Understanding scripture

Maybe a study Bible or a commentary set would be good? A lot of the Church Fathers have sermon collections and commentaries available that are really good, and the Reformers & Catholic scholars certainly have them too. There are popular commentaries and more scholarly/academic commentaries; but alas, my knowledge of which ones are "best" is rather limited. My father has shelves and shelves of books like this at his place (because he was a Sunday School teacher for many years and wanted to rely on the experts), so I'll have to take a look this weekend when I'm over there.

One of my favorite sites is the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. They have extensive resources for Bible Study. I would be lost without it.

I have a commentary that I bought for the entire Bible called the "New Bible Commentary". One of the consulting editors is Don Carson, who is pretty well known.

You can buy commentarys for each book of the Bible individually, but that would cost a lot of money and take a lot of shelf space. A 'whole Bible commentary' is a good place to start I think.

I have several study bibles. When I want to study a particularly difficult passage, I will review the comments in the my study bibles (and commentaries). However, normally, I just carry my Wesley NKJV study Bible with me. The notes are usually all I need. However, I do have a new one, the Orthodox Study Bible which I plan to spend some time with.

New_Found_Faith said:

Often when I'm reading scripture I find that I want to hear someone else's opinion or interpretation of a particular passage. Bible studies with my peers aren't what I'm looking for, though. I am looking more for analysis by biblical scholars.

To me it seems that many biblical scholars must have commented on every passage of the bible over the centuries, and there must be a database or collection of books that one can refer to in order to hear a scholar's interpretation of a particular passage in scripture.

Is anyone aware of something that would provide what I'm looking for?

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One of the best modern scholarly commentary series is the Word Biblical Commentary Series. It is really advanced and not for the faint of heart, they are also cost quite a bit, so if you are in college or something like that, they will most likely be in your school's library. These commentaries give a lot of different opinions on the passage.

A more lay series that from what I remember has good scholarly commentary and some good "life application," if you will, is the Pillar Commentary Series.

Now a great series that I have found very useful for seeing what the early church believed and what the Early Church Fathers believed is the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture Series. It pulls helpful and some of the most relevent commentary/writings from the ECFs on the passage. It does not give a lot of historical background or commentary on the passage, but it does show what the ECFs believed and how they have read the passage. It could be considered how the ancient Church read/understood the Bible.

Also N.T. Wright has the Everyone Series which is pretty good and they are short and cheap.

New_Found_Faith said:

Is anyone aware of something that would provide what I'm looking for?

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As other mentioned, sounds like you're looking for commentaries. I'd also suggest CCEL.org for many good classic and free commentaries online that can be downloaded. Another nice tool is to use some kind of free Bible software that gives you access to free commentaries, like one of the free Crosswire tools. Besdies giving you access to hundreds of translations (including the world's very first study Bible along with it's commentary, the Geneva Bible), it also gives you free access to many classic Bible commentaries like Mathew Henry and John Calvin. All good tools!

I also agree with the folks above and suggest a good study Bible or three. Basically, a study Bible is really just a Bible with a short commentary included with it. I love them and have many of them. Today, you basically have general evangelical study Bibles like the NIV Study Bible or the ESV Study Bible which do a good job of giving you many different opinions in the Protestant world. Then you have theologically specific study Bible's like the Ryrie Study Bible (Dispesationalist), Lutheran Study Bible (Lutheran), Reformation Study Bible (Reformed), or the Orthodox Study Bible (Eastern Orthodox). They're all good tools to help you understand different Christian POVs that hold to a specific theology.

I'm personally reading the ESV Study Bible this year, and it's really really neat (and huge!). Famous evangelical Anglican J.I. Packer was not only the head of the ESV translation committee, but he's the theological editor for every article and study note in the ESV Study Bible. Good good stuff and highly recommended, especially as a first study Bible.

If you are looking for scholarly commentaries, I like "Oxford Companion to the Bible" for a good overview on a variety of issues related to the bible. For a verse by verse commentary try the "Oxford Bible Commentary" and the "Harper Collins Bible Commentary" Raymond Brown is a RC who does good commentaries on a book by book basis, I have a New Testament one from him that I like.

New_Found_Faith said:

Often when I'm reading scripture I find that I want to hear someone else's opinion or interpretation of a particular passage. Bible studies with my peers aren't what I'm looking for, though. I am looking more for analysis by biblical scholars.

To me it seems that many biblical scholars must have commented on every passage of the bible over the centuries, and there must be a database or collection of books that one can refer to in order to hear a scholar's interpretation of a particular passage in scripture.

Is anyone aware of something that would provide what I'm looking for?

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Nope.

The whole thing is moving too quickly for anyone to establish a data based to begin with.

You also have to remember that no scholar agrees with others - even when they appear to agree there is often a ' Yes, but ... ' clause inserted somewhere.

All of which means that it is very frustrating - but only if you are looking for certainty. The point is that after two thousand odd years we might have accumulated lots of books but we still don't know what it is we are looking for.

So, it's back to the reader. After all, the reader has the last say.

I'd try the New Bible Commentary published by IVP.

New_Found_Faith said:

Often when I'm reading scripture I find that I want to hear someone else's opinion or interpretation of a particular passage. Bible studies with my peers aren't what I'm looking for, though. I am looking more for analysis by biblical scholars.

To me it seems that many biblical scholars must have commented on every passage of the bible over the centuries, and there must be a database or collection of books that one can refer to in order to hear a scholar's interpretation of a particular passage in scripture.

Is anyone aware of something that would provide what I'm looking for?

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I use the New Jerome Bible Commentary for scholarly analysis. A nice bibliography website that has tons of reference recommendations that I have also found helpful can be found at Bibliographies for Theology

In Christ,
JMS