Q. How do I access biblical commentaries online?

The Fuller library offers volumes of various commentary sets in eBook format which are available through the library catalog, directly through our databases, or listed in our biblical commentary guide.

A.  In the Catalog, you can either search by title (e.g. The Gospel of Luke) or set (e.g. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture). General keyword/ subject searches are usually conducted by typing the word "bible," the biblical book title followed by the word "commentaries," (e.g. bible. Jonah commentaries, or bible. John commentaries). 

To find the electronic version of a commentary, search the library catalog, then:

1. Click the "eBook" and "Fuller Libraries" boxes in the left filter menu. The search result will now only display Fuller eBooks.
2. Click on the title of the book.
3. Click the "view eBook" link. (If the link does not work, or takes you to the wrong title, click "report a broken link" to the right of the eBook link under "availability".)
4. If you access off-campus, you will be prompted to provide your Fuller ID user name and password.
5. You can either read the book on screen by clicking on eBook Full Text, or read on your computer using Adobe Digital Editions (available for free download). Many eBook sites (e.g EBSCO) will require you to create a personal account and login in order to download an eBook.

• Many eBooks give a checkout limit of 1-7 days when downloading the entire eBook. We cannot extend this limit, but you are welcome to check the eBook out again as many times as you would like. A smaller number of eBooks may have concurrent download usage limits. You will be notified if an eBook has reached its limit, in which case you will not be able to view online or download until all copies are no longer in use. Please check back later for access.

B.  An alternate method is to search some of our eBook database collections directly. While the eBook commentaries should also be linked to the catalog, searching individual databases can narrow the scope of your search. We recommend searching ProQuest eBook Central and EBSCO eBook academic.

On the complete database page, you will also find the Hermeneia commentary database, Theology & Religion online (Anchor Bible & Eerdmans Reference), and Ministry Matters, containing the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary as well as the Abingdon New and Old Testament commentaries. Credo Reference and Oxford Reference are additional databases with scholarly companions and contextual reference works (bible dictionaries and encyclopedias) relevant to biblical studies. 

• Please note: Unfortunately, some commentary series are not readily available to purchase as eBooks, or are prohibitively expensive. If you are a non-Pasadena student, please see our Library Services for Online Users libguide for more information on access alternatives for Fuller owned print books.