ANDOVER-HARVARD JUL 16 1913 HARVARD 1172,062 BLESSED LORD, WHO HAST CAUSED ALL HOLY SCRIPTURES TO BE WRITTEN for OUR LEARNING; GRANT THAT WE MAY IN SUCH WISE HEAR THEM, READ, MArk, learn, AND INWARDLY DIGEST THEM, THAT BY PATIENCE, AND COMFORT OF THY HOLY WORD, WE MAY EMBRACE AND EVER HOLD FAST THE BLESSED HOPE OF EVErlasting Life, WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN US IN OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. AMEN. PUT OFF THY SHOES FROM OFF THY FEET; FOR THE PLACE WHEREON THOU STANDEST IS HOLY GROUND. ADVERTISEMENT. It will suffice to state that this Commentary is not designed for controversial readers; nor yet for those who approach Scripture chiefly in a critical spirit. Without by any means consciously avoiding real difficulties, or (as the writer hopes) overlooking the results of sacred criticism, his aim has been to produce within moderate limits. a Commentary which (like the blessed Volume it professes to illustrate) should address itself to readers of all classes. The writer wished that what he wrote might prove useful to unlearned and learned, alike; old and young; wise and simple; the teacher and the taught. His Notes are designed for all who study the Gospel in a devotional frame of mind; who read it in order to live by it; and desire, while they read, to have their attention aroused, their heart informed, and their curiosity in some degree gratified. It is thought that, besides its use in the closet, such a Commentary as the present, especially if it be studied for a few minutes beforehand, might be made available for reading aloud in the family. It is hoped that in parochial schools also, and for Sunday-school teachers, the work may be found useful. And this shall suffice. May He by whose SPIRIT the Gospel was given, bless the work, and forgive all its faults! PREFACE.* THE question has been asked why the present is called a "Plain Commentary;" and what is precisely meant by "devotional reading." If the writer had been further called upon to explain why the quotations prefixed to his work express veneration for antiquity, he would have been furnished with all the heads requisite for those few introductory remarks which it has been his desire, all along, to offer on the completion of his work. Complaint is often made of the want of an English Commentary on Holy Scripture; and it is not to be denied that, in the department of Exegesis, our Theological Literature is exceedingly deficient. But it seems to be not always remembered by those who complain, that students of the Bible are not all in search of exactly the same thing. 1. Thus, there are not a few readers who seem to approach the Gospels, for instance, in a purely critical spirit. From the style of their inquiries, it would scarcely be supposed that they were handling an inspired Work. They treat it exactly as if it were an ordinary narrative. To be warned against some popular mistake: to be furnished with a correct translation: to have the events which it records, reduced to true historical order; and to understand the allusions to manners, and natural phenomena:—such seem to be the chief objects of their desire. Readers of this class find writers of their own mental complexion writers, who can be eloquent enough about the Pharisees and Sadducees; indeed, who have much to say on the subject of Jewish antiquities generally; are very exact in speaking of the Herods; very communicative concerning the geography of Palestine, and the observations of modern travellers; but who have little to communicate besides. They seem to make it a point of honour to be very dry on points of living interest. Their chief concern seems to be, to be safe. On every deep doctrinal statement, they affect at once the brevity and the ambiguity of an ancient oracle. Such writers are singularly prone to evacuate every profounder revelation of the SPIRIT, by a shallow suggestion as to its probable meaning; or they pass it by without a syllable of comment. Meanwhile, they compound for their silence when they should have spoken out, by many an useless remark on what is perfectly plain already; many a clumsy paraphrase of statements which require no paraphrase at all. We hear it sometimes said by readers of truer instincts, or who have been better taught, that such Commentaries "always tell them everything except the precise thing which they desire to know." 2. There is again another kind of Commentary which may be said to address itself to controversial readers. It shuns whatever is of a practical character: [This Preface in the Oxford edition, was printed in connection with St. John's Gospel.] iii ones. it shuns also what may be called the uncontroverted passages. It devotes itself entirely to the discussion of old difficulties, or to the discovery of new The learned writer will fill his page with a dissertation about a date; enter into historical minutiae on the slightest provocation; try the patience of an ordinary reader by the tedious discussion of a various reading; or by aiming at exactness in points of purely technical or scientific interest,-on which, after all, nothing of a vital character can be said to depend. It might really seem as if it were never once suspected by writers of this class that the conduct of Zaccheus in climbing the sycamore tree, is a far more interesting matter than the sycamore tree into which he climbed that everything which our SAVIOUR said is ten times as important as the dialect in which He said it. But, to do them justice, these writers do not design their labours for the general reader; nor do they pretend to have produced a complete Commentary. Whatever their intention, their labours, (which are yet very important in their way,) are so peculiar in their character, that they may well be considered to form a class apart. : 3. Then, there are labourers of a higher order in the same field, whose criticism is mostly philological. Beyond all things, they are intent on noticing the grammatical peculiarities of the inspired pages. A rare word,-an unique phrase, some anomaly of construction; this it is which chiefly delights many readers of the Gospel. It is in some such spirit that scholars are but too prone to approach the Book of Life. They have been known to dismiss a verse of Scripture when they have translated it exactly, and established the incorrectness of our English Version. Let it not be thought for an instant that we are speaking slightingly of a class of men whose work we delight in. Their labours will be overlooked by none who value the Truth. It is to them that we owe our very acquaintance with those sacred Oracles for which we profess so much regard. But it may surely be declared, without fear of contradiction, that Commentaries of this class are addressed exclusively to the learned. And not only so, but their authors may surely be charged with dealing with the husk or shell only, which contains the fruit. They do not even profess to reach the kernel. They seem seldom, if ever, to touch the life. For is it not the simple fact, that after historical criticism, and scientific skill, geographical investigation, and antiquarian sagacity, and even scholarlike acumen, have all done their part towards the elucidation of the sacred text,-in very many instances, the work of the Commentator has yet to begin? Is not the labour of Exegesis quite a distinct matter? When St. John delivered his Divine Gospel into the hands of his awe-struck disciples, what kind of remarks are we to suppose that the Apostle and Evangelist made upon his Work? Did he instruct them in the force of the Greek article ?(a) or reconcile his hours() with those of the other Evangelists? Did he tell them what the Jews meant by saying to Pilate,-"It is not lawful for us to put any man to death?" (c) or explain in what sense they proposed to "eat the Passover," (d) more than six hours after the Passover had been eaten by our LORD? Not SO ! It is at least very hard to believe that the Evangelist's remarks would have (a) Alluding to such places as St. John xviii. 15. (c) St. John xviii. 31. (b) See St. John xix. 14. (d) St. John xviii. 28. |