21st CENTURY COMMENTING ON COMMENTARIES By Steven L. Martin 21st CENTURY COMMENTING ON COMMENTARIES THE BEST HELPS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR: 1. PASTORS AND ELDERS 2. MISSIONARIES 3. SEMINARY STUDENTS 4. SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS 5. SMALL GROUP LEADERS 6. STUDENT MINISTRY LEADERS 7. CHURCH LIBRARIANS 8. HOME BIBLE STUDY LEADERS 9. LAY STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE 10. CAMPUS MINISTRY LEADERS 11. FAITHFUL DADS LEADING FAMILY DEVOTIONS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ COPYRIGHT 2000, 2004, 2008, 2014 WWW.THELOGCOLLEGE.WORDPRESS.COM 21st CENTURY COMMENTING ON COMMENTARIES: THE BEST HELPS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE WHO IS THIS MATERIAL SUPPOSED TO HELP ? If you are a Christian, whether a pastor, missionary, elder, Sunday School teacher, deacon, home Bible study leader, youth worker, church librarian, campus leader, or faithful husband and father, you will want to be a diligent student of the Bible. So I have compiled COMMENTING ON COMMENTARIES: THE BEST HELPS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE for you. Pastor- teachers are spiritual leaders who must give an account to God for handling His Word (2nd Timothy 2:15) and leading His sheep (Hebrews 13:17), need to know the books that will best help you to thoroughly understand God's Word. In order for you to preach and teach it correctly, not to mention obey it carefully, you must understand it yourself. As a faithful Sunday School teacher who must handle God's Word with accuracy, you too need to know what books will give you the most help to meet your ministry needs. For you leading home Bible studies or student ministries, you must get to the heart of a book and make it clear to your people. As a church librarian, you are responsible to see that trustworthy and edifying books are placed in your church's library for your people to read, grow and minister. If you are an office bearer in a local congregation, you need to know what God's Word teaches for yourself to be a true leader. If you are a faithful and serious student of the Bible beyond the daily devotional level, you too must know what are the best book to help you. The following material was designed especially for you! A WORD OF CAUTION BEFORE YOU BEGIN ! The only inspired and authoritative book is the Bible, God's holy and inerrant Word to mankind. And God, by His Holy Spirit, has given gifted men to the churches down through the centuries to understand, teach and apply the Word of God to their generation and beyond (cf. John 14:16, 25-26 and 16:12-15 and Ephesians 2:19-22 and 4:11-16). The primary means the Holy Spirit uses to build up the churches of Jesus Christ are pastors and teachers who are His gifts to the churches to teach the Bible. The books listed below are a testimony to God's faithfulness in honoring His promises and giving gifted men to His people down through the ages. You will be quick to notice that many of the books mentioned below are from generations gone by. You may be tempted to ask yourself, "Who reads old books? Are they not obsolete because they are old? Besides, who has the time or resources to read all the 'new and up-to-date' books put out by the many good publishers in our day?" Well, two good reasons come to mind to study "old" books as well as the "new". FIRST, old books have their weaknesses, just because they were written by sinful but saved, fallible people with their weaknesses, blind-spots and biases. But we have our own weaknesses, blind-spots, and biases today too. That is why we need to use the "old" authors to help us. Books written two to three hundred years ago probably do not share the same problems we have now. And that is to our advantage. Better to learn what the Holy Spirit taught godly authors in the past by reading their books then having to learn them by painful experience today because we were too proud to believe anything good could come out of the dust of history! (A serious reading and meditation upon C. S. Lewis' classic "Introduction" to ON THE INCARNATION, by Athanasius would serve you well if you wanted to think through this point.) SECOND, we have the great and good privilege of fellowshipping with believers across the centuries who we have not had the opportunity of knowing face-to-face. In the meantime, we can read their best thoughts and Spirit-taught insights into God's Word. Though dead, they still speak. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Owen, Watson, Henry, Edwards, Broadus, Hodge, Spurgeon, Warfield, Machen, Murray, Lloyd-Jones, Pink, Boice, and many others are your fellow believers to fellowship with through their works and to learn from what God has taught them. CAVEAT EMPTOR: One final word of caution before you begin. The famous Puritan pastor and evangelist Richard Baxter wisely noted: "It is not the reading of many books which is necessary to make a man wise or good, but the thorough reading of a few, if he knew he had the best." Almost none of us will have access to all the books mentioned, and your goal is not to read all of the books mentioned below (almost no one will) but to know which are the best books on a subject available to you and make the most of them. The goal is not to acquire a vast library; the goal is to know and make use of the best helps available. King David thought that numbering his troops was a good idea--it certainly established his role as a great and mighty ruler. But God was angry with David and sent a punishment upon the troops. David was tempting himself to trust in the arm of flesh (how many troops he had, not his Almighty God). So today I have heard pastors brag about the size of their library. It is probably best not to know how many books you have. When asked about the size of my library, I can honestly say I don't know. Besides, I gave most of them to my church to be a Reference Library. When asked if I have read all of them, I usually reply that some of them I have read twice or more! But that is an evasion. I usually come clean and tell them I purposely don't know. But I can say like a faithful pharmacist about the pills on his shelves: "I have not taken all of them myself, but I know what each of them is there for!" May the Lord of the churches use these treasures to enrich your mind with great thoughts of your Savior and His revealed purposes, enflame your love for Him and His people and the lost, and move your will to more careful and sacrificial service to Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. KEY TO THE SYMBOLS USED IN RATING BOOKS A....INTRODUCTORY LEVEL...requires no prior knowledge of the subject matter, nor of the biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). Usually does not go into the various ambiguities or subtleties of biblical exegesis and interpretation. Tends to give a simple, straight-forward explanation. B....INTERMEDIATE LEVEL...requires some prior knowledge of the subject matter and/or some knowledge of biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). May begin to give you some exposure to the exegetical options before making its case for the position it has chosen. Some Intermediate volumes tend are uneven and lean toward the INTRODUCTORY at times and also the ADVANCED at other times. C....ADVANCED LEVEL...requires more familiarity with the subject matter and/or biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) for full benefit. Usually gives the reader various exegetical options on a verse or passage before then giving its own understanding. May tend to write for other scholars and not for pastors and those seeking to know God's Word for personal appropriation and conformity to Christ. *SPECIAL NOTE: I have purposely not chosen to include works by authors committed to classic Dispensationalism, Pentecostalism, Arminianism, Liberalism, Neo-Orthodoxy, or eccentric eclecticism. They have their authors and books. Rather than include them only to exclude them by critical remarks, I have chosen not to include them at all. Sometimes a work will have an idiosyncrasy which some previous books of this kind would lampoon. I have rather sought to keep my wits about me and leave such works alone. If a work you like is not included, either I did not know about it, had not perused it, or considered it did not meet my standards of evangelical Reformed theology. I. REFERENCE BOOKS FOR THE STUDY OF GOD'S WORD Reference books give the background information about people, places, history, doctrines, languages. customs, cultures and subjects of the Bible. They are meant to give the reader the background necessary to rightly understand and interpret God's Word. Since reference works are usually written by more than one individual, they tend to be uneven, that is, they have some great articles and some which leave something to be desired. BIBLE DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS A. NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE ( 1 Vol.), Zondervan; (contains over 5,000 articles relating to the Bible) A. RYKEN'S BIBLE HANDBOOK by Leland Ryken, Philip Ryken and James C. Wilhoit; Tyndale (a great handbook to give you a good beginning at digging into God's Word, book by book, with enough information to stimulate the beginning student or pastor preparing to preach to God's hungry people.) B.