New Testament Commentary Survey (edition 2007)

Useful book to assist the spending of hard earned money. Carson has a graceful eloquence and strong judgement while describing different commentaries and supporting books. ( )

This is a helpful book for helping people decide on which New Testament commentaries to purchase for their library. It is written for the Evangelical, although people from various traditions may profit from it. I have the 1993 edition and despite it being over a decade out of date, it has been a very useful tool.

http://www.tutak.com/?p=161 ( )

An excellent resource for the wise spending of scarce dollars for students and pastors on limited budgets. Referring to this volume will prevent the penny challenged student from having buyers regret for wasting prescious funds on items that do not help them. Four years old at this time, this is the kind of work that goes out-of-date after about 5 years, and as new materials come onto the market in this subject area. ( )

So you decide you want to buy some commentaries. But which ones? The choices can be dizzying. Some focus on theology, others on the Greek, others on the cultural context. Some are for profesionals, some for bible students, some for laypersons. And with many commentaries running upwards of $40 or more, you have to be selective.

D.A. Carson's New Testament Commentary Survey is a useful tool for cutting through the commentary clutter. Carson is the well-respected research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and co-author of probably the most popular introduction to the New Testament. In NTCS, he goes through every book in the New Testament and discusses all of the respective serious commentaries. He is candid about what he sees as the qualities and inadequacies of each. He describes their strengths in different areas, such as exegesis, theology, and cultural understanding. He evaluates their usefulness to different audiences, such as bible students, pastors, interested laypersons. The analysis is interesting and well written. The book is an easy read and avoids being dry or boring.

In addition to discussing the commentaries for each book of the New Testament, Carson discusses books that are not technically commentaries (in that they do not provide verse-by-verse discussion), but which focus on aspects of specific NT books. Carson also mentions the prices of each book discussed. Finally, there is a helpful "best buys" guide in the back that offers his admittedly subjective opinion on what the best values are for the "theological student" and "well-trained preacher."

I would have added another star if the there was a more systematic approach to grading the commentaries in different areas (theology, exegesis, etc.) and for level of skill targetted (academics/those proficient in Greek, laypersons, pastors, theology students, etc.). But even without this the survey is very useful. ( )