Gift books

[raydixon9]

My friends wife emailed me(exchanges cc'd to my wife) a 10 Volume NT Dictionary that is "designed for the intermediate to advanced Greek Scholar" wanting to know if I thought it would be a good birthday gift for him. He is a lay person who does not read or write Greek. I then recommended (some with PB's help) a few different commentaries, complete works, Rev. Keister's commentary page, and lastly one of my favorites, Accordance Bible Software.

I'm curious to know what you would have recommended. Keep in mind this would be a gift, so although it is certainly more economical to go read Henry's or Calvin's commentaries online for free, a six volume Henry set is a much better gift.

What sayeth the Puritan Board?

 

[Logan]

I am under the impression that since the gift was for the "intermediate to advanced Greek scholar" that he's more interested in detailed study. Calvin is excellent for that, Henry not so much (I like Henry's commentary as a devotional but not when I'm looking at specific passages generally). Also excellent is Poole's commentary, which would be cheaper than Calvin's. It's succinct and usually hits what I'm looking for. For Greek treatments I know some people like Hendriksen and Kistemaker (I have their NT commentaries but rarely look at them since the older ones seem better to me).

Any of these could be had for the same price as the NT Dictionary you linked to (if you're willing to get used).

There's also some great software packages out there that can be had for cheap or free and this is my personal preference when looking into Greek or Hebrew, having had no formal training myself. But it's quite possible that he's not a computer person or prefers books.

 

[raydixon9]

Thanks for responding

Just to clarify my post a bit, I don't think my friend is interested in studying Greek or Hebrew which is why I didn't think a 10 volume Greek dictionary set would a better gift than a set of commentaries or complete works. Also, the question pertains to gifts that one could give(such as spouse to spouse for a birthday) so while I recognize that an email wishing someone happy birthday with a link to ccel.org would save a lot of money some people would rather give a tangible set of books.

Thanks for your comments