Product Guide to Multi-Volume Commentaries

Inspired by Vincent's work on product guides introducing the dozens of Logos products related to biblical languages, I decided to write a product guide on commentaries available for Logos Bible Software. We offer a lot of commentaries, it's a category of book that appeals to almost every user, and it seems like an area in which people would appreciate some guidance...

It soon became clear that I was sticking my arm into a hornet's nest.

In the first draft, I classified each commentary series in the areas of technicality, theology, and methodology. So a series might bear the labels "Semi-technical, Expositional, Evangelical," for example.

As it turns out, it's difficult if not impossible to come up with labels that are sufficiently descriptive yet accurate...and inoffensive. Labeling commentaries is always a subjective exercise and no matter what labels you choose someone will disagree. This I quickly learned.

I took some time away from the project and during that time re-visited a website put together by Tyler F. Williams, an OT professor at Taylor University College in Alberta. Williams offers an Old Testament Commentary Survey that seemed to me to strike the right balance of non-intrusive assistance. Its primary classification is by intended audience, with category descriptions that are somewhat elastic but still helpful.

Professor Williams graciously agreed to let us use his classification scheme, and the result is the Product Guide to Multi-Volume Commentaries.

The guide introduces more than 30 multi-volume commentaries available for Logos Bible Software, providing basic information about each one such as publisher, which Bible version is followed, how much Greek or Hebrew text to expect, and more. The accompanying brief descriptions come from each publisher, which lets the series "speak for itself" in terms of intended aim or purpose.

If you desire even more guidance in selecting and using commentaries and other reference works, you might be interested in F. W. Danker's Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study (a Logos resource) or print resources such as John Glynn's Commentary and Reference Survey or D. A. Carson's New Testament Commentary Survey.