Expert: Todd Tyszka - 8/7/2008

Question
I'm looking for a good Bible Commentary.  I have a Bible Dictionary.  What else would you suggest when working on studying the Bible.  I am teaching a Women's Bible Study on Godliness/Holiness and I want to show up prepared to the best of my abilities.  Do you think its important to study from the original Greek/Hebrew and Aramaic and if so what would you recommend since I can't read any of those.  Also, I have run into good teachers who use the Internet a lot.  Since I am unfamiliar with how to use the Internet are there any sites you might recommend.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Cathy! Well, as you know, there are a lot of commentaries out there. I'm working on one myself. I have many commentary sets but I assume you aren't looking to buy a bunch of books, so I recommend the online or software approach. Online, you have a lot of options but I recommend the following sites:

Blue Letter Bible - http://cf.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/
Blue Letter Bible A/V Commentaries - http://blueletterbible.org/audio_video.html
Gospelcom - http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/
Studylight - http://www.studylight.org/com/
Crosswalk - http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/

They have your essentials like Matthew Henry, John Gill, John Wesley... As you can see, Blue Letter Bible also has audio and video commentaries.

To download commentaries, go to:
The Christian Classics Ethereal Library - http://www.ccel.org/olb/tolbss/components/commentaries/com-ofc.html

What I really recommend is to get some software, and it doesn't have to cost you anything. One of the most popular software programs and the one I recommend for you is e-Sword (www.esword.com). They also have an online version at http://live.e-sword.net/ which I recommend. It has all the major commentaries. If you want more commentaries and resources, you can buy some software. I have Logos (Scholar's Edition) but it's $600 and doesn't have many commentaries and wouldn't suit your needs.

As far as studying the original languages, it depends how in depth you are going but the commentators will pretty much cover that for you. I wouldn't worry about that and recommend spending your time preparing the study. Have you considered curriculum or are you designing the study yourself?

Oh, and aside from commentaries, I HIGHLY recommend, no, it's ESSENTIAL, to have a complete concordance. I can't tell you how many times I pick that up because my bible's concordance is incomplete and I need a reference or to quote a verse. Get the version you know the most because you will remember words from the verse which may not be in a different version.

I hope this helps and may God bless your study! There is a lack of holiness teaching and I'm thrilled to hear you're filling that void!

Todd Tyszka