Hot Takes on Top Commentary Sets (Now on Sale) in Logos

The Tyndale OT/NT Commentary series is my first recommendation for those who are graduating from lower levels of study Bibles. Tyndale is a classic evangelical series that is continually being updated. It would take a while to list all the volumes I’ve used. The OT portion is especially valuable, and I’m a special fan of Derek Kidner (whose OT volumes can still be purchased outside the Tyndale set in which they originally came).

The standout volumes in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary start, for me, with Carson on Matthew. I have opened that commentary as much or more than any other I own. I love that Gospel, and I love Carson. I’ve also enjoyed Van Gemeren on the Psalms. The EBC (or Revised EBC) is another great way for people to graduate from study Bibles.

The ESV Expository Commentary is full of contributions from current major names in contemporary evangelical scholarship and preaching. Despite the name, it doesn’t really belong among “expository commentaries,” because it’s not a set of sermons. This is the kind of commentary I want to have around mainly for “plebiscites,” for the interpretive referendums I regularly like to have. I don’t do my interpretation by majority rule, but I still find it useful to get an aggregate opinion.

⭑ The Lexham Geographic Commentary is something I didn’t know I would ever need. And like all reference works (I find this fact really confuses my children), I might only need it a discrete number of times in my life. But having been to Israel, I can say that the LGC is like having a tour guide explaining key background information that I simply could not know otherwise. And the books—in print and in Logos—really are beautifully done. My good friend Doug Mangum has poured years of life into editing these. They’re good.

The Lexham Research Commentary is practically cheating. There, I said it. It shouldn’t be this easy, or this inexpensive, to get a run-down of expert opinion on disputed or difficult matters within a given biblical book. I have friends, especially Paul Himes and David Wenkel, who supplied volumes to this series. Knowing their character and work ethic makes the LRC even more interesting and valuable to me.

The Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament is something I don’t need and therefore don’t use. I was trained to do what it does. But there was a time when this was the kind of thing I needed. And I mention it because if you’re in that stage where you know some Greek, but you don’t know how to use your knowledge to assist in your interpretation, then you could do little better than pick up some of these writers as models.

The Reformation Commentary Series has proven useful and enjoyable for me. To many modern preaching audiences, Reformation writers are pretty much just as dead as ancient ones. It is powerful, then, for them to encounter Luther, Calvin, and others who show both profound agreement with my evangelical Protestant theology and yet who provide forceful insights that come from their different circumstances.

I’ll never forget picking up the commentary on 1 Maccabees in the Anchor Yale Bible Commentary and marveling at the learned, judicious comments. There are a few volumes that are especially appreciated by evangelicals, including Fitzmyer on Romans and Fox on Proverbs.

The main volumes of the International Critical Commentary that I have turned to are those written on Romans by C. E. B. Cranfield. He is a model of the judicious weighing of exegetical arguments. That’s what you need in a book like Romans. I’ve also used Davies and Allison on Matthew—and a few evangelicals snuck into the set during its history, including especially Marshall and Towner on the Pastorals, which is very valuable.

The Bible Speaks Today is the one expository commentary I have used the most, because it rides the line between expository and traditional commentary. John Stott, author of several BST volumes, is brilliant. He helps me help others see what Scripture says.

The Reformed Expository Commentary features sermons from some of today’s Reformed luminaries, collected by P&R. If you’re a preaching pastor, it’s a good thing when a chapter of a commentary opens with, “One summer, a family man traveled to Paris, where he spent a morning enjoying Luxembourg Gardens …” This means you are going to get expert help with illustration, not just explanation.

Preach the Word is Crossway’s equivalent to the set I just mentioned. We really have an embarrassment of commentary riches. Want R. Kent Hughes or Barry Webb or Christopher Ash or Phil Ryken or Ray Ortlund or David Helm or Jim Hamilton to show you how to preach a given text? Get PtW.

Christ-Centered Exposition is Holman’s equivalent to the REC and PtW. Do we really need this many homiletical series? Why not? The promo video speaks repeatedly of exalting Christ in all of Scripture. How could there be too much of this?

James Montgomery Boice’s expositions are beloved by many who remember this great man’s ministry. As with the expositions of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones and those of John MacArthur and J. Vernon McGee, they bear the consistent mark and character of one man. This has upsides and downsides, of course. But many know how important it is for one particular Bible teacher to make a deep impression. Perhaps Boice or DMLJ or MacArthur or McGee will do that for you. For me, a dash of Boice and a dribble of Lloyd-Jones have given me what I wanted from collections of sermons, namely the impression of the gravitas they brought to the pulpit. That has had a greater impression on me than their specific exegetical judgments, the illustrations they used, or the applications they made.