Ligonier recently ran a post with Dr. Keith Mathison’s “top 5” commentaries for each book of the Bible. I’ve been preaching through Acts so I thought I would compare his recommendations against what I’ve been utilizing for sermon prep. Mathison’s top 5 for Acts are:
- Darrell L. Bock — Acts (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, 2007).
- F.F. Bruce — The Book of the Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament, 1988).
- C.K. Barrett. — Acts 1-14, Acts 15-28 (International Critical Commentary, 2004).
- Ben Witherington — The Acts of the Apostles (1997).
- I. Howard Marshall — Acts (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 1980).
Mathison also gives some major kudos to Craig Keener’s currently unfinished multi-volume commentary (he says when it is complete he will probably put it in his top 5), and also lists these other works as runners up: David Peterson, James Montgomery Boice, Dennis Johnson, J.A. Alexander, R. Kent Hughes, Ajith Fernando, Gordon Keddie, Richard N. Longenecker, William Larkin, John Polhill, and David Williams.
For sermon prep I have predominantly been leaning upon:
- Darrell L. Bock — Acts (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, 2007).
- F.F. Bruce — The Book of the Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament, 1954).
- F.F. Bruce — The Book of Acts (The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary, 1973).
- Richard N. Longenecker — Acts (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 1995).
Originally I was also using I. Howard Marshall’s Acts, but eventually dropped it because in general he wasn’t uncovering anything already addressed by Bock, Bruce, and Longenecker. And I did not find Fernando or Polhill to be helpful enough for frequent reference. In addition, I have referencing commentaries by Jaroslav Pelikan, John Calvin, Matthew Henry, William Willimon. In general, a good deal of overlap between my list and Dr. Mathison’s recommendations. That is encouraging.
