Commentaries

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Howdy

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Feb 14, 2025
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How much stock do you put in commentaries?
How often do you use them in your study?
Some of the post on this thread sound like they come from a commentary and not Fri personal study and understanding.
I used them when I first became a child of God, but have not in the last 55 or more years.
While there may some truth, even a lot of truth on some, you are accepting another's opinion or understand which often times is not correct.
I only recently watched a few videos on you tube of Bible teachers that had thousands of hits, but came away wondering why do people listen to such nonsense.
I will just stick with my Bible and those I meet and study with every week.
 
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Looks like I got this in the wrong thread.
Sorry. This is still a new adventure for me.
 
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Howdy said:
How much stock do you put in commentaries?
How often do you use them in your study?
Some of the post on this thread sound like they come from a commentary and not Fri personal study and understanding.
I used them when I first became a child of God, but have not in the last 55 or more years.
While there may some truth, even a lot of truth on some, you are accepting another's opinion or understand which often times is not correct.
I only recently watched a few videos on you tube of Bible teachers that had thousands of hits, but came away wondering why do people listen to such nonsense.
I will just stick with my Bible and those I meet and study with every week.
Click to expand...


The only commentary I have is Oliver B Greene, a well known Baptist Evangelist from the past century.
I haven't opened one up for years.

Some study Bibles might as well be labeled commentaries.
Dr Henry Morris' study Bible has a lot of notes. He is founder of the Institute for Creation Research and was the leader of the Creation Evangelism movement. I was involved and respect his opinions, but his notes are not inspired. I disagree on some points that I believe the Holy Spirit and correct Bible interpretation led me.
I refer to it occasionally and scrutinized every note before putting it on the shelf for retirement.

I think we are on the same page when it comes to commentaries. I sit down with the plain Bible daily and study with help from the Holy Spirit. He usually speaks to me sooner or later, as long as I'm not in a hurry.
I certainly don't like to be interupted by a man's comment on every chater.
I depend on the Spirit's teaching ministry. He leads me all across the Bible on different passages and subjects.
 
Howdy said:
How much stock do you put in commentaries?
How often do you use them in your study?
Some of the post on this thread sound like they come from a commentary and not Fri personal study and understanding.
I used them when I first became a child of God, but have not in the last 55 or more years.
While there may some truth, even a lot of truth on some, you are accepting another's opinion or understand which often times is not correct.
I only recently watched a few videos on you tube of Bible teachers that had thousands of hits, but came away wondering why do people listen to such nonsense.
I will just stick with my Bible and those I meet and study with every week.
Click to expand...

I used to rely on commentaries when I was a new believer. Unfortunately, I put too much faith in them and many of them are just wrong. Nowadays I use them on occasion but I don't depend on them. Usually the simplest explanation is best; if it requires a whole book to explain it's a waste of my time.
 
Thanks for correcting the old man's mistake by moving the thread.
 
When I first st
Howdy said:
How much stock do you put in commentaries?
How often do you use them in your study?
Some of the post on this thread sound like they come from a commentary and not Fri personal study and understanding.
I used them when I first became a child of God, but have not in the last 55 or more years.
While there may some truth, even a lot of truth on some, you are accepting another's opinion or understand which often times is not correct.
I only recently watched a few videos on you tube of Bible teachers that had thousands of hits, but came away wondering why do people listen to such nonsense.
I will just stick with my Bible and those I meet and study with every week.[/QUO
When I first started reading the Bible I bought myself a New Testament commentary , thought it would b helpful . It was utter drivel . I'm not the most intelligent person in the world and , it was my first time reading the Bible but even I could tell that whoever wrote it had all the insight of a piece of cheese .
It tried to convince me that Luke Ch 7 v31-35 was referring to a game that young Jewish children played 🙄 . I chucked it in the bin and I've never looked at another .
Click to expand...
 
I occasionaly will check Matthew Henry. I have the KJV Commentary as well I will sometimes look at. I do like the Holman Study Bible but mostly read the MEV.
 
Howdy said:
How much stock do you put in commentaries?
How often do you use them in your study?
Some of the post on this thread sound like they come from a commentary and not Fri personal study and understanding.
I used them when I first became a child of God, but have not in the last 55 or more years.
While there may some truth, even a lot of truth on some, you are accepting another's opinion or understand which often times is not correct.
I only recently watched a few videos on you tube of Bible teachers that had thousands of hits, but came away wondering why do people listen to such nonsense.
I will just stick with my Bible and those I meet and study with every week.
Click to expand...

There's more than one type of commentary.

The ones I consult are very limited in what they tell because they mostly focus on what was said, why it was said in the manner it was said in. AKA expositional commentary instead of exegetical.

Exegetical commentaries are the MOST common even though many claim to be expositional. But since most people don't know the difference....they get away with it.

Expositional focuses on the language. It's grammar, the metaphors, the hyperbole, and occasionally historical context when it's relevant. It also will discuss obvious themes in a book and other literary aspects of the scriptures.

Leaving the reader to determine what it means for themselves after first completely understanding what precisely was said.

Then I have a few guides. Westcott and Hort as well as Eadie and Lightfoot are "must haves" for wading through the book of Hebrews and Jude as well as spots in other books. Those gentlemen were experts in Jewish extrabiblical literature and those scriptures which reference those well known (at the time) writings of Talmud, midrash and Sifre.

Then there's the archeological and anthropology guides as well as landscape, geology, zoology, topography and botany.

Trying go keep it all in your head at the same time is a bit like spinning plates on top of sticks. How many plates can you keep spinning without letting them crash?

Scriptures themselves are the barest outline of needed information. All the "obvious" and "of course" information was not written down. (Paper and ink were expensive commodities)
Today thousands of years after the fact....none of this is obvious or "of course" type information. Our culture stems from a hemisphere away in a completely different style of culture without Caste based society rules. We even let women have equal rights as men. Executions are rare....

Knowing scriptures themselves extremely well is of course a prerequisite to any of the other information becoming relevant or useful. Which is why I start with the expositional commentary so I do know them inside out, backwards and forwards.
The English language is the worst receptor language for a metaphoric language like Hebrew or an idiomatic language like Koine Greek and Early Latin. But that's what we got.
 
Being proficient in biblical languages will not make you anymore fun at parties than having a PhD in Mideval Renaissance French Poetry. They are just about equal in excitement for most party goers.

Meaning you still will be avoided like the plague unless you can become pleasant to speak to.
The 2nd most important commandment is loving your neighbor....and you can't do that if you can't get near him.
 
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