Commentaries Aren’t Bathwater

There’s a growing tendency in women’s Bible study circles to minimize the value of biblical scholarship—to eschew commentaries, lexicons, and even Bible study curriculum in favor of a simpler approach. “Just you, your Bible, and the Holy Spirit—that’s all you really need” . . . or so they say. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. Ironically, I’ve most often heard this sentiment from the lips of Bible teachers who have clearly spent no shortage of time deep in commentaries themselves.

Though laudable in its effort to elevate Scripture, this hermeneutic misses the mark.

Plain Meaning Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

One of the most common reasons Christians give for pushing commentaries to the back burner is the desire to prioritize “plain meaning,” but the seasoned student of Scripture knows it’s not that simple.

Every reader comes to a text with presuppositions that inform her understanding of so-called plain meaning. Sit around a table discussing any text long enough, and you will find that plain meaning isn’t as plain as you once thought.

As Vern Poythress and Justin Taylor have pointed out, for true proponents of “plain interpretation,” this may be exactly the point—i.e., to interpret the Bible “as if it were written directly to oneself, in one’s own time and culture” (“Do You Literally Interpret the Bible Literally?” The Gospel Coalition, Feb. 7, 2015). This approach may satisfy the “Speak Your Truth” generation, but it’s not a sound method for interpreting the Bible.

In the postmodern world, commentaries are one of the most valuable tools for Bible study because they equip believers to go beyond “plain meaning” in search of something more probative and prevailing—that is, original meaning.

Good Commentaries Guide the Reader to Original Meaning

When I was in high school, I spent three weeks in France on a language immersion trip that culminated with a few days in Paris. I had always dreamed of going to the Louvre, but by the time we got there, I was exhausted. I’m ashamed to admit that I raced around to see the most famous masterpieces and then promptly parked myself in a café for the rest of the afternoon.

But there was another reason I squandered the opportunity to behold the world’s most treasured trove of art—I knew very little about art history. When you don’t understand the significance of what’s in front of you, it’s easy to breeze right by it.

Fast forward to my junior year of college. I went back to Paris for a semester abroad—this time enrolled in art and architecture courses taught by trained professors who served as my tour guides. I’ll never forget standing before many of the same paintings I had breezed right by, finally understanding the magnitude of their contribution to artistic innovation.

In a similar way, it takes enormous effort to bridge the historical, literary, and linguistic gaps between our world and the ancient world. Bridging these gaps often means the difference between understanding the Bible and walking away disappointed and unchanged. With this in mind, we should see commentaries, Bible studies, and other lexical aids for what they are—a gift to the Church from the God who has equipped the minds of the scholars and teachers who write them. These men and women have devoted their lives to the painstaking process of exegesis, and we have an invaluable opportunity to learn from their example, as they take us by the hand and help us to behold him.

Good Commentaries Model Good Hermeneutics

But good commentaries do more than just help the reader unpack original meaning; they also model good hermeneutics in the process. As a high school English student, I did my best to master the rudimentary form of the five-paragraph essay, but I never really understood the point of those essays until I began to read literary criticism for my undergraduate English courses. As I read the analysis of brilliant scholars, a light bulb went off. Their scholarship became an example for me to follow as I attempted to parse the text myself.

The same is true with Bible study. People learn by example—whether it’s the example of a gifted teacher or a New Testament scholar. Those who routinely read good biblical scholarship don’t just grow in their understanding of the Bible; they grow in their understanding of how to interpret the Bible.

Good Commentaries Promote the Priesthood of All Believers

When leaders discourage women from using commentaries and other Bible study aids, it often has the opposite effect of the one intended. They aim for women to become more biblically literate and less dependent on secondary sources, but the reverse often ends up happening. In a vacuum of study tools, women lose confidence in their own ability to understand the Bible and become more dependent on the voices of a few select teachers who dazzle them with the biblical gems they have often mined from—you guessed it—commentaries.

If we truly believe in the priesthood of all believers, then we will not discourage women from accessing all the tools necessary to interpret the Bible for themselves. Instead, we will educate women on how to use these tools effectively.

Good Commentaries Lead Readers to Worship

Some leaders seem to fear that too much exposure to biblical scholarship will churn out wooden Bible students with no passion for God’s Word and no heart for obedience. But I have found the exact opposite to be true.

Over the years, I’ve often heard people lament the fact that they don’t enjoy reading the Bible, and I’ve noticed a pattern. Less effort spent doing the work of interpretation equals less enjoyment of the Scriptures. In contrast, more often than not, deep biblical engagement leads to worship, worship leads to obedience, and obedience leads to joy.

We must stop pitting head knowledge and heart wonder against each other. The God we worship created us to love him with all our hearts and with all our minds (Mark 12:30). Of course, there are myriad ways to love God with the mind, but when it comes to Bible study, this will often mean doing the hard work of exegesis. Good exegesis requires good instruction, and for believers who don’t have the luxury of going to seminary, good commentaries can be a valuable source of instruction.

When we discourage the use of commentaries in Bible study, we run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Bible teachers are right to encourage women to hold fast to Scripture as the only source of infallible truth. Sola Scriptura, full stop. Bible teachers are right to encourage women to sit down regularly with nothing but their Bibles open and their ears attuned to God’s voice. After all, there is no greater teacher of the Word than the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). And Bible teachers are also right to encourage women to comprehend the text first and to consult scholarship second.

But, in our effort to ditch the dirt, we must refuse to dispense with what is good and right and valuable. There comes a time and a place for women doing the hard work of exegesis—a time when true comprehension of the biblical text may, in fact, require exegesis.

For such a time as this, commentaries aren’t bathwater.