Top Commentaries

In university, Pastor Doug graciously gave me one hour of his time every week. The time together was instrumental in shaping my deep appreciation for the pastorate. I remember my greatest difficulty during those meetings in his office was the challenge of looking him in the eye. You see, he had wall-to-wall bookshelves lined with commentaries.

I asked him once about building a library. He gave me a very important piece of advice... "If you're planning to buy a book which you know you will only open once / read once, then don't buy it."

"So, what should I get, then?" I asked.

"Buy good commentaries." he replied.

So, naturally, I asked "What's a good commentary series?"

To which he gave me yet another important piece of advice: "Never buy an entire commentary series. Buy only the good volumes from a series and leave the others behind."

And so, I have been searching for those good volumes ever since. Someone has done the hard work of identifying them. The titles can be found here.