Commentaries – John – July 29

John has several excellent commentaries these days. The NIV Application commentary by Gary Burge is well done and is great for pastors and laypeople. John is a complex gospel. Most working with the historical Jesus dismiss its historical usefulness for that discussion.

John has several excellent commentaries these days. The NIV Application commentary by Gary Burge is well done and is great for pastors and laypeople. John is a complex gospel. Most working with the historical Jesus dismiss its historical usefulness for that discussion. So having commentaries that touch on the issues of history and background are important. Among the helpful commentaries in this regard are those by Leon Morris, D. A. Carson and Craig Keener. These are more technical but do a good job of working through the issues of the text. Keener’s commentary is particularly full of background information. Carson and Morris are very sane, easy to follow treatments of the text. With these four commentaries in hand, you are well tooled for this important gospel. For those who wish to interact with non-conservative commentaries, those by C. K. Barrett and Raymond Brown are quite good. Both give a full range of discussion and a great deal of historical background. I have not yet used the new commentary by Andrew Lincoln, so I cannot comment on it.