Best Commentaries on the Whole Bible

00:00:04.000 | On Wednesday we looked at one verse, just one verse, the first verse of Romans.

00:00:10.000 | There's so much to glean from the Bible when we slow down to study it phrase by phrase.

00:00:15.000 | There's no substitute for writing a text out by hand and drawing on it and thinking and thinking and thinking over it.

00:00:22.000 | Such a practice echoes Paul's words to Timothy, "To think over what I say,

00:00:28.000 | for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." That's 2 Timothy 2.

00:00:33.000 | God gives us understanding through deep thinking. We covered that point in APJ 733.

00:00:39.000 | And then Pastor John, you walked us through how you think over a text yourself.

00:00:44.000 | That was in APJ 1056, really helpful pair of episodes, APJ 733 and 1056.

00:00:52.000 | So we don't run immediately to Bible commentaries, but there is a place for Bible commentaries in our study.

00:00:58.000 | And that raises the question today. Well, what are the best commentaries out there?

00:01:02.000 | That's Sarah's question for you today. Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for your wonderful ministry in this podcast.

00:01:07.000 | I have not the time or space to tell you what it has meant to me and done in me by God's grace.

00:01:13.000 | That's amazing. My question is this. I'm 100% committed to the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan.

00:01:20.000 | I love it and use it annually. But for the times when I simply cannot figure out the meaning of what I'm reading,

00:01:26.000 | I would also like to have one commentary at hand to help me.

00:01:30.000 | What is your favorite whole Bible commentary, a resource that you would consult on any text in Scripture?

00:01:37.000 | Does such a resource even exist? If so, I have not heard you recommend it. Thank you.

00:01:43.000 | For years, I have resisted answering this question.

00:01:50.000 | For two reasons. One is that I'm so eager for people not to turn to commentaries too quickly,

00:02:01.000 | rather than taking the time to meditate and think and pray and search the Scriptures on their own.

00:02:10.000 | I know that most people feel inadequate when it comes to making sense of difficult parts of Scripture.

00:02:19.000 | But I want to stress that even when you don't know all that an author is trying to communicate,

00:02:29.000 | there is often something you can see which may turn out to be very important and precious,

00:02:39.000 | which you may not have seen if you let a commentary color your lens immediately by its interpretation.

00:02:47.000 | So that's my first hesitation all these years, to not put a commentary out there like that.

00:02:54.000 | I want people to pray and think and ask good questions and try to answer them for themselves before they turn to a commentary.

00:03:03.000 | Here's my second reason that I've resisted answering this question, which I'm going to answer now.

00:03:11.000 | Every commentary is fallible, including the APJ John Piper commentator.

00:03:21.000 | And if I recommend a whole Bible commentary for ordinary Bible readers,

00:03:26.000 | I could be so easily misunderstood to endorse whatever a person reads in that commentary,

00:03:33.000 | and that would be a mistake, and I don't want that mistake to happen.

00:03:38.000 | But the more I have thought about it, the more it seems that it will probably do more good than harm

00:03:50.000 | to encourage people to have a good whole Bible commentary in their home,

00:03:55.000 | especially if they will take me seriously that nobody's comments on Scripture should be assumed to be true

00:04:03.000 | without thinking carefully about the Scripture yourself.

00:04:06.000 | Even when I'm preaching, I try to show people how I got the meaning I'm asserting.

00:04:13.000 | I don't want people to believe me because I say it, but because I show it.

00:04:19.000 | And that's the way we should use commentaries as well.

00:04:23.000 | I had a wise teacher one time who said, "Don't first value commentaries' conclusions.

00:04:32.000 | Value their arguments. Look for their arguments, their reasons that they give you

00:04:38.000 | for why they say what they say, not just what they say."

00:04:41.000 | That's really important, I think.

00:04:44.000 | So, with all that introduction, I'll mention three whole Bible commentaries

00:04:50.000 | and one whole New Testament commentary that I have consulted with prophet over the years.

00:04:58.000 | And by whole Bible commentaries, I don't mean a 61-volume set like the Word Bible commentary on the whole Bible.

00:05:06.000 | That's not what she's asking about.

00:05:09.000 | The ones I will mention can fit into one big, fat, very fat volume or three smaller volumes.

00:05:18.000 | And I'm going to leave out modern one-volume commentaries because the only ones that I've used,

00:05:29.000 | and I'm limited, are simply too general.

00:05:33.000 | That is, they usually comment paragraph by paragraph rather than verse by verse or phrase by phrase or word by word.

00:05:44.000 | And the kinds of questions that I want help with usually aren't addressed in a painting with a broad brush,

00:05:52.000 | one-volume modern commentary.

00:05:54.000 | So, this is a very narrow, limited recommendation.

00:05:57.000 | And here we go.

00:05:58.000 | First, probably the most famous evangelical whole Bible commentary is Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible.

00:06:06.000 | Matthew Henry was a British pastor who wrote his commentary between 1704 and 1714.

00:06:15.000 | He died when he'd only gotten through the Old Testament, up through Acts in the New Testament,

00:06:22.000 | and some friends completed it by using his notes.

00:06:26.000 | Charles Spurgeon, who died in 1892, pastor in London that everybody loves to read.

00:06:33.000 | I love to read anyway.

00:06:35.000 | He loved this commentary, and he said, "First among the mighty," like Spurgeon writes,

00:06:41.000 | "First among the mighty, for general usefulness, we are bound to mention the man whose name is a household word, Matthew Henry."

00:06:50.000 | Well, that was true in 1892 in England.

00:06:53.000 | "He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy."

00:07:01.000 | [Laughter]

00:07:03.000 | What he's trying to do by all the alliteration is model Matthew Henry.

00:07:08.000 | "You will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich in analogies, overflowing with illustrations, superabundant in reflections."

00:07:18.000 | Now, more important than being pithy is faithful to the inspired meaning of Scriptures.

00:07:25.000 | This is a theological, devotional commentary.

00:07:30.000 | It tries to relate text to the larger questions about God and life.

00:07:38.000 | Now, I have open in my Bible study layout in Logos two other old whole Bible commentaries, which I consult more than Matthew Henry,

00:07:53.000 | largely because Matthew Henry is dealing with big questions very often rather than with detailed questions.

00:08:02.000 | And the reason is that, the reason I use these is because they all, these two that I'm going to mention,

00:08:11.000 | deal verse by verse in a more focused, detailed way while Henry steps back and gives you the bigger picture,

00:08:18.000 | usually with a great theological sweep.

00:08:22.000 | But if you use Henry, you have to poke around in the paragraphs in order to find the very words of the verse that you're working on

00:08:31.000 | and find the goal that's really there.

00:08:33.000 | In the middle of the big picture, the details are kind of hidden away.

00:08:38.000 | They're worth looking for.

00:08:40.000 | But here are the other two.

00:08:42.000 | The first is Matthew Poole's, P-O-O-L-E, Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Whole Bible, published 1685.

00:08:50.000 | Its original title, typical of those old guys,

00:08:53.000 | "Annotations upon the Holy Bible, wherein the sacred text is inserted and various readings annexed,

00:09:03.000 | together with the parallel scriptures, the more difficult terms in each verse are explained,

00:09:10.000 | seeming contradictions reconciled, questions and doubts resolved, and the whole text opened."

00:09:16.000 | [Laughter]

00:09:18.000 | I love titles. They explain everything.

00:09:20.000 | And now that's probably my most common go-to whole Bible commentary, believe it or not.

00:09:28.000 | So there it is.

00:09:29.000 | Number three, Commentary, Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible by Robert Jameson, A.R. Fawcett, and David Brown.

00:09:39.000 | It's usually abbreviated Jameson, Fawcett, Brown.

00:09:42.000 | Now, don't let the word "critical" in the title, "commentary critical," put you off.

00:09:48.000 | It doesn't mean negative criticism.

00:09:51.000 | It means that among these three commentaries, this one would be the most oriented toward difficult scholarly questions.

00:09:59.000 | But even so, it's quite usable by non-scholars.

00:10:04.000 | The authors were three ministers and professors in Britain, writing in the latter part of the 1800s.

00:10:12.000 | They wrote, in fact, in the front of their work, these words.

00:10:16.000 | I'll give you a flavor.

00:10:18.000 | "It is a humble effort to make Scripture expound itself.

00:10:23.000 | May the blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scripture to be written for our learning,

00:10:31.000 | bless this effort and make it an instrument toward the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints

00:10:39.000 | to the glory of His great name and the hastening of His kingdom. Amen."

00:10:45.000 | Now, let me mention one more, even though it's only on the New Testament.

00:10:50.000 | But it is on every verse in the New Testament, and I consult this commentary several times every week, virtually without fail.

00:11:03.000 | It's by Robert Gundry, who is still alive as I speak, and the title is "Commentary on the New Testament,

00:11:13.000 | verse by verse, explanations with a literal translation."

00:11:16.000 | Now, truth in advertising, I have had serious disagreements with Dr. Gundry on several important matters over the years,

00:11:26.000 | and I never thought I would be recommending a whole Bible commentary by him,

00:11:31.000 | but frankly, I find this commentary so useful, I would be a hypocrite, I think, not to recommend it.

00:11:39.000 | In April of 2020, I wrote to Dr. Gundry, and I hardly ever do this, but I was finding so much regular help that this is what I wrote.

00:11:53.000 | "Dear Dr. Gundry, Notwithstanding any disagreements that we may have had in the past,

00:12:01.000 | I wanted to encourage you and thank God for your one-volume commentary on the New Testament.

00:12:08.000 | I am finding it both exegetically illuminating and spiritually refreshing,

00:12:14.000 | largely because of your disciplined, unashamed, assiduous attention to the details of the very text with straightforward explanations.

00:12:27.000 | This is less common among commentaries than it should be, and among preachers.

00:12:33.000 | So be encouraged and rejoice in the Lord that your labors are not in vain.

00:12:39.000 | With thankfulness and admiration, John Piper."

00:12:42.000 | So, there they are, four fallible commentaries recommended by one fallible podcaster.

00:12:53.000 | So, test all things, hold fast to what is good according to Scripture,

00:12:59.000 | and may your love for the Scriptures and your obedience to them grow because of your study.

00:13:06.000 | Yeah, that's a good list. Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, Jameson Fawcett Brown, and Robert Gundry.

00:13:12.000 | Very well-balanced list. Thank you, Pastor John.

00:13:14.000 | And if you want to watch Pastor John walk through a Bible text and think over it without commentaries,

00:13:21.000 | be sure to watch a look at the book video episodes.

00:13:23.000 | You can see those on YouTube, Vimeo, through our website at DesiringGod.org.

00:13:27.000 | Those are published multiple times a week.

00:13:29.000 | And again, don't miss APJ episode 1056, which is titled, "How Can I Better Study a Bible Passage?"

00:13:36.000 | That's in the archive at AskPastorJohn.com. Just look for APJ 1056.

00:13:42.000 | Well, is work a blessing or is work a curse?

00:13:48.000 | How do we as Christians think about our nine-to-five jobs?

00:13:51.000 | That's next up on Monday.

00:13:54.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend.

00:13:57.000 | [END]

00:13:59.000 | [END]

00:14:01.000 | [END]

00:14:03.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Best Commentaries on the Whole Bible

Chapters