Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (63 vols.)

Overview

This 19th century commentary has served as a standard reference for more than a century. The original work was edited by Peter Lange in Germany (1864-1880). Phillip Schaff supervised the English translation and contributed substantially to the American edition, which runs to some 14,000+ pages. Many early reviewers regarded Schaff’s edition with his additional material as superior to the original.

Newly added to the Logos Bible Software edition – but left out of more recent reprints – is the original fifteenth volume covering the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. Difficult and expensive to acquire on its own, this volume rounds out Lange’s magnum opus and adds extra value to the set for all commentary completists. Read the interesting story of how we discovered Lange's Long Lost Volume!

This commentary series appears on recommended book lists to this day (e.g., the Master's Seminary 850 Books for Biblical Expositors) but is out of print and quite difficult to find as a complete set. The Logos edition will offer all the benefits of searching, copy-and-pasting, linked Bible references, and synchronous scrolling with whatever Bible you may own.

Additional Details

Complete Title: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical, with special references to Ministers and Students. By John Peter Lange, D.D., in connection with a number of eminent European Divines. Translated from the German, and edited with additions, original and selected, by Philip Schaff, D.D., in connection with American scholars of various Evangelical Denominations.

The commentary's subtitle—"Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical"—aptly describes the author's three-pronged approach to the biblical text. Each biblical book receives a lengthy introduction, often between 30-50 pages in length with some books receiving much more (the introduction to Revelation is upward of 80 pages). The book's primary divisions are then laid out, and for each section the author provides the KJV text (with brief textual notes), exegetical and critical comments, doctrinal and ethical interpretation, followed by homiletical and practical suggestions for application. Authors frequently quote from the writings of other commentators (e.g., Myer, Heubner, Alford, Starke, Quesnel), especially in the homiletical comments section.

Lange's Commentary includes a number of unique features that add a great deal of value beyond the text-level commentary. Examples of this are theological and homiletical introductions to the Old Testament (157 pages) and New Testament (37 pages), general introductions for groups of biblical books (e.g., Three Middle Books of the Law, Poetical Books of the Old Testament, Pastoral Letters), and metrical/rhythmical versions of Job and Ecclesiastes.