William Barclay’s New Daily Study Bible is not actually a study Bible; it’s a seventeen-volume New Testament commentary. Neither am I sure in what sense it is “daily,” except perhaps that you could easily read each passage segment along with the associated commentary in a single day. It is indisputably new in that it is a thorough revision of Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, yet there is also a sense in which it is old: Barclay himself having written the original in the latter half of the twentieth-century. Yet in spite of its odd title, this commentary series has been immensely popular. In fact, it has been one of the commentaries most requested by Accordance users.
Barclay’s popularity stems from his ability “to convey the results of scholarship to the ordinary reader.” His commentary manages to convey insights into the text, explained from the perspective of its historical background, illustrated with literary quotes and interesting anecdotes, and concisely summarized into a ready application. It’s really quite remarkable how seamlessly he moves between exegesis, illustration, and application. Preachers will find Barclay’s insights will help them distill the text into a message that connects, and all readers will appreciate Barclay’s clarity and readability. There aren’t many commentaries you can just sit down and read for enjoyment, but The New Daily Study Bible is one of them.
The New Daily Study Bible won’t replace more technical commentaries which dig into the details of any given passage, but it’s a great companion to those commentaries in that it focuses your attention on that passage’s big ideas.
To see it in action, be sure to check out the following video tour.