If you consider the Bible important, have you ever used a serious scholarly Bible commentary?

Question

If not, they why not? If the Bible is important to you, why would you not avail yourself of all the many published resources available to provide information about meaning of words in original languages, debates over different interpretations, historical background, and so on, without which the text will either remain hard to understand or be misinterpreted as each of us reads into it our own assumptions about the meaning of words and our own cultural and historical presuppositions?

Please note that I am not referring to devotional commentaries but academic ones like those in the Anchor Bible or Word Biblical Commentary series.

To respond to one answer, a commentary does NOT simply substitute someone else's interpretation for one's own, unless you are talking about a superficial devotional-type commentary. A scholarly commentary will provide you with information written by someone who knows the relevant languages, historical context, other literature from the time that the text alludes to, and so on. Your answer is like saying "I wouldn't go to a doctor because that would just substitute someone else's diagnosis for my own".

Another response: I did not ask about rabbinic commentaries from the past. I asked about commentaries written i nthe present day, whether by qualified authors within one's own religious tradition or by any other scholars in the relevant discipline. Rashi is obviously not a modern academic commentator. That isn't a criticism of him - just of your answer's relevance to my question!

Answer 1

Yes I have, multiple times. Some on my own, but also some because I went to a private high school that was somewhat religiously affiliated, and we had to write a couple essays that demanded the use of a lot of scholarly essays, journal articles, and books. I found them fun, but most of my classmates found it a snore! A lot of them weren't Christians though, so I am guessing that they weren't interested in whether a Samaritan is actually good or not lol (just to use a very simplified example),

Answer 2

A commentary just substitutes someone else's personal interpretations of the Bible for your own, neither of which carries any authority or any guarantee of truth.

Answer 3

--THERE ARE comm1entaries galore, scholarly and otherwise!
--THE MAJOR problem with the commentaries and scholars is that many off them are prejudiced by their own beliefs and that plays the part of the perennial "monkey wrench" thrown in the works!"
--FOR INSTANCE the Scribes in Jesus day had a serious prejudice about Jesus not being the Messiah!
--ONE EXAMPLE:
*** w99 3/15 p. 28 Rashi—An Influential Bible Commentator ***
***Influenced by His Times
Rashi was very much a man of his times. One author summed it up this way: “[Rashi’s] great contribution to Jewish life was his reinterpretation of all relevant passages into the vernacular of the day, in such clear, lucid language, with such warmth and humanity, with such rare skill and scholarship, that his commentaries became revered as scripture and loved as literature. Rashi wrote Hebrew as though it were French, with wit and elegance. Whenever he lacked the precise Hebrew word, he used a French word instead, spelling it with Hebrew letters.” These transliterated French terms—Rashi used over 3,500 of them—have become a valuable source for students of Old French philology and pronunciation.
--Although Rashi’s life began in an atmosphere of relative tranquillity, his later years witnessed increasing tension between Jews and professed Christians. In 1096 the First Crusade brought devastation to the Jewish communities of the Rhineland, where Rashi had studied. Thousands of Jews were massacred. It seems that news of these massacres had an impact on Rashi’s health (which steadily deteriorated until his death in 1105). From that point on, there was a marked change in his Scripture commentaries. One outstanding example is Isaiah chapter 53, which speaks of Jehovah’s suffering servant. Earlier, Rashi applied these texts to the Messiah, as does the Talmud. But it appears that after the Crusades, he thought that these verses had an application to the Jewish people, who had faced unjust suffering. This proved to be a turning point in Jewish interpretation of these texts. Thus, Christendom’s unchristian behavior was turning many, including Jews, away from the truth about Jesus.—Matthew 7:16-20; 2 Peter 2:1, 2.
***How Did He Influence Bible Translation?
--Rashi’s influence was soon felt beyond Judaism. The French Franciscan Bible commentator Nicholas of Lyra (1270-1349) referred so frequently to the views of “Rabbi Solomon [Rashi]” that he was nicknamed “the Ape of Solomon.” In turn, many commentators and translators were influenced by Lyra, including the forerunners of the translators of the English King James Version and reformer Martin Luther, who revolutionized Bible translation in Germany. Luther leaned so heavily on Lyra that a popular rhyme went: “Had Lyra not played the lyre, Luther would not have danced.”
--Rashi was deeply influenced by rabbinic thought that is out of harmony with Christian truth. Yet, with his deep insight into Biblical Hebrew terms, syntax, and grammar and his constant effort to discern the plain and literal meaning of the text, Rashi provides a meaningful source of comparison for Bible researchers and translators."
***THUS CARE has to be exercised as to which commentaries one might trust to a limited degree!
**MANY VIOLATE Peters admonition
(2 Peter 1:20-21) “20 For YOU know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. 21 For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”

Answer 4

I learned Greek so that I wouldn't have to depend on other people's translations. I can see the word for myself and interpret it on my own.

Answer 5

I am not concerned about analyzing the bible for academic purposes, but more for applying the bits of wisdom into my everyday life.

Answer 6

Yes. Why do you ask?