I live in a small house. I work in a small office in a small church. For those reasons and others I will never have a huge library. When I add a book I almost always remove a book, a practice that allows me to focus on quality over quantity. Over the past couple of years I have focused on building a collection of commentaries that will include only the best volumes on each book of the Bible. I know when I’m in way over my head, so before I began I collected every good resource I could find that rated and reviewed commentaries. I studied them and then began my collection on the basis of what the experts told me. Since I did all of that work, and since I continue to keep up with the project, I thought it might be helpful to share the recommendations.
My focus is on newer commentaries (at least in part because most of the classics are now freely or cheaply available) and I am offering approximately 5 recommendations for each book of the Bible, alternating between the Old Testament and the New.
- Best Commentaries on Genesis
- Best Commentaries on Matthew
- Best Commentaries on Exodus
- Best Commentaries on Mark
- Best Commentaries on Leviticus
- Best Commentaries on Luke
- Best Commentaries on Numbers
- Best Commentaries on John
- Best Commentaries on Deuteronomy
- Best Commentaries on Acts
- Best Commentaries on Joshua
- Best Commentaries on Romans
- Best Commentaries on Judges
- Best Commentaries on 1 Corinthians
- Best Commentaries on Ruth
- Best Commentaries on 2 Corinthians
- Best Commentaries on 1 & 2 Samuel
- Best Commentaries on Galatians
- Best Commentaries on 1 & 2 Kings
- Best Commentaries on Ephesians
- Best Commentaries on 1 & 2 Chronicles
- Best Commentaries on Philippians
- Best Commentaries on Ezra & Nehemiah
- Best Commentaries Colossians & Philemon
- Best Commentaries on Esther
- Best Commentaries on 1 & 2 Thessalonians
- Best Commentaries on Job
- Best Commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles
- Best Commentaries on Psalms
- Best Commentaries on Hebrews
- Best Commentaries on Proverbs
- Best Commentaries on James
- Best Commentaries on Ecclesiastes
- Best Commentaries on 1 Peter
- Best Commentaries on Song of Solomon
- Best Commentaries on 2 Peter & Jude
- Best Commentaries on Isaiah
- Best Commentaries on 1, 2, 3 John
- Best Commentaries on Jeremiah
- Best Commentaries on Revelation
- Best Commentaries on Lamentations
- Best Commentaries on Ezekiel
- Best Commentaries on Daniel