Experts Recommend OT Commentaries: Deuteronomy (Richter)
Dr. Sandy Richter on Deuteronomy
OT Commentary Recommendations: Rebooted!
A handful of years ago, I had a blog series where I asked OT experts to weigh in on their recommendations for OT commentaries. For one reason or another (during the pandemic), I left the series incomplete, and lately I have been motivated to do a reboot! So, for a while we will repost the originals (we had gotten through Psalms), and then add brand new ones to complete the series. So, to be clear, if you followed the old series, you will notice we are reposting them with slight updates and modifications to fit Substack.
Experts Recommend OT Commentaries: Deuteronomy (Dr. Sandy Richter)
Dr. Sandra Richter is Robert H. Gundry Chair of Biblical Studies at Westmont College. She is author of the widely popular book, The Epic of Eden and the follow up, Stewards of Eden. Richter also serves on the NIV translation committee.
Commentaries on Deuteronomy
Technical
The essential will always be S. R. Driver’s ICC published back in 1895. One cannot do Deuteronomy without it. All of the hard linguistic work is there, Wellhausen and DeWett were still living/and or living memory when it was written, and so many of the foundational arguments that still shape the discussion are being articulated for the first time in its pages.
My personal favorite is Jeff Tigay’s JPS Torah Commentary. This commentary has all the hallmarks of a “life’s work” kind of volume. Tigay has poured his heart and soul into this piece, brought together classic commentary with the Rabbis and theologically sensitive, common sense commentary.
I also really appreciate Moshe Weinfeld’s, Anchor Bible Commentary on Deuteronomy 1-11. Full of formative argumentation and an outstanding translation (unfortunately chapters 12-34 never happened).
Semi-Technical
In this category, my first choice is Gordon McConville’s Apollos Old Testament Commentary. It is extremely thorough and majors on the text itself (as opposed to history of scholarship, etc.). Once again the reader is privileged to peruse a “life’s work” sort of investment.
Non-Technical
My favorite non-technical commentary these days is Chris Wright’s Deuteronomy: Understanding the Bible Commentary. Wright’s expertise in ethics brings an important lens to the study of the book, and it is expressly readable.
Nijay’s Notes on Recent Commentaries
Dr. Richter’s recommendations were from 2021, and since then a couple of excellent new commentaries have been published; I am just making note of them here.
Thanks..I will check in to the info..
I've been following this series with great enthusiasm. Thanks for this, Nijay.
May I suggest two things that would be really nice for us newbies to this level of commentary (but enthusiastic about the subject)? One is to see how the different commentaries approach the same point in the book they're covering. This is useful to me when comparing Bible versions—how X Study Bible comments, say, Jeremiah 29 and how Y Study Bible does it. That gives me a sense of the scope, flavor, and texture of the commentary that is difficult to notice with a bird's-eye view.
The second really nice thing here would be to differentiate commentary series, especially when it's the same author (say, a hypothetical theologian I've been following who has written commentaries on Galatians across diverse series…). So I have Christopher Wright's Story of God commentary on Exodus—how different is his approach in the book recommended here? Those things would be neat add-ons, but the series has been mighty interesting. Thanks!