Customer Reviews

Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources

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Other reviews written are already comprehensive enough for this book, so I will be short.

It strengths: 1) Gives persuasion (E, E/Cr, C/M, L/Cr) for each commentary and for special studies on each book related to the biblical text under review (such as Matthew, Mark, etc.) 2) Recommends specific studies for books with particular issues (ex., homosexuality in Romans). 3) Interacts with many of the different commentary series giving basic audience, readability, pastoral usefulness, etc. I found this to be extremely helpful. 4) Gives solid lists that are very up-to-date and includes footnotes for the upcoming commentaries on every individual book of scripture, this is very helpful. 5) Gives wonderful lists for introductions, surveys, special studies (both specific to book and as a whole for each testament), for languages, resource tools, etc. 6) Gives the reader a solid background on what to expect in building a library and how to go about it depending on your educational direction (pastor, academic, layperson, etc.)

Its weaknesses: 1) The strength on the interaction found in all the commentaries (lists, dialogue, suggestions, etc.) is supremely lacking in the sections on theology. I found this section of the work very disappointing as this was a key area for me in building my library with systematic works. Though he gives multiple options, there is rarely solid interaction with anything. 2) Though Glynn highlights his recommendations, and suggests ones he would get from time to time if limited to only a few, he doesn't rank them and give the reader his rubric for doing so. Glynn does tell us at the beginning how he evaluated the works in this survey, but he doesn't give a ranking except near the beginning concerning his thoughts on an overall commentary series (NICNT, NIGNT, NTL, OTL, PNTC, BCNT, etc.). I really wish he would have been consistent throughout. 3) He limited his assessment of E, E/Cr, C/M, L/Cr to only commentaries on books of scripture or survey/intro works on the OT/NT. 4) Though I understand his purpose is to survey more recent works (as I saw only a few dated prior to 1980, such as William Lane on Mark NICNT [1974], Chafer's Systematic Theology [1948, rev. 1993], etc.), he consistently leaves out classic commentaries throughout. A clear example of this is John Murray's commentary on Romans. I understand Moo's commentary on Romans (1996) was written to replace Murray's in the NICNT series, but to leave Murray's out altogether? This is very unfortunate.

Overall, the work is well-worth the price if it saves you from buying one worthless commentary which you originally misjudged. This survey is much better for evaluating commentaries, introductions/surveys, and language tools/resources, than it is of (more strictly) systematic theology, theological surveys, and theological specifics (soteriology, eschatology, etc.). Though it is certainly not poor in these areas, it leaves much to be desired. However, Glynn's survey on the commentaries alone is well-worth getting this book.

So as not to be redundant I heartily agree with the reviews of Peter Richert and Danny Hays. I do not think putting prices in the book is very helpful since we can quickly find them on the internet.

There are two weaknesses in Glynn's book. (1) There is no author index. For this reason, I go to David Bauer's work first. (2) Also unlike Bauer, Glynn offers no annotations on his preferred selections. Bauer's are lengthy.

A necessary strength of Glynn's work over Bauer's is the categorizing of the commentaries by theological perspective and the focus of the commentary.
In the final analysis each person has his likes and dislikes and each guides's author has his own view. Total objctivity can not be achieved, even though their views are extremely informative. For this reason, I also have the works of Lynn Gardner, Carson and Longman. Five heads are better than one.

It's a little misleading to say I've "read" this book, although I've gone through every word of the explanatory sections. This is simply an essential book for every even semi-serious student of the Bible. On top of that, any Bible teacher (lay or professional) who doesn't have a good organized resource of resources doesn't care much about their students.

Glynn gives you a primer on getting a basic library started, and then goes into specific helps on Greek, Hebrew, and systematic theology. Then, you'll get 300 pages of detailed commentaries indexed by theological persuasion: Evangelical, Conservative, Liberal, Critical, etc. Glynn also has extensive footnotes, which adds a personal set of ideas to a referential work. Lots of times, Glynn's opinions are useful, but he doesn't interject them in his ordering of the references, which is really nice.

A must-buy for anyone building or growing a serious library, and wants more than a set of books that agree with the reader over Scripture.

I have enjoyed Glynn's Survey for nearly 10 years. Now his Survey is in it's 10th edition. This is the second edition published by Kregel, the first having been published in 2003.

As I began collecting book recommendations from my pastor, friends, and teachers, I also began searching the internet for recommendation lists. One of the lists I found early on was John Glynn's Survey posted at bible.org (it has since been removed). Glynn's work offers a great format for categorizing and labeling books. He is interested in the level of difficulty as well as the theological viewpoint--two very important pieces of information when it comes to selecting books.

Glynn's method is to collect recommendations from reputable evangelical sources and to consolidate them into categorized lists. For each book of the Bible, Glynn distinguishes between technical, semi-technical and expositional commentaries. He usually adds a section for monographs dealing with special subjects on each Biblical book. He also has a system of noting the theological perspective of each author (such as evangelical, evangelical/critical, conservative/moderate, and liberal/critical). In the introductory sections to the book and each division Glynn spells out his method and criteria.

Along with listing commentaries, Glynn covers reference works, introductory works, theological works, church history works, language works and even Bible software (such as Logos, Accordance, and BibleWorks). Some of his previous reviewers have noted that the Survey bears the obvious marks of Glynn's strengths and weaknesses. This is partly the case because Glynn decided to highlight his own recommendations. While this is a nice feature it truly distracts from his intent to provide a list of books most recommended by scholars and professors. However, it does provide the reader with someone to associate with the recommendations offered which leads to my greatest criticism of this volume (to be dealt with below). In many places it is obvious where Glynn spent the greatest amount of time.

* In the commentary section the greatest concentration is on the Gospels, Jesus, Paul, and the Book or Revelation.
* In the Classic Theologies section he omits any reference to Calvin (other reviewers have noted the absence of Barth and Acquinas), and he highlights none of them.
* He is very heavy in pneumatology, especially Charismaticism; and in eschatology, especially Dispensationalism.
* The Church History section is a nice start, but leaves much to be desired. You can spot Glynn's predispositions best in this section.

Chapters 19 and 20 have a lot of helpful analysis of available computer resources.
Chapter 21 provides a selection of web sites which is greatly lacking, but a fair start for the person unfamiliar with the many online used book dealers, academic sites, and theological journals. Finally, a very helpful addition to this volume is "The Ultimate Commentary Collection" which is a quick listing of the top 2-4 commentaries for each book of the Bible.

Another feature of this volume worth mentioning is the footnotes regarding forthcoming volumes. Of course, these notes will quickly become obsolete, but it is a very helpful service that deserves being perpetuated.

Really, this entire project is worth being continued. The concept of cataloging the most recommended books is extremely helpful to students and teachers alike. I've read a handful of notes from professors who direct their students to this Survey when they are asked for book recommendations. However, there is room for improvement. Here are a few of my observations:

1. One of the greatest weaknesses of this volume is the fact that we are not told who has recommended each title. To that, we don't know which books are the most recommended except for the ones highlighted by Glynn himself.
2. There are very few annotations. I'm not a fan of lengthy annotations, but some basic information about the usefulness of each volume would be ideal.
3. Glynn only identifies the theological perspective of the authors in the commentary section. Granted this is an ambitious task to begin with. However, similar labeling would be of great benefit throughout the theology section.
4. This volume is great for listing the most recently published works and is spotty when it comes to classic works. A true "comprehensive guide" would include the best classic works, too (even puritan, neo-orthodox, and liberal works).
5. A work like this would be most beneficial if it were offered in a searchable, digital format. I would love to see this made available online and/or as an add-on to the popular Bible software packages. Making this Survey available in this way would allow for more room to add extra notations, labels, bibliographic information, author details, etc. Really the sky's the limit.

Of course, there are space constraints and noting all of these features would take up too much space to make this book manageable in print. However, a reasonable compromise could be agreed upon or the project could be printed in different volumes--one for commentaries, one for theological works, etc. The plan of this Survey is great and highly useful for a fairly broad range of students. It is a project that requires constant updating and expansion. I truly hope that Kregel will find someone (or a team) able to take up this project and carry it on through many more editions.

Glynn has developed a very useful and nearly comprehensive survey of biblical commentaries. In conjunction with s few other surveys, students of the Bible can develop an efficient library. This survey is not perfect, but it provides huge amounts of great information and is key to developing a library.

The main purpose of these surveys is to build a library efficiently. Book prices add up, and through the aid of surveys, money can be spent more effectively.

This survey comes from an evangelical perspective (high view/conservative view of Scripture). The introduction discusses this focus, and gives statistics of the writings Glynn includes. Of the recommended books, they break out as follows: 163 Evangelical, 83 Evangelical/Critical, 55 Conservative/Moderate, 68 Liberal/Critical.

The survey covers commentaries on a myriad of biblical topics covering the Old and New Testaments, theologies, histories and even computer programs. The unique items in this book include a guide to building a "must have" personal library for laymen, Bible college/seminary students, and pastors. The back of the book also includes two guides to ultimate commentary lists, one for technical studies and one for exposition.

Pros:
- Breaks sources into theological leanings
- Most sources have a short description/definition (Arminian, Postmillennial, Dispensational, etc)
- "must have" library guide
- 2 ultimate commentary lists
- overt evangelical stance
- great amplifying info put into footnotes (NOT end-notes!)
- "standard" or essential works highlighted in footnotes (wish these were

Cons:
- Sources listed alphabetically by author rather than by rank
- Few amplifying or extended descriptions of books
- No author index (Bauer's survey has one, and it is supremely useful)
- terms could be defined with more clarity

This is likely the best comprehensive commentary survey, but supplementing this text with other surveys to get a more comprehensive view of books is beneficial. Bauer is good (needs updating from 2003), as is the combination of Carson and Longman.

"A phenomenal work which I would have thought was impossible, if John Glynn hadn't done it."

Dr David Instone-Brewer
Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the
New Testament, Tyndale House, Cambridge University (UK)