The Bible NETWork ~ Impacting the World for Christ one post at a time!

Is anyone here familiar with the 21-volume Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament? Is this conservative scholarship and would the set be worth owning?

_________________
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!

Forum Code of Conduct
The Bible NETWork Doctrinal Statement
The NET Bible Study Environment
Pastors Pro-Life Resource Center
Biblical Eldership

I am not familiar with that set, but not that the scholarship behind it was from the early 19th century to the latter part. It appears they deal significantly with the Greek (but of course it would have only been the Textus Receptus or one of its permutations...since Westcott and Hort didn't publish their critical work till 1881...though a number of the works were updated after that watershed in text criticism) -- not to mention the use of Latin throughout the volumes I've scanned. Other issues with this set are that it obviously does not take into account any of the recent works of scholars or insights which have altered the face of Biblical studies since their publication. In say all of that, it appears they are well researched and written with a significant eye towards the scholarship of the day. You can preview the volumes at Google Books (it even appears you may be able to read and/or download in PDF the entire set). What little I've read in several volumes (in the introductions) suggests they are fairly conservative. Hope this helps.

_________________
Everyone is equal at the foot of the cross...just some are more equal than others.
Forum Code of Conduct
Bible.org Doctrinal Statement
rickwadholmjr.wordpress.com
iheartbarth.wordpress.com
bluechippastor.org
Twitter: @RickWadholmJr

I am against all commentaries, I think they have done more harm than good.

First: I suggested seeking out help from living Spirit led Christians you can discuss the subject with.

Second: When did the “Church” grow the fastest and strongest and what “books” did they have? I would suggest it was during the first and second century when they had no books, but only some letters. And maybe parts of the Old Testament.

Third: Is Jesus is our example along with the apostles? How many “books” did they write or do we just have some letters? The letters were also carried by strong followers.

Forth: Are we trying to teach people some words in a book or are we trying to present the living Christ to them? Christ is here now living through true Christians so people can: see, experience, tough, spend time with, hear, be listened to, study with, share with and be truly Loved by Christ.

Fifth: Has the library of Books we have (all these different “opinions”) helped or hindered us?

Sixth: The underground church in China is growing rapidly and the ones I know of are very committed and strong. They are lucky to have a complete Bible and some personal notes, so how do they compare to the Christians in the USA with all their resources?

The way I study and suggest to my students to study any scripture starts with avoiding what other “scholars” have written, especially if it is controversial passage. I would love to discuss with these “scholars” their conclusions, but most are dead and the others will most likely not answer my emails (I have tried many times).

You first have to have a reason to know, do not waste your time on topics that are not going to truly help you change your life for the better or help someone else who is seeking your help to change their life for the better. You attitude has to be right. If I am trying to gleam the truth from a passage to win an argument, for academic reasons, to puff myself up, to put someone down or with little commitment; than I can expect no help from the indwelling Holy Spirit.

If you truly have a need to know, than prayer is the next step. The degree to which you want to know is reflected in your prayer time.

Read the book and chapter the verse is in multiple times thinking about it all the time. Look up the key words in Lexicon and concordance and review the other times the word is used (study and meditate on it.

Review with pray partners (the fellow Christians that share your commitment to the truth) that will ask you the tough questions, study with you, pray with you, and want to know to help you.

Make sure you are not quenching the Holy Spirit through all of this since good will come out if He is involved, while sins (like pride, jealousy, avoiding helping others) will show up if He is not involved.

Review you findings with tough critics to see their reasoning (this is when you might look at commentaries).

Use the passage to change your life for the better, if you do not improve the interpretation might be wrong.

Commentaries ARE discussion partners. Some are better than others, to be sure. But many that I own (and that is quite a few) are written by those who were and are people of faith who were attempting (as I am) to discern what the Lord was and is saying to His Church.

The Church of China has many who are faithful, but also many who are easily mislead because of the shallowness of their instruction in the Scriptures. While the many I've known were incredible at praying, their knowledge of Scripture left something to be desired. The preponderance of immature followers of Christ in the States is mostly attributable (IMO) to the incredible Biblical illiteracy among those professing to be "Christians" who do not actually take time to study the Scriptures and discern what the Lord is saying. While we have MANY resources, we tend to (1)not actually use them and (2) not actually study the Scriptures.

If we hope to do more than simply win people to the Faith...that is, if we plan on actually discipling the members of the Church, then we MUST hear the voices of others in the Church who have also wrestled with the words of Scripture to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

If you have not received replies to your critiques of certain writers there may be very justifiable reasons for this. I, on the other hand, have known a number of writers who have been more than happy to reply. Perhaps, more than anything else, your approach to them has left them believing there was no reason to reply since you wouldn't receive it anyways. No one wishes to reply to someone looking for an argument.

_________________
Everyone is equal at the foot of the cross...just some are more equal than others.
Forum Code of Conduct
Bible.org Doctrinal Statement
rickwadholmjr.wordpress.com
iheartbarth.wordpress.com
bluechippastor.org
Twitter: @RickWadholmJr

Thank you, Rick. I appreciate your input.

_________________
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!

Forum Code of Conduct
The Bible NETWork Doctrinal Statement
The NET Bible Study Environment
Pastors Pro-Life Resource Center
Biblical Eldership

I think that I used these commentaries in school, back in my Bible college days, and found them to be good and conservative in their scholarship.

I have used many different commentaries for years and found them to be useful. Now granted there are some that are better than others but I think to classify all commentaries as harmful or unnecessary neglects the fact that many commentaries were written by men and women of God who wanted others to understand the text. God had blessed me with a good library and I use them for sermons, Sunday school lessons and for general research. However, we should not be too dependent on study aids, we should be in the Bible and study it as our main source. It was C.H. Spurgeon who said if you have prayed well you have studied well. Use the books but let the Holy Spirit guide your hermeneutics.

Personal opinion - if you can get them for free (or very little) .... then they could be useful ....

But if your budget is limited, the newer commentaries would be a better investment I think - especially as they older works are often available on-line or as "give-aways" with other products .... as Rick pointed out.

It worries me, those who don't use the riches we have been blessed with ... Christian scholars are God's gift to the church, and I think we will be held accountable for not using them.

in Christ

Dinah

_________________
Forum Code of Conduct
Forum Statement of Beliefs

Thank you Gary and Dinah for the comments. Logos currently has this commentary set in community pricing and, if you know how that works, the currently accepted bid is $30.

_________________
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!

Forum Code of Conduct
The Bible NETWork Doctrinal Statement
The NET Bible Study Environment
Pastors Pro-Life Resource Center
Biblical Eldership

So, bling, what you're saying is...

the less Scripture we have the more spiritual we'll be?

Hi Obadiah,

There is a trend now among believers to avoid commentaries based on grammatico-historical hermeneutics and, rather, follow critical analysis.

Consider, well qualified academicians study the same passages and reach different conclusions.

Consider also that the Epistles were written to troubled churches (to the Corinthians because of their clueless interpretation of freedom in the Law, and of the sacraments, Romans for the anti-Semitism rising in the church. Churches like Macedonia were thriving and maturing, as expected: the Spirit was being nurtured). There was plenty of autonomy given to these churches and some just made mistakes, mistakes to be learnt from... by readers then and now.

Could be bling meant that. The early churches after all had very few scrolls: they were priceless. They depended on the Word and the Spirit.

26What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. 1 Cor 14

_________________
Sam

All Scripture references from the NASB unless otherwise indicated.

I used to own that set. I sold it at a time of financial strain as one of the less helpful sets in my library. If you are fairly good in the languages and want to engage with a fairly conservative scholar of that time period - there is some solid material there, but much of the best info has been mined by later writers.

In the early 1980's there were many NT books which had not had a strong evangelical treatment for many decades - and this set filled such a niche. Almost all the NT books now have more recent treatments by consevative scholars - see the Baker Exegetical Commentary or some valuines in with the NIGTC and WBC. (not all volumes are conservateve, but some are qute conservative)

Yet, it is probalby worth the price. John

_________________
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Gal 5:6b

Pastor John C. Blackburn

At first most of my commentaries were by individual persons which I found useful but as time progressed I have a few sets: A.T. Robertson's "Word Pictures in the NT," Keil & Delitzsch OT commentary set, Henry Alford, "The New Testament for English Readers," and "The Interpreter's Bible," 12 volumes covering the whole Bible edited by George Buttrick. These are my only sets and I have found them quite useful.
You may want to look for sets of commentaries at used book stores. Baker Book House in Grand Rapids has numerous sets of commentaries besides other books.
I purchased "The Interpreter's Bible" from my library which had its annual book sale, I purchased it for $12.00, yes only twelve dollars yet the set sells new for over $300 dollars at Amazon and CBD.

Well, I didn't imagine bling intended to communicate what I derived from his [pardon me, bling, if you're a she] post. But, logically, that's where bling's thinking leads. If the church is most spiritual when it has the least access to Scripture, we should all just rip a few pages out of our Bibles and throw the rest away.

My objection is to bling's anti-intellectualism. The "I don't need anyone's scholarship; I don't need anything but the Holy Spirit to interpret the Bible" perspective. Whenever someone presents that to me, I want to hand him my Hebrew Bible, turn to a random passage and ask him to interpret the passage to me utilizing nothing but the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

(I'm not saying it's impossible for God to miraculously enable a person to understand what he can't even read, but I dare say the possibility God will choose to work that way is infinitesimal.)

The bottom line for bling and others of similar perspective is that, apart from that scholarship you so despise, you wouldn't have a Bible from which the Holy Spirit might enlighten you in the first place.

Hello Obadiah,
While I disagree of some position of "bling" I agree with him/her that the foremost we need is guidance of Holy Spirit to enable us to understand the scripture spiritually.

I do believe that scholar and other intellectual are being place by God for the benefits of those who seek and love the Lord.

Yes, we have to gave credits to Hebrew language being the known ancient language that was used in writing of scripture,
but I also believe that all scripture written in any language can be use in teaching and all was God breathed words.
2 Tim 3:16

I cannot also accept that Hebrew language is sacred because in during the Pentecost in Acts 2:5-11 when the Holy Ghost
teaches them to speak in tongues, there were about 16 or 17 languages wherein they praises God with their own native tongue and it is a wonder if Hebrew language is sacred , why was it not mention among the languages the Holy Ghost uttered? ff. languages are;Parthians, Medes,Mesapotamia, Judea, and Capadocia, Portus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia,Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome Jews, and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.

_________________
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Isaiah 52:7

Hi, Verbatim.

I certainly don't mean to discount the value — and the need — for the Spirit's enlightenment as we pursue God in Scripture. It's just like everything else in the Christian walk. Trying to do it on your own without yielding yourself to God doesn't work, but yielding yourself to God and not doing anything doesn't work, either. Paul says that we and God are co-workers. Imagine that! A co-worker with the One who spoke the universe into existence!

I'm not sure what prompted you to raise the issue of Hebrew being a holy language, since I didn't say or imply anything to that effect. The rabbis believe that God spoke in Hebrew when He created the universe. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.