Spurgeon’s Recommended Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles

⬅ Spurgeon’s Recommended Commentaries

The Epistles

Technical Commentaries

  • Ellicott, Charles. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
    • “Dr. Eadie says, “Ellicott is distinguished by close and uniform adherence to grammatical canon, without much expansion into exegesis.” Dr. Riddle thinks Ellicott to be in many respects without an English rival. For scholars only.“

Exegetical Commentaries

  1. Dickson, David. Exposition of all the Epistles.
    • “Dickson is a writer after our own heart. For preachers he is a great ally. There is nothing brilliant or profound; but everything is clear and well arranged, and the unction runs down like the oil from Aaron’s head. In this volume the observations are brief.“
  2. Ferguson, James. Exposition of the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians.
    • “He who possesses this work is rich. The author handles his matter in the same manner as Hutcheson and Dickson, and he is of their class—a grand, gracious, savory divine.”

Sermonic Commentaries

Romans

Technical Commentaries

  1. Hodge, Charles. Romans Commentary.
    • Hodge’s method and matter make him doubly useful in commenting. He is singularly clear, and a great promoter of thought.
  2. Vaughan, Charles. Romans.
    • “Very valuable to students of the Greek. The result of independent study and honest labor.“
  3. Lange, John. Commentary on Romans.
  4. Forbes, John. Analytical Commentary on Romans.
    • “We think Dr. Forbes carries the idea of parallelism further than it should go. It can only be applied strictly to poetical books, which Romans is not. He tries to bring out the other side of the truths taught in Hodge, Edwards, and Calvin; but we confess our preference of those authors to himself. The work will greatly edify those whom it does not confuse.“

Exegetical Commentaries

  1. Robinson, T. Suggestive Commentary on Romans.
    • “A good book in a good style. Worth any amount to preachers.“
  2. Brown, John. An Analytical Exposition of Romans
    • “Dr. Brown’s work must be placed among the first of the first-class. He is a great expositor.“
  3. Calvin, John. Commentary on Romans.
  4. Haldane, Robert. Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans
    • “Dr. Chalmers styled this “a well-built commentary,” and strongly recommended it to students of theology. In his “Sabbath Readings” he writes: “I am reading ‘Haldane’s Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans,’ and find it solid and congenial food.”
  5. Parr, Elnathan. A Short View of the Epistle to the Romans.
    • “The style is faulty, but the matter is rich and full of suggestions.:We regret that the work is not complete, and is seldom to be met with except in fragments.“
  6. Sclater, W. A Key to the Key of Scripture. (Romans Chapters 1-3)
    • “An antique, but precious book.“

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Elton, Edward. Sundry Sermons upon Romans 7, 8, & 9.
    • “The style is plain and homely, but the matter is aye the choicest kind. This old folio is like an old skin bottle, with a rough exterior, but filled within with the product of the rarest vintage. Such books as this we never tire of reading.“
  2. Horton, Thomas. Forty-Six Sermons on Romans 8.
    • “Full of matter, well, but rather too formally, arranged. The sermons are very prim and orderly.“
  3. Fraser, James. The Doctrine of Sanctification: an Explication of Romans 6-8:4.
    • “Dr. John Brown says: “Fraser’s Scripture Doctrine of Sanctification is well worth studying. The old Scotch divine is rude in speech, but not in knowledge.”
  4. Binning, Hugh. The Sinner’s Sanctuary. Forty-Eight Sermons on Romans 8.
    • “The writer of Binning’s Memoir says: “There is a pure stream of piety and learning running through the whole, and a very peculiar turn of thought, which exceeds the common rate of writers on this choice part of the Holy Scriptures.”“

I-II Corinthians

Technical Commentaries

  1. Hodge, Charles. An Exposition on I Corinthians & An Exposition on II Corinthians.
    • “The more we use Hodge, the more we value him. This applies to all his commentaries.“
  2. Lange, John. A Commentary on I Corinthians & a Commentary on II Corinthians.

Exegetical Commentaries

Galatians

Technical Commentaries

  1. Lange, John. Commentary on Galatians.
  2. Eadie, John. Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians.
    • “This is a most careful attempt to ascertain the meaning of the Apostle by a painstaking analysis of his words. The author is not warped by any system of theology, but yet he does not deviate from recognized evangelical truth. As a piece of honest grammatical exegesis the value of this commentary is very great, though there is room to differ from it here and there.“
  3. Lightfoot, J.B. Galatians: Revised Text with Introductions, Notes, and Dissertations.
    • “The Spectator says: “There is no commentator at once of sounder judgment, and more liberal, than Dr. Lightfoot.”

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Luther, Martin. Commentary on Galatians.
    • “I prefer this book of Martin Luther’s (except the Bible) before all the books that / have ever seen, as most fit far a wounded conscience.”— Bunyan. This is a great historic work, and is beyond criticism, on account of its great usefulness. As a comment its accuracy might be questioned; but for emphatic utterances and clear statements of the great doctrine of the Epistle it remains altogether by itself, and must be judged per se.”
  2. Calvin, John. Forty-Two Sermons on Galatians.
  3. Brown, John. Exposition of Galatians.
    • “Brown is a modern Puritan. All his expositions are of the utmost value. The volume on Galatians is one of the scarcest books in the market.“
  4. Bayley, E. Commentary on Galatians.
    • “Upon each portion there is a commentary, a paraphrase, and a sermon, and thus the author conveys a considerable amount of instruction. He is thoroughly evangelical, and his style clear.“

Ephesians

Technical Commentaries

  1. Hodge, Charles. Commentary on Ephesians.
    • “Most valuable. With no writer do we more fully agree.“
  2. Eadie, John. Commentary on the Greek Text of Ephesians.
    • “This book is one of prodigious learning and research. The author seems to have read all, in every language, that has been written upon the Epistle. It is also a work of’ independent criticism, and casts much new light upon man7 passages.”

Exegetical Commentaries

Sermonic Commentaries

  • Calvin, John. Sermons on Ephesians.
    • “Not the same as the exposition. The Sermons are priceless.“

Philippians

Technical Commentaries

  1. Lange, John. Commentary on Ephesians.
  2. Eadie, John. Commentary on the Greek Text of Philippians.
    • “A standard work. Essential to the scholarly student.“
  3. Lightfoot, J.B. Philippians: a Revised Text with Notes.
    • Deservedly regarded as a standard work. The more instructed student will appreciate it.

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Vaughan, C.J. Lectures on Philippians.
    • Deservedly esteemed. Dr. Vaughan gives a literal translation of his text from the original Greek, and then expounds it, believing’ it, as he says, “to be the duty of every Christian teacher to assist his congregation in drinkings not of the stream but at the spring of revealed truth.”
  2. Johnstone, Robert. Lectures on Philippians.
    • “A noble volume. A real boon to the man who purchases it.“

Colossians

Technical Commentaries

  1. Eadie, John. Commentary on the Greek Text of Colossians.
    • Very full and reliable. A work of the utmost value.
  2. Lightfoot, J.B. Colossians and Philemon.
    • Deservedly regarded as a standard work. The more instructed student will appreciate it.

Exegetical Commentaries

  • Bayne, Paul. Commentary on Colossians.
    • “On the two first chapters only. Edifying’ and very rare.“

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Davenant, John. Exposition of Colossians.
    • “I know no exposition upon a detached portion of Scripture (with the single exception of Owen on the Hebrews) that will compare with it in all points. Leighton is superior in sweetness, but far inferior in depth, accuracy, and discursiveness.” – C. Bridges.
  2. Elton, Edward. Exposition of Colossians.
    • A Puritan work; strongly Calvinistic, popular, and very full.
  3. Spence, James. Discourses on Colossians.
    • A good specimen of honest, popular expounding. Intended for a congregation, but useful to the student.
  4. Byfield, Nicholas. Exposition upon Colossians.
    • “The author lived in intense pain, and died at 44, yet he produced quite a mountain of literature. He writes like an earnest, faithful man, resolved to keep back nothing of the counsel of God; but he too little studies brevity, and consequently he wearies most readers. He is always worth consulting.“
  5. Lockyer, Nicholas. England Faithfully Watched With in her Wounds: Lectures on Colossians 1.
    • A fair specimen of plain Puritan preaching.

I-II Thessalonians

Technical Commentaries

  • Lange, John. Commentary on Thessalonians.
    • “Lillie’s Thessalonians will be found to be one of the best executed portions of the American edition of Lange. The translation is remarkably accurate and elegant, and the additions from his own researches, and the best English Commentaries, are carefully selected and valuable.” – Dr. P. Schaff

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Lillie, John. Lectures on Thessalonians.
    • Remarks on the preceding (See Lange above) will apply here.
  2. Manton, Thomas. Eighteen Sermons on 2 Thessalonians 2.
    • Here Manton smites heavily at Popery. Richard Baxter wrote a commendatory preface to this valuable exposition.

I-II Timothy

Technical Commentaries

  • Fairburn, Patrick. The Pastoral Epistles
    • What with a good translation, full defense of the Apostolic authorship of the Epistles, fruitful comments, and profitable dissertations, this volume is about as complete a guide to the smaller epistles as one could desire.

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Barlow, John. Exposition of 2 Timothy 1-2.
    • By a master in Israel. Thoroughly practical, deeply experimental, and soundly doctrinal.
  2. Hall, Thomas. Commentary on 2 Timothy 3-4.
    • Hall is often found in union with Barlow, completing the Commentary on 2 Timothy, as he completed Amos, here is a masterly expositor, of the old-fashioned school.
  3. Calvin, John. Sermons on the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus.
    • Quite a different work from Calvin’s Commentaries.

Titus

Technical Commentaries

  • Fairburn, Patrick. The Pastoral Epistles
    • What with a good translation, full defense of the Apostolic authorship of the Epistles, fruitful comments, and profitable dissertations, this volume is about as complete a guide to the smaller epistles as one could desire.

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Taylor, Thomas. A Commentary on Titus.
    • The title-page calls Thomas Taylor “a famous and most elaborate divine.” He was a preacher at Paul’s Cross during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, and a voluminous writer. This Commentary will well repay the reader.
  2. Calvin, John. Sermons on the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus
    • Quite a different work from Calvin’s Commentaries.

Philemon

Technical Commentaries

Sermonic Commentaries

  1. Cox, Samuel. The Private Letters of St. Paul and St. John.
    • Such exposition as this adds interest to the epistles, and makes their writers live again before our eyes. Mr. Cox delivered this work in public on certain week evenings. Happy are the people who are thus instructed.
  2. Attersoll, William. Commentary upon Philemon.
    • A long comment upon a short epistle. The pious author labors to keep to his text, and succeeds in bringing out of it a mass of quaint practical teaching.
  3. Jones, William. Commentary upon Philemon.
    • Very lively, sprightly, colloquial lectures, by a Suffolk divine, who thinks the Brownists and Dissenters were not persecuted. “Christ was whipped, that was persecution; Christ whipped some out of the temple, that was no persecution.” Despite his intolerance he says some uncommonly racy things.