which commentaries?

[Sean Caldwell]

Good morning

 

I've been using Logos for a few years and have purchased Accordance Scholar 7.4 to try on the mac. With Logos I was using the scholars pack with Logos and it features many useful commentaries. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, The Bible Readers Companion, and A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory on the OT and NT were three I used).

 

Will I find similar commentary & tools in the library 7 premier pack? In hindsight it looks like I bought the wrong pack.

 

thanks much and looking forward to using Accordance.

 

Sean

[David Nehring]

In general, I find series of commentaries to be a disappointment and tend to look for individual volumes that stand out as the best among a crowded field. I have found very few of the commentaries I consider to be the best for individual books of the Bible to be available through Accordance. So I still buy old fashioned books. I went through a long search for the best commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew a couple of months back. None of what I considered the best were available through Accordance.

 

Now I have to point out that "best" when one is talking about commentaries is a very relative term. What's best for one person may not be best for another. My bias is toward (at least when we are talking New Testament) commentaries on the Greek text that are comprehensive, summarizing the scholarly debate, and then giving the writer's considered judgement. Raymond Brown's masterful two volumes on the Gospel of John come to mind, as does the outstanding three volume work on the Gospel of Matthew by W.D. Davies and D.C. Allison.

[Helen Brown]

Accordance's Scholar's Collection includes no commentaries, it focuses on the original language texts with lexicons, grammars, and other study aids. The Library 7 has many classic commentaries, the Zondervan Scholarly Bible Study Suite for Mac has others. Then there are many modern commentaries which we offer separately, or in other packages like the Essential IVP Reference Library.

 

You can check out the complete list of commentaries here and here, but it can be hard to see what comes with what package. Of the making of commentaries there is no end! We will never have them all, and probably we will never have all that any one person might want, but we do have a good and growing selection that you can add to the Scholar's Core Bundle. BTW, if you add the Library 7 Premier within 3 months, you not only get 3 more Bibles of your choice, but you also get a $60 discount.

[Robb B]

Accordance has been adding new commentaries at a rapid rate over the past few years that I have been a user. Some of the commentaries now available include:

 

Word Biblical Commentary

New International Greek Testament Commentary

MacArthur New Testament Commentary

Calvin's Commentaries

New International Biblical Commentary

IVP Bible Background Commentary

Keil & Delitzsch

JFB

Pillar New Testament Commentary

Expositor's Bible Commentary (full and condensed versions)

Clarke's Commentary

Matthew Henry's Commentary

 

And there are others as well.

 

Most of my favorite commentaries are not part of a package (with the exception of Calvin). From my own experience, I would say that if your favorite commentary set isn't available, there is a fair chance it is in the pipeline somewhere (with the exception of NICOT/NICNT, which Eerdmans seems to guard like an over-protective parent). On the forums, you can also request something you want that isn't available. If there's enough interest, and Oak Tree can work out a license with the publisher, you'll probably get it.

[David Lang]

By the way, "JFB," included in both the Standard and Premier Levels of the Library, is Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's "Commentary, Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible," which was specifically requested in the initial post.