Best Commentaries on Acts

This volume came out just as the commentaries on the commentaries were being published, so it did not make it into most of them. Still, the series is as good as they come and Peterson is a trusted scholar.

Thomas is an excellent preacher and scholar who has written a wide variety of commentaries (and, as it happens, a commentary on commentaries). This commentary is based on sermons.

The Christian Standard Commentary is a relatively new series that means to balance rigorous scholarship with helpful application. The endorsements have since caught up with it. Joseph Dodson writes, “I have lost count as to how many commentaries I have read on the book. Nevertheless, having read this one, I can honestly say that I have a new favorite.”

The ZECNT has quickly become a favorite series to many people, myself included. I look forward to reading the scholars’ assessments of this volume.

The first-ever Acts volume in the WBC—a gap that stood for fifty years—with further volumes to come. Osvaldo Padilla calls Walton “one of the leading scholars of the Acts of the Apostles of this generation” and promises, “You are in for a feast!” This is the technical, Greek-text complement to the more accessible volumes above.

D.A. Carson points out that until a few years ago we were underserved by commentaries on Acts, but that this has been remedied in recent years. He adds, “Pride of place should certainly go to C.K. Barrett” and his two-volume set. “The fruit of two decades of study, these two volumes offer acute and thought-provoking comments, many of them theological, on almost every page.” Unfortunately the volumes may be difficult to track down. You may have better success with the one-volume abridgement.

Keith Mathison gives this one his highest recommendation saying, “Darrell Bock’s massive and outstanding two-volume commentary on the Gospel of Luke raised my expectations for his commentary on Acts in the same series. I was not disappointed. This work is equally outstanding.” He points out, though, that the reader may become confused if he does not have at least some basic knowledge of Greek. If you cannot find Barrett, Bock appears to be the place to begin.

F.F. Bruce has two commentaries on Acts and the contribution to the NICNT series is regarded as the stronger of the two. Not only that, but it is regarded as one of the very best works on the book. A couple of commentators on the commentaries point out that Bruce is especially strong on the historical aspect of Acts.

II – The Acts of the Apostles. There is near-unanimous praise for Ben Witherington’s socio-rhetorical approach and its suitability to the book of Acts. Carson explains the phrase, saying that it “tends to mean no more than that the author is sensitive both to the world of the first century and to the structure of the text.”

I. Howard Marshall has written many commentaries; his work on Acts is regarded as one of his finest. Because this is a volume in the reader-friendly TNTC series, it will make an excellent choice for the casual reader. However, it is apparently also an invaluable resource for the preacher.