The Hodder Bible Commentary is a set of books each covering one book of the Bible and explaining the Scripture in such a way that it can be easily understood.
Before I began All God’s Women podcast I had never given thought to commentaries or other Bible reference books. Those were for preachers or Bible teachers or other Bible scholars. One I discovered, however, how useful Bible helps could be, I realized all I’d been missing.
A Bible commentary is a book or series of books designed to explain or interpret one or all of the books of the Bible. It’s like someone reading over your shoulder saying, “Hey, did you catch that? If not, let me explain the significance of it so you can see exactly what the author was saying here.” Commentaries and study Bibles can be a game-changer.
The Hodder Bible Commentary Features
When I was first approached about reviewing the Hodder Bible Commentary books, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Depending on who is writing the commentary, they can be more scholarly or more conversational.
As interesting as it might be, I’m not particularly scholarly, and I don’t know that many of you are either. I need something fairly simple to walk me step by step rather than assuming I have a lot of theological knowledge. The Hodder Bible Commentary fits that description.
I also want something that’s biblically conservative. On that issue, I’ve not been able to ascertain just yet, but it appears it may lean on the liberal side as the series editor Lee Gatiss is a lecturer at Union School of Theology, a Presbyterian school known to be liberal. He’s also Director of Church Society, which is a conservative, evangelical Anglican organization contending to reform and renew the Church of England in biblical faith. So, all this to say, I’m still not sure exactly where it lands, so if this is important to you, be aware while studying.
The Hodder Bible Commentary is being released four books at a time. The first four books are releasing in July: Luke, Mark, Acts, and Ecclesiastes. Though they are each written by different authors, they follow the same format, which is a quite easy to use structure.
They each open with an introduction where the author gives the background and historical information to help put the book in context with what was going on in the world at the time. They also provide a biography of the author to understand where they were coming from.
The actual body of the commentary consists of a chapter or Scripture passage from the NIV Bible followed by detailed notes for the different verses. So you read a bit, then it explains to you what you just read. It’s written in layman terms so anyone can understand the explanations without knowing Hebrew or Greek or without a theology degree.
The Hodder Bible Commentary Review
I received copies of the first four commentary books. Though I’ve certainly not had opportunity to read them all, I have perused them, and what I’ve seen has been interesting to read as well as sound doctrine. I especially like the format, finding it easy to follow and a helpful way to break up the information.
Since we’re currently studying Acts in our small group at church, I look forward to delving into it more in depth. I’m also looking forward to Ecclesiastes as it’s a very unique book and I’ve always found it intriguing. It will be interesting to learn more about the background and add new layers to the simple words of wisdom.
The Hodder Bible Commentary would be good for:
- Preachers
- Bible teachers
- Anyone wanting to learn more about the Bible
Learn More:
The Hodder Bible Commentary website
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of these books from the publisher. Opinions expressed are my own.
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