The First Commentator to Plead His Case

My fourth commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall not read only one commentary, but shall invite a plurality of voices into the conversation.

Is this because I think you have no limits on your time, or that you must become a professional researcher in order to study the Bible? No, it is simply because our Bible study is part of a conversation that has been going on for thousands of years. We were created to live and learn in community, and therefore, having a single influence on your study is counterproductive to your study.

Let me give two reasons.

The First to Plead His Case Seems Right, Until…

Consider Proverbs 18:17:

The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him. 

Unless you are among the most naturally skeptical of learners, if you read only one commentary on a passage, you will be inclined to presume the commentator you read is right. Especially if that commentator engages with other commentators and points out all the places where they are wrong. It is simply part of being a creature with limited knowledge that “the one who states his case first seems right.”

Nobody chooses to write a commentary—or gets a contract to write a commentary—because they believe they have all the wrong ideas about their subject matter. No, they write it because they believe they are right, and that they have something to add to the historic conversation that ought to be considered by others! So they are going to write with as much clarity and confidence as they can muster regarding their interpretive conclusions.

But if you read at least two commentaries, it will help you to recognize that there could be a variety of perspectives out there. And each of them could be argued cogently. And each of them is worth considering and discussing. In the process, it will help you to demystify the priesthood of experts that is so easy to presume.

Demystifying the Presumed Priesthood of Experts

I am deeply grateful for those God has raised up in the church, who are experts in various topics. I’ve been in churches that had medical and legal experts, who counseled church members or leaders on particular medical or legal matters. I’ve been in churches with construction experts, who can take care of building and property maintenance and improvement with tremendous skill. My church sent an agricultural expert overseas to assist the preaching of the gospel with strong agricultural education in a third world country.

So I have no philosophical concern with the existence or use of experts. However, sometimes we can get ourselves stuck in a presumption that the experts are always right. In our Bible study, that means we confer upon Bible experts a mystical status of priestly knowledge unavailable to the masses. If the expert says something, it must be true. And reading only one commentary may reinforce that presumption, since what you read will most likely sound credible and persuasive (see Prov 18:17 again).

But there is a reason medical patients are often encouraged to get a second opinion. There is a reason businesses often have not a single lawyer but a legal team. There is a reason a corporation or government launching a major project invites multiple bids from a plurality of contractors. And there is a reason why nearly any group of experts in the same field will find many matters within their field about which to violently disagree (just peruse a scholastic journal from any field to witness a wealth of in-house debate). That reason is the self-evident fact that a variety of experts will have a variety of perspectives which lead them to a variety of conclusions and suggest a variety of methods or applications.

We ought to take this thinking with us into our personal Bible study and commentary reading. A second opinion is usually more valuable than the first opinion, regardless of which opinion you end up agreeing with. Either you will be rescued from hastily jumping on the first commentator’s train, or you will find even greater confidence and grounds for sticking with that first one. And the variety of strengths and weaknesses of the various commentators will result in your final conclusions being wiser, more nuanced, and more robust.

Test Everything

In conclusion, this sort of sifting, evaluating, and refusing to believe the first opinion (automatically), is what the Apostle Paul wants the Thessalonian churches to do.

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thess 5:20-22)

There is a sense in which commentaries are one form of New Testament prophecy, in that they proclaim the word of God. We ought to test them, every one. Hang on to whatever is good, helpful, and true in them. Reject whatever is false, misleading, or evil in them.

But you’ll limit your ability to do that unless you consult a second, third, or fourth opinion on a matter. And, as commentator Tremper Longman III says: “Sometimes the reader will be right and the commentaries will be wrong.”