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> THEO 3210 Four Gospels and One Jesus

Introduction

Commentaries differ very widely in pitch, difficulty, method, theological orientation,detail, length, quality, and so forth.  Take sheer bulk, for example.  All of the commentaries depicted in the photograph below cover Matthew.  The first (moving from left to right), in a 1-volume commentary on each book of the entire Bible-with-Apocrypha; the second, in a slim one-volume commentary on Matthew alone; the third, in three thick, technical volumes covering the whole of Matthew; and the fourth, in a substantial volume on but three of its twenty-eight chapters (the Sermon on the Mount):

Theology Resources

Where to Search for Commentaries

Use the Library's discovery system to identify commentaries.  Select 1) Search Scope:  SPU Library for those in the Ames Library and/or accessible online, or 2) Search Scope:  SPU + Summit for those in the previous category plus all of those held elsewhere in the Orbis Cascade Alliance and accessible via Summit Borrowing:

Search SPU Library Catalog

SPU and Summit Library Search

 

How to Search for Commentaries

Search for commentaries in the Advanced Search area of the Library's discovery system as follows:  [book] AND commentaries (plural) in subject contains:

Subject Term Search

Alternatively, choose the Search Scope:  SPU Library + Summit, and place Summit requests for those not owned by SPU.

 

Identifying Some of the Better Commentaries

Prioritize your professor's own list of "Select Modern Commentaries" (under "Instructions", below), and then supplement that, if necessary, with my handout entitled Commentary on Commentaries: