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New Testament Commentary Survey
Highly respected New Testament scholar D. A. Carson provides students and pastors with expert guidance on choosing a commentary for any book of the New Testament. The seventh edition has been updated to assess the most recently published commentaries. Carson examines sets, one-volume commentaries, and New Testament introductions and theologies, offering evaluative comments on the available offerings for each New Testament book. This is an essential guide to building a reference library.
194 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 28, 1989
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240 people want to read
About the author
D.A. Carson
339 books743 followersDonald A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received the Bachelor of Science in chemistry from McGill University, the Master of Divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the Doctor of Philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He has written or edited about sixty books. He is a founding member and currently president of The Gospel Coalition. Carson and his wife, Joy, reside in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two adult children.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 3, 2013
Despite the boring-sounding title, this little book reads like a joke-book. Carson abandons all pretensions at scholarly neutrality and begins ridiculing all the commentaries he doesn't like. I read it the first time for information. I read it the second and third time for laughs.
August 27, 2019
In my review i'll be comparing and contrasting Old Testament Commentary Survey by Longman (5 stars) and New Testament Commentary Survey by Carson (4 stars). Both books seek to accomplish the same thing: Help you decide which Bible Commentaries are well written, thorough, and useful for the reader depending on that person's role (Scholar vs Pastor vs Layman) so that the person does not invest considerable sums of time and money on commentaries which don't meet their needs or are poorly written.
They take a slightly different approach to theit analysis. Carson is a bit more subjective, comparing commentaries to each other and judging how their author approaches the subject. This is helpful if you are familiar with the commentaries which are being compared because then you can intentionally decide to get one based on how it is similar or different from another one with which you are familiar. It is less helpful for those who are not familiar with many commentaries. Longman proceeds in a different manner. He classifies each commentary as being targeted to one of these types of readers:
L - Layman
M - Minister (including seminary students)
S - Scholar
He also includes two categories which are blends of those types of readers. In fact, most of the commentaries fall into one of these two blended categories:
LM - Laymen and Ministers
MS - Ministers and Scholars
Longman then rates each commentary between 1 and 5 stars, using half stars on occasion.
I found Longman's approach more useful for me because i am not as familiar with many of the commentaries Carson compares.
If you are a minister or someone who teaches the Bible, these books are both extremely useful and will save you much heartache and wasted money by being strategic in your purchases.
Both authors as a general rule, discourage buying commentary series (with a few exceptions), because in most series the quality can vary between different volumes depending on the author's abilities and writing.
They take a slightly different approach to theit analysis. Carson is a bit more subjective, comparing commentaries to each other and judging how their author approaches the subject. This is helpful if you are familiar with the commentaries which are being compared because then you can intentionally decide to get one based on how it is similar or different from another one with which you are familiar. It is less helpful for those who are not familiar with many commentaries. Longman proceeds in a different manner. He classifies each commentary as being targeted to one of these types of readers:
L - Layman
M - Minister (including seminary students)
S - Scholar
He also includes two categories which are blends of those types of readers. In fact, most of the commentaries fall into one of these two blended categories:
LM - Laymen and Ministers
MS - Ministers and Scholars
Longman then rates each commentary between 1 and 5 stars, using half stars on occasion.
I found Longman's approach more useful for me because i am not as familiar with many of the commentaries Carson compares.
If you are a minister or someone who teaches the Bible, these books are both extremely useful and will save you much heartache and wasted money by being strategic in your purchases.
Both authors as a general rule, discourage buying commentary series (with a few exceptions), because in most series the quality can vary between different volumes depending on the author's abilities and writing.
April 28, 2022
If you consider yourself a conservative evangelical with a reformed bent you will love this book. While helpful, it's due for another edition as there have been major commentaries (even new series!) released since 2013. Carson also endorses commentaries that have subsequently been taken out of print due to plagiarism. For an up to date, more moderate but less entertaining (see below) similar work see Nijay Gupta's 2020 commentary guide with Lexham.
Carson says "I prefer to be a shade too trenchant than a good deal too bland," and he is indeed blunt, to the reader's entertainment (although I'd hate to read such sharp critique of my work). Some of my favourite laugh-out-loud phrases:
"[so and so's book] should have been put out to pasture a long time ago"
"[such and such series] is not much more than a major disappointment"
"most of the work was seriously dated before it went to press"
"[book series] is a disappointing monument to misplaced energy"
"one would have to be as rich as Croesus to consider [a certain commentary]"
"tends toward viewpoints characterized by eccentric independence"
"an exercise in brilliantly phrased reductionism"
"so odd I'm uncertain why it was published"
"his reconstruction of the church situation is so quirky that it cannot be recommended except to readers devoted to quirkiness"
"one wonders how the editor [of the series] let [the author] get away with...superficial treatment"
"[the author] had a bad year"
"[the author] makes Paul sound like a twit"
"not up to the standards one expects from her",
"an erudite disappointment...his vocabulary is impressive, but not much else is"
"interspersed with personal agendas that seem more interested in scoring points than in listening to the text"
"slender in both volume and substance"
"the reader's sanctification must endure the irritating format of this series"
"a marked tendency to dance to agendas other than Paul's"
"an exercise in frustration"
"[the commentary] is mercifully out of print"
Carson says "I prefer to be a shade too trenchant than a good deal too bland," and he is indeed blunt, to the reader's entertainment (although I'd hate to read such sharp critique of my work). Some of my favourite laugh-out-loud phrases:
"[so and so's book] should have been put out to pasture a long time ago"
"[such and such series] is not much more than a major disappointment"
"most of the work was seriously dated before it went to press"
"[book series] is a disappointing monument to misplaced energy"
"one would have to be as rich as Croesus to consider [a certain commentary]"
"tends toward viewpoints characterized by eccentric independence"
"an exercise in brilliantly phrased reductionism"
"so odd I'm uncertain why it was published"
"his reconstruction of the church situation is so quirky that it cannot be recommended except to readers devoted to quirkiness"
"one wonders how the editor [of the series] let [the author] get away with...superficial treatment"
"[the author] had a bad year"
"[the author] makes Paul sound like a twit"
"not up to the standards one expects from her",
"an erudite disappointment...his vocabulary is impressive, but not much else is"
"interspersed with personal agendas that seem more interested in scoring points than in listening to the text"
"slender in both volume and substance"
"the reader's sanctification must endure the irritating format of this series"
"a marked tendency to dance to agendas other than Paul's"
"an exercise in frustration"
"[the commentary] is mercifully out of print"
February 6, 2020
These are commentaries selections from scholar, DA Carson, on the New Testament books and epistles. It is a helpful survey to orient the wealth of literature in this area. Read it firstly for guidance. Reading it a second time, it's rather funny with his witticisms and somewhat 'unscholarly' preferences certain commentaries over others. It'd be nice to know in more detail why he criticises some and not others... I don't feel he comprehensively covers the book of Revelation, for example, as I encountered different commentaries during a peer-group Bible study.
Helpful for initiates but scholars may wish to look elsewhere. Not sure where though...
Helpful for initiates but scholars may wish to look elsewhere. Not sure where though...
May 25, 2017
This book was given to me by a friend who knew I wanted the best Biblical commentaries available for study. This resource lists numerous commentaries by their book(s) and are categorized according to their approach to study. Such as
Technical, Application, Languages etc. This has been an invaluable resource that has aiding me to more accurately preach and teach God's Word.
Technical, Application, Languages etc. This has been an invaluable resource that has aiding me to more accurately preach and teach God's Word.
February 24, 2022
An excellent resource to help biblically curious laypersons and academics understand and discern the vast array of commentaries. A quick read. Excellent addition to any shelf. And of course D.A. Carson.
March 4, 2021
Good survey but a website (such as bestcommentaries) seems to be a better tool for the purpose.
May 13, 2015
Have you ever looked at the host of commentaries available on a particular book of the NT and wished you could ask a first-rate NT scholar what he thought about each of them? Most of us will never have that kind of direct access, but Carson’s New Testament Commentary Survey comes pretty close. D. A. Carson is without question one of the most prolific and respected NT scholars of our day. His commentaries on Matthew and John are some of the best available and his forthcoming commentary on Revelation is highly anticipated. His work as the editor of the Pillar New Testament Commentary series and the New Studies in Biblical Theology series have been of great service to the church. His books are too numerous to list and his influence tremendous (think Gospel Coalition). So if you could get his opinion on virtually any NT commentary in print (and many out of print), wouldn’t that be worth your time?
There are other commentary guides out there of course, but what makes this one unique among those I have seen is that it is written in a more narrative style. Rather than providing an annotated list, Carson writes in a more narrative style that makes it a pleasure to read (in fact, if you are a nerd like me you could read it more or less straight through). For each book (or group of books like 2 Peter and Jude) he usually mentions the top few commentaries in the first couple paragraphs, often noting how much Greek is necessary to use them, and then lists a plethora of other commentaries that are available. These are often evaluated based on whether they will be of any additional help to a pastor who already has one or two of the best commentaries on that book so that preachers don’t waste money on commentaries that largely repeat the same points made by others.
What makes Carson’s Survey so valuable is his willingness to be direct about the relative worth of each commentary. Many are dismissed as ‘not worth the reader’s time’ or ‘too brief to be of any real help’ while others are said to be ‘worth picking up second hand.’ If Carson thinks a commentary is ‘overrated’ or ‘sadly overlooked,’ he says so. When a normally excellent commentator lays a bad egg Carson notes that too. Imagine standing in a book store with Carson and saying ‘what about that one?’ and getting a pithy one or two sentence response about the book’s merit or demerit. That is what this book is full of.
And that is why this book deserves a place on every pastor’s shelf. Are you really going to decide whether to spend $40 on a commentary based on internet book reviews written by people you don’t know (like me) without finding out what D. A. Carson thinks? I wouldn’t.
There are other commentary guides out there of course, but what makes this one unique among those I have seen is that it is written in a more narrative style. Rather than providing an annotated list, Carson writes in a more narrative style that makes it a pleasure to read (in fact, if you are a nerd like me you could read it more or less straight through). For each book (or group of books like 2 Peter and Jude) he usually mentions the top few commentaries in the first couple paragraphs, often noting how much Greek is necessary to use them, and then lists a plethora of other commentaries that are available. These are often evaluated based on whether they will be of any additional help to a pastor who already has one or two of the best commentaries on that book so that preachers don’t waste money on commentaries that largely repeat the same points made by others.
What makes Carson’s Survey so valuable is his willingness to be direct about the relative worth of each commentary. Many are dismissed as ‘not worth the reader’s time’ or ‘too brief to be of any real help’ while others are said to be ‘worth picking up second hand.’ If Carson thinks a commentary is ‘overrated’ or ‘sadly overlooked,’ he says so. When a normally excellent commentator lays a bad egg Carson notes that too. Imagine standing in a book store with Carson and saying ‘what about that one?’ and getting a pithy one or two sentence response about the book’s merit or demerit. That is what this book is full of.
And that is why this book deserves a place on every pastor’s shelf. Are you really going to decide whether to spend $40 on a commentary based on internet book reviews written by people you don’t know (like me) without finding out what D. A. Carson thinks? I wouldn’t.
February 16, 2010
An invaluable resource for any serious student of the Bible. Granted you are getting the opinion of one man, he happens to be one of the best Biblical scholars I have met. This book is simply D. A. Carson's review of virtually every commentary available for any book of the N.T. I am also convinced that he has read every one of the commentaries which is a little scary! A brilliant man gives you access into how to choose the best resources out there. His reviews are not oriented to "buy this commentary, but stay away from this one." Rather he discusses the positives and negatives related to each commentary.
December 26, 2014
I have used this survey since seminary and find it helpful in laying out the strengths and weaknesses. My current version is bundled in my Logos Bible Software, which is helpful because it hyperlinks to commentaries I happen to have there.
I don't currently own the companion volume to this, Tremper Longman's Old Testament Commentary Survey. In many ways I think that is superior to this, though I don't think it has been updated quite as much. Carson is a good exegete and attentive to issues in the text, but I don't always agree with his conclusions and he gives short-shrift to scholars he doesn't agree with. Although this remains a pretty useful survey.
I don't currently own the companion volume to this, Tremper Longman's Old Testament Commentary Survey. In many ways I think that is superior to this, though I don't think it has been updated quite as much. Carson is a good exegete and attentive to issues in the text, but I don't always agree with his conclusions and he gives short-shrift to scholars he doesn't agree with. Although this remains a pretty useful survey.
January 10, 2013
I think the New Testament Commentary Survey by D. A. Carson is an important resource for those who study and teach the New Testament, particularly those of us who are not full time academics, and cannot easily keep up with the ever increasing number of commentaries. I am thankful that Dr. Carson has been so faithful in updating this survey, and that Amazon has added a Kindle Edition. Before spending the large amount of money required to purchase several commentaries, it would seem wise to spend the small amount of money required to purchase this little book!
July 20, 2016
This updated version of the standard evangelical commentary survey on the New Testament has enough changes from the previous edition to make it worth a look.
Significantly, newer series such as the ZECNT and newer volumes in the Pillar, New International Commentary on the NT and Baker sets are covered. Some of his recommendations are changed from the previous edition. In due time, BestCommentaries.com will update their library list corresponding to this book and in all honesty, that is all you need. If you cannot wait till then, this is a good book to have.
Significantly, newer series such as the ZECNT and newer volumes in the Pillar, New International Commentary on the NT and Baker sets are covered. Some of his recommendations are changed from the previous edition. In due time, BestCommentaries.com will update their library list corresponding to this book and in all honesty, that is all you need. If you cannot wait till then, this is a good book to have.
October 24, 2016
The book itself is very helpful, even if one gets the feeling it has been written at breakneck speed. Certainly the comments on the top commentaries are very helpful. Other commentaries and supplementary works are sometimes treated with such brevity that their survey is hardly helpful.
Reading the preface(s), and indeed the book itself, could give one the impression that D.A. Carson does nought else but read commentaries. The fact that this is patently not so says either a lot about D.A. Carson, or else about the depth of this survey.
Reading the preface(s), and indeed the book itself, could give one the impression that D.A. Carson does nought else but read commentaries. The fact that this is patently not so says either a lot about D.A. Carson, or else about the depth of this survey.
Read
April 16, 2010Evangelical in perspective.
Very helpful tool if you are wanting to buy commentaries on the New Testament. It will save you from wasting money and time.
Very helpful tool if you are wanting to buy commentaries on the New Testament. It will save you from wasting money and time.
May 11, 2012
A must have.
Read
August 21, 20120394
December 7, 2012
Carson is writing an updated edition.
January 27, 2018
Extremely thorough, but not for me.
May 17, 2014
Highly useful
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews