I'll write such a guide right here in this post.
If there's something I want to add I'll edit this post. Also for those who didn't know there's a place to post reviews of commentaries on the 65 books of the Bible (excluding Esther which was not found among the Dead Sea Scrolls), the Deuteroncanonicals, 3-4 Mc, 1 Ezra, 4 Ezra, (see
Esdras - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), 2 Baruch, Jubilees, Joseph and Aseneth, Odes of Solomon 11, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs Aramaic Levi Document, Psalms of Solomon, 1 Clement, Didaché, Gospel of Thomas, Letter to Flora, Apocryphon of John and Gospel of Mary (a book on the latter is:
Mary Magdalene: Beyond the Myth by Esther De Boer and John Bowden $15.95 in pre-pub),
the thread (please ignore the content of the OP)
is:
Practical Commentary on Scripture:
I haven't been able to find any comparable guide to commentaries on the books of the deuterocanon/apocrypha. Does such a work exist (either in print or online), or is there just not enough interest in the subject?
A couple of recent whole Bible commentaries that have the Deuterocanonicals and a little more (Fortress), are:
Fortress Commentary on the Bible (2 vols.), or the Verbum link to the same product:
https://verbum.com/product/47636/fortress-commentary-on-the-bible ... $50.95 on pre-pub, which is really cheap.
And New Interpreter's Bible,
the new Edition that's in the works and starting to come out this year. It's multi-volume, so if You're interested in the Deuterocanonicals only You can get that volume. Many parts of this commentary are good, and it also contains reflections on every paragraph. Note that the pages are large and the volumes thick so You get a lot of content, and I hope it'll ship in some Bible Study software (I use Accordance and Verbum/Logos) as it's bulky to carry around as printed matter.
A valuable set for the Old Testament incl. the Deuterocanonicals + 4 Ezra and 1 Enoch, is:
Hermeneia OT commentary set 21 vols. ... it's sometimes on a sale. I bought that set for $279 last year. The 2 Mc and 4 Ezra commentaries are likely the best, I hurried to get them as soon as I got aware of them. The 1 Enoch volumes used to be the best, now there are monographs out which might be preferred. Some of the volumes have history of interpretation - which is a not that common feature. Matthias Henze is currently preparing a volume on 2 Baruch, and I don't think there are yet any estimates when it will come out - I checked both the publishers homepage and Amazon.co.uk now. For the Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Accordance has a sale right now on a recent Edition - the regular price is low too. The link is:
Pseudepigrapha (New English) by Craig Evans sale price $39.90 until midnight Monday Feb. 23. Eastern Standard Time. There is also a more scholarly Edition which is coming out soon if anyone wants to know (one part of it is:
https://www.logos.com/product/49494/old-testament-pseudepigrapha-more-noncanonical-scriptures-vol-1 ... I keep forgetting the title or authors of the other part but I'll find out).
My professor said it's better to go with monographs for Sirach. Mostly for Sirach (=Ecclesiasticus, not to be confused with a book with a similar name), I'm getting:
De Gruyter Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies (18 vols.) (actually the bigger bundle that contains it - which will remain my only sizable purchase) or peruse the Verbum page
https://verbum.com/product/47117/de-gruyter-deuterocanonical-and-cognate-literature-studies. It oughta be the best although also deals with specific topics. Here's a discussion about the bundle:
https://community.logos.com/forums/p/94366/655513.aspx#655513 The price has been $349.95 for a while so it's going up any week now - I hope they'll forewarn before they raise the price to $399.95. It's not going to charge You until it ships - which is forewarned by email and on the product page. Note that once it has shipped the price will increase drastically at the same moment to the reg. price.
Another book I have, is: Studies in the form of Sirach 44-50 by Thomas R. Lee. It's a dissertation copyrighted in 1986 by Society of Biblical Literature.
The best Greek Edition of Ecclesiasticus is coming out soon in Accordance:
http://www.accordancebible.com/store/details/?pid=LXXG-SIR ... (and Accordance is working on getting the e-text for the 1996 LSJ lexicon).
The best and most detailed commentary for 1 Ezra might still be: I & II Esdras A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by Jacob M. Myers in the Anchor Bible series, from 1974. It's cheap to buy as printed matter.
The Accordance Edition called
Apocryphal Gospels (Greek and English) by Craig Evans and tagged by Rex A. Koivisto is on a sale for $39.90.
(If I come up with something new on any of the books I'll edit this post.)
Previously edited by Unix; 24th January 2015 at 12:52 PM local time. Reason: add link to discussion about the De Gruyter bundle
Previously edited by Unix; 3rd February 2015 at 4:25 PM local time. Reason: add Matthias Henze on 2 Baruch
