Old Testament Commentary Survey

by

Tremper Longman III

© 1991, 1995, 2003, 2007 by Tremper Longman III. Database © 2009 WORD search Corp.

To

Alan Groves, Peter Enns, Doug Green, and Mike Kelly

Department of Old Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary

Preface to the Fourth Edition

Time flies. It is hard to believe it is 2006 and time to finish the fourth edition of the commentary series that came out for the first time in 1991. The second edition appeared in 1995 and the third in 2003, so this is the shortest period of time between two editions of the Survey, a trend that I hope to continue since it means that the content is up to date.

Even though it is a relatively short period of time since the last edition, a number of commentaries have appeared, meaning that the selection of commentaries continues to grow larger, especially for some biblical books. It is, therefore, helpful to get a preliminary, though brief, assessment of such matters as intended audience, emphases, theological and methodological perspective, and quality.

A number of excellent and good commentaries have been published in the past three years. There are also a number of mediocre ones but only the rare bad commentary. It’s not easy writing commentaries, as I know now that I am the author of a number of them (see Appendix B). I continue to hope that future commentaries produced for use by Christian pastors in the church would spend more time reflecting on how the Old Testament message is appropriated by the New Testament.

Most of the popular commentaries are reviewed in these pages, but I have had to be selective. If I have omitted one of your favorites, I apologize. Editors and publishers of series are free to send me copies of commentaries for my consideration for review in future editions.

My hope is that this commentary survey will help students of the Bible pick those commentaries that are right for them so they might more fully understand the Word of God.

Acknowledgments

When I began this project several years ago, I thought it would take a minimum amount of time and serve a limited readership. Many of my students had asked for my opinion on commentaries, but one of them, Eric Brauer, now a minister in Dublin, Ireland, kept pestering me to compile a list and to make it available in our seminary bookstore. I figured I could devote a few minutes each day to writing a brief review of the best commentaries I knew on certain biblical books. To make a long story short, Allan Fisher, director of publications at Baker, caught wind of my efforts and asked me to expand the list to include yet more commentaries and also other reference books to serve as the Old Testament counterpart to Don Carson’s New Testament Commentary Survey (6th ed., 2007). I did not realize how much work was involved; but now that it is over, I would like to express my appreciation to both Eric and Allan for their encouragement to write this guide. The second edition was produced under the editorship of ...