International Critical Commentary from Logos

The International Critical Commentary (ICC) is one of the most important commentary series of the twentieth century. They bring together all the relevant aids to exegesis—linguistic, textual, archaeological, historical, literary, and theological—to help the reader understand the meaning of Old and New Testament books. If you are a serious student of the Bible you need to get your hands on as many of the ICC commentaries as you can find. The commentary on Romans and Matthew are particularly well done. The ICC has long been the standard for biblical exegesis and is definitely worth owning.  I know what some of you may be thinking. I am a kids pastor or youth pastor I don’t need a commentary. I would counter and say you need a commentary more than you think you do. Communicating for kids and youth doesn’t mean you dumb down your message. It means you have to more fully understand what you are teaching so that you can explain it more simply.

Here is the rub they are getting more and more difficult to find in print and when you do find them searching through commentaries is good but be one-dimensional. You look up passage and read the exposition then move on to another passage. Here is where Logos is particularity powerful because of the massive amounts of biblical texts they offer, and their powerful search capabilities it makes every book three dimensional. You search for a passage in Logos you get not only the passage from that commentary but also where it shows up in every other book in your library. One of the most powerful things about Logos is having multiple biblical texts in one place that are all highly searchable. The searching power and speed in Logos is by far one of its greatest assets. Logos affords you the ability to go further in your study faster. When I was in bible collage using actual books was both tedious and time-consuming. Logos gives you power and reach you could not have on your own.

Here are a couple of videos that show the power of Logos at work.