How to Find the Best Bible Commentaries: Idea #36
The Holy Bible has parts that are easy to read and to understand, but it also has many parts that are more difficult to understand. Some of that difficulty comes from the historical nature of when the Scriptures were written, many centuries ago in different languages to people in cultures. Even for people in biblical times, the theological concepts was difficult to understand, as it is written in 2 Peter 3:16 —
This is what he says in all his letters when he writes on the subject. There are some difficult things in his letters…
To help people and pastors better understand the historical background and the theological concepts in the Bible, commentaries have been written and published. Bible commentaries provide wisdom and insights from scholars and teachers to explain. Over the course of time, there are now many Bible commentaries. According to bumchecks.com —
... more than 250,000 people search each month for information about Bible commentaries. Although many throughout the world do not believe in God and the Bible, quite a few people still do and many want a good “Bible commentary” to help them better understand the Scriptures.
How will you choose the commentaries that would be most helpful to understand the Bible?
Bumchecks.com has compiled a list of 20 things to look for when trying to find a suitable Bible commentary.
Two websites have the largest collections of free Bible commentaries, where you can do your own evaluation by reading each commentary for yourself:
1. Go to studylight.org/commentaries to “choose from over 90 Bible Commentaries freely available online at StudyLight.org for sermon, Bible study, and Sunday school preparation.”
2. At biblehub.com/commentaries you can “browse over 50 commentaries free online”, including whole Bible commentaries by Matthew Henry, Geneva Study, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Scofield Reference Notes, and Treasure of Scripture Knowledge.
And, there are helpful websites that present a calculated composite of book reviews (sort of like how RottenTomatoes.com does with movie reviews) or have a list of recommendations carefully evaluted by particular curators —
BestCommentaries.com combines reviews and ratings from journals, books, and users to create an aggregate ranking for Biblical commentaries; developed by John Dyer (Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary).
Grace Online Library has the Best Bible Commentary Series from a “Historic Baptist, Reformed & Puritan” perspective.
Tim Challies (blogger, author, and book reviewer) has recommended the Best Commentaries on Each Book of the Bible from a Reformed perspective.
(photo credit: Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar, via Wikimedia Commons)
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