Commentary Gossip

13 September 2004 commentaries

Lots of exciting things happening in the world of commentaries at the moment. First up, Wesley Owen have a sale at the moment, offering the NBCNT, NBCOT, WBC and NIVAC series. It ends on the 30th so get your order in quickly. The Word Biblical Commentary series has the best discounts.

On the subject of the Word Biblical Commentaries, I read an article by Craig Evans explaining that the two missing NT volumes (Acts and 1 Corinthians) had been reassigned, which is why there has been a delay bringing them out.

We’ve got some good new commentaries to look forward to in the next few months:

A new NIGTC volume on 2 Corinthians by Murray Harris is expected in December.
Also expected in December is the BST Exodus commentary by Alec Motyer.
The latest addition to the Baker Exegetical Commentary series is John, by Andreas J. Köstenberger.
Also in the BEC is 1 Peter by Karen Jobes expected April 2005
Bruce Waltke’s first volume on Proverbs in the NICOT series is coming out in October
Haggai & Zechariah in the NIVAC series by Mark Boder is due in November

Well done to IVP for creating a website for the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series. This not only tells you what volumes are available, but gives the publication schedule.

I’ve heard rumours also that Peter O’Brien is writing a commentary on Hebrews (for the Pillar series perhaps - I’m hoping so). And Don Carson is writing one on the Letters of John. Which is a bit of a disappointment because after publishing his second book of expositions from 1 Corinthians I was hoping he might be working towards a Pillar volume himself. I don’t know what series the Letters of John commentary might fall in, as NICNT and Pillar already have filled that position.

Finally Discerning Reader have been promising an upgrade to their commentary section for a while and it is rumoured to be coming soon (with recommendations from Don Carson).

3 comments

Jeremy Pierce 28 January 2005

I think it's Mark Boda (not Boder), unless John Glynn got it wrong in his commentary and resource review.
Jeremy Pierce 28 January 2005

I'm not sure what Carson book you're referring to. He's got an exposition of II Cor 10-13 from the early 80s and an detailed study of I Cor 12-14 from the late 80s. The only sermons on either Corinthian book he's published are his scattered thematically determined sermons from I Cor in The Cross and Christian Ministry, which I believe was something like ten years ago. Amazon doesn't have anything new from him on I Corinthians...I can tell you how Carson has chosen the commentaries he's planning to write. His overall life project is the use of the OT in the NT, and he's decided that he can't write the book he wants to on that until he's completed commentaries on the most significant NT books that use the OT most heavily and in the most diverse ways. Those would be (in his view) Matthew, John's gospel and epistles, Galatians, Hebrews, and Revelation. Some of how he chose these and not others is based on whether he thinks an ideal commentary already exists on certain books. He definitely thinks Fee and Thiselton on I Cor will not be surpassed any time soon, nor will Moo and Johnson on James, and O'Brien's works on the prison epistles are his favorite commentaries on NT works period.
Mark Heath 28 January 2005

I'm sure I remember seeing IVP UK advertising a forthcoming Carson book on sermons on 1 Corinthians, although I can't see it on their site now. Probably it was just a reprint of the .Cross and Christian Ministry., which I did not realise had been published before. (Or maybe I was dreaming about new books by Carson which is not out of the realms of possibility)..O'Brien does seem to rise straight to the top of the recommendation lists every time he publishes. I now have two of his commentaries but have not had the chance to read them yet. I'll probably start Ephesians once I finish Pillar Mark.