Research Guides: Selected Resources for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: Commentaries

Commentaries

Commentaries usually feature verse by verse analysis. It is often helpful to consult a number of commentaries on the Biblical book that you are studying as they have different aspects of the text that they emphasize such as historical, cultural, literary etc. Many commentaries while scholarly are also directed towards a Christian audience.
Commentaries can be found by doing a subject search in TRIPOD for "Bible [name of the book you are researching] commentaries."

Commentary Series

The following series have commentaries of many of the books in the Bible. After connecting to the list of books in the series you can use the "Limit" feature to go to the record of the particular book that you are researching.

JPS Torah Commentary
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This is the major commentary series on the books of the Torah that is written from a Jewish perspective.
Berit Olam
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Most are well written and have good bibliographies.
Word Biblical Commentary
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Written for a Christian audience, most of the volumes feature good scholarship and more extensive bibliographies than other other series.
Anchor Bible Commentary
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Until recently the standard commentary series. Note that as the first volume was published in 1964 many of the Biblical books now have a second more recent commentary on them in this series.
The New Interpreter's Bible
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Genesis and Exodus

Commentaries on Genesis are located at BS1235.3. Commentaries on Exodus are located at BS1245.3

Commentaries / Materials Focusing on Women

A book series which has essays on women in individual Biblical books is the "Feminist Companion to the Bible". Note that the series has added a second more recent set of books so often there will be two separate books on a Biblical book. Do a 'title' or 'series' search in TRIPOD to find the monograph(s) that discusses the Biblical book that you are researching.

Additional useful books are:

Women's Bible Commentary by Carol A. Newsom (Editor); Sharon H. Ringe (Editor); Jacqueline E. Lapsley (Editor)
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ISBN: 066423707X
Publication Date: 2012-09-28
Book by book commentary.
IVP Women'sBible Commentary
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ISBN: 083081437X
Besides providing book by book commentary it also has short topical articles. Check the "Supplementary Articles" listing listing after "Contents" to see a list of articles which include topics such as, "Purity Laws Related to Women."
Feminist Biblical Interpretation by Luise Schottroff; Marie-Theres Wacker; Martin Rumscheidt
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ISBN: 0802860974
Publication Date: 2012-09-01
Has feminist commentary on every Biblical book.
Women in Scripture by Carol L. Meyers (Editor); Toni Craven (Editor); Ross S. Kraemer (Editor); Carol Meyers (Editor)
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ISBN: 0395709369
Publication Date: 2000-03-30
This is not a standard commentary. The first section "Named Women" is arranged alphabetically with entries by the name of the woman mentioned in the Bible. The second section "Unnamed Women" (starting on page 175) is arranged by book of the Bible and discusses each verse that mentions a woman.