A Bible commentary is a written, systematic series of explanations and interpretations of Scripture. Commentaries often analyze or expound on individual books of the Bible, chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
A commentary may cover the whole Bible, a single testament, a single book, or even a portion of a book. But in all cases, commentaries seek to provide understanding into what the Bible is teaching.
Search the library catalogue for commentaries using this strategy: Subject contains "commentaries" and Title contains the book of the Bible you're studying. For example, if you're looking for commentaries on Mark, search the following:
If you want to see the most recently published commentaries first, sort by Date - Newest in the Tweak my Results section. Of, if your instructor has asked that you only use commentaries published within a specified year range, you can put those dates in the Publication Dates filter. Choose Held by Library if you only want print commentaries, or Full Text Online if you want to view electronic commentaries online.
At Ambrose Library, there are 2 copies of many commentaries: 1 Main Stacks copy that can be borrowed, and 1 Reference copy that is always available for in-library use. Some commentaries are also available online.
Many older, classic commentaries are available for free online. Be sure to check with your instructor on whether you should use older commentaries in your assignments and papers.
The Open Access Digital Theological Library (OADTL) has curated an extensive collection of freely available digitized commentaries from publisher websites, institutional repositories, scholarly societies, archives, and stable public domain collections; for this reason, links in OADTL's collection direct to sites where the content is hosted. To search the collection, click Advanced Search under the homepage search box:
On the Advanced Search screen, include "commentaries" in the Subject field and the book of the Bible you're studying in the Title field, then click Search:
Click View eBook to access the full text (these links will direct you to different platforms), Cite to save a citation for this book in a variety of citation styles), or Share to create a permanent link that you can save in order to easily return to the book's record:
Open Library also has an extensive collection of freely available digitized commentaries. Some are available to read online, while others must be borrowed (you'll need to create a free Open Library account to borrow titles). To search the collection, click Advanced in the drop-down menu next to the search bar at the top of the page:
On the Advanced Search screen, use the same strategy as for OADTL, putting "commentaries" in the Subject field and the book of the Bible you're studying in the Title field then click Search:
Some results can be read online immediately, others must be borrowed, and some results are not available in Open Library's collection:
If there's a commentary you're looking for that the library doesn't have or that you can't find freely available online, you're welcome to submit an interlibrary loan request. Library staff will do their best to find and request the book from another library's collection. Please note that it can take up to 10 days to receive requested material.
Commentaries on books of the Bible are on the shelf in Biblical order, starting with Genesis (call number BS 1235) and ending with Revelation (call number BS 2825).
If the call number ends in .2 or .52 this indicates a work of biblical criticism on a particular topic on the biblical book in question. For example, BS 2665.52 indicates a work on some topic covered in the book of Romans, say justification by faith, Israel, or sin.
If the call number ends in .3 or .53 this indicates the book is a commentary, i.e., works dealing with the interpretation of the text itself, with a verse-by-verse treatment of the text.
If you are looking for newer criticisms or commentaries, the call numbers ending in .52 and .53 indicate works published after the year 2000 (call numbers ending in .2 and .3 indicate works published up until the year 2000).
If a commentary covers more than one book of the Bible, it is usually placed with the commentaries on the first Bible book covered in the commentary. If the commentary is on a selection of minor prophets, or on several short epistles, browse the commentaries for the first one. For example, many commentaries cover both Ezra and Nehemiah, so the combination will be found with the Ezra commentaries.
The following document lists all books of the Bible and their commentary call numbers. Remember that all these call numbers can end with .2, .3, .52, and .53.
When you're ready to find your books on the book shelves, ask a library staff member for help, or consult this information on how to locate call numbers in the library.