Aids to Biblical Studies
Older Commentaries
Older commentaries and other works on Biblical Studies are full of rich
insights, yet the student should be sure to take advantage of more recent
works as well.
Adam Clarke (Methodist)
Although Charles Spurgeon considered Clarke’s Commentary something
of an "old curiosity shop" and disagreed very much with its underlying Arminian
perspective, he nevertheless gave it the following stunning endorsement:
If you have a copy of Adam Clarke, and exercise discretion in reading
it, you will derive immense advantage from it, for frequently by a sort
of side light he brings out the meaning of the text in an astonishingly
novel manner. I do not wonder that Adam Clarke still stands, notwithstanding
his peculiarities, a prince among commentators. I do not find him so helpful
as Gill, but still from his side of the question, with which I have personally
no sympathy, he is an important writer, and deserves to be studied by
every reader of the Scriptures.
John Gill (Hyper-Reformed)
John Gill was one of the most learned Calvinists of seventeenth-century
England. He was also Spurgeon's predecessor at the New Park Street Church.
Spurgeon rightly held Gill’s Exposition in high esteem but complained
that it "hunts Arminianism throughout the whole of it.”
Matthew Henry (1707-1712 // Reformed)
Matthew Henry's Commentary has been considered one of the greatest
whole-Bible Commentaries ever written. Charles Spurgeon writes concerning
it:
First among the mighty for general usefulness we are bound to mention
the man whose name is a household word, Matthew Henry. He is most pious
and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy.
You will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich in analogies,
overflowing with illustrations, superabundant in reflections. He delights
in apposition and alliteration; he is usually plain, quaint, and full
of pith; he sees right through a text directly; apparently he is not critical,
but he quietly gives the result of an accurate critical knowledge of the
original fully up to the best critics of his time. He is not versed in
the manners and customs of the East, for the Holy Land was not so accessible
as in our day; but he is deeply spiritual, heavenly, and profitable; finding
good matter in every text, and from all deducing most practical and judicious
lessons. His is a kind of commentary to be placed where I saw it, in the
old meeting house at Chester -- chained in the vestry for anybody and
everybody to read. It is the poor man's commentary, the old Christian's
companion, suitable to everybody, instructive to all.
J. I. Packer similarly writes:
George Whitefield, God’s lightning rod of revival on both sides of the
Atlantic in the mid-eighteenth century, used to travel with his Bible,
his Anglican Prayer Book, and the six volumes of Mathew Henry as his resources
for ministry. He read Henry from cover to cover four times, mostly on
his knees, and many of his sermons were little more than echoes of Henry
(and none the worse, said his discerning hearers, for that).
Forty years ago I produced a commentary list for ministerial students
in which I exhorted them to sell their shirts to buy Matthew Henry. Some,
I find, still recall my advice, and I am glad, for I thought it was good
advice then, and I think it is good advice now.
J. I. Packer in the introduction to Matthew Henry’s Revelation
(Crossway Classic Commentaries; Wheaton, IL/Nottingham, UK, 1999) ix.
John Lightfoot (1602 – 1675)
Lightfoot was a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. He also
contributed to Brian Walton’s London Polyglot, a groundbreaking work
in the field of textual criticism. Not to be confused with the great nineteenth
century commentator J. B. Lightfoot.
C. I. Scofield and Others (Brethren / Evangelical)
Other Resources
Marriott Library Online Catalog (University of Utah)
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