Finally this month, I completed my desire to buy an intermediate / advanced level commentary on each New Testament book. On the whole I think I have selected the most appropriate one, although there are still a few others I would like to get. My friend Graeme asked me if I would list them on my blog, so here they are, along with my ideas of what I might supplement the collection with. Visit my commentaries page if you want Amazon and publisher’s links for these books.
Matthew – D A Carson (Expositors Bible Commentary), R T France (New International Commentary), Leon Morris (Pillar New Testament Commentary).
Mark– James Edwards (PNTC), R T France (New International Greek Testament Commentary).
Luke – Robert Stein (New American Commentary), Darrell Bock (Baker Exegetical Commentary).
John – D A Carson (PNTC), Andreas Kostenberger (BEC).
Acts – F F Bruce (NICNT), Darrell Bock (BEC)
Romans – Douglas Moo (NICNT), Tom Schreiner (BEC).
1 Corinthians – Gordon Fee (NICNT). I intend to supplement this with Rosner and Ciampa in the PNTC.
2 Corinthians – Ralph Martin (Word Biblical Commentary), Murray Harris (NIGTC).
Galatians – Richard Longenecker (WBC). I hope to add Tom Schreiner’s ZEC volume to this soon
Ephesians – Peter O’Brien (PNTC). I intend to add either Clinton Arnold (ZEC) or Frank Theilman (BEC).
Philippians – Gordon Fee (NICNT), Moises Silva (BEC).
Colossians & Philemon – Peter O’Brien (WBC), Douglas Moo (PNTC)
1 & 2 Thessalonians – Gene Green (PNTC), Gordon Fee (NICNT)
Pastorals – W Mounce (WBC), Philip Towner (NICNT).
Hebrews – W Lane (WBC), Peter O’Brien (PNTC)
James – Douglas Moo (PNTC), Craig Blomberg & Mariam Kammel (ZEC)
1 Peter – Thomas Schreiner (NAC), Karen Jobes (BEC)
2 Peter & Jude – Thomas Schreiner (NAC), Peter Davids (PNTC)
1-3 John – Colin Kruse (PNTC). Possibly I’ll add Robert Yarbrough (BEC).
Revelation – Grant Osborne (BEC), G K Beale (NIGTC)
Carson is also contracted to do Revelation for Pillar. I’ve been told more than once that his I-III John NIGTC was completed over ten years ago, and the person telling me in each case didn’t know why it hadn’t appeared yet. I wonder if he keeps modifying it in the light of newer work on those epistles. Kruse and Akin aren’t major commentaries academically speaking, but there had been so few evangelical commentaries on these books until them that he may have wanted to work some of their ideas into his own commentary before releasing the final version to the publisher.
He said in the lectures on the New Perspective that Galatians is his next project when he finishes the commentary he’s currently working on. I don’t know if that means the NIGTC in question is still in process, and Galatians is the next one he’ll write, or if the NIGTC is done, he’s working on another one, and the Galatians one is after that. Since he didn’t specify which one he meant by the one he’s working on, it’s impossible to know.
By the way, I’m going to be posting my first review of commentaries on the individual books of the Bible soon. My first one is Zephaniah, since I studied that this summer and have all the commentaries fresh in my memory. I’m planning on doing Samuel, Psalms, John, and Ephesians as the most likely next ones, not necessarily in that order. Those are the ones I know the best or have looked at most recently, so I might as well start out with them. I’ve got a list of about ten that I would feel comfortable writing right now if I had the time, but I’m doing too many other things and would probably have to focus just on this to get it done quickly. Working in all the links and pictures is a lot more time consuming than I would have expected. It takes as much time or more as writing the text does, and that takes a fair amount of thought.
Any idea when Carson’s Galatians commentary is due? I heard he is NCT in outlook and if true, I look forward to seeing an NCT perspective to Galatians. Douglas Moo is also doing one for the BECNT series – that’s also on my wish list although it may take a while to come out: his web page says it coming in the next five years. I hope its at the short end of five years!
The NCT people list Carson as their archetype. He doesn’t think those categories are very helpful, but they have him in mind as the sort of view they want to take.
Moo says his BECNT Galatians and Pillar Colossians/Philemon will be over the next five years. I imagine one of them will be out within three years, and I think Galatians is the first. He listed it first on his website, and it ties in better with the work he’s done on Romans and James, so I expect him to want to do that first.