35 Best Commentaries for the 7 Most-Preached Books

Since commentaries are such a helpful tool for Bible study and preaching, it makes sense to use them. It also makes sense to search for the best! Not only the best complete commentary series, either—the best commentary for each book of the Bible.

(After all, it’s not wallet-friendly to buy every excellent commentary series. And let’s be honest: with so many different series and specialties, the top picks are never in only one series.) Since you likely don’t want to scroll through 594 commentaries at one time, this post will tackle “just” 35.

Read on for the five highest-rated commentaries (according to bestcommentaries.com*) on the seven most-preached books of the Bible from January 2018 through today, based on data from Sermons by Logos.

Best commentaries on Matthew

1. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke (EBC) by D. A. Carson et al.
2. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Matthew by R. T. France
3. The New American Commentary: Matthew by Craig Blomberg
4. Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Matthew by Leon Morris
5. Word Biblical Commentary, Volumes 33a–b, Matthew 1–13 & Matthew 14–28  by Donald A. Hagner

Best commentaries on John

1. Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John by D. A. Carson
2. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel according to John by Leon Morris
3. The Gospel of John: A Commentary (2 vols.) by Craig Keener
4. The Anchor Yale Bible: The Gospel According to John I–XII by Raymond Edward Brown
5. The Anchor Yale Bible: The Gospel According to John XIII–XXI by Raymond Edward Brown

Best commentaries on Romans

1. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Epistle to the Romans by Douglas Moo
2. Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament | BECNT) by Thomas Schreiner
3. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (2 vols.) by C. E. B. Cranfield
4. The Message of Romans by John Stott
5. Word Biblical Commentary, Romans: Volumes 38a–b by James D. G. Dunn

Best commentaries on Luke

1. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke 1:1–9:50 by Darrell L. Bock
2. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke 9:51–24:53 by Darrell L. Bock
3. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke by Norval Geldenhuys
4. The New American Commentary: Luke by Robert H. Stein
5. The Gospel of Luke: The New International Greek Testament Commentary by I. Howard Marshall

Best commentaries on Psalms

1. Psalms 1–72 and 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (2 vols.) by Derek Kidner
2. Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 19: Psalms 1–50 (Revised) by Peter C. Craigie and Marvin E. Tate
3. NIV Application Commentary: Psalms, vol. 1 (NIVAC) by Gerald H. Wilson
4. Psalms, 3 vols. (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms | BCOTWP) by John Goldingay
5. Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 21: Psalms 101–150 (Revised Edition) by Leslie C. Allen

Best commentaries on Ephesians

1. Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary by Harold W. Hoehner
2. Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 42: Ephesians by Andrew T. Lincoln
3. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon and to the Ephesians by F. F. Bruce
4. NIV Application Commentary: Ephesians by Klyne Snodgrass
5. Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary by Francis Foulkes

Best commentaries on Acts

1. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Book of the Acts by F. F. Bruce
2. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Acts by Darrell L. Bock
3. The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary by Ben Witherington III
4. The Message of Acts by John Stott
5. Acts (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries | TNTC) by I. Howard Marshall

One quick tip …

Want to get the most out of every single commentary?

Transform them into more portable, more powerful tools for Bible study by adding them to your digital library in Logos instead of a physical library. Since Logos cuts out the manual work of flipping through page after page, you can squeeze every drop of benefit from each Logos commentary you own—in much less time.

Less than $30, for example, puts the Anchor Yale Bible: Epistles of John in your Logos library (it’s 50% off for a limited time). Graham W. described it this way on bestcommentaries.com:

This might be decades old now but has stood the test of time. It is still unbeaten in its depth and clarity. It provides great contextual details, guiding through the Jewish background. Brown captures the incredible richness of John’s imagery wonderfully. I still consider this to have pride of place among John commentaries.

That’s the type of insight you’re likely to see in all of these top-reviewed volumes. Find out for yourself! Pick up one or more today.

*In the few instances where we didn’t yet offer a Logos Edition of a top-reviewed commentary, we moved on to the next one in the bestcommentaries.com list.

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