New Testament Commentaries - Study Tools

Today we will look at a few New Testament collections. 

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

I wish more men would write like J.C. Ryle. He wrote like a man. He wrote like himself and to be understood. He is so clear and I never leave off reading wondering what he believed. Lots of pithy insights and a favorite of mine.

John MacArthur New Testament Commentary

These commentaries cover the whole of the New Testament. The individual volumes are not broken up by chapters of the Bible, but each chapter of the commentary is broken up into the preaching sections, or sections of thought. Each chapter covers a portion of the text, just as he preached in his church, so they do read like an expository sermon series. I also like it because he draws a lot from other sources, gleaning their best thoughts. If you are short on time, you can often read in his commentary what many other men thought in theirs.

Faults? Being it’s sermon-like, some of the more difficult passages you actually need help with, are somewhat thin and parts that need little explanation are dealt with for pages. Also, each chapter gets a sermon introduction, which often is not helpful for a commentary.

*(Note: The Galatians and Hebrews commentary contain the error that Jesus became the Son at his incarnation, and denies the eternal sonship of Christ. Though he eventually came to the truth, it was not before these volumes were written. It may have been updated in latter editions, but my editions contain the error). 

Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament

A. Robertson focuses on the Greek text of the New Testament. Very helpful when it comes to the moods and tenses of the Greek language. He wrote for people who know little or no Greek at all. More of a word study on key words rather than a commentary, but the commentary you do find is very good.

The Word Studies in the New Testament by Marvin R. Vincent

Robertson quotes Vincent often, and will sometimes argue with him in his work, but more often he agrees or expounds. I read them both together. I never understood people who say that you have to the Greek because you can trust a single translation team, but then only reference one Greek Lexicon, written by one man. If a team of Greek Scholars can't be trusted to translate, why can one Greek scholar be trusted to give you the right meaning?

• Wiersbe's Expository Outlines are pretty good for an overview of things. 
• Robertson's Harmony of the Gospels is very helpful. 
• Trapp's Commentary on the New Testament is hit and miss, and the comments far to brief to be much help on the meaning of the passage, but some good thoughts for application.  

* Updated 5/29/2017