One benefit from scriptural commentaries

President Marion G. Romney used a rancher's metaphor to explain that reading the scriptures themselves has more value than reading what others have written about them. He said, “I don’t know much about the gospel other than what I’ve learned from the standard works. (the scriptures) When I drink from a spring I like to get the water where it comes out of the ground, not down the stream after the cattle have waded in it. . . . I appreciate other people’s interpretation, but when it comes to the gospel we ought to be acquainted with what the Lord says”(Marion G. Romney, Ensign, Nov. 1982, 15 ).

This reminds me of someting President Packer has written: “It is important to know the gospel, for instance, according to the leaders of the Church. But an even better starting place is to know the gospel according to one's own self; that is, to take a subject such as the Word of Wisdom and really search our own minds as to how we feel about it. We should read what we can find in the scriptures about the subject and then write down our feelings. Then we may compare those feelings against what leaders of the Church have written or said.
“If we are sincere, we will find our conclusions being sustained by their conclusions. If we are searching inside ourselves in the right way, and we have included prayer as part of that search, we are tapping the same source of intelligence that the leaders of the Church are tuned-in upon.
“Then we may become independent witnesses of that principle from our own inquiry. Then our obedience is not blind obedience. Then our agency is protected and we are on the right course. Then we will do things because we know they are right and are the truth. We will know this from our own inquiry, not simply because someone else knows it. (Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p.119)

I have learned much from reading what others have written about the scriptures. One particularly sweet experience was when I carefully read the Gospels with Elder McConkie's Mortal Messiah series as a guide. I learned a lot and began to feel that I was having a little private scripture study session with Elder McConkie each morning as I read.

But President Romney is right. The scriptures have a quality of their own; a life of their own. They are different than anything else we can read. They are the bread of life and the waters of life. The power is in the word.

Having said that, one benefit for me of commentaries (or from being taught by someone else from the scriptures) is that sometimes it helps me see things in a new light. Sometimes when we read the scriptures it's like seeing a "re-run." We know the plot. We know what the characters are going to say. We may remember what the spirit taught us last time we read it and we may not see what the Spirit would teach us this time. Sometimes a commentary can point us in a new direction so the Spirit can teach us something brand new and fresh.