At Cuyahoga Valley Church, we encourage our people to be Self–feeders. We offer an annual Bible Reading Plan so that the attenders and members can work their way through the Scriptures over the course of the year. This often means that our people will encounter Bible passages that are difficult to understand.
Sometimes, people send questions to staff members to help them understand a Bible difficulty. Instead of answering such questions, I try to point people to resources so they can answer the questions for themselves. It’s very helpful to have access to commentaries that will aid us in our understanding and application. Often, though, members wonder which commentaries are the best.
Recently, I was asked the following question:
Can I ask you to recommend a Bible Commentary? I have been looking at Matthew Henry’s online. It adds to my understanding. Let me know what you think.
Regarding commentaries: I use Matthew Henry a lot. I also use John Gill. Both are available online. Their work is public domain because they both wrote so many years ago.
I also have hard copies of both of those sets. They are both six volume commentaries.
Matthew Henry’s is probably the most popular. I heard that the great C.H. Spurgeon used to read through Matthew Henry’s Commentary once a year.
I think that one of the best contemporary one volume is John MacArthur’s Commentary.
It’s pretty expensive, but well worth it.