The first edition of our NT commentary was released in 2010. It was hardback, 2 volumes, and 1334 pages. It took us twenty years to complete it.

We received lots of corrections over the years, mainly for typos. Shawn loaded in all the changes last summer and fall. He also completely re-typeset it.

Here are some comparisons:

You may wonder why the price is slightly more. There are several reasons:

1. Instead of printing 5,000 at once as we did back in 2010 (which dropped the price per book significantly), we are now printing on demand. Printing on demand is more expensive per book, but we avoid having to spend lots of money all at once (and having to get a second storage space too). Now we can print a few hundred at a time.
2. Printing on demand allows our commentary to be available at the major online bookstore, Amazon.com. If we printed this as we did in 2010, it would not be available on Amazon. We reach more people by printing with Amazon. In fact, as I understand it, anything we print with Amazon is not only available in the U.S., but it is also available in whatever countries overseas that Amazon prints locally.
3. Printing costs, especially for paper, have gone up a lot in ten years.
4. Bookstores get the commentary for $21 (40% off our regular price—so that they can make a profit).
5. Churches or individuals who order ten or more at a time (e.g., for a Bible study or Sunday school class) also get it for $21 each.
6. Shawn now sets the prices. He did not come to GES until 2012. Before I set the prices. Shawn has convinced me that it is a good idea if we plan to make something on each book we sell. We do not get much revenue from sales. Most of our revenue is from gifts. But sales revenue does help. Everyone who buys a book from us is helping our bottom line to a degree.

Here are some other changes:

• Shawn changed the font and font size.
• Al Valdes made lots of excellent changes to his commentaries on Luke and Acts.
• We replaced the Romans commentary by René López with a condensed version of the Romans commentary by Zane Hodges. René’s commentary is great. But since we now own Zane’s Romans commentary, we were free to make the change. Our board felt the change would be something most readers would appreciate. Ken Yates and I did the condensing.

If you own the first edition, you may wonder if it is worth buying the second edition as well. I think so. For one thing, eliminating all the typos and errors is important. The changes to Luke and Acts are very helpful. Zane’s commentary on Romans is new. The one-volume work is a bit handier to carry. And it is helpful to have the latest version of an important work. (For example, I have all three editions of John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus. On occasion I need to compare his wording in all three editions.)

Our NT commentary was out of print for nearly all of 2019. I am so glad it is back in print. Our original aim was a one-volume commentary on the NT. We now have that. We hope that you enjoy it. It has been a labor of love.