[B-Greek] What makes a good Greek Commentary?

Suttles, Andrew C. (GRC-DSI0) andrew.c.suttles at nasa.gov
Tue Apr 21 10:28:29 EDT 2009


Does anyone have much experience with these Bryn Mawr commentaries?  I assume they are aimed at students so I would hope they would be helpful for a beginning to intermediate reader.  They are inexpensive, so I might pick up a few if they are useful.  

Andrew Suttles
Cleveland, OH 

>-----Original Message-----
>From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org 
>[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of 
>Leonard Isaksson
>Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 11:41 PM
>To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] What makes a good Greek Commentary?
>
>How about the Bryn Mawr commentary series for something concise?
>
>It seems to me like NT commentaries have as their business to 
>deal with the NT text and message.  Such as John Chrysostom  
>wrote commentaries that seem to me like they are longer than 
>the NT book that it covers.
>
>I like Zerwick.   I don't read Latin, so J. A. Bengel is not available 
>for me, haven't seen the English translation of him.
>
>On Apr 20, 2009, at 8:31 PM, Mark Lightman wrote:
>
>> I've been reading through the Iliad using several commentaries.
>> It's been frustrating, and the experience has reminded me 
>that I never 
>> really found a good commentary to the Greek NT.  This got me 
>thinking 
>> about what makes a good Greek commentary.
>> Three things:
>>  
>> 1.  IT HAS TO BE COMPLETE.   A commentary has to give you help with 
>> ALL the diffficult passages.  It's frustrating to come across a 
>> difficult word or construction and look it up in several 
>commentaries 
>> and find nothing on it.  A good commentary has to somehow anticipate 
>> which passages will cause the reader trouble and hit them all.  It 
>> should probably offer a literal translation of all the really 
>> difficult passages.
>>  
>> 2.  IT HAS TO BE CONCISE.  This is a balancing act with 
>criterion one.  
>> The commentary has to stick to the Greek, giving background 
>informaton 
>> only when it is necessary to understand the Greek.  A commentary 
>> cannot be wordy because the point is to give you the info quickly so 
>> you can get back to the text.  NT commentaries in particular 
>drive me 
>> crazy when they get into theology or homiletics-- good 
>things on their 
>> own but not what I need to unpack Greek.  A good commentary 
>cannot be 
>> longer than the text it helps explain.
>>  
>> 3.  ITS FORMAT HAS TO BE USER FRIENDLY.  This really means the 
>> commentary has to be beneath the Greek text.  One pet peeve 
>of mine is 
>> when a commentary says stuff like "See the note on page 101 above,"
>> Why not just repeat the essence of the note?  maybe condensed, but I 
>> hate having to flip back to the prior note.    You should be able to 
>> go from the commentary to the Greek text and back again as 
>smoothly as 
>> possible.
>>  
>> The good news is I have found one commentary on the Iliad that meets 
>> all three criteria, a 2002 effort by Pamela Draper.  The bad 
>news is, 
>> it only covers Book 1, and I found it only after working 
>through Book 
>> 1 several times with other commentaries.  Draper's really 
>does set the 
>> standard in my mind.  She is complete AND concise and the format is 
>> great.
>>  
>> So, what about NT Greek commentaries?  I haven't had much luck, and 
>> wonder if list members know any that meet all three of my criteria.
>> Zerwick is
>> fairly complete and pretty concise.  If you put him under a 
>Greek text 
>> you would'
>> have a nice volume.  The NET Diglot is also concise and complete in 
>> the sense that is offers you help with MOST of the difficult Greek 
>> constructions, and the format could not be better, large print with 
>> everything on facing pages.
>> Lightfoot's volumes
>> on Paul are the best real commentaries I have ever found.  The only 
>> ones I own, the Expositor's Greek New Testament, is 
>generally neither 
>> concise nor complete, though the format is nice.
>>  
>> Actually, I don't really need a Greek NT commentary anymore, but if 
>> list members know of any really, really GOOD commentaries on 
>anything 
>> in Greek that would meet all three criteria, let me know.  If a 
>> commentary is good enough, that may be reason enough to read a Greek 
>> text.  (Except for Thucydides.)
>>  
>> Mark L.
>>
>>
>>
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