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My brother just requested a Bible commentary for Christmas. I've been looking for them online, but there are so many, it's hard to choose. I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations. The only qualifiers are that it needs to be no more than $40 and well respected.
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The Oxford Companion to the Bible. The paperback edition is under $40 from a bookstore, I think, and there are several people selling new hardcover ones on the amazon marketplace for under $40 (though amazon's price for that edition is $70).
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However, I'm positive he would also be interested in a Jewish perspective on the Bible, or a similar type of work on the Jewish scriptures.
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You want shoes and he wants a bible commentary. This just says something about you, and I haven't figured out what.
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I have been eyeing Luther's commentaries at the library booksale for weeks now. I also lust after Calvin's Commentaries. Both are expensive enough that someone who is neither a seminary student nor Christian has no business buying them.
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Each individual volume was reasonable, although at the high end of booksale prices. Keep in mind, this was the booksale in the West Lafayette library, and prices run higher there than they do here. However, there are several volumes and the booksale didn't have all of them, so I decided not the buy them. I'm still not sure it was a good decision.
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Wow -- there are different ones that I prefer for different parts of the Bible. Some are specifically for Old Testament, some for New -- but you're wanting and overall?
For overall, I would probably go with Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
The Word Biblical Commentary (Wenham) is good. But I also like the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary.
You can also get Commentary Survey books (like D. A. Carson's New Testament Commentary Survey, 4th edition) which gives an overview of ALL the commentaries so you can compare the differences.
Farmgirl
p.s. -- if he is the type that would rather have the whole commentary on CD-ROM so he can put it on a laptop or something for reference, you might try Expositor's Bible CommentaryPosts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Edit: if they are interested in Luther and Calvin's commentaries, though, they might not like one written by a group of Jesuits.
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I ended up getting the Matthew Henry Bible Commentary and a Biblical dictionary to go along with it. I'd hoped to shop around and see which one I liked best, and hopefully be able to get both a Catholic one and a Protestant one. However, it turns out that only one store in Bloomington sells Bible commentaries, and that store only sells the one. I find it upsetting that in the three aisles of Christian books at Barnes and Noble there were no Bible commentaries. Of course I've often been informed that my church spent too much time talking about theology, so perhaps I'm just a freak.
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I got Matt a bible commentary for Christmas. And for Valentine's Day, come to think of it. V-Day was the Oxford, and this past christmas was a portable size of the Scofield Reference Bible. The Scofield Reference Bible was THE bible commentary for almost fifty years for evengelicals. It introduced the idea of dispensations, which had been hinted at but not really codified before. It seemed not so strong with the Old Testament, but lots in the New Testament and HUGE amounts in Revelation.
I read an article in the New Yorker that startled me, but it makes sense.
Everyone knows that the Bible is the greatest selling book of all time, but hidden within that fact is that it is the best-selling book of the year, every year. In 2005 almost 25 million Bibles were sold. That's four times that amount of Harry Potter. Also, the average number of Bibles in an American household is four, which means all the Bibles are being sold to people who already own Bibles.
That makes sense, but it was startling to see it put that way. This article was funnier considering I had just bought my second Bible of the year.
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blacwolve: they could have had the bible commentaries in reference, I know I've seen that sometimes. Religion sections in B&N and Borders are generally for inspirational works and the like. I'm pretty certain both of them carry at least the Oxford, for instance.
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quote:Originally posted by fugu13: blacwolve: they could have had the bible commentaries in reference, I know I've seen that sometimes. Religion sections in B&N and Borders are generally for inspirational works and the like. I'm pretty certain both of them carry at least the Oxford, for instance.
I asked the guy at the front desk. Specifically about the Oxford because I thought they were most likely to have it. He was rather confusing, said he had it, took me over to a different section than the one he said it was in, and then told me he'd have to order it. I checked the section he said it would be in after he left, and it wasn't there, either.
I was shopping the day before Christmas, though, so it's entirely possible they were sold out.
katharina- That's really interesting. I have five or six Bibles, each with different purposes. I wonder how many Bibles the average non-Christian has, and if pulling them out would effect the average at all.
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I checked the section he said it would be in after he left, and it wasn't there, either.
