NT COM CAR

New Testament Commentary Survey

Plot

All serious students of the Bible seek to know which resources are most valuable to add to their growing libraries. With an abundance of available tools, this is difficult to ascertain, and students often turn to trusted professors for advice. This book provides such advice from one of the most highly respected evangelical New Testament scholars. Eight years have passed since the fourth edition was released of D. A. Carson’s New Testament Commentary. Since that time, countless commentaries, introductions, and theologies have been published. This much-anticipated fifth edition offers students and pastors an updated look into the resources of the New Testament.Theology students and seminarians will eagerly welcome this invaluable tool into their biblical studies libraries. In this succinct yet thorough survey, Carson examines sets, one-volume commentaries, treatments of individual books, and New Testament introductions and theologies, noting intended audience, levels of difficulty, and theological perspective. He records the publisher, price, and current publication status, identifies those texts he considers overpriced, and advises readers when to delay purchase for forthcoming works. The book concludes with a useful "Best Buys" section where Carson indicates the most valuable works for each individual New Testament book.EXCERPTTheologically I am an evangelical, but many of the positive assessments offered in these notes are in connection with books written from the vantage of some other theological tradition: the usefulness of a commentary sometimes turns on something other than the theological stance of its author-assuming, of course, commentaries are read critically, as theyshould be, whatever one’s theological heritage. Conversely, just because a commentary stands within the evangelical tradition does not necessarily mean it is a good book.It may be thoroughly orthodox, but be poorly written, or uninformed, or quick to import from other biblical passages meanings that cannot rightly be found in the texts on which comment is being offered. In other words, this Survey is a guide to commentaries, not orthodoxy.