Who are the best exegetes?

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Mathetes

Puritan Board Freshman
Both old and new. Currently I can only think of D.A. Carson and Douglas Moo. Who're some others you can think of? Would someone like Cranfield count?
 
Yes, I can think of only two. I haven't read thousands of commentaries or gone through a lot of the standard works (yet) and so I ask with the intention to learn more.

As far as the best, I suppose that this would mean the ones who have an established reputation for thorough, quality exegesis.
 
John Gill and Matthew Henry come to mind. But there are soooooooooo many more.
 
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I would rank the names listed below among the very best of exegetes.

Matthew Poole
Matthew Henry
John Calvin
Thomas Manton
John Owen
James Durham
David Dickson
Henry Ainsworth

More could be said. I recommend reading Charles Spurgeon's Commenting and Commentaries, starting with his Chat About Commentaries to get a good overview of the best exegetes through the 19th century. His own comments on the Psalms are worthy of notice too.
 
Cool, thanks. I'll be sure to look them up. Also, Leon Morris would count, would he not?
 
Yes, Leon Morris and a few more to keep you busy for the next 10 yrs; (NT) FF Bruce, Longnecker, and (OT) Meredith Kline.
 
To be a REAL theologian, you have to be known by your initials!

D.A. Carson, J.I. Packer, A.W. Pink, R.C. Sproul, J. Ligon Duncan, C.H. Spurgeon. C.S. Lewis...seems like all the cool kids are doing it!
 
I would echo John Murray's sentiments that Geerhardus Vos was one of the "most incisive exegetes in the English speaking world in the twentieth century".

I saw MG Kline listed above. Although he is stimulating, I personally would not recommend him due to the fact he is quite unconfessional at numerous points. His latest book, God, Heaven and Har Mageddon shows how far he has deviated from the Reformed tradition.
 
I would echo John Murray's sentiments that Geerhardus Vos was one of the "most incisive exegetes in the English speaking world in the twentieth century".

We must be standing in the same cave, because I echo those sentiments as well. George Smeaton or Patrick Farbairn may well take the honours for the 19th century.
 
To be a REAL theologian, you have to be known by your initials!

D.A. Carson, J.I. Packer, A.W. Pink, R.C. Sproul, J. Ligon Duncan, C.H. Spurgeon. C.S. Lewis...seems like all the cool kids are doing it!

:lol:

How's about P.G. Wodehouse? OOOPS.... Wrong type of books.... Sorry...;)
 
Iain Duguid's stuff is pure gold, as is John Currid. Bruce Waltke is outstanding. Richard Pratt is very good. Gotta love Charles Hodge, J.A. Alexander, E.J. Young, Greg Beale, Karen Jobes, P.T. O'Brien, David Garland, Frederic Godet, Keil/Delitzsch, John Eadie, Craig Blomberg, R.T. France, and Daniel Block.
 
Alive today ? Tough call.

MacArthur, Carson, Begg, Lig Duncan & VanGemeren immediately come to mind.

Pound for pound, MacArthur's still at the top of my list and can hang with almost anyone you put next to him. There's only a few issues I'd disagree with him on....and even those, I do so very carefully, knowing that the man has been more immersed in the scriptures for a longer period of time than I've been alive.

He's written more stuff of substance than me, too (and I write A LOT).
 
Would someone like Cranfield count?

Yes, Cranfield counts. His 2-volume commentary on Romans is justifiably considered a classic (and not just because it's expensive). Sometimes he might sound a little Barthian in places (though not very many), but someone well-grounded in Reformed theology will have no trouble with that.

His 1959 commentary on the Greek text of Mark is still in print, too.

Incidentally, Cranfield will be 92 in September.
 
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