A reader writes:
The recent blog post about the Pentateuch brought something to mind I hope you can help me with. I know you are busy and I don’t want to take much of your time, but my difficulty is how to find scholars whose works I can trust and learn from. I have heard you recommend the Word Biblical Commentary series before (which I intend to look into), but I am thinking more of Catholic individuals like Joseph Fitzmyer and Raymond Brown and the like. Both of these men have been members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and one would think that means they have some good things to say, but I have also heard some reservations expressed about some of their work. Finding sources I can trust has been a serious stumbling block for my delving deeply into scripture. I am not trying to open a political can of worms but I don’t know of any objective source to learn about scripture scholars. Who to read and who to avoid? Any thoughts you may have would be appreciated.
I wish I was able to offer more encouraging thoughts than what I am able to, but here is what I can tell you:
- The state of Catholic biblical scholarship today is such that I can only recommend individual commentaries by individual authors here and there.
- The biggest names (e.g., Ray Brown) cannot be recommended to a general audience. They do have good things to say, but they frequently are far too uncritical of higher critical ideas and they present their material in a way that is often faith-challenging rather than faith affirming. A lot of the time it comes down to how you say things, and these guys don’t have the knack of saying things in a way that communicates the concept in a way that makes it clear to the average reader how this is to be harmonized with the faith.
- A lot of the problem goes to the hermeneutic of suspicion that is possessed of contemporary critical scholarship. Rome has been growing increasingly concerned about this problem and has been making noise about it but hasn’t yet acted decisively on it.
- From what I can tell, it seems to me that the different biblical scholarship communities–Catholic, Protestant, Jewish–go through cycles in which the commentaries they are cranking out are flourishing or moribund. Currently, the Catholic community is in a largely moribund phase, though with some bright spots here and there.
- What I would suggest is that you start by getting a copy of the 1950s edition of Bernard Orchard’s A Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, which is out of print but can be ordered from used book services like Loome Theological Booksellers. The scholarship is somewhat out of date, but at least it’s faith-affirming and will give you a baseline, traditional Catholic take on Scripture.
- Once you have that, branch out by comparing what it says to more recent commentaries. Don’t limit yourself to Catholic ones, either. The Word Biblical Commentary is a good set, and it’s Protestant (broadly Evangelical, specifically). The Navarre Bible (a Catholic set that doesn’t cover the whole Bible yet) is orthodox and more contemporary but is more devotional than scholarly.
- Some of the best commentaries I’ve read of late have actually been Jewish (they seem to be going through a flourishing phase). The Jewish Publication Society’s JPS Torah Commentary (edited by Nahum Sarna) is particularly good. Also, reading some Medieval Jewish commentaries like Rashi on Genesis is good.
- There are some volumes of the Sacra Pagina set that are good, but I haven’t read them all, so I can’t give a general recommend.
Wish I could give better news, but that’s what I would recommend at present.
NOTE: I’d ask folks not to recommend this and that scholar or commentary in the comments box as I likely have not read and would not feel comfortabl letting a recommendation of this nature stand without having done so. If you want to suggest one, e-mail me and if I have read it and agree, I may include it in an update to this post. Thanks!
(Other comments are fair game.)
What do you think of the Ignatius Bible Study Series?
Jimmy–You offered the same suggestion to me nearly a year ago, regarding the Orchard Commentary. I bought it, and I’d second your observation–a tad out of date on a few things, but all in all an incredible work. I wasn’t able to get a copy through Loome, so I bought mine from John Bevan, an English dealer in Catholic books. Here is his link:
http://www.catholicbooks.co.uk/
Another one that I’ve enjoyed is this:
http://www.pcpbooks.com/
And then there’s the catch-all (actually, I think that I found the link to John Bevan’s site through this one)–
http://www.bookfinder.com/
Happy book hunting!
Bruce
Sharon,
I’m afraid that I haven’t read it, so couldn’t say.
Bruce,
Thanks for the links! http://www.abebooks.com is another good one (based in the U.S.).
Bookfinder is another good place to look–it is a mega search engine for online book sellers like Alibris, abebooks, etc.
http://www.bookfinder.com
Jimmy–
Not a problem, I’m always happy to enable someone’s addictions (book-related ones, anyway…)
Oh, jeez–Bruce already had it.
Oops.
Coffee…getting…weaker. Brain getting…mushy……
A thought from a “scholar”:
Don’t look for a scholar you can trust.
I say this not because there aren’t any trustworthy scholars – I try to be one (mainly in the area of moral theology – somewhat in the area of Scripture).
I say it, rather, because I, for my part, don’t want to be “trusted” in the sense of turned into someone’s guru. Rather, I want to contribute to a conversation, and I want people to listen intelligently to (and learn to take intelligent part in) that conversation.
I would say – get to know Scripture. Get to know what the Church says about general principles for its interpretation – thus, read Dei Verbum, the recent PBC docs; get a feel for how JPII reads Scripture; have a look at Ratzinger’s stuff …
Then – along with, and after that – read some well-regarded scholars and try to learn intelligently from them.
Oh, one other thought – on today’s Catholic biblical scholarship as “moribund” –
I think that’s somewhat true. But I also think the “bright spots” are the future. I tend to get the impression that a lot of the people going into the field, and up-and-comers who’ve recently gone into it, are more interested in a hermeneutic of trust (in Scripture, read with the Church) and in spiritual senses and the like – basically, the sort of vision that you see proposed by a Ratzinger – than in approaches that don’t genuinely (and intelligently) contribute to the faith life of the Church.
Speaking of Orchard, Jimmy do you have any comments on the International Bible Commentary? It’s a recent one-volume Catholic commentary that was supposed to have been the brainchild of Orchard, even though he did not participate in its production.
Haven’t seen it, and would love a review from this blog if you come across it.
Print copies of “A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture” are sometimes hard to find and may be unaffordable for some. Fortuately, Dom Orchard’s work is now is available online:
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99240475
Thanks for the link to Loome. I was able to order a copy of Orchard’s commentary. Can’t wait for it to get here.
Review of the THIRD MILLINEUM BIBLE,,,,Thank You okolicekos@gmai.com
Hello Mr. Akin:
I bought “The Collegeville Bible Commentary” published by The Liturgical Press” Copyright 1989 and would like your expert scholarly theological opinion about it if you do…
It is a compilation of 36 booklets in one big hardcover book.. Each 36 booklets has different authors…The book itself has Nihil Obstat by Robert C. Harren, J.C.L.(Censur Deputatus) and Imprimatur by: Bishop Jerome Hanus, O.S.B. Bishop of St. Cloud-October 19,1988…
Thank you and God Bless
Annie
What about the New Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture published in 1969 and edited by Bernard Orchard? Would also provide goo, solid Catholic basics and perhaps be a bit more up to date than the original. It is also more readily available.