More Commentary Recommendations

26 February 2005 commentaries

A while ago, I sent out an email to some pastors and elders from churches I have attended in the past, asking if they would mind recommending a few commentaries. Here’s the response I got:

Stanley Jebb, from Truro Evangelical Church recommended Dale Ralph Davis’s commentaries (Joshua to 1 Kings), especially “The Wisdom and the Folly.” He also recommends John MacArthur’s New Testament Commentaries, along with those by William Hendricksen, Matthew Henry, John Calvin and Jamieson, Fawcett and Brown.

Jonathan Hacker from Eastney Evangelical Church in Portsmouth, just recommended anything by Fee or Carson.

Steve Haines from King’s Community Church, Hedge End, likes his NIVAC on 2 Corinthians by Hafemann (and Maresah his wife recommended ‘the Gospel according to peanuts’)

Martin Borrows from Hockliffe Street Baptist Church in Leighton Buzzard, gave the fullest response, with recommendations for a number of specific books: Genesis: ‘The Genesis Record’ by Henry Morris (Baker), and three-volume series by James Montgomery Boice Exodus: ‘Moses’ by F B Meyer (CLC) 1 & 2 Samuel - ‘David’ by A W Pink (Baker) Psalm 73 - ‘Faith on Trial’ by D M Lloyd-Jones. Jonah - The Geneva Series by Hugh Martin Matthew - ‘Studies in the Sermon on the Mount’ by Lloyd-Jones (IVP) The Gospels - the J C Ryle series, and ‘Let’s Study Mark’ by Sinclair Ferguson (Banner) Romans - the Lloyd-Jones series Ephesians - the Lloyd-Jones series Philippians, Colossians, Philemon - in one volume by Wm Hendriksen (Banner) 1 John - five volumes by Lloyd-Jones (Crossway) Revelation - ‘More Than Conquerors’ by Wm Hendriksen (Baker), and Paul Gardner (Christian Focus).

5 comments

Richard McIntosh 1 March 2005

Hey Mark,..Just a question, why just commentaries?..Richard
Mark Heath 2 March 2005

Good question. I guess I'm just fascinated with commentaries at the moment. Hopefully in a year or two I will have finished building a library of good NT commentaries and also finished reading through the Bible Speaks Today series (which I have been reading almost daily for five years)...Then perhaps I will turn my attention again to some more general questions of theology. I just feel that first I need to get a really good understanding of what the Bible (especially the New Testament) teaches. I think that people have the tendency to come with their predefined list of questions to the Bible, which are not necessarily the questions it is trying to answer...I still make a bit of time for studying other books. N T Wright's .New Testament and the People of God., J C Ryle's .Holiness., John Piper's .When I don't desire God. and .the Catechism of the Catholic Church. are other books I am slowly working my way through at the moment.
Richard McIntosh 4 March 2005

Great answer, it is so encouraging to see a fellow New Frontiers ite taking scripture and thology seriously. Some food for further thought. One of the best pieces of advice on books was written by C. S. Lewis. :-)..Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook - even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united - united with each other and against earlier and later ages - by a great mass of common assumptions. We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century - the blindness about which posterity will ask, .But how could they have thought that?. - lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.
Mark Heath 7 October 2005

Thanks Jason,..Some helpful commentary recommendations there, with a bit of a bias towards the more meaty academic ones. I have used a number of your choices and found them to be excellent...I also notice a New Perspective influence on your choice of Romans commentaries!
Jason Egbert 5 October 2005

Pastor of Lostcreek Church..Highly recommend the following commentaries:..Genesis - Mathews (NAC). Waltke..Judges/Ruth - Block (NAC). Bush (WBC)..Psalms - Tate (WBC). Wilson (NIVAC). Hossfeld/Zenger (Herm)..Proverbs - Waltke (NICOT). Fox (AB)..Jeremiah - Lundbom (AB)..Ezekiel - Block (NICOT)..Matthew - Keener. Davies/Allison (ICC)..Mark - France (NIGTC)..Luke - Bock (BECNT)..Acts - Witherington (SRC). Barrett (ICC)..Romans - Dunn (WBC). Wright (NIB)..1 Corinthians - Fee (NICNT). Thiselton (NIGTC)..2 Corinthians - Harris (NIGTC). Barnett (NICNT)..Pastoral - Mounce (WBC). Marshall (ICC)..Revelation - Aune (WBC). Osborne (BENTC)