BestCommentaries.com Blog

Last week, Dan Pritchett from Logos emailed to suggest that I add links for books which are available in Logos' Libronix product. The guys at Logos sent over the links and now an icon appears next to any books which are available in Logos.

Here's a screen shot of the Genesis page:

And here's the popular "Best of Best Commentaries" page:

In the future, I'll continue to add links to stores and other means of accessing books when they become available.

Logos Software is offering the the Matthew-Mark volume of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary for free in their Logos software.

http://blog.logos.com/archives/2008/08/matthew_mark_cornerstone_biblical_commentary--free.html

Yesterday, after adding a few final features to the site including Amazon reviews and an updated algorithm for scoring (when there is a tie, newer works get a higher rank), I "launched" bestcommentaries.com.

I emailed Andy Naselli and, as soon as he posted, the interwebs lit up with links to the site. I've also received lots of super-helpful emails from students and professors noting books to add and update. Thanks to everyone!

Here are some links:

• Between Two Worlds - Andy Naselli
• Going to seminary - Ryan Burns
• The Road To Emmaus - Chad Knudson
• Biblical Theology - Matt Harmon
• Challies.com - Tim Challies
• Grace and Knowledge - James Steinbeck
• ΑΓΑΠΗΣΕΙΣ - bzephyr
• LeStourgeon Online - Brian LeStourgeon
• Dunelm Road - Ben Blackwell
• CROSS-eyed - Justin Childers
• Text, Community, & Mission - Daniel J. Doleys
• Art & Books
• Said at Southern
• MagnifyGOD
• Matt Capps
• DIG
• Littleho
• LiebenGOOD NEWS
• Scripture Zealot

In addition to the reviews users add, the site is now also pulling in reviews from Amazon.com. These are not used in the score as of yet, but they are displayed under the book's information.

It seems that usually only the reviewer's "nickname" is available (not the "Real Name"), but the name can also usually be linked to get an idea of what the person reviews.

A dear friend who is about to go on the mission field wanted to the 1 or 2 good commentaries for each book of the Bible before he left. He started using the site and going through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, etc. and looking at what the scores were to figure what he should buy.

About half way through the OT, I noticed that it was going to take a while to see what the best options were for all 66 books of the Bible. So I created a new page that lists the top 2 ranked commentaries for each book of the Bible.

www.bestcommentaries.com/best.aspx

I'm still working on the scoring algorithm and trying to see how Amazon ratings would effect it, but hopefully this page will allow visitors to get a quick start on the best commentaries available to date. Here's what it looks like:

Today I added a RSS feeds for 4 things:

• Recently published books - as the publication date passes, new books will show up
• Recently created libraries - when a user creates a new library on the site and then activates it
• Recently added book reviews - Right now this will include reviews from all users of the site, but I might change it to allow you to follow a specific user.
• Recently added books -this shows books that I'm adding to the site.

Last week, Kress approved the use of Dr. Jim Rosscup's Commentaries for Biblical Expositors, and this week we received permission to use the 10th edition of the late John Glynn's Commentary and Reference Survey. These two works are absolutely invaluable for biblical and theological studies. At the front of the book, Rosscup offers lists of his favorite works divided into three categories: Exegetical, Expositional, and Devotional. The remainder of the book is a thoroughly annotated bibliography of 100s of books.

Glynn doesn't offer much annotation, but his bibliography expands well beyond just biblical commentaries into backgrounds, special studies, and theological studies. He even covers websites and bible software. This book is a must have for starting out a bibliography and library.

I'm so glad to get to include their top choices in BestCommentaries.com because it means that the overall data just keeps getting better!

I just got word from Baker Publishing that I can use Longman and Carson's top rated commentaries in the site. This is huge news, since Carson and Longman's books (along with Glynn's) are the gold standard for commentary surveys. Thanks to Baker for being willing to extend permissions.

Longman's Old Testament Commentary Survey has a very similar style to BestCommentaries.com. Longman offers a short review and summary of each work as well as a 5-star rating. The combination of rating and review makes his work the most reader friendly of any of the commentary surveys.

Even though Carson's New Testament Commentary Survey is published as a pair to Longman's OT work, the two books are very different. Instead of individual reviews of each book as Longman does, Carson offers a running commentary of all the books together. He does not shy away from laying into works he doesn't think are good. This is probably one of the more entertaining bibliographies ever written.

Thanks again to Baker for letting me include their "Best of" lists.

As more people join the site, I'm attempting to build in some tools to surface reviews which are more helpful than others. Obviously the length of a review will be a factor in how much information it gives. But another major factor is how knowledgeable a person is on a given subject. If a person joins the site and only offers a single review of a commentary, but no other reviews, then it is difficult to know what he or she really knows about that commentary in comparison to others.

This is something that makes Amazon reviews less useful than they could be, because we can't quickly tell how much a person really knows about the commentaries in relation to one another.

So, I've added to the bottom of each review the total number of reviews the person has submitted as well as the total number for a given book of the Bible. Here's a sample for Gordon Wenham's commentary on Genesis.

You can clearly see that Denver Seminary has a ton of reviews as well as quite a few in this category, as does the previous reviewer, but John Piper's Desiring God has fewer reviews in this category. Of course, we know that a theologian of John Piper's stature has likely looked at more than 3 commentaries on Genesis, but we might not know that about another site reviewer. Hopefully, this will help students get a better idea of the value of each review.

Today, I contacted the OT and NT departments of Denver Seminary regarding the use of their awesome OT Commentary Survey (Drs. M. Daniel Carroll R., Hélène Dallaire, and Richard S. Hess) and NT Commentary Survey (William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, and Susan M. Hecht). Dr. William Klein, Chair of the Biblical Studies department and Dr. Richard Hess, the Editor of the Denver Seminary Journal wrote to give their official approval.

This is a huge boon because their work is up-to-date, detailed, and thorough. The inclusion of their research and thoughts will be extremely helpful. Thanks guys!