Suggested Commentary Tags

In video #15 I recommend that you tag all your commentaries in at least three categories. If you’re not yet familiar with all your commentaries, you may find this list of suggested categories and their descriptions helpful:

Technical Commentaries

Typically, technical commentaries will be detailed, fairly academic, and emphasise aspects of language and grammar (often using untransliterated Greek and Hebrew). They’ll frequently discuss several possible interpretations of a passage, weighing the different views. They’ll concentrate almost exclusively on what the text would have meant to the original readers, and won’t be concerned about contemporary application.

Intermediate Commentaries

Typically, intermediate commentaries will discuss the meaning of the Bible text, in a serious but not overly-academic way. They’re likely to transliterate Greek and Hebrew. They may acknowledge different interpretations of a passage, but probably only in footnotes. They’ll be some application for the contemporary church, but that’s unlikely to be a main emphasis.

Expository Commentaries

Typically, expository commentaries will discuss the meaning of the Bible text at a fairly simple level. They’ll be simple to read, with plenty of application and illustrations — a bit like a printed sermon. They’ll be hardly any footnotes, and hardly any Greek and Hebrew.

Historical Commentaries

Historical Commentaries in my collection are commentaries that are Medieval or older. Normally they’ll have been written by the men we now call the Church Fathers.

Background Commentaries

Background Commentaries don’t commentate on the overall meaning of a passage, but provide insights from the historical and cultural background wherever that’s appropriate.

8 Responses to Suggested Commentary Tags

  1. Chad M. Carpenter says:
    October 19, 2011 at 2:25 am

    Thank you so much for sharing your insights on Logos Bible Software! I’ve advanced considerably in organizing my library since viewing your videos and following your suggested commentary tags.

    Would you be willing to add your tag classifications for single-volume commentaries to the list? I currently have several that I’d love to know the tag choice you use (examples include – Bible Guide, Bible History: OT, Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Bible Commentary, Word Pictures, Wuest’s Word Studies, etc.). If any further guidance on tagging commentaries could be provided, it would be greatly appreciated!

    Reply
  2. Jack Caviness says:
    November 8, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    Nathan
    Thanks for these lists. You seem to have overlooked the Crossway Classic Commentary series

    Reply
  3. Mark Barnes says:
    November 9, 2011 at 1:05 am

    Chad: Sorry for the delay in replying. I will add single volume commentaries to the list. Most will be ‘intermediate’, though some (like Matthew Henry) would be ‘expository’.

    Jack: I don’t own the Crossway Classic Commentary set, and no previews are available on Logos’ website. But most of the volumes are available in other Logos products (though the Crossway editions have been edited for simplicity) so I think I’m familiar enough with the volumes to say that it’s a tricky set to classify. Spurgeon on Psalms, and Ryle on Matthew I’m sure would be expository, whilst Calvin on John, or Hodge on 1 Corinthians I would class as intermediate – unless the editing process has so simplified them that they too could be classed as expository. What do you think?

    Reply
    • Chad M. Carpenter says:
      December 3, 2011 at 6:32 pm

      Great! Thanks for the time and effort you’ve put into this helpful list along with all the videos. Your tutorials have made Logos much more useful for me and I’ve let other Logos users know about this site.

      Reply
  4. Craig Heberle says:
    January 16, 2012 at 12:25 am

    Mark, thanks for all your hard work! Thank the Lord that you even had some of the resources that I acutally own! LOL! I have a huge “wish list” going now. :-)

    I assume that some of the other works of Alfred Edersheim (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, etc.) would be included in the “Background Commentaries” or I guess I could have a “Historical Commentaries” collection to capture things like Philip Schaff’s “History of the Christian Church.”

    Do you actually own all of those volumes or do you have your own “wish list” going? LOL!

    Thanks!

    Yours in him,
    Craig

    Reply
    • Mark Barnes says:
      January 16, 2012 at 2:51 pm

      Hi Craig,
      I’ve only listed works which are actual commentaries on the Biblical text (listed in your Logos library with the ‘Type’ set to Commentary). Life and Times and History of the Christian Chuch are not commentaries in that sense, so I haven’t included them. When building my Logos library over the last ten years or so, I have concentrated on commentaries, so I’m fortunate to own about 90% of the commentaries listed here.

      Reply
  5. Bethany says:
    April 1, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    Hi Mark, great stuff, thank you. When you do a custom passage guide, do you find it helpful to split the commentaries into sections by their tags? (eg. 3 commentary sections: Intermediate, Expository and Background).

    Reply
    • Mark Barnes says:
      April 7, 2012 at 1:50 pm

      Yes, Bethany, that’s exactly what I do. I find it extremely helpful because I tend to consult different types of commentaries at different points in my preparation.

      Reply

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