Resource Review · Bible Commentary Series
NICOT / NICNT
The Eerdmans flagship that most pastors build a study library around — exegesis serious enough for the study, written on the English text so you never need a lexicon open to follow it.
- Editor rating
- 4.8 / 5
- Starting price
- ~$40 per volume
- Free tier
- No
- Platforms
- Print · Logos · Kindle
- Developer
- Eerdmans
- Launched
- 1951
The verdict
The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament is the series most working pastors reach for first. It hits the rare sweet spot — careful enough that the original languages are doing real work in the footnotes, readable enough that you can follow the argument with only your English Bible open. Volume quality varies, as it must across seventy years and dozens of authors, but the best NICOT/NICNT volumes are the standard recommendation in their book and have been for decades.
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NICOT / NICNT has quietly become the default exegetical series for a generation of pastors and seminary students. Ask a preacher which commentaries sit on the shelf within arm's reach of the desk, and the New International Commentary volumes — Fee on 1 Corinthians, Bruce on Acts, Hamilton on Genesis, Stott's contemporaries on the Gospels — show up on almost every list. Eerdmans launched the New Testament side in 1951 under Ned Stonehouse, added the Old Testament side under R.K. Harrison, and has been replacing and expanding volumes ever since. The result is a living series, not a finished one: some volumes are decades old, some were published last year, and the editors keep commissioning fresh treatments as scholarship moves.
It is not a study Bible. It is not a one-volume handbook you read cover to cover. It does not try to be a technical Greek or Hebrew commentary that you cannot use without a lexicon. What NICOT/NICNT does — better than almost any competitor at its level — is comment on the English text of Scripture in a way that takes the original languages seriously without making them the price of admission. The Hebrew and Greek live in the footnotes and the transliterations, doing the heavy lifting underneath, while the main argument stays in prose a busy pastor can read on a Tuesday afternoon and preach from on Sunday.
The mid-to-upper-level exegetical category is crowded — the Pillar New Testament Commentary, the Baker Exegetical series, the Word Biblical Commentary, the NIV Application Commentary and others all chase the same reader. NICOT/NICNT holds its lead by being the broadest of the genuinely serious series (it covers the whole Bible, not just the New Testament), by carrying a roster of authors whose names are themselves recommendations, and by sitting at exactly the level most pastors actually work: theologically careful, exegetically grounded, and written to be used rather than admired. It is the series people mean when they say they want "real commentaries, not devotional ones, that I can still read."
✓ The good
- Exegesis on the English text — the argument runs in readable prose while Hebrew and Greek work in the footnotes, so you get serious scholarship without needing the languages to follow it
- Whole-Bible coverage — unlike most series at this level, NICOT and NICNT together cover the entire Old and New Testament, so you can standardize one series across your library
- A roster of authors that are themselves recommendations — Gordon Fee, F.F. Bruce, Joel Green, Victor Hamilton, Robert Hubbard and others wrote volumes that became the standard reference in their book
- Theologically careful and broadly evangelical — the series reads the text closely and stays attentive to its theology, which is why it crosses easily from the academy into the local church
- Built for working pastors and students — long enough to be thorough, structured for sermon and paper preparation, with introductions that orient you fast
- Strong digital integration — the whole series is in Logos and most volumes are on Kindle, so references hyperlink and the text is searchable across your library
- Durable, well-made print volumes — hardcovers that survive years of shelf use and lie open on a desk
✗ Watch out
- Uneven across volumes — a seventy-year-old series with dozens of authors inevitably has standout volumes and weaker ones; you buy by volume, not by faith in the spine
- Some volumes are dated — the older entries predate decades of scholarship and are slowly being replaced, so it pays to check the publication date before buying
- Per-volume cost adds up — at roughly $40–60 each, building out even one Testament runs into real money, and the full series is a major investment
- Not a technical Greek/Hebrew commentary — readers who want exhaustive engagement with the original-language text and textual criticism will find the heaviest work pushed to the footnotes
- Length can be a lot for quick reference — these are full exegetical treatments, not handbooks, so a pastor needing a fast answer may find them slower to consult than a one-volume commentary
Best for
- Pastors building a serious sermon-preparation library
- Seminary students who need exegesis they can actually read
- Bible teachers wanting one trustworthy series across the whole canon
- Readers who want the original languages working without having to know them
Avoid if
- You want a one-volume commentary you can read cover to cover
- You need exhaustive technical engagement with the Greek or Hebrew text
- You want a single flat price rather than per-volume buying
- You prefer a devotional or application-first commentary over close exegesis
What NICOT / NICNT is
NICOT/NICNT is a multi-volume exegetical commentary series — a product line, not a single book — that comments verse by verse and section by section on every book of the Old and New Testament. Each volume is written by a single specialist, runs from roughly 200 to over 1,000 pages depending on the book, and opens with an introduction covering authorship, date, setting, structure, and theology before working through the text. The defining design choice is that the running commentary engages the English text directly, with the original-language detail and textual notes carried in footnotes and transliteration so that a reader without Hebrew or Greek can still follow the full argument.
Eerdmans began the New Testament series (NICNT) in 1951 under editor Ned B. Stonehouse, with F.F. Bruce later taking the editorial chair, and launched the Old Testament series (NICOT) under R.K. Harrison; Robert Hubbard and Bill T. Arnold are among those who have edited it since. Rather than freezing the series once complete, the publisher commissions replacement volumes as scholarship advances, so the set is a mix of recent and older entries. Across both Testaments it is one of the most widely owned serious commentary series among English-speaking pastors and students.
Why pastors reach for NICOT/NICNT first
The single biggest practical difference between NICOT/NICNT and the more technical series is where the original languages live. In a Greek-text commentary, the Greek is the main road and you cannot drive it without the language. In NICOT/NICNT, the Hebrew and Greek run underneath — in footnotes, in transliterated parentheses, in the textual notes — while the surface argument stays in English prose. A pastor who took two years of Greek in seminary and has let it rust can still read a NICNT volume from front to back and get the full force of the exegesis. A scholar who reads Greek fluently can drop into the footnotes and find the technical work is genuinely there. The same volume serves both, which is exactly why it crosses so easily from the lecture hall to the study.
The second difference is breadth at a usable level. Most series this careful cover only the New Testament; NICOT/NICNT covers the whole Bible, which means a teacher can standardize on one series from Genesis to Revelation and know roughly what kind of help each volume will give. The volumes are long enough to be thorough and structured for the work pastors actually do — they introduce the book quickly, mark the argument clearly, and keep the theology in view. For people whose job is to understand a passage well enough to teach it on a deadline, this is the format that respects how they actually work.
Exegesis on the English text: the design that defines the series
Every NICOT/NICNT volume follows the same basic shape — a substantial introduction (authorship, date, setting, structure, theology, and a survey of interpretive questions), then a section-by-section, verse-by-verse commentary on the author's own translation of the passage. The running exposition is written on the English text. Where the Hebrew or Greek matters — a disputed word, a textual variant, a grammatical ambiguity that changes the meaning — the detail appears in a footnote or a bracketed transliteration rather than interrupting the argument. The effect is that you read a continuous, intelligible explanation of the passage, and the language work is available the moment you want to descend into it.
This is the choice that has kept the series at the center of pastoral libraries for seventy years. A one-volume handbook is too thin to preach from; a pure Greek-text commentary is too slow for a reader whose languages have faded. NICOT/NICNT sits precisely between them. The best volumes — Fee on 1 Corinthians is the perennial example — are simultaneously the standard academic reference on the book and a genuinely readable companion for a working preacher. Newer series have tried to occupy the same ground; few cover as much of the Bible at the same consistent level.
The author roster: why the names matter as much as the format
Because each volume is written by a single specialist, NICOT/NICNT is really a collection of individual reputations as much as a uniform series. Several volumes are widely regarded as the standard treatment of their book: Gordon Fee on 1 Corinthians, F.F. Bruce on Acts and on several of the epistles, Victor Hamilton on Genesis, Robert Hubbard on Ruth, Joel Green on Luke, Douglas Moo and others on the New Testament letters. When a name like that is attached, the volume is frequently the first commentary a pastor buys on that book and the one a syllabus assigns. The series editors have generally succeeded in commissioning authors whose work outlives the edition.
The flip side is that the series is only as strong as each author, and across dozens of volumes and seven decades the quality is uneven by definition. A few entries are showing their age and are slated for or already have replacement volumes; a few are simply less essential than the standouts. This is normal for any long-running series and it is the practical reason you buy NICOT/NICNT by the volume, not by the spine — you check who wrote the volume on your book and when, and you let the strongest entries earn their place on the shelf one at a time.
Print, Logos, and Kindle: how the series shows up across formats
NICOT/NICNT exists in three main forms, and the right one depends on how you study. The print hardcovers are the traditional choice — well made, designed to lie open on a desk next to your Bible, and the format many pastors still prefer for sustained reading and sermon work. Individual volumes run roughly $40–60 new; the complete NT and OT sets are sold at a discount versus buying each separately, and used copies of older or replaced volumes are widely available for a fraction of the price.
The digital editions change what the series can do. In Logos Bible Software the whole series is searchable across your library, scripture references hyperlink to your Bibles and other resources, and a passage lookup can surface every NICOT/NICNT comment on that verse at once — which is genuinely useful when you are working a text under time pressure. Kindle editions carry most volumes for portable reading, though the footnote-heavy layout that makes the series work in print is less elegant on a small screen. For a reader who already lives in Logos, the digital collection is the most powerful way to own the series; for a reader who studies with paper and pen, the hardcovers remain the better experience.
Pricing
Single volume (print)
~$40–60
Individual hardcover volumes, priced by length and recency. The way most readers actually build the series — buy the standout volume for the book you are studying rather than the whole set at once.
NICNT set (New Testament)
~$700–900
The complete New Testament series in print, usually discounted versus buying every volume separately. The natural target for a preacher who works mostly in the New Testament.
NICOT set (Old Testament)
~$900–1,200
The Old Testament series in print. Larger and pricier than the NT side because the volumes run longer; still cheaper as a set than volume by volume.
Logos digital collection
~$1,000+ full series
The entire series inside Logos Bible Software, with references hyperlinked and the text searchable across your library. Frequently discounted in Logos sales and base-package upgrades; individual volumes are also sold digitally.
Used / out-of-print volumes
~$10–30
Older or replaced volumes turn up used for a fraction of new-print prices. A good way to fill in classic entries (Bruce, Morris, older Hamilton) cheaply if you do not mind a dated edition.
There is no single price for NICOT/NICNT because it is a series, and the way almost everyone actually buys it is one volume at a time. A single hardcover runs roughly $40–60 depending on length and recency, and the smart move is to buy the standout volume for whatever book you are studying or preaching next rather than committing to a set up front. Over a few years of targeted buying, most pastors assemble the volumes that matter to their preaching without ever purchasing the whole series.
If you do want a set, the New Testament collection (NICNT) typically runs in the high hundreds and the Old Testament collection (NICOT) higher still, since the OT volumes are longer; both are discounted versus buying every volume separately. The sets make sense for a teacher who works across the whole canon and wants the consistency of one series, or for a church library building a permanent reference shelf.
The Logos digital collection is the best value for anyone already in that ecosystem — frequently discounted in seasonal sales and base-package upgrades, fully searchable, and hyperlinked to the rest of your library. Watch the Logos sale cycle and the price per volume often drops well below print. Individual volumes are sold digitally too, so you can mix and match.
For classic entries that have been superseded by newer editions, the used market is the bargain. Older Bruce, Morris, and Hamilton volumes turn up for $10–30, which is a cheap way to own a respected treatment if you do not mind that the scholarship is a generation old. The newest replacement volumes hold their price; the volumes they replaced get affordable fast.
Where NICOT / NICNT falls behind
Uneven across volumes. This is the unavoidable cost of a seventy-year, multi-author series: the best NICOT/NICNT volumes are the standard reference in their book, and a handful of others are merely adequate or dated. There is no way around buying selectively — check the author and the publication year for your specific book rather than trusting the series name to guarantee a great volume.
Not the deepest on the original languages. By design, the heaviest Greek and Hebrew work sits in the footnotes so the main text stays readable. A reader who wants the original-language text itself to be the spine of the commentary — exhaustive parsing, full textual-critical apparatus, syntax discussed at length in the body — will outgrow what NICOT/NICNT puts on the surface and want a technical Greek-text series instead.
Cost compounds. At $40–60 a volume, the series rewards patience and punishes the impulse to "complete the set." Building out even one Testament is a multi-hundred-dollar commitment, and the full series is a major investment. Most readers are better served buying the strongest volumes over time than chasing completeness.
Length over speed. These are full exegetical commentaries, not quick-reference handbooks. When you have a fast question on a single verse, a one-volume commentary or a study Bible will get you an answer faster; NICOT/NICNT pays off when you are sitting with a passage long enough to work through the argument.
Slow to update. Because volumes are replaced one at a time as authors are commissioned and finish, the series always contains a mix of recent and aging entries. A book you care about may currently be served only by an older volume while a replacement is years away — worth knowing before you assume the latest scholarship is covered.
NICOT/NICNT vs. BECNT vs. Pillar vs. Word Biblical Commentary
Different strengths, same shelf. NICOT/NICNT is the broad pastoral-academic workhorse — whole-Bible coverage, exegesis on the English text with the languages in the footnotes, and a roster of standard-reference volumes. It is the series most pastors build around because it sits at the level they actually work and spans the entire canon. The Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (BECNT) is more technical and New Testament-only: it engages the Greek text more directly in the body while staying usable, and is the step up for a reader who wants the Greek doing visible work. The Pillar New Testament Commentary is the more readable, message-focused option — mid-level, pastor-friendly, lighter on technical detail and stronger on following the argument of the text.
Word Biblical Commentary is the most technical and most uneven of the group. Its volumes break each passage into translation, detailed notes, form/structure/setting, comment, and explanation, with heavy original-language and text-critical work, and it draws authors from across the scholarly spectrum — so the theological stance varies more volume to volume than in the evangelically anchored NICOT/NICNT. WBC is the reference for someone who wants the technical apparatus laid out; it is denser and slower for everyday sermon preparation.
For most pastors and students the practical answer is to make NICOT/NICNT the backbone of the library and add the standout volume from another series on books where it is stronger — BECNT or Pillar on particular New Testament books, WBC when you need the technical detail. Almost no one owns just one series; the strongest single commentary on a given book often comes from whichever series got the best author for it.
The bottom line
NICOT/NICNT is the series most working pastors and serious students should build a library around. It covers the whole Bible at a level that is exegetically real but still readable, its best volumes are the standard recommendation in their book, and its digital editions in Logos make it even more useful under time pressure. Buy it by the volume, check the author and date for your book, and let the standout entries earn their place over time. It will not give you exhaustive Greek-text analysis and it will not be cheap to complete — but as the backbone of a teaching library, very little in the category matches it.
Alternatives to NICOT / NICNT
BECNT
Baker's technical New Testament series — engages the Greek text more directly in the body while staying usable. The step up when you want the original language doing visible work.
Pillar New Testament Commentary
Eerdmans' readable, message-focused NT series under D.A. Carson — mid-level and pastor-friendly, lighter on technical detail than NICNT.
Word Biblical Commentary
A technical whole-Bible series with heavy original-language and text-critical work — denser and more uneven than NICOT/NICNT, the reference when you need the apparatus.
Logos Bible Software
The platform the whole series lives in digitally — searchable, hyperlinked, and the most powerful way to own NICOT/NICNT if you already study in Logos.
Frequently asked questions
- What does NICOT/NICNT stand for?
- NICOT is the New International Commentary on the Old Testament and NICNT is the New International Commentary on the New Testament, both published by Eerdmans. They are companion series, sold and used together, that together cover every book of the Bible. "International" reflects the broad roster of contributing scholars; it is unrelated to the NIV translation.
- Do I need to know Greek or Hebrew to use NICOT/NICNT?
- No. The series is specifically designed so the running commentary engages the English text, with the Hebrew and Greek detail carried in footnotes and transliteration. A reader without the original languages can follow the full argument; a reader who knows them can drop into the footnotes for the technical work. That dual usability is the series' signature feature.
- Should I buy the whole set or individual volumes?
- Most readers buy individual volumes. Because a multi-author series is uneven by nature, the smart approach is to buy the standout volume for whatever book you are studying — checking the author and publication date — rather than committing to a full set. Sets and the Logos collection make sense if you want whole-canon consistency or are building a permanent reference library.
- How does NICOT/NICNT compare to BECNT?
- NICOT/NICNT comments on the English text with the languages in the footnotes and covers the whole Bible; BECNT is New Testament-only and engages the Greek text more directly in the body while staying readable. NICOT/NICNT is the broader pastoral workhorse; BECNT is the step up for a reader who wants the Greek doing visible work. Many pastors own both and choose by which series got the best author for a given book.
- Is the series available in Logos and on Kindle?
- Yes. The entire series is in Logos Bible Software, where it is searchable across your library and references hyperlink to your other resources — the most powerful digital form if you already use Logos. Most volumes are also on Kindle for portable reading, though the footnote-heavy layout renders less elegantly on a small screen than in print.
- What tradition does NICOT/NICNT come from?
- It is a broadly evangelical Protestant series, theologically careful and exegetically focused, drawing authors from across English-speaking scholarship. It reads the text closely and stays attentive to its theology, which is why it is widely used in both academic and church settings. Readers from other traditions will still find the exegesis, introductions, and historical work valuable and may pair it with resources from their own tradition for theological framing.
- Which NICOT/NICNT volumes are considered the best?
- Several are regarded as standard references on their book — Gordon Fee on 1 Corinthians is the most-cited example, along with F.F. Bruce on Acts, Victor Hamilton on Genesis, Robert Hubbard on Ruth, and Joel Green on Luke, among others. Because the series is uneven across decades and authors, checking which volume covers your book — and how recent it is — matters more than the series name alone.