Most Christians who read the Bible regularly reach a point where a study Bible’s notes stop answering the questions they bring. You reread a passage, you sense there is more in it, and you want a teacher who has spent years in that text. That is the job of a commentary. A shelf of books is easy to buy and hard to use, though, and the best Bible commentaries for personal study are the ones that fill a specific role in how you read.
This article describes five of those roles, gives you a simple test for telling a solid commentary from a stuffy or shallow one, and explains how to use these books so that Scripture stays your first and final authority. If you do not yet own a good study Bible, start with our comparison of five study Bibles for new believers and come back here afterwards.
Why a commentary should be your second voice, not your first
The Bereans in Acts 17:11 are praised because they “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” They listened to Paul, a gifted teacher, and then went to the text to check. The text came first, and the teaching was tested against it.
A commentary works best in that same order. Read the passage yourself, more than once. Write down what it says, what it means, and what puzzles you. Only then open a commentary and compare.
There are two reasons for this order. The first is that you notice things in a passage you have read slowly that you will not notice once a commentator has told you what to see. The second is that a commentator’s conclusion feels persuasive precisely because it is tidy. If you read it before forming your own view, you have nothing to weigh it against, and you will tend to adopt it.
Commentaries are still a gift. Ephesians 4:11 lists teachers among the people Christ gave to His church, and Nehemiah 8:8 shows Ezra’s helpers reading the Law and “giving the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” A good commentary does what those teachers did: it gives the sense of a passage to someone who has already done the reading.
Scholarly or accessible? A simple test for telling them apart
Commentaries are usually described as either scholarly or accessible, as if you must choose. In practice the best ones are both: the author has done careful work with the original languages and the history, and then explains it in plain English. Here is a test you can run in a bookshop, a library, or a free preview online.
Choose a passage you already know well, ideally one you have studied or heard preached on. Read one or two pages of the commentary on it and ask these questions:
- Can you follow it without a dictionary? Hebrew and Greek words are fine, but they should be translated and explained when they appear. If a page needs a theology degree to read, it will not serve you in personal study.
- Does it explain the passage in its context? A good commentator tells you what comes before and after the verses and how the passage fits the book’s argument. A weak one treats each verse as a separate saying.
- Does it separate what the text says from what the author suspects? Look for phrases that signal the difference, such as “probably” or “many interpreters think.” An author who never admits uncertainty is either very sure of himself or not being straight with you.
- Does it mention other readings fairly? Where Christians disagree, the better books name the main views and give the reasons for each before saying where the author lands.
- Does it let Scripture interpret Scripture? Look for cross-references to other parts of the Bible that you can look up and check.
- Does the author tell you where he stands? Most commentary series come from a particular church tradition. That is not a defect, but you should know it. The introduction or the publisher’s description usually says so.
If a commentary passes most of these on the passage you know, it is likely to serve you well on the passages you do not.
Commentary 1: A one-volume reference for the whole Bible
Your first purchase should be a single volume that covers every book of the Bible. It will not go deep. Each book gets a modest number of pages, which means a passage may get a paragraph. What it gives you is orientation: who wrote the book, when and to whom, what its main sections are, and what the common difficulties are.
This is the book you reach for first because it answers the fast questions. Before you read Habakkuk or Philemon, a ten-minute look at the introduction and outline tells you what you are walking into. Many believers read such books for years without once reading the introductions, which is a loss, because an introduction to a book often settles half the confusion you would otherwise carry through the chapters.
Examples of this kind of book include the New Bible Commentary from InterVarsity Press, which has several contributors writing on different books. Whichever you choose, apply the test above to a passage you know well. Check also that the contributors write on the Bible’s text as God’s Word and not merely as ancient literature, since some one-volume works are written from a skeptical standpoint. The publisher’s description and the contributor list will tell you.
Commentaries 2 and 3: A verse-by-verse series and a background-and-culture guide
The verse-by-verse series
Once you have an overview, you need a series that walks through a book passage by passage. This is where you will spend most of your time. Choose one series and buy volumes only for the books you are actually reading, rather than collecting a full set.
Several series are widely used and aimed at thoughtful lay readers. The Tyndale commentaries are compact and scholarly without being heavy. The Bible Speaks Today series puts weight on explaining and applying the passage. Warren Wiersbe’s “Be” series, such as Be Joyful on Philippians, is written in a pastoral style and is easy to read straight through. These differ in depth and in approach, so test one against a passage you know before you commit to it.
A verse-by-verse commentary is also the best place to practice checking your own reading. If you wrote down what you think Philippians 2:5-11 means, here is where you find out whether a trained teacher read the same thing.
The background-and-culture guide
Scripture was written to real people in specific times and places. When Jesus speaks about a wineskin, a mustard seed, or a shepherd, or when Paul writes about a household or a city, the original readers knew things we do not. A background commentary supplies them.
The IVP Bible Background Commentary (one volume for the Old Testament and one for the New Testament) is a well-known example. It goes through the Bible in order and explains customs, laws, geography and social settings behind the text. It does not try to tell you what to do with the passage. It tells you what the first readers would have understood, which keeps you from reading modern assumptions into an ancient text.
This kind of book is a good check on the way our modern culture shapes our thinking, which matters for readers who want a Biblical worldview. We read the Bible through our own habits and expectations, and background material shows where those habits do not match the text’s world.
Commentaries 4 and 5: A classic from church history and a help for hard passages
The classic
A commentary written centuries ago brings something no modern book can: a view from outside our own age. Writers from earlier centuries worried about different things, and they noticed what we skip.
Matthew Henry, an English pastor who wrote in the early 1700s, is a common first choice. His commentary is devotional and practical, and it applies each passage to the heart and conduct of the reader. John Calvin’s commentaries, from the sixteenth century, are more concentrated and better suited to readers who want careful reasoning from the text. Both are in the public domain, so you can read them free online, for example at Blue Letter Bible, Bible Hub and the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
Two cautions apply. Older writers sometimes use language that feels dense to modern readers, so give yourself a few pages to adjust. They also lacked access to the archaeological and linguistic discoveries made since, so on historical background they should be paired with the guide described above. Classics are a second opinion on meaning and application, not the final word on every detail.
The tool for hard passages
Some passages are difficult, and no honest reader pretends otherwise. Peter says of Paul’s letters that “there are some things in them that are hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). Hebrews 6:4-6 on falling away, 1 Peter 3:19 on Christ preaching to “the spirits in prison,” and the details of Matthew 24 have all prompted long discussion among serious believers.
For these, a reference organised by difficulty, rather than by book, is useful. Hard Sayings of the Bible, by Walter Kaiser, Peter Davids, F. F. Bruce and Manfred Brauch, is arranged by passage and takes up the questions readers actually ask. A book like this will usually set out the main interpretations and the reasons behind each. That is more helpful than a confident answer you cannot check.
When you meet a hard text, treat it as normal. A difficult passage is not a sign that you read badly or that Scripture fails. It is a sign that the text is rich, and that you may need help from those who have studied it longer.
How to use a commentary without letting it do your thinking
A simple routine keeps the commentary in its place. Try this the next time you study a passage:
- Read the passage three times, ideally in different translations, and note the main idea of each paragraph.
- Write your own summary in two or three sentences: what it says, what it meant to the first readers, and how it applies to you.
- List your questions. Include words you do not understand, connections you cannot make, and anything that seems to conflict with another passage.
- Open the commentary and read what it says on those verses. Mark where it agrees with you, where it adds something, and where it differs.
- Return to the text. If the commentator disagrees with you, find the words in the passage that support his view or yours. Do not change your reading unless the text itself supports the change.
- Write one concrete application. James 1:22 says to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” A study that ends in notes and never in action has missed the point.
This routine also guards against a quiet risk. It is easy to treat the commentator’s opinion as the meaning of the passage because it appears in a book with a respectable cover. Commentators are fallible. Their authority is borrowed from the Scripture they explain, and when they stop explaining it, they stop being authoritative.
What to do when commentators disagree
They will disagree. When you read two good commentaries on the same passage, you will find places where careful, believing scholars reach different conclusions. That is not a reason to give up. It is useful information.
First, sort the disagreement. Some are about core matters that the church has held from the beginning, such as who Christ is and that He rose bodily. If a commentator denies these, set the book aside. Others are about secondary matters on which faithful Christians differ, such as the timing of future events, the mode of baptism, or how some spiritual gifts operate today. Romans 14 gives the pattern for these: believers should hold their convictions seriously, welcome each other, and not treat each other as enemies over disputed matters.
Second, look at the reasons given. Proverbs 18:17 says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” Read the argument on each side and ask which better explains the words of the text and fits the rest of Scripture.
Third, hold your conclusion with an appropriate grip. On the matters Scripture states plainly, speak plainly. On matters where the text allows more than one reading, say what you think and say that others disagree. It is a sign of maturity to be able to do both.
If the question is important and still unresolved, talk to your pastor or an older believer in your church. A commentary is a good teacher, but it cannot know you or your situation as people who share your life in the church can.
Buying wisely: free tools, paid sets, and where to start if you can only afford one
You do not need to spend much to begin, and you should not buy a complete set before you know how you use one.
Free tools. Matthew Henry and Calvin are available free online, as noted above. Several Bible websites and apps also include other public-domain commentaries and cross-references. These cover the classic role at no cost.
Single volumes. Buy individual commentaries on the book you are currently reading, rather than a whole series. If you are working through the Gospel of John for three months, one good volume on John will serve you better than twenty volumes on books you will not open this year.
Library and church resources. Ask whether your church has a library, and whether your pastor will recommend titles. Pastors often have strong opinions on which series are worth buying and which are not, and they know your church’s doctrinal position.
If you can only afford one. Start with the one-volume reference. It covers the entire Bible and will give you the most use across the widest range of reading. Add the free classics alongside it, then a verse-by-verse volume for whichever book you study next.
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A passage to try this week
Pick one passage you have already read this week. Write down in a few sentences what you think it means and how it applies to your life. Then check your reading against one commentary: a free classic such as Matthew Henry will do if you do not own one yet. Notice where you agreed, where the commentator saw something you missed, and where you still think the text says something different.
Then tell us what you found. Share it in the comments below or send it by email. Which passage did you choose, and what did the commentary add or correct? Your answer may help another reader who is learning to use these books the same way.
