Customer Reviews

The Oxford Bible Commentary

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Oxford Bible Commentary is a concise, expert commentary, providing useful verse-by-verse explanation of the Christian religious book.

The commentary encompasses all books recognised as canonical in any of the major churches of Christianity, and also includes excerpts from books in other canons. The advanced Bible scholar may additionally wish to refer to more specialist textbooks for detailed insight into specific topics or individual biblical books.

This is among the most authoritative Bible commentaries available. The reader will appreciate the expertise of the distinguished contributors, their concise verse explanations, thorough verse cross-references, and critical approach. The book is intuitively structured throughout and, despite the large size of this volume, easy to navigate.

It is a helpful aide toward informed reading of the Bible for any reason - religious, theological, historical, literary, or general interest. An extensive bibliographic resource and relevant maps complement the text.

A good Bible commentary such as this is highly enlightening. Each verse in the Bible suddenly makes much more sense in the light of expert explanation. In reading the Bible without the benefit of well-informed commentary, essential considerations such as the historical context, and relationships between verses, are almost certainly overlooked. While opinions expressed in this commentary are objective, they are frequently conservative and tend to be representative of the mainstream consensus.

The OBC is a huge, high quality reference textbook, with a proportionate price-tag, and I fervently commend it to anyone with a serious interest in Hebrew or Christian scripture.

I sat in the real-world bookstore several hours before deciding that the two one-volume commentaries I wanted were this one and the New Jerome. The Oxford simply devotes more space to its analyses than did any of the other commentaries I looked at, including New Jerome and HarperCollins. You get a more in-depth treatment.

My spot-checking noted, for ex., that Oxford includes some comments on the "woman taken in adultery" story in John. Some commentaries merely sniff that the passage is a late addition and don't comment on it at all. Oxford at least includes some textual and exegetical remarks in an appendix.

The Oxford's virtue is its vice, of course, in that its devotion to covering the text means less extraneous material. The New Jerome, in classic Catholic fashion, won't let its 1000 pages of commentary go by without 300 pages on theology, papal pronouncements, hermeneutics, etc., so as to "frame" the commentary. But since I love that kind of stuff, whatever the motive, the NJ is the other one I decided to get.

So: Oxford for objective academic treatment, & NJ for a more dogmatic (tho very sharp intellectually) treatment. I'll put them on my desk with my Bible & let them fight it out.

I was looking for a source of detailed biblical information that is scholarly, and without nuance towards any particular persuasion. This commentary has met my needs admirably. While it may have been written with the needs of the practicing clergyman in mind, for a lay person like myself it's not difficult to read. Indeed for me it has provided a totally new level of biblical insight. I've been most impressed and can recommend it to anyone who wants to extend their biblical knowledge.

The Oxford Bible Commentary is a concise, expert commentary, providing useful verse-by-verse explanation of the Christian religious book.

The commentary encompasses all books recognised as canonical in any of the western churches of Christianity, and also includes excerpts from books in other canons. The advanced Bible scholar may additionally wish to refer to more specialist textbooks for detailed insight into specific topics or individual biblical books.

This is among the most authoritative Bible commentaries available. The reader will appreciate the expertise of the distinguished contributors, their concise verse explanations, thorough verse cross-references, and critical approach. The book is intuitively structured throughout and, despite the large size of this volume, easy to navigate.

It is a helpful aide toward informed reading of the Bible for any reason - religious, theological, historical, literary, or general interest. An extensive bibliographic resource and relevant maps complement the text.

A good Bible commentary such as this is highly enlightening. Each verse in the Bible suddenly makes much more sense in the light of expert explanation. In reading the Bible without the benefit of well-informed commentary, essential considerations such as the historical context, and relationships between verses, are almost certainly overlooked. While opinions expressed in this commentary are objective, they are frequently conservative and tend to be representative of the mainstream consensus.

The OBC is a huge, high quality reference textbook, with a proportionate price-tag, and I fervently commend it to anyone with a serious interest in the Christian or Hebrew scripture.

What do you expect when "Oxford" is in the title of the book?This is a large, heavy and intimidating book. However, this is its only drawback. It is a wealth of information; it contextualizes the scripture in a concise format and presents a multitude of expert scholars' opinions in a verse-by-verse format.

This is an authoritative reference: I highly recommend this for anyone interested in a modern commentary of canonical books. Well researched, well written, with a wide range of scholars input.

I spent an hour in the bookstore looking at commentaries, trying to decide which one to get, and I ultimately decided on the Oxford because 1) it seemed the most comprehensive, 2) it was physically larger than its competitors, 3) it contained commentary on all of the Apocryphal books included in the NRSV translation, 4) it avoided the indefensible Fundamentalist stance which insists that the Bible is 100% factually true - choosing to be objective rather than preachy, and 5) it was bound in signatures stitched with thread, like a proper book. Reason 5 may seem superficial, but if I am spending more than $50 on a book, I want it to last. I don't want the pages to start falling out 5 years from now.

I haven't read the whole thing. I've only studied the Apocrypha so far, and overall I am pleased with it but I have noticed a few tendencies which I am inclined to regard as flaws or weaknesses:

1 - a tendency on the part of the commentators to waste a lot of space retelling the text. I didn't come here for a paraphrase of what I already read in my Bible. I came here for you to give me information about its historical & cultural context, its theological significance, and any irregularities or curiosities that may be hidden in the text (such as variant readings from different manuscripts, ambiguities in the original language, etc.)

2 - a tendency to refer the reader to another scholarly work for information. For example, page 783 in the commentary for 2 Esdras, I am told "for the textual problem in this verse see Hayman (1975: 54 n.35)" This strikes me as extremely lazy on the part of the commentator to mention that there is a textual problem, and then say nothing about it but merely direct the reader to another source. Suppose I don't have access to Hayman? I think that in a book with a nearly $80 cover price you could have at least given me a sentence or two covering the gist of Hayman's argument. I'm displeased by this - I feel like I'm missing something.

3 - it would have been nice if the book had chapter and verse indicators at the top of each page (like EVERY Bible has) so you can find specific sections more easily. Few people read the Bible straight through from front to back, and fewer still will do so with a Bible commentary. The more likely scenario is: you're reading your Bible, you come across a passage that raises a question in your mind, you grab your Commentary to get some clarification ... and you spend ten minutes flipping through pages to locate the section that discusses the passage in question, because the page headings only tell you which BOOK you're in, not chapter and verse. For a reference book, this absence of navigational helps is rather appalling.

These do seem like trivial complaints though, and to be fair, I am still in the "first impressions" stage. I have turned at random through the rest of the book and most of it seems to be top-notch scholarship and quite fascinating, so I'm sure that as I use it I will grow to like it more.

With most all commentaries the reader must keep in mind the demoninational bent of the aurhors and make allowences for it. With this commentary no shading of comments are discernable.

The 11 maps are not in a seperate part " between pages 1346 - 1347 " as indicated in List of Maps. Instead, they are together inserted in " Bibliographical Guide to Bible Studies " part, between pages 1342 -1343.

Really nice resource to compliment one's study of the Holy Scriptures. Did not include CD, which was what I wanted. But nonetheless, a very worthy investment for the scholar looking into expounding on the text and translation of scripture.

This book is a gold mine if you have interest in the Bible. It is very helpful with understanding specific scriptures and learning about the people of it's time.