really am disappointed that they haven't reached in the aforementioned direction for John 14:2. This sort of knowledge is just out of my league as a lay person. I'm still secretly hoping that it's because I've gone about the search in the wrong way, but at the end of the day, I mustn't lose sight of the fact that it's really Scripture itself that make up the keys to the kingdom, not a complete awareness of every single shade of contemporary culture. Thanks again!

[Fr. Rich]

If you need to use a commentary for help with exegesis, you will need to use an exegetical commentary. Accordance gives you some excellent choices of such commentaries. The Word Biblical Commentary, the NIGTC or Hermeneia are examples of high quatlity, exegetical commentaries available in Accordance.

[Timothy Jenney]

I mustn't lose sight of the fact that it's really Scripture itself that make up the keys to the kingdom, not a complete awareness of every single shade of contemporary culture.

 

Hi, B Tam!

 

I think you've done very well for a "lay person," especially regarding checking an interpretation you weren't sure about. Well done!

 

I don't know any of us "scholars" that claim to know everything. Biblical studies are full of surprises, even for those of us that have been in the field for a long time. No one can master everything.

 

That's particularly true when we are trying to tease out the exact nature of an allusion [or perhaps metaphor] like the one in John 14:2. Was Jesus referring to a Greco-Roman-style household, with the multi-generation villas occupied by the wealthy? Or was he referring to the Jewish temple(s), with their associated residences for those who served there (priests and Levites)? We may never know for sure [until we get to heaven and can ask him! :-)]

 

I can tell you how to go about studying this issue though. The Greek words are those for house/household and dwelling/room (literally "place to dwell or remain). Note that the same word is found both in John 14:2 and vs. 23, where Jesus says "we will come to them and make our home with them." [That's very different from the cultural norm of the married child coming to live with the parents!]

 

The discussion seems to be linked to John 1:14, where Jesus came to [temporarily] dwell among humans. In the future, he will dwell with us permanently (cf. Rev. 21:3 cf. Lev. 26:11f).

 

There is more, but this will get you started.

[B Tan]

If you need to use a commentary for help with exegesis, you will need to use an exegetical commentary. Accordance gives you some excellent choices of such commentaries. The Word Biblical Commentary, the NIGTC or Hermeneia are examples of high quatlity, exegetical commentaries available in Accordance.

 

Hi Fr. Rich, I actually do have the WBC; when I did a search for John 14:2, nothing about the language of a prospective bridegroom came up!

 

 

There is more, but this will get you started.

 

Thanks for the tips, Dr. J. -- I'll start on the trail and see where it leads me!

[markbenno]

Hi,

 

I got $200 for Christmas to buy a commentary set to use with Accordance. I read through this series of messages with interest, but I'm still uncertain.

 

I'm an adult Sunday School teacher at a large Southern Baptist Church without a seminary background. I teach mostly from an application standpoint, but I really enjoy intertwining hidden historical and cultural gems that I can pull from background material. I don't look at the Greek or Hebrew backgrounds very often. I generally spend about four hours per week preparing for my lesson.

 

Based on all of that (and the December sale), I'm considering:

 

MacArthur New Testament Commentary

The Bible Speaks Today

 

I also read with interest in a previous post about the Zondervan Illustrated (ZIBBCO), but I can't find that as an Accordance module.

 

 

Thanks in advance for any guidance on the three products above or other suggestions.

 

-Mark

[Rick Bennett]

The Zondervan Illustrated commentaries aren't available as of now.

 

One option you may want to consider is the Bible Speaks Today, and the IVP Collection. The total price, $223, is a little more than $200 but will give you a wealth of material to work with (OT, NT and dictionaries).

 

HTH…

[B Tan]

One option you may want to consider is the Bible Speaks Today, and the IVP Collection. The total price, $223, is a little more than $200 but will give you a wealth of material to work with (OT, NT and dictionaries).

 

I concur. I have both BST and the IVP collection, and am certain this combination will give you the strong historical and cultural backgrounds you seek from which to prepare your lessons. You might want to check out the Lighting the Lamp podcasts on inductive Bible study to see how you can put the tools together in your work -- only caveat is that you might be sorely tempted by the graphics DVD afterwards!

[Mike Wilson]

Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. Thank you everyone for your thoughtful input, and encouragement. Your replies tell me what I expected (feared?): Here are some good resources to start with but there is no single answer, you just have to go and do the work.

 

But I am sincerely grateful for those good resource recommendations.

 

Mike

[Fr. Matthew Thurman]

One option you may want to consider is the Bible Speaks Today, and the IVP Collection. The total price, $223, is a little more than $200 but will give you a wealth of material to work with (OT, NT and dictionaries).

The only commentaries I've had are the IVP Collection (since fall 2005) and they've been very helpful in providing background/context for the bulk of my work in Accordance. I've been considering getting Bible Speaks Today--I've seen some of the print editions and they include application.