BestCommentaries.com Blog

Derek Thomas, Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary,  and John Tweeddale published the 2nd edition of The Essential Commentaries for a Preacher’s Library in 2006. Thomas and Tweeddale have generously allow their “Recommended” books to be included in BestCommentaries.com. From my review of their work:

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For each book of the Bible, Thomas categorizes books into “Recommended” (usually 2-4 books), “Consider” (as many as 20) and “Books to be considered for sermon preparation” (another 10-20).
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The book is very user-friendly and well laid out. Unlike Glynn who only bolds recommended works, Thomas’ annotations are helpful. The comments are not as lengthy or thorough as Carson, Longman, or Rosscup, but the emphasis on older commentaries and commentaries useful for preaching and the fact that this work covers the entire Bible plus some theological works makes this inexpensive book very valuable and unique.

Their work is one of the least expensive and most useful commentary reference books available. We are extremely glad to have their thoughts included on the site.

Here are links to their information

• All Reviews by Thomas and Tweeddale (note there are many, many more in the actual publication)
• Old Testament Recommendations
• New Testament Recommendations

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.

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!