The Oxford Bible Commentary

Rating:
Summary: top notch tome of information
Review: Being a former evangelical and now more mainline (ie, no longer in denial about the REALITY of an old universe, evolution, etc)
I can vouch for the depth and value of this commentary, which tries successfully to blend objective information with scholarship re/ the bible and history. Unlike commentaries in christian bookstores, this one is usable by any christian with no hidden agenda. I see more detail in this text than many individual commentaries carry, but it doesn't bury the reader in detail.
All in all, you can't lose with this work.

Rating:
Summary: More coverage than some commentaries
Review: I sat in the real-world bookstore several hours before deciding that the two one-volume commentaries I wanted were this one and the New Jerome. The Oxford simply devotes more space to its analyses than did any of the other commentaries I looked at, including New Jerome and HarperCollins. You get a more in-depth treatment.

My spot-checking noted, for ex., that Oxford includes some comments on the "woman taken in adultery" story in John. Some commentaries merely sniff that the passage is a late addition and don't comment on it at all. Oxford at least includes some textual and exegetical remarks in an appendix.

The Oxford's virtue is its vice, of course, in that its devotion to covering the text means less extraneous material. The New Jerome, in classic Catholic fashion, won't let its 1000 pages of commentary go by without 300 pages on theology, papal pronouncements, hermeneutics, etc., so as to "frame" the commentary. But since I love that kind of stuff, whatever the motive, the NJ is the other one I decided to get.

So: Oxford for objective academic treatment, & NJ for a more dogmatic (tho very sharp intellectually) treatment. I'll put them on my desk with my Bible & let them fight it out.

Rating:
Summary: More coverage than some commentaries
Review: I sat in the real-world bookstore several hours before deciding that the two one-volume commentaries I wanted were this one and the New Jerome. The Oxford simply devotes more space to its analyses than did any of the other commentaries I looked at, including New Jerome and HarperCollins. You get a more in-depth treatment.

My spot-checking noted, for ex., that Oxford includes some comments on the "woman taken in adultery" story in John. Some commentaries merely sniff that the passage is a late addition and don't comment on it at all. Oxford at least includes some textual and exegetical remarks in an appendix.

The Oxford's virtue is its vice, of course, in that its devotion to covering the text means less extraneous material. The New Jerome, in classic Catholic fashion, won't let its 1000 pages of commentary go by without 300 pages on theology, papal pronouncements, hermeneutics, etc., so as to "frame" the commentary. But since I love that kind of stuff, whatever the motive, the NJ is the other one I decided to get.

So: Oxford for objective academic treatment, & NJ for a more dogmatic (tho very sharp intellectually) treatment. I'll put them on my desk with my Bible & let them fight it out.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad but could be better
Review: It is supposed to be ecumenical in design. - This hangs on the particular author of the book he/or she is commenting on. It seemed disjointed, hesitant to take a decisive stand in some places.
It is current moderate scholarship.
It is good as one commentary amongst others in your library, such as Harpers for example. I highly recommend it if you have more commentaries to compare it to. - 4 stars.
The CD (included) is 30.00 extra to unlock and put it on your computer.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent commentary on the Christian Bible
Review: The Oxford Bible Commentary is a concise, expert commentary, providing useful verse-by-verse explanation of the Christian religious book.

The commentary encompasses all books recognised as canonical in any of the western churches of Christianity, and also includes excerpts from books in other canons. The advanced Bible scholar may additionally wish to refer to more specialist textbooks for detailed insight into specific topics or individual biblical books.

This is among the most authoritative Bible commentaries available. The reader will appreciate the expertise of the distinguished contributors, their concise verse explanations, thorough verse cross-references, and critical approach. The book is intuitively structured throughout and, despite the large size of this volume, easy to navigate.

It is a helpful aide toward informed reading of the Bible for any reason - religious, theological, historical, literary, or general interest. An extensive bibliographic resource and relevant maps complement the text.

A good Bible commentary such as this is highly enlightening. Each verse in the Bible suddenly makes much more sense in the light of expert explanation. In reading the Bible without the benefit of well-informed commentary, essential considerations such as the historical context, and relationships between verses, are almost certainly overlooked. While opinions expressed in this commentary are objective, they are frequently conservative and tend to be representative of the mainstream consensus.

The OBC is a huge, high quality reference textbook, with a proportionate price-tag, and I fervently commend it to anyone with a serious interest in the Christian or Hebrew scripture.

Rating:
Summary: There are better commentaries out there for preachers
Review: This commentary has been produced by one of the world's finest academic presses, with the full weight of expert scholarship behind it. I have not read it from cover to cover but have made extensive use of it in preparing for sermons. On the whole it tends to approach the text in a manner that one could describe as "clinical". This is modern critical scholarship at its most brazen: the text is reduced to history, form, context, et al. We seldom get to the content itself, and when we do, we can quite easily forget that this is holy writ. The best part of the commentary is Rodd's section on the Psalms, which is very good. The rest is dry, opinionated, and often boring. There are better one volume commentaries out there for preachers and scholars.