COMMENTARIES

Bruce Barton

Based on the best-selling Life Application Commentary series, this single, handy volume holds practical, concise insight on every verse in the New Testament. Now readers can get all the useful background information they need, without a lot of obscure facts they don't need. A key resource for every Bible teacher and anyone else who wants to understand the New Testament and how it applies to real life.

G.J. Wenham, J.A. Motyer, D.A. Carson, and R.T. France

Voted one of Christianity Today's 1995 Books of the Year!

For 40 years, the New Bible Commentary has set the standard for works of its kind. Now in this completely revised fourth edition (including over 80% new and updated material), the New Bible Commentary is positioned to maintain its standing as the leading one-volume commentary on the whole Bible well into the 21st century.

This readable and accessible volume brings together many of the finest scholars of our day to meet the needs of students, teachers, and Bible readers. The 21st-century edition of the New Bible Commentary offers 66 solid, concise, evangelical commentaries - one on each book of the Bible. These detailed (passage-by-passage or verse-by-verse) commentaries, based on the NIV text, are accompanied by introductory material on date, authorship, purpose, key themes, outlines, and discussions of recent developments in biblical scholarship. In addition, seven articles overview biblical history and types of biblical literature, including the Pentateuch, poetry, the Gospels, the Epistles, and the Apocrypha, and other apocalyptic writings.

Completely updated for a new generation of readers, the new New Bible Commentary will be a powerful aid for all who want to understand the foundational book of the Christian faith.

More by D.A. Carson
More by R.T. France

Publishing Date:  May 1994

F. F. Bruce

The Zondervan Bible Commentary takes its award-winning predecessor, the New International Bible Commentary, and weaves in rich, full-color images and other new features to make it the finest one-volume commentary of its kind. Featuring the insights of forty-three world-class scholars, this convenient, information-packed volume unlocks the meaning and message of every book of the Bible to help you gain a deeper, life-changing understanding of the Scriptures.

Available: July 2008

Paul Koptak

What is wisdom? Does occupying the top of life’s heap mean you have it? Does being near the bottom mean you don’t? Wisdom can certainly help you acquire wealth, influence people, or succeed at your career, yet it involves more than knowledge alone. It’s also a matter of understanding God’s perspectives in applying what you know and having the character to act accordingly. That is why true wisdom—the kind that begins with fear of the Lord—frequently runs counter to what our culture values and applauds. This is the wisdom the book of Proverbs teaches. Proverbs deals with the relationship between heaven and earth on a practical level that covers the broad swath of human activity. We could all use more wisdom in our lives; the book of Proverbs was designed to guide us into it. Proverbs is far from monolithic. It has multiple authors and employs diverse styles. But its goal remains simple: to equip us for living in a way that succeeds first and foremost in God’s eyes. Exploring the links between the Bible and our own times, Paul Koptak shares perspectives on Proverbs that reveal ageless truths for our twenty-first-century lives. Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from our world to the world of the Bible. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. They focus on the original meaning of the passage but don’t discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable—but the job is only half done! The NIV Application Commentary Series helps bring both halves of the interpretive task together. This unique, award-winning series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into our present-day context. It explains not only what the Bible meant but also how it speaks powerfully today.

Craig S. Keener

To understand and apply the Bible well, you need two crucial sources of information. One is the Bible itself. The other is an understanding of the cultural background of the passage you're reading.

Only with the background can you grasp the author's original concerns and purposes. This unique commentary provides, in verse-by-verse format, the crucial cultural background you need for responsible--and richer--Bible study. It includes a glossary of cultural terms and important historical figures, maps and charts, up-to-date bibliographies, and introductory essays about cultural background information for each book of the New Testament.

Based on ten years of in-depth study, this accessible and bestselling commentary is valuable for pastors in sermon preparation, for Sunday-school and other church teachers as they build lessons, for missionaries concerned not to import their own cultural biases into the Bible, for college and seminary students in classroom assignments, and for everyday Bible readers seeking to deepen and enhance their study of Scripture.

John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas

How can we account for the "Book of the Law" suddenly being discovered during Josiah's renovation of the temple (2 Chron 34:14)? We know from Egypt and Mesopotamia that it was common to seal important documents--including theological documents--in the masonry or foundations of a palace or temple in order to inform a future king who might undertake restoration of the building.

What might the psalmist have had in mind when praising God for removing our transgressions "as far as the east is from the west" (Ps 103:12)? In an Egyptian hymn to Amun-Re, the deity is praised for his judgment of the guilty. As a result of the god's discernment the guilty are assigned to the east and the righteous to the west.

What is meant by God "weighing the heart" (Prov 21:2)? In Egyptian religious tradition we find the notion of the dead being judged before the gods. As the soul is examined, the dead person's heart is weighed in a scale against a feather symbolizing Truth. If the answers are correct and the heart does not outweigh the feather, the soul may enter the realm of everlasting life.

The narratives, genealogies, laws, poetry, proverbs and prophecies of the Old Testament are deeply rooted in history. Archaeologists, historians and social scientists have greatly advanced our knowledge of the ancient world of the Bible. When we illuminate the stories of Abraham or David, the imagery of the Psalms or Proverbs, or the prophecies of Isaiah or Jeremiah with this backlight of culture and history, these texts spring to new life.

The unique commentary joins The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament in providing historical, social and cultural background for each passage of the Old Testament. From Genesis through Malachi, this single volume gathers and condenses an abundance of specialized knowledge--making it available and accessible to ordinary readers of the Old Testament. Expert scholars John Walton, Victor Matthews and Mark Chavalas have included along with the fruits of their research and collaboration

    * a glossary of historical terms, ancient peoples, texts and inscriptions
    * maps and charts of important historical resources
    * expanded explanations of significant background issues
    * introductory essays on each book of the Old Testament

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament will enrich your experience of the Old Testament--and your teaching and preaching from Scripture--in a way that no other commentary can do.

View Chapter One here!

F. F. Bruce

A revision of The New Layman's Commentary, this volume is more than a commentary. With twenty-eight introductory articles and twenty-nine maps, it is an analytical look at the Bible by outstanding contemporary scholars.

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry had the rare ability to express profound spiritual insights with simplicity and eloquence. Over the years his writings have been read for both their scholarship and devotion, and none more than the classic Commentary of the Whole Bible.