What’s your thoughts on the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary set in 12 vols? What about R. Alan Culpepper in particular (Luke) in that series? I’ve always heard great praise for I. Howard Marshall’s Lucan scholarship. Surprised you didn’t have him in your top picks.

Bock is good. So is Luke Timothy Johnson.

Green is my go to Commentary!

Bock and Green are the two for me. Two other works, though not strictly commentaries have been very helpful to me. 1) Green’s “The Theology of the Gospel of Luke” and 2) “The Way According to Luke” by Paul Borgman which does a great job of helping to see the story of Luke, its narrative structure and themes.

Scot, I like all of those you mentioned (Bock being my favorite), plus Bovon.

I appreciated the ones you listed, but would include Luke Timothy Johnson in Sacra Pagina.
I also think its wise to consider commentators who have written both a Luke and Acts commentary (such as LTJ or Bock). I think this helps with the continuity and the overall larger picture to Luke’s two volume work.

This is not a commentary, but I learned a lot about NT background and the purpose of Luke from Bruce Longenecker’s Lost Letters of Pergamum, which purports to be letters between Luke and a pagan aristocrat who is working his way through the gospel. A good one to recommend to people who’d never dream of wading through an 800-page commentary – but I think serious preachers could pick up a lot from this too.

Thanks for the announcement about Dunn’s book. I cancelled my order and moved on because it was delayed so long!
Dunn’s work in Christianity in the Making (and in just about everything else) is fantastic.

“The Social World of Luke/Acts” edited by Jerome Neyrey is a good work from a social science perspective. I haven’t encountered many NT exegetes that are particularly excited about this approach since it’s a “soft science,” but it has helped me to enter into the the 1st century conceptual and social world tremendously.

I’m a fan of Fred Craddock’s commentary on Luke in the Interpretation Series. I like Craddock in general and I like Interpretations bent toward preaching application.

1. Green is phenomenal–especially on the literary side. His introduction is a great way to enter into study of Luke-Acts.
2. Bovon’s Luke commentary in the Hermeneia series is a goldmine of insight. I highly recommend it for more technical exegesis. Also, his yellow book “Luke the Theologian” has an overview of almost everything that has been written on Luke in the last 50 years.

I definitely start with Green and then straight to Fitzmyer afterwards. To be honest I find Nolland sometimes a little frustrating, as he often writes about the text, and doesn’t engage the exegetical questions as much as I thought he would. To be honest, I.H. Marshall’s offering is still a great offering with many insights.

I’m with Drew (or maybe more of an advocate, even)
No work on Luke is complete without looking at Bovon’s work. He’s a walking encyclopedia when it comes to Luke and his insight is as beautiful as it is keen.

Don’t overlook E.Earle Ellis’ Luke Commentary (New Century Bible Commentary. Older, and pithy, so he leaves lots out. But there’s a lot of wisdom there (like Kidner commentaries) not just knowledge. And lots of insights for the preacher.

While adding to the great list, my first is a bit on the technical (but so is Bovon’s), and the second is like dessert !
Commentary on Luke (New International Greek Testament Commentary) by Marshall and Gasque
Luke (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) by Just

I loved Ken Bailey’s “Poet & Peasant”. (no relation. seriously)
http://books.google.ca/books?id=mmz1Wm3XlvcC

I’ll second Tim’s note about Ellis’ commentary in #14 — it is very tightly written and manages, in less than 300 pages, to be wonderfully suggestive. Interesting that Marshall’s NIGTC effort has not been mentioned. When I was preaching through Luke several years ago, I found it singularly disappointing — easily the least helpful of volumes in this series that I have used.

Oops! I just noticed that Alejandro (#15) mentioned Marshall’s work!

I’m behind in reading your blog this week but wanted to comment anyway. Have used both Green and Bock on Luke. I am not familiar with Nolland at all and look forward to becoming acquainted with his work.