As I study to get back into the John series (John 2:1-11 coming up shortly), I am learning for myself that I don’t need to read every commentary on a text. There is a place for that if one is working on a scholarly paper but for the purposes of preparing the type of text studies I’m working on for this blog and for others preparing Bible studies and preaching, too many commentaries just seem to be a drag. I’m starting to learn which commentaries I’m most helped by in general and specifically on the Gospel of John. The best first step is always the original text. The last good step is a few helpful commentaries. But having too many of the wrong sort just slow things down unnecessarily.

Perhaps toward the end of the John series on this blog I’ll review the commentaries I’ve worked with and provide a judgment of my opinion of their usefulness.