Commentaries are at the heart of the expository preacher’s reading schedule. Commentaries multiply like rabbits, but they do so because (unlike rabbits) they are needed and scholarship continues to flourish. A commentary that is ten years old now seems dated, and that means pastors are trying to keep up their library by adding the best of commentaries as they are published. I’m happy to recommend two new ones.
On the book of James, Dan McCartney, now at Redeemer Theological Seminary in Dallas (formerly at Westminster), has written an accessible, theologically-alert, and exegetically sound commentary: James (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)
. McCartney uses an economy of expression — so though the commentary is not quite as long as some today, there’s plenty of exegetical depth.
Alongside McCartney’s commentary I want to recommend Peter O’Brien’s brand new commentary on Hebrews in the Pillar series: The Letter to the Hebrews (The Pillar New Testament Commentary)
. Cautious, careful, thorough, and totally rooted in both a theological grip and careful attention to the Greek text.
. Cautious, careful, thorough, and totally rooted in both a theological grip and careful attention to the Greek text.
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