The Expositor's Bible Commentary (Volume 9) - John and Acts

This particular volume is practical; I mean by this that it is good to pull off the shelf and review. Ideally, more critical and thorough works will be at the ready. I have them, but some times time is not on my side. Additionally, I like the varied viewpoints from the many fine authors, such as these two. Tenny's work seems less than I would like, but anything he writes is worth reading - even if I dispute what he says. I have Longenecker in the updated "Expositors" as well. I am generally pleased with his work.

Let me start by saying that I have owned the full 12-volume set for about a year and use it quite frequently as a resource. I've used this particular volume as a reference, but have not taught through a book using this commentary yet. However, as there seem to be no competent reviews on the set as a whole, I did want to add my impressions of this terrific resource. I can say that I'm very satisfied with my purchase of the 12 volumes in this set. Every portion has been quite helpful, and this is an amazingly simple and inexpensive way to assemble a good library of commentaries on the entire Bible. Obviously the commentaries are not as thorough as one may find in other series, such as the excellent (although not yet quite complete) "New International Commentary on the New Testament" or a similar series. However, for most Christians who teach or lead small groups in their churches, this set can serve as a great resource to get started with, and one that can easily be supplimented with specific volumes that treat a book of the Bible in greater depth as those books are needed. Additionally, this resource can be more useful than a larger volume in situations where one is interested in looking at a few chapters of scripture at a time, or where one just needs to understand what a verse or two might mean. Thanks to the very clear and practical verse by verse organization, it's a terrific tool to do just that. Also, I will add that (at the time of this writing) it should be possible to buy the entire set for around $150 or less, so I would suggest shopping a bit if you plan to purchase all 12 volumes. Strongly recommended.