Up to Date (Philippians)

Catching Up on the Latest Biblical Commentaries (2019-2024)

This is a series called “Up to Date,” where I do a sweeping survey of the latest and greatest biblical commentaries. In 2020, I published a little book called The New Testament Commentary Guide: A Brief Handbook for Students and Pastors (Lexham Press, 2020). I’m proud of my “little orange book,” but a resource like this gets outdated. If you are looking for commentary classics and “best picks” I suggest picking up my book. In this Substack series though, I will be looking at what has been published in the last five years (2019-2024).

Important Recent Philippians Commentaries

**Click images to purchase or learn more

George Guthrie (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary)

Truth be told, this is a newer commentary (August 2023), so I haven’t spent much time in it, but I had conversations with George while he was writing it, and I am very confident in his meticulous research. George is a sharp scholar and has a richly pastoral heart. This series expects knowledge of Greek, so only purchase it if you have studied Greek.

Jeannine Brown (Tyndale New Testament Commentary)

This is a fantastic layperson commentary from a leading biblical scholar. It is so good that I often use this as a textbook for my intro-level course on Philippians. Students find it insightful without being tedious and wordy. Highly recommended for a church group study.

Michael F. Bird and Nijay K. Gupta (New Cambridge Bible Commentary)

Philippians is one of my favorite biblical books to study and to teach on. So when Mike Bird approached me with the idea of co-writing a commentary it was an easy “yes!” We aimed for a semi-technical, highly readable commentary with lots of theological analysis and insight. I hope this commentary serves a steady guide for students as well as pastors who are preaching and teaching through Philippians. I am working on a new commentary (solo-authored) on Philippian and Philemon (combined) for the New Testament Library (Westminster John Knox). Also, I just finished writing a volume on Philippians and Philemon for the Cambridge University Press New Testament Theology Series, which I hope will come out in 2025 or early 2026.

Coming Soon

Here are some commentaries on Philippians that are coming in the future. No clear timeline or release dates for these.

Max Lee (Preaching Philippians)

Douglas Moo (Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary)

Pheme Perkins (Illuminations)

N.T. Wright (International Critical Commentary)

Daniel Treier (International Theological Commentary)

Up next: stay tuned for new commentaries on Colossians next week!

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