Commentary Survey

This is a partial Old and New Testament Commentary set.

Their basic premise stems from a presupposition that dogma clarifies as opposed to obscures. Therefore, this seeks to advance the Nicene tradition, with all its diversities and controversies, to provide an interpretation of the Bible as Christian Scripture. Their theological ecumenism stems from the editors that the early church fathers were correct in that "church doctrine does not compete with Scripture in a limited economy of epistemic authority" (13).

Key features of this commentary are:
- Purposed lack of historical, linguistic, and technical discussions of the text.
- Theological interpretation of the Scriptures.
- Theologians reading and interpreting the Scriptures creedally.
- Doctrinal and methodological ecumenism.

Each author is chosen, not on the basis of historical or philological expertise, but for their abilities in the Christian doctrinal tradition. Therefore, the value of each volume is based upon the abilities and theological interoperation of each author.

Each volume lacks a hermeneutical, methodological, and theological continuity and all affirm the the fluidity of theological interpretation (which may be flawed). The value of this series is the broad range of authors under the assumptions of the Nicene Creed, thereby broadening the interpretive positions.

(Info taken from the Series Preface" and interaction with the commentary)

Key features of this series are:
- Written chiefly by expositors for expositors
- Grammatico-historical interpretation
- Text of the NIV within the commentary
- Occasional original language use with transliteration and translation to make it usable to more people
(Info taken from from “Series Preface”)

Notes:
- Bibliography in the the in the introductory material for each book
- This series is available in volumes for individual New Testament books.

Complete Old and New Testament commentary series

Key features of this series are:
- Written chiefly by expositors for expositors
- Seeks primarily to elucidate the text, though does provide some interaction with scholarly literature
- Grammatico-historical interpretation
- NIV text with commentators working from original languages
- Seeks to be a comprehensive yet succinct commentary that gets to the gist of the meaning
(Info taken from series “Preface”)

Notes:
- Original languages transliterated and translated - no knowledge of original languages required
- Bibliographies at the beginning of each book

A full testament commentary, including the Pseudepigraphal writings.

This series is written for the teacher, preacher, student, etc. who desires a commentary series with broad denominational, creedal, and theological positions.

Key features of this commentary series are:
- Various "Introductions" for interpreting genre literature (e.g. Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature, Introduction to Epistolary Literature, Introduction to Narrative Literature, etc.)
- Commentary on Apocryphal literature
- Expositional analysis informed by linguistic, text-critical, historical-critical, literary, social-scientific, and theological methods.
- Brief introductions that provide rudimentary details on essential historical, sociocultural, literary, and theological issues.
- Broad interpretive options

Each volume is dependent upon the skill and theological positions of each author. Theological interpretive and critical decisions range from moderately conservative to moderately critical to Lutheranism to New Perspective. The breadth of theological commitments will aid the interpreter desiring to see the breadth of interpretive problems and theological selections of various passages and books.

No knowledge of biblical languages needed for this series.

(Info taken from the "Features of the New Interpreter's Bible")

A partial New Testament commentary series:
- Matthew
- Mark
- John
- Acts
- Romans
- 1 Corinthians
- Ephesians and Colossians
- Hebrews

The audience of this commentary set is for MA religious and theological students who have a theological interests in the text. Each author pays attention to the cultural, literary, and theological setting of the text form.

Key distinctives of this commentary series are:
- Attending to the ancient narrative and rhetorical strategies the text employs
- Showing how the text shapes theological convictions and moral habits
- Commenting on the final, canonical form of each New Testament book
- Focusing on the cultural, literary, and theological settings of the text
- Making judicious use of maps, photos, and sidebars in a reader-friendly format

The value of this set provides multi-religious and confessional perspectives. The authors provide various confessional presuppositions ranging from Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox from international scholars.

(Info taken from series "Forward")

This is a complete New Testament commentary series with an Old Testament counterpart (Berit Olam).

Taken from the Latin expression, "Sacred Word", this series is written for biblical professionals, graduate students, theologians, clergy, and religious educators. The overarching goal of this series to provide critical analysis while maintaining the texts religious meaning as shaped by the Catholic tradition.

Key features of this commentary series are:
- Follows a Middle Age analysis of Scripture, where each author uses tools of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and philosophy.
- Cutting edge Catholic critical scholarship.
- Provides some text-critical and grammatical interaction; when provided, very minimal and simplistic interaction is provided for the non-specialist
- Each section of Scripture is provided with "further study" sections where bibliographic lists are provided with monographs or journal articles highlighting various theological or exegetical analyses.

Sacra Pagina, overall, is not overly critical of the text, though there are some Pauline commentaries that question Pauline authorship or affirm a pseudonymous composer.

Leading Catholic scholars provide a way for inter-religious interaction on a scholarly level. A list of broad sources are provided in each volume assisting the specialist.

(Info taken from the "Editor's Preface" and interaction with the NT commentary set)

Under the direction of the editorial board, including Thomas Schreiner, this series sought to listen to the needs of pastors and teaches and what they desired for a commentary. This series is written for the pastor utilizing the Greek text. Each volume will provide various features, beneficial to the entire exegetical process.

Key features of this commentary series are:
- A literary contextual discussion and outline are provided in order to observe a given pericope's placement within the book
- A one-two sentence stating the "Main Idea" of each section
- A visual diagram of the text is provided in order to show phrase relationships. Non-technichal jargon is utilized when showing the functions of each phrase.
- Theological contribution of each pericope to the overall message of the book and the broader theological context.

Those benefiting from this commentary are for anyone with a two-year collegiate or seminary Greek class. The authors of these books assume familiarity of Greek grammars such as Wallace, Porter, Brooks and Winberry, or Dana and Mantey. However, the the lack of technical jargon makes this series beneficial to the Greek and English reader.

(Info taken from the "Series Introduction")