LeStourgeon Online

Challies Case Study for Commentary Recommendations

The increasingly famous Tim Challies has added “commentaries” to his long list of book reviews and recommendations.  I’ve often been impressed with what seems to be his desire to help his readers pursue spiritual formation (rather than simply pontificating).  That said, he falls into the traps that most commentary list makers do not take the time to avoid.  I offer the following critique for future aspiring commentary list creators.

1) What is the criteria for the list?

Challies give us two commentaries for each book of the NT.  How did he decide?  What makes a good commentary in his opinion?  He does warn readers to choose commentaries “appropriate to your education and expertise.”  What is the education and expertise of Mr. Challies?  How can I know if my requirements for a commentary match his requirements for a commentary so that I can have any confidence that his recommendation will mean anything at all to me?  Why does the NICNT “appear to be the best complete New Testament set”?  What sets it apart?

Is this list anything more than “stuff I like”?  Tell us why - the readers need to know how you are choosing volumes so that they can gauge how appropriate your selections are to their situation.

2) What makes any of these particular selections worthwhile?

This is related to (1), but what I am referring to here is the lack of any annotation for each recommendation.  Whereas (1) is a critique of the lack of selection criteria, (2) is a critique of the lack of its application.  Why is Fee better than Garland for 1 Corinthians?  Is it because of Fee’s commitment to a charismatic interpretation?  Does Challies like Fee’s proposed construction of the early Corinthian church?  Why would a volume from 1987 be a better choice than the survey style BECNT from 2003?

3) Who would actually be helped by these recommendations?

Challies takes a few positive steps toward answering this question.  He does warn readers to be aware that not all commentaries are equally useful for everybody.  He also acknowledges that he is a non-scholar who enjoys studying God’s word.

However, the lack of any additional qualifications leads us to this basic understanding of these recommendations’ usability - “A list for people who like to study the Bible.”  While admirable, this doesn’t really narrow the field down much.  Will Bible study leaders or Sunday school teachers like this list more than non-teachers?  Does it matter if you have a college background or not?  Is this a list for people who just like to know a bunch of facts or do its members genuinely help readers in translating biblical principles to practical godly living?  Tell us who the list was created to help: pastors, educated laypeople, the “everyman” - who?  By not guiding his readers to understand the intended audience, Challies leaves his readers with little more than a few clues for better guesses - and I expect his intention was to help more than that.

4) What was the extent of the comparison?

Though usually my primary critique of a commentary list is (1), this “extent question” looms large over Challies list.  He refers to his “attempt at thorough research” and his “extensive research,” but nowhere details what that research included beyond references to a few online commentary recommendation lists.  Did he only look at commentaries reviewed by these sources?  Or perhaps only those that appeared on two or more of the lists?  If we do not really know anything about the extent of the “extensive research” then how can we have any confidence that these recommendations are actually the best recommendations for any particular biblical book?

Further, the striking admission that Challies was “relying almost entirely on secondary sources” suggests that he has no practical knowledge of the volumes he is recommending.  Readers are left with the impression that all he did was uncritically compare a few relatively random lists and make guesses as to what books would probably be good purchases, maybe.

Conclusion

I applaud anyone’s desire to help others not waste money on books, especially commentaries.  There are lots of intelligent, informed, discerning people on the web making recommendations (Challies may very well be one) - but if they do not give us any basis for their advice, then they are simply adding their voice to the “because I said so” cloud of the internet.  Such is useful as far as it goes, but most people who desire to make wise commentary purchases would be so much better served by list creators simply answering for their readers the questions detailed above.

For my money, the most useful all around commentary reference guide is John Glynn’s Commentary and Reference Survey (newly updated in 2007).  It is thorough, instructive, and will save you money.  If you cannot afford that one quite yet, you are welcome to download my own Basic Reference Commentary Set (first commentary recommendations) for free.

(Also, watch for a “Best Commentaries” comparative website to launch around mid-August.  I’ll post a link when “they” get it up and running.)

Posted by blestou on July 5th, 2008 — Church Life, Review, Ministry, Daily Life, Doctrine, Online