Only 1 commentary

[goula2]

If you could only have one commentary (that covers OT and NT), what would it be?

Thanks

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

 

[Deacon]

If you could only have one commentary (that covers OT and NT), what would it be?

Thanks

The best one! :tongue3:

...and theat depends upon what you're looking for.

"One-volume commentaries are too brief to be useful in detailed exegesis and exposition, but they have the advantage of providing at least something on every book of the Bible—an advantage when the student or minister is young or able to maintain only a very small library. The New Bible Commentary (IVP/Eerdmans, latest revision 1994) is condensed, evangelical, and brief. It is primarily exegetical, but a little space is devoted to discussing critical theories and occasionally to ongoing application of the text. In its various editions it has become something of a standard around the English-speaking world among evangelical readers of single-volume commentaries. Several other volumes have aimed for more or less the same evangelical market. Some of them deserve honorable mention: A Bible Commentary for Today (Pickering and Inglis/ 1979) = The New Layman’s Bible Commentary (/Zondervan 1979) is a product of the Christian Brethren. Based on the RSV, its focus is sometimes on exegesis, sometimes on exposition. On the whole it is lighter than the New Bible Commentary. One should not overlook the latest revision of International Bible Commentary (/Zondervan 1986), edited by F. F. Bruce. The Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, edited by Walter A. Elwell, is useful (/Baker 1989). The Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary is in two volumes, but its second volume is devoted to the NT (/Zondervan 1994). With one fat volume devoted to the last quarter of the canon, inevitably it offers a little more comment per line of text than the one-volume commentaries on the whole Bible."

D. A. Carson, New Testament Commentary Survey (6th ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 29–30.

IMO, the older one-volume commentaries that you find free on the internet are worth about what you spend on them.

I'd forgo single volume commentaries and selectivly collect commentaries on individual books of the bible as you study them.

In many cases these can be purchased used at cents on the dollar.
I'd suggest sites like fetchbook.info that compare different sellers but Amazon does a fair job with used books too.

Rob