Using the Library

These books may be read online or downloaded without charge. The library includes nineteen full-length New Testament commentaries and twenty-four New Testament Studies volumes. You may use a single volume for a particular question or move among several books as part of a larger course of study.

HOW TO APPROACH THE COMMENTARIES

The commentaries are designed to help readers follow the argument or narrative of each biblical book and understand what its author was seeking to communicate to the original readers. They may be used for sermon preparation, Bible studies, adult education classes, personal study, theological reading, and more sustained exegetical research.

First-time readers may begin with the Introduction and the “Movement” sections before moving into the detailed exposition. Pastors and teachers may begin with the passage they are preparing to teach and then consult related excursuses, glossary entries, indexes, and major discussion guides.

The commentaries are not meant to replace careful reading of Scripture itself. They are intended to support attentive reading by explaining the literary and historical setting, following the development of the author’s thought, examining important interpretive questions, and relating individual passages to the larger message of the biblical book.

USING THE NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES

The twenty-four New Testament Studies volumes complement the commentaries by addressing larger questions that extend across individual passages or biblical books.

The collection is organized into five areas: Introduction and Background; Interpretation and Exegetical Tools; Jesus, the Gospels, and Israel; New Testament Theology; and Christian Life, Church, and Ministry.

Readers may begin with a Study volume when their question is broader than a single passage. Those newer to serious New Testament study may find A Survey of the New Testament, New Testament Introduction, and The World of the New Testament particularly helpful starting points.

Other volumes allow readers to pursue questions involving interpretation, Greek, the use of the Old Testament, Pauline and Johannine theology, eschatology, ethics, church and mission, preaching, and other major areas of New Testament study.

MOVING BETWEEN THE TWO COLLECTIONS

The commentaries and New Testament Studies volumes are designed to be used together.

A reader studying Romans, for example, may begin with the Romans commentary to understand a particular passage and then consult Pauline Theology or New Testament Theology to see how the same subject develops more broadly.

Someone preparing to teach a Gospel passage may begin with the appropriate commentary, consult The Synoptic Gospels: A Comparative Study when comparison among the Gospels is important, and then turn to From Exegesis to Proclamation when considering how the results of exegesis should be communicated.

There is no required sequence. Move between books according to the question you are investigating.

READ ONLINE OR DOWNLOAD

You may read and search a volume directly in your browser without saving it to your device. For brief consultation or looking up a particular passage or subject, this may be all that is needed.

For longer reading, repeated study, highlighting, personal notes, or offline use, downloading the PDF is usually more convenient. A downloaded volume becomes your own reading copy while the original file on this website remains unchanged.

LONG-FORM READING AND SAVING YOUR PLACE

Many volumes in this library are full-length books intended to be read over several sessions. The online PDF viewer is convenient for immediate access, but it may not reliably remember the exact place where you stopped reading.

For extended reading, it is usually better to download the PDF and open it in a full PDF-reading application.

On an iPad, applications such as Apple Books, Adobe Acrobat Reader, PDF Expert, and Goodnotes provide useful long-form reading features. Depending on the application, these may include saved reading positions, bookmarks, search, highlighting, and annotations.

On a Mac, the built-in Preview application provides tools for navigating long PDFs and bookmarking pages. Other PDF-reading applications may also be used.

On a Windows PC, Adobe Acrobat Reader and other full PDF readers provide bookmarks, page navigation, search, highlighting, and related tools that are useful for lengthy books.

If you prefer to read directly from the website, note the PDF page number when you stop. When you return, use the page-number control in the online viewer to go directly back to that page.

HIGHLIGHTING AND PERSONAL NOTES

Once a volume has been downloaded, most PDF-reading applications allow you to highlight passages, add comments or notes, underline text, and mark important pages for later reference.

Save the file after making annotations so that your work remains in your personal copy. Your highlighting and notes do not alter the original volume in the online library.

Over time, a frequently used commentary or Study can therefore become your own annotated working copy.

SEARCH WITHIN A BOOK

You do not need to read an entire volume to locate a particular discussion.

To find a word, name, Scripture passage, author, or subject, open the PDF and press Ctrl+F on a Windows computer or Command+F on a Mac. On a tablet or phone, look for the magnifying-glass search symbol.

Enter the word, phrase, or passage you want to find. Then move through the results until you locate the relevant discussion.

The table of contents, indexes, major discussion guides, and other navigation aids in the books can also help you find material quickly.

BUILD A PERSONAL RESEARCH LIBRARY

Readers who use the books regularly may wish to download several or all of the volumes and organize them as a personal New Testament research library.

Folders on a computer may be sufficient. More advanced students can use research software to organize the PDFs, attach notes, group books by subject, and retrieve material across a larger collection.

This can be particularly useful when studying a subject that appears in several books—for example, justification, the kingdom of God, Israel, resurrection, the Holy Spirit, church, mission, or Christian ethics.

OPTIONAL TOOLS FOR ADVANCED STUDY

Zotero is a free research program that can organize the volumes as a personal library and keep annotations and research notes connected with particular pages and quotations. It is especially useful for students writing papers, teachers gathering material, and readers conducting sustained research across several volumes.

Google NotebookLM can use downloaded PDFs as source material for questions, summaries, study guides, comparisons, and other forms of assisted study. It can be particularly helpful when working through a large book or comparing several sources.

More specialized annotation and research programs can also be used to place excerpts from several books alongside one another, organize notes by subject, and trace ideas across the collection. Readers who already use Bible-study software may also be able to incorporate material from these volumes into their established research workflow.

These tools are optional. Nothing beyond an ordinary web browser and PDF reader is required to use the library effectively.

When using any AI-assisted research tool, treat its response as an aid rather than as the final authority. Check important claims against the actual book, examine the biblical text for yourself, and consider the evidence on which an interpretation rests.

READ CRITICALLY

The purpose of the library is not simply to supply conclusions.

Readers are encouraged to examine the biblical text, follow the arguments presented in the books, consider alternative interpretations, and decide whether the evidence supports the conclusions reached.

The commentaries and Studies are intended to help readers understand why an interpretation is proposed, not merely what interpretation has been adopted.

BEGIN READING

Choose the Commentaries collection when you want to study a particular New Testament book or passage.

Choose NT Studies when you want to explore a larger historical, interpretive, theological, ethical, or ministry question.

You can begin anywhere. The library is designed so that a single question can lead from a biblical passage to its historical setting, from exegesis to theology, and from careful study to teaching and Christian life.